Content is king.
In 1996, the average person couldn’t grasp the significance of Bill Gates’ statement. Today, it’s clear he could see a little further down the road than most. In his now-famous essay, Gates predicted the power of content in internet marketing strategies, and his forecast was spot-on.
30 years later, Gates’ statement hasn’t lost its relevance. With the right content marketing strategy, