Learn about the value of healthcare content marketing in connecting with patients and enhancing healthcare results. Health is a $2.5 trillion a year industry, one of the largest in the United States, but also one of the most complicated: the role of politics and government in health, the aging of the largest generation, the baby-boomers, and, of course, global health crises.
One of the main reasons healthcare is so complicated is because of information inequality. According to a 2019 survey, 52% of US residents worry that the online healthcare information they see is unreliable.
If you work in healthcare marketing, it is important to answer your customers’ and patients’ health questions in a clear and trustworthy way. Healthcare content marketing is a strategy that can help healthcare professionals and providers do these things: attract and retain consumers and patients, build trust by providing accurate answers to their health-related questions, and increase brand awareness.
Why do healthcare companies need content marketing?
Healthcare and medical companies work in an industry where trust is very important. There are three things that healthcare companies can do with medical content marketing. They can educate their audience. They can show people that they are leaders in their field. They can also build long-lasting relationships with patients and other healthcare professionals.
More and more, people go online to get health information, which puts healthcare and medical providers in a position of having to provide trustworthy, authentic content.
Content marketing works. Semrush surveyed 99% of healthcare companies and found that most of them had good results from their content marketing. Content marketing lets brands connect with customers and potential customers and build relationships with the right audience.
Today’s trends in healthcare content marketing
Content has quickly become an important part of marketing for many industries, but healthcare has been slow to adopt it. According to a study by True North, most healthcare companies didn’t start using content as part of their marketing strategy until 2017. Most of these companies think that content marketing is effective, but only a few of them can say the same.
More and more people are using the internet to find answers to their healthcare questions. About 7% of all Google searches are about health. Also, 73% of Americans get health information from the internet. If you want to compete with other companies in the healthcare industry, you need a good content marketing strategy. This strategy should inform and engage your audience. If you want to know more about healthcare trends around the world, read our blog post. In it, we discuss 28 important health statistics.
The good news is that you can still do this. Even if you’re just starting to develop a healthcare content strategy—like by writing it down or checking what’s missing—you can still make things easier. If you work for a hospital, medical device, or pharmaceutical company, medical content marketing is a useful and important way to inform, attract, and keep patients and customers. You can also use content to support other digital efforts while you grow your business and brand.
The main parts of a content strategy in healthcare.
A content strategy that works across all platforms should have several components. People who work in healthcare marketing need to study their customers’ journey and the different ways to reach them. Marketing tools for medical content may include e-books, white papers, and webinars. These tools should be a good fit for the audience you’re trying to reach. In addition, medical marketers need to consider the following points:
Accuracy: In the healthcare industry, it is very important to be exact when marketing. Consumers depend on organizations to give them the right information at the right time.
Trustworthiness: People who work in healthcare marketing should use content to build trust and credibility with their audiences. Marketers can connect with potential customers and patients by showing medical journal articles or using thought leadership.
Ensure compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA): Marketing for healthcare has more rules, so marketers must think carefully about the story they’re telling. They must also ensure that their medical content marketing follows HIPAA rules.
Here are 10 tips for marketing healthcare content.
Content marketing in the healthcare industry can take many forms. There are many types of content, such as blogs, newsletters, whitepapers, e-books, and articles with a byline. The key to getting started is having a well-planned approach.
Make a strategy that you can write down.
A documented strategy is key to successfully launching a blog, newsletter, or editorial platform. But a 2020 study by The True North called the State of Healthcare Content Marketing Study found that only about 1 out of every 3 healthcare marketers has a clearly defined strategy.
A good way to start planning your strategy is by making an editorial calendar. This tool is very useful for helping your team manage the creation and distribution of healthcare content. It also lets you track when and where your content is shared or published. A content calendar is a helpful tool. It helps you organize your content so you can create material that is relevant and timely, and that your audience will enjoy.
Check your website’s content.
Content audits can help you understand which pieces are successful and which ones don’t resonate with your audience. You can also use this audit to determine what kind of content your team should create. For example: You might have too much content at the top of the sales funnel, but not enough at the middle of the funnel.
Only cite sources you can trust.
Healthcare providers must be trustworthy to attract and retain clients and patients. Nowadays, there is a lot of information on the internet that is focused on selling things. This has made many consumers skeptical of the content they read. A 2019 study by Weber-Shandwick found that 47% of people are concerned that health information is trying to sell them something. The information is supposed to be correct, but it doesn’t answer the questions people have.
While the world continues to deal with the new coronavirus, it’s especially important to provide reliable medical information. This can make your company stand out. However, some healthcare marketers don’t have the right tools or knowledge to discuss the latest health research and trends. Licensing content can help your healthcare organization seem trustworthy and reliable.
Use clear and easy-to-understand language.
When it comes to healthcare, all content must be easy to understand and correct. Every day, Google gets about 1 billion searches related to healthcare. A study by Weber Shandwick found that one in three adults has low health literacy. Content marketers working in healthcare must make sure that the language they use is easy for the average person to understand and doesn’t need to be taken differently.
There isn’t just one way to share healthcare content. Try different types of online content, like long blog articles, social media posts, short news articles, and charts, to see what your audience likes and what makes them want to come back.
Make the most of your company’s knowledge.
There are many different jobs in this huge industry, and each one is a little bit different. It’s important to know what your special skill is so you can get noticed and find a job. If you work with the people in your organization who write and think about your brand, you can create your brand’s voice and match it with the kind of people you want to reach. While it’s important to keep up with current healthcare topics and vary your content, it’s also crucial to have some basic subjects that your company can rely on.
