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Content marketing is an essential component of any successful healthcare marketing strategy. Mayo Clinic and Healthline, for example, are addressing medical issues for people around the world and have become industry brand giants.

Illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension, and arthritis have become significant issues in the United States in recent years. With the growing cost of medical care, an increasing number of Americans are beginning to consider their own health.

Developing a good healthcare content strategy is crucial to your success in attracting and retaining patients in the healthcare sector.

In this article, we’ll discuss what healthcare content strategy is, why it is important, and provide you with a few tips to help you reach your healthcare content marketing goals.

What Is Healthcare Content Marketing?

In the past, healthcare professionals used word of mouth to attract customers. However, developing digital marketing strategies is becoming more important than ever as people rely on search engines to find service providers.

This means that to stay relevant, attract new patients, and keep them coming back, you’ll need an excellent online marketing strategy.

Content marketing is a tactical digital marketing technique centered on developing and delivering good, relevant content in order to attract a target audience. It helps healthcare providers reach and educate people, increasing the chances of retaining them as patients.

This material can take many forms, including videos, blog posts, eBooks, and more. It can be shared organically via search results or through channels such as social media or email.

The important thing to remember is that content marketing is a plan. It’s not simply about cranking out content for the sake of it or reinforcing brand messages over and over. Instead, it’s a systematic approach to a dynamic and communicative undertaking. Your content is just a collection of things if it doesn’t have that strategic foundation.

[Read: The Essentials of Healthcare Marketing (A Beginner’s Guide)]

The Benefits of Having a Good Healthcare Content Marketing Strategy

If you’re skeptical about the necessity of a content marketing strategy for your healthcare business, here are a few reasons why you need to adopt this approach:

1. It Helps You Rank Well

Content marketing is vital for long-term search engine optimization and web traffic, but it must be done consistently. Search engines will reward you if you’re creating blog posts that are full of useful, relevant information.

Insightful material and valuable information satisfy Google’s algorithm, keeping your brand at the top of search results. More significantly, it assists you in rising above the “noise” and maintaining audience engagement, which is, after all, the goal.

[Read: Medical SEO Guide: How to Top Search Engines (Successfully)]

2. Content Marketing Establishes Your Authority

A well-thought-out strategy can help your company become a thought leader. You can build trust and loyalty as a valued resource to your target market by positioning your organization and healthcare professionals as industry experts while establishing your business as an authoritative, reliable source of information.

3. Use This Strategy to Grow Brand Awareness

Your brand will be enhanced with an effective content marketing approach. As part of the goal-setting process, your team will eventually have to address the question, “What difficulties, needs, or worries are we hoping to solve for our viewers or readers?”.

This is the first step to establishing your position as a renowned, trusted brand.

[Read: Irresistible Hospital Branding: 5 Tips To Make It Happen]

4. It Drives Other Marketing Channels

An effective healthcare content marketing plan will allow you to consider all marketing channels accessible to your target market. This includes influencers, social media, the press, and key opinion leaders (KOLs).

How to Create a Successful Healthcare Content Marketing Strategy

Now that you know why a content marketing strategy is essential for your success, you’re probably wondering how to develop one. We’ll guide you through the content creation process in the section below to help you engage with potential new patients and grow your business.

1. Plan

Going in without a plan is never a good idea. You’ll need to carefully consider what your marketing goals are and who your target market is before you implement any content marketing strategies. It is essential to make a note of your plan, as a documented content strategy will allow you to come back and measure your progress with your goals.

Assess Your Target Market and Set Goals

The first thing you’ll need to do is determine who your target audience is, what the budget for your content strategy is, and what challenges you are trying to address. This will ensure that your healthcare business reaches the right people and that your efforts are not wasted.

List the Desired Outcomes

While it’s tough to calculate the actual ROI of content marketing, it’s critical to address the following question while developing your strategy: 

• What do you hope to achieve with your content marketing efforts?
• Are you aiming to generate more leads, raise brand awareness, increase the amount consumers spend on your brand or a combination of the three?

