More than ever, people rely on the internet to search for health information. The pandemic created an entirely new health dynamic, and would-be patients are now searching for answers to their health concerns on websites and blogs.
With an incredible 70,000 Google searches for health-related concerns performed every minute of the day, healthcare providers need to know how to leverage this new online market.
The answer to this is content. As David Sanchez, the CEO of Digitalis Medical, says, “Your [healthcare] facility’s brand is its reputation. That starts with a modern, clean logo and website that reflect the quality of service your team provides.”
In this article, we will explore content marketing for healthcare and how to create it effectively and provide five tips for creating successful health-related content. By the end of this blog, you’ll better understand how to use digital media to reach your target audience and grow your healthcare business. Read on for five content marketing strategies for healthcare companies!
What Is Healthcare Content Marketing?
Healthcare marketing uses promotional techniques to increase awareness and engagement with healthcare-related products or services. This can include anything from digital campaigns on social media and search engine optimization (SEO) to traditional advertising in print, radio, and TV.
Healthcare marketing aims to drive people toward a specific action that increases sales or patient visits. It can also be used to build relationships between providers and their patients by highlighting the benefits of their services, such as improved health outcomes.
10 Healthcare Content Marketing Strategies
As a healthcare professional, you know better than anyone about providing quality patient care and services. But if people don’t know you and your practice, how can they benefit from what you offer?
That’s why having effective medical content marketing strategies is so essential. Content marketing helps build brand awareness, reach new audiences, and ultimately win more business for your practice. Here are five of the most critical content marketing strategies for healthcare:
1. Invest in a Content Calendar
We suggest creating a content calendar to organize healthcare content marketing efforts. This is essential for success, as it allows you to align the topics you want to cover with your organization’s goals.
A well-thought-out content calendar can be incredibly helpful in ensuring that all of your pieces are timely, effective, and relevant. When building a content calendar, you should consider several things:
- What kind of messages do you want to communicate?
- How often should they be released?
- Who will create the content?
- Who will review it?
Answering the above will help you decide what kind of calendar works best for your organization. A good content calendar should also include long-term plans and short-term goals.
For example, you might have an overarching goal to promote a new service or patient education program that runs for several months while simultaneously creating shorter campaigns around one-off events such as health fairs or webinars.
By having both types of plans in place, you can ensure that your content stays on brand and is timely with current events. Many great tools are available to help create content calendars, including Google Calendar, Trello, Asana, Canva and Hootsuite.
2. Leverage Social Media
Social media can be effective for getting more eyes on your healthcare-related content. Utilize social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn to share helpful information about health topics.
You can also provide updates about new services or treatments offered at your practice, engage with patients and followers, showcase patient success stories and much more.
3. Produce Engaging Videos
Video content is a great way to engage your audience and provide helpful information about health topics or services. With the prevalence of social media, videos are easy to share and often generate more views than other types of content.
Videos are one of the most effective ways to capture attention quickly and efficiently. Statistics show that 79% of people have been convinced to buy a product after watching a branded video, while nearly all online searchers reported watching explainer videos to learn about products.
This demonstrates how compelling videos can be in terms of engagement and education. You can use video content to demonstrate a product or service engagingly and interactively, provide helpful advice for your customers on health topics, explain complex concepts more clearly than with text alone, or even create entertaining videos that allow you to show off your company’s personality.
No matter what type of video you decide to produce, it should always be actionable and tailored specifically to the needs of your audience.
4. Incorporate SEO Best Practices
One of the most critical aspects of healthcare content marketing is ensuring that it’s optimized for search engines so that it can be found by potential patients when they’re looking for answers online. Using SEO practices like relevant keywords in titles, headings, subheadings and throughout the body of the content can help make it easier for search engines to find your content.
5. Host Live Webinar
Hosting live webinars on topics related to healthcare can be a great way to engage with your audience and provide helpful information in an interactive setting. Be sure to promote the event before, during and after the webinar via social media platforms, email newsletters and other marketing channels.
6. Write Helpful Blog Posts
Writing blog posts that are both informative and entertaining is one of the most effective ways of engaging with potential patients seeking health-related information online. Focus on creating useful content that answers common questions or provides helpful advice related to health topics.