Share healthcare news.
Many people ask their healthcare providers for information about their health. It’s especially important to get the right information during the world dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. You can make your company more useful by sharing news from trusted sources with your customers and patients during the pandemic. You can also get permission to use photos from award-winning photojournalists to go with these articles and help readers understand the stories.
Work with the most prominent people in the healthcare industry.
Make your medical content stand out by adding extra coverage from important people in the healthcare industry. Licensing content with copyright licenses is a great way to plan your editorial calendar. This will make your brand seem more credible and trustworthy. In a field where readers often question the answers they receive, audiences will appreciate hearing from respected publications like HealthDay.
Invest in medical video content.
Video is a great way for healthcare providers to share important information. Doctors’ offices and hospitals often feel cold and disconnected. Medical video content is a good way to interact with potential patients.
Video can help patients feel important and connected to healthcare providers. This can help you connect with existing and new patients, improving your ability to get and keep patients.
Write or get a license for high-quality blog posts.
A blog is an important part of marketing healthcare content. If you want your healthcare business to be successful, you need to offer your customers something that makes your business stand out from the competition.
Instead of creating new medical content to promote your business, it’s better to focus on teaching and helping your audience. You can use high-quality healthcare information from publications like HealthDay or Well to further engage audiences.
Make information easy to find.
“It’s important to use simple language when writing healthcare information,” said Ann Key, a member of the team that creates content for Aha Media Group. “It’s especially important to avoid medical jargon when writing for patients or caregivers. It should be easy for patients to access reliable health information.”
When you write for doctors or patients, it’s important to make your content clear and concise. Patients need to ensure that information is easy for someone without a medical background to understand.
Think about the people who will be buying your content and what they already know. Healthcare is an emotional topic for many people, so it’s important to communicate clearly. This will help build a better relationship between your brand and your customers.
Final thoughts
It can be hard to come up with the resources (not to mention find the time) to create a healthcare content marketing strategy or start an editorial content initiative. This is especially true in a complicated industry.
Health and wellness content licensing can give your marketing team articles, videos, and photos. These can be used to improve your content calendar or to supplement your existing content. If you share content from medical industry experts, people will trust you more. You can also talk about new research or trends this way.
Use articles from trusted healthcare publishers to make your brand bigger, connect with people, and show that your business is a leader. It’s an easy, affordable, and effective way to increase your brand awareness, connect with new and existing audiences, and establish your business as an industry thought leader.
Frequent questions regarding healthcare content marketing
How is marketing for healthcare different from marketing for other industries?
Healthcare marketing is different because the content can be sensitive and personal. Healthcare content marketing needs to be trustworthy, follow rules, and be ethical. Healthcare content marketing should be informative, trustworthy, and empathetic.
Why is marketing for healthcare so challenging?
Marketing for healthcare is challenging. It involves a lot of complicated rules, ethical questions, and sensitive health topics. Marketing for healthcare needs to reach a variety of people and follow HIPAA and other rules. It’s also crucial to provide accurate and trustworthy information because people need to be able to trust the information when they’re buying healthcare products and services.
Why is marketing for healthcare services different?
Healthcare marketing is special because the product it markets is an individual’s health and the quality of care they receive from healthcare providers.
Content marketing for healthcare and medicine is also unique because of the rules to follow, the expert knowledge needed, and the focus on education rather than convincing people.
How do you make medical marketing work?
Medical marketing usually involves creating and sharing information that is based on facts and research. This type of information teaches patients and users about health topics and helps make the medical provider seem trustworthy.
Medical marketing strategies include doing the following:
- Using social media
- Having an informative website
- Hosting health webinars
- Hosting in-person informational sessions.
People who market medical products must follow the rules and guidelines.
What is digital marketing for medicine?
Digital marketing has helped the healthcare industry grow. Use search engines to create campaigns with great multimedia content. This will help you connect with your patients on social media. You can also use campaign data analytics to improve your patients’ engagement and loyalty.
In the past, healthcare marketing used methods like print, TV, radio, and direct mail. Marketers would create ad campaigns and hope for the best. They couldn’t make changes to the ads right away once they were published.
Hospitals had an easier time treating patients because people did not take charge of their health as much. Also, healthcare costs were much lower back then. Because of this, patients did not refuse or delay medical procedures because of cost. This is very different from what happens today.
Today’s patients are very different from those in the past. Patients are healthier, live longer, and don’t need as much medical care. They also do a lot of online research, so they have high expectations for the services they receive. They can read reviews and ratings of doctors and talk to other patients with similar conditions.
Digital marketing is a way for companies to tell people about their products and services through websites and other online platforms. This is useful because more and more people are using the internet. In today’s digital age, digital marketing is an important investment for businesses to make. Digital marketing helps health systems connect with patients, keep them interested, and get the most out of their network.
Companies use different online tools to promote medicine. Some of these tools are pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, and email newsletter campaigns. Online reviews and patient testimonials are also important for creating trust in medical marketing.
What types of content are available for healthcare companies?
Healthcare companies create many different types of content. Some examples include research publications, informative articles, educational videos, newsletters, and infographics.
Some health care websites provide tools that allow you to check your symptoms and talk to a doctor online. Health podcasts are another popular form of medical content.
No matter what the format is, the most important thing is to give the audience reliable, correct, and useful information.
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