2. Build

Once you have a plan and some sense of direction, it’s time to put it into action.

Create a Process Schematic

A content process can assist a marketing team, no matter how big or small, agree on roles and duties. It would help if you also mapped these processes out on a calendar to reach your goals within a reasonable time frame. This is the glue that holds the team together and allows them to take responsibility for their work.

You’ll be well on your way to implementing a successful content strategy once you’ve mapped out the processes.

Select the Right Platforms

When deciding which platforms to post your content on, ask the following questions:

• How do you decide where you’ll put your material and how you’ll share it?
• Where is your target audience looking for information and how do they find it?
• Is it done in person, on the internet, or by looking at flyers?
• What magazines do they read, and what social media sites do they visit?

By asking these questions, you’ll be able to identify and prioritize the appropriate channels.

3. Fine Tune

Next, it’s time to refine your efforts.

Repurpose Old Content

If the prospect of developing a healthcare content marketing strategy appears daunting, we have great news for you. A successful content strategy is not about producing as much material as you can. It’s about creating unique content regularly and repurposing or republishing it.

• Is it possible to transcribe or summarize the most recent webinar for a blog?
• Can the important conclusions of a study or survey be represented in an infographic?
• Is it necessary to translate or adapt it for a different patient group?

Moreover, you should not forget that content marketing isn’t just for your website. Use the digital media, influencers, and social platforms your target audiences follow.

Need more tips about content repurposing? Read our Content Ocean Strategy guide here.

Measure Your Success

The purpose of content marketing isn’t just to include good content on your website. It’s intended to produce results, which is why it is essential to track your progress. Assess your costs, utilization, and performance (website traffic, leads, increase in sales, etc.)

A Few Tips to Keep in Mind

With such a high demand for content marketing initiatives, there are plenty of topics to choose from. Here are a few things to think about while creating and publishing medical content for your target market.

1. Share Healthcare News

As a medical professional, you’re expected to have up-to-date knowledge. You could be the first to inform your website’s readers if a new treatment or medical breakthrough occurs. 

Newsworthy content provides your business with new information that attracts readers while also improving your authority and establishing trust and loyalty.

[Related: The Future of SEO (According to Google Experts)] 

2. Create Content That’s Shareable

In the healthcare industry, content is still valuable, but today’s web users expect content that’s shareable.

People expect specialists in the healthcare field to provide answers to their questions and advice on how to remain healthy or cope with a particular illness.

To create shareable content, you must try putting yourself in your readers’ shoes to understand the type of content that will be shared. Keep track of the questions people ask and respond to the most popular ones on your website.

3. Use Video Content

Another tool that is often neglected in healthcare marketing is video content. According to a recent study, 81 percent of Americans use Youtube, which implies creating videos can help to establish your authority and connect with new patients.

When creating video content, answer relevant questions and keep your Youtube video short so you don’t lose viewers. Let’s face it — people want quick facts and engaging video content, or they simply will not watch until the end.

4. The Healthcare Industry Is Fast-paced – Let a Professional Take Care of Your Healthcare Content Strategy

The healthcare industry is a dynamic industry that never sleeps. As a healthcare provider, you’ll have a lot to do, and you may not have the time to concentrate on healthcare marketing.

Because it’s not something you can afford to neglect, hiring a professional healthcare marketing professional can ensure your content marketing success. Content marketers have extensive experience with healthcare content marketing strategies that drives traffic and converts more potential customers.

Ready to Get Started?

If your healthcare content marketing efforts haven’t been paying off, it may be time to enlist the help of a professional who knows how to get your practice the attention and traffic it needs to become a major industry player.

Digitalis has been developing healthcare content marketing strategies for years and has the skills and tools to develop an effective strategy that will establish trust and help you retain customers. Reach out to our experts for a marketing consultation!

If you find this guide valuable, share it with your content marketing team and see what you can improve in your strategies!