7. Invite Guest Bloggers
Inviting guest bloggers to contribute content related to healthcare can be a great way to add fresh perspectives and increase engagement with your audience. Consider partnering with experts in the field or even patients who have experienced success through your services or treatments.
8. Use Infographics
Infographics are powerful visual tools that make it easy for readers to digest complex information quickly and easily, making them an ideal format for engagingly presenting healthcare-related data and statistics.
9. Reach Out To Influencers
Reaching out to influencers in the healthcare space can help you expand your reach and build credibility. Consider partnering with influencers to help promote content or even invite them to contribute guest posts or participate in Q&As on your blog.
10. Track Performance
Last but not least, tracking the performance of your healthcare content marketing efforts is essential to any successful strategy. Use analytics tools such as Google Analytics to measure website traffic, engagement metrics and more so that you can adjust and optimize accordingly for maximum effectiveness.
Healthcare Content Creation
Content creation allows you to create original material that will help build trust with your audience and establish yourself as a reliable healthcare information source. However, when utilizing the strategies listed above, there are some considerations you should keep in mind when creating your content.
Consider the Content You Want to Create
Different types of content can be used to achieve different objectives, such as informing patients on specific medical conditions or treatments, providing expert advice on specific health topics or encouraging people to take action (e.g. book an appointment, download a brochure etc.). Deciding which type of content will aid you in reaching your target audience.
Tailor Content to Your Target Audience
Different audiences may have different needs and interests, so the content must speak directly to them to succeed. Consider what kind of language they use and what topics are applicable to them. This will help you create content which can resonate with the intended readership.
Keep Content Informative, Engaging and High-Quality
Content should be written clearly, concisely, and easy to follow, with visuals or multimedia elements to break up the text and make it more visually appealing. The content should also have an element of empathy, as this will help build trust between your brand and the reader.
Keep Content Actionable
Your content should provide readers with practical advice or tips on how they can take action on a particular health topic or issue. This could include providing links to helpful resources or directing people towards further information about specific treatments or services you offer.
By keeping these critical considerations in mind, healthcare providers can create informative and engaging content – helping to build trust with patients and establish themselves as a reliable source of healthcare information.
Healthcare Content Marketing Examples
In keeping with our own advice, here are some examples of effective content marketing in the healthcare field.
1. The Cleveland Clinic’s Health Essentials Blog
The Cleveland Clinic’s Health Essentials blog is an excellent example of content marketing in the healthcare industry. The blog features articles on various health topics, including medical research, disease prevention, and healthy living tips.
The content is created by doctors, nurses, and researchers. The blog is also updated frequently, with new articles published daily. The content is well-researched, informative, and engaging, making it a valuable resource for patients and the general public.
2. Sharing Mayo Clinic
“Sharing Mayo Clinic”, an online journal hosted by the esteemed medical center, is a perfect case of healthcare content marketing. The blog comprises patient narratives, up-to-date medical research findings, and health and wellness advice from Mayo Clinic personnel and patients.
It is regularly refreshed with well-written, exciting material that is further supplemented by captivating visuals such as photographs and videos.
3. Healthline News
Healthline’s “Healthline News” is an exemplary illustration of content marketing in the healthcare sector. This news part offers articles on modern medical research, health patterns, and knowledgeable advice.
The material is generated by a pool of writers, clinical reviewers, and editors to guarantee its correctness, dependability, and timeliness.
Is it Time to Assess Your Healthcare Content Strategy?
This blog has provided you with an outline of the content marketing strategies for healthcare companies. From understanding the importance of creating quality content to leveraging the power of social media, there are various ways to ensure your healthcare brand is seen, heard, and trusted online.
Content creation and distribution are critical to any successful health-related content strategy. By utilizing a comprehensive platform like ContentGo, you can easily create engaging and impactful content to help establish your brand as an expert in health-related topics.
With its AI-powered capabilities for curating relevant content from top sources worldwide and its features to help you easily create and manage your content, ContentGo is the perfect solution for healthcare companies looking to improve their content marketing strategies.
