- Feb 14, 2018
An average of 70,000 health-related queries take place on Google every minute, which is approximately 7% of all searches per day, says Google Health VP, David Feinberg.
For healthcare companies and organizations within the industry, this is an indication that the demand for accurate, credible, and trustworthy healthcare content is on the rise.
Many forward-thinking healthcare entities and hospitals are taking advantage of this trend. In fact, 89% of healthcare marketers are leveraging content marketing to engage with patients.
If you’re looking to build yourself an effective strategy, you might want to implement the following five Content Marketing Ideas For Healthcare:
Offer Niche-Centric Content
You know very well how varied and expansive the specializations and services in the healthcare sector are. Every doctor has a specific area of specialty. In the same way, some companies focus on a particular niche as well. The differences are pretty clear.
Before you start making your content marketing tactic for healthcare, it’s important to determine your niche and the main problems within that niche.
You can produce content based on the pain points of your niche. For instance, if you’re a dentist, you can work on topics like the significance of flossing daily or why children need braces. On the contrary, an ophthalmologist can produce content on the ill effects of using computers for long hours.
Just remember that when people are looking for content online, they’re expecting insights from those who have deep knowledge and first-hand experience. Thus, when you’re creating blog posts, sharing posts and videos on social media, or writing articles, make sure they align and speak directly to your organization’s niche within the marketplace. Never misinform people and remember to never publish deceitful content.
Know Your Target Customers
This is one of the main content marketing ideas for healthcare that you must keep in mind at all times.
Content marketing can certainly help prove your expertise to your audience. However, you have to remember that not everyone can understand the industry jargon. What this means is that you have to create content in a manner that is easily comprehensible to your prospects.
Based on the audience you target, you can also frame other areas of your content marketing plan for healthcare. For instance, if your target prospects are mostly teenagers, you must think of boosting your presence on various social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter.
Also, avoid going overboard with self-promotional content. People are spending time on search engines to find answers concerning their health. If all your content is about your brand, it’s not providing much value to your audience.
By publishing informative customer-centric content, you can establish your organization as a knowledgeable, credible, and trustworthy source. When you focus more on understanding your prospects, you’ll be able to offer what they need.
Before putting your healthcare content plan into action, it’s better to develop a target persona. To do this, you must conduct market research and understand your audience’s demographics and needs.
Adding a Human Touch is Just as Important
Healthcare isn’t just about diagnosing illnesses. You have to remember that it’s also about trust, care, and credibility. Cold, sterile blogs, articles will only turn your audience away.
While informative, data-driven content covering health topics does benefit your content marketing scheme, it’s also very critical to include the human aspect of healthcare.
You can even consider sharing stories of your patients or customers. This will not just add that human touch but also motivate and inspire your target audience. Moreover, it’s an excellent way to showcase how your company went all in to offer exceptional care.
Strategies such as video marketing, for instance, can help you in adding a personal element to your organization’s online reputation. Leverage videos to introduce your employees or tour your office. Offering content like this will make even the most skeptical customer feel confident in your brand. It’ll also help you to effectively connect with your audience.
Be Interactive
Including interactive elements within your content will make it more engaging for your target audience.
Blog posts, case studies, whitepapers, e-books, and newsletters are generally the most common ways healthcare marketers create content. However, that only scratches the surface. To truly engage with your prospects, you need to make your content marketing strategy more interactive.
You can make your customers more involved through interactive game challenges, quizzes, and polls. It’s the best and fun way to gain your audience’s interest, educate them, engage them, and promote your brand.
This strategy is best employed by UnitedHealthcare by including quizzes, challenges, and prices on its website and encouraging its customers to live healthily.
Repurpose & Expand
After you’re done creating great content pieces for your healthcare marketing plan, don’t just stop there. Consider taking it up a notch by repurposing those high-performing content.
If, for instance, you have got a blog that did well before, try renewing it for your prospects. You can even make use of that old blog for creating social media posts. Or you can even expand the subject matter with an in-depth ebook, newsletter, or even video.
Such content will not only help your audience in finding the answers they’re looking for but also position you further as a credible source that people can always rely on for health concerns.
Bonus Tip: Track Your Progress
Once you’ve published a few great pieces of content, make sure to have a tracking system in place to determine how each content is performing with your customers. Doing so will help in ensuring that your efforts actually align and support the objectives and goals of your marketing plan. Make sure you always track the performance of your healthcare content along with the overall ROI it’s offering. By knowing what’s working and what’s not, you can create better and more effective future healthcare content strategies.
Bottom Line
Healthcare content marketing helps hospitals and pharma companies to interact with their customers effectively. In addition to that, it can also aid them in raising awareness of certain problems and showcase their expertise in the area.
In healthcare marketing, remember that your main goal isn’t promotion. Rather it’s more about educating and informing people. When you’re successful in doing that, the promotion will follow. All that said, remember to implement these Content Marketing Ideas For Healthcare and yield better results.
