13 Ways to Create Engaging Content Marketing for Healthcare
Eight out of ten well-intended content marketing efforts are at risk of going astray. It happens when potentially good results are pulled off target with the mistaken belief that “content (alone) is king.”
Creating healthcare marketing content for your blog, website and online presence require more than quantity. You also need measures of quality, credibility and engagement in the formula to:
- Attract and retain the target audience
- Enhance doctor SEO and results ranking
- Establish and grow relationships
- Inspire digital influencers
- Present content worth sharing
- Stay top-of-mind with prospective patients
Creating engaging content marketing…
The importance of online information—collectively labeled as ‘content’—is significantly more important for two essential reasons. First, the first-line energy of healthcare marketing is primarily online. People—patients and prospective patients—look online for expert information about health issues, treatments or procedures. Significantly, care decisions are influenced by reviews and recommendations about hospitals, doctors and healthcare providers.
Secondly, this self-education pattern has created patients who are proactively involved in their health decisions. Today’s patient is an aware and informed consumer. And excellence in content marketing—beyond volume—attracts, educates and converts today’s medical customer.
Here are several creative considerations to move your digital content from mere “quantity” to useful “quality” category.
Provide a solution(s) to a problem or answer a need. Listen for insight from the “voice of the customer,” identifying, and responding to, the issues and concerns that potential patients have voiced.
Be on top of what’s new or newsworthy. Look for and present information that’s new and useful. As the saying goes: “You’ll find ‘old news’ lining the bottom of the birdcage.” Find ways to spotlight timely aspects of your message, product or service. And encourage readers to spread the word.
Mix it up a little; variety inspires interest. Consider ways to present content that move beyond straight text. Video information is a powerful alternative. Attract visual interest through pictures, charts and graphics, color and other presentation tools.
Pick one or more of these considerations. Does your online content:
- Ask and answer an audience-important question?
- Educate, amuse or entertain with shareable info?
- Have the voice of a leader, or champion for the audience?
- Hit smack-on with relevant and useful information?
- Present a unique perspective or alternative view?
- Provoke or direct a discussion or counterpoint?
- Represent an authoritative and professional voice?
- Make it easy to share resources via social media, checklists or downloads?
Don’t neglect fact checking, proofreading or spelling/grammar. Credibility goes down the drain when a supposedly authoritative voice reads like a third-grade homework assignment.
Leverage your content marketing…
Content marketing has the ability to attract, retain and convert prospects to patients. Excellence in content and shareable information leverages your impact, extending and reaching a wider (and wider) audience. And, by helping to create informed consumers, the information and education answers questions and removes decision roadblocks.
Give us a call for more ideas about creating engaging, and shareable, content. You can reach out to us right here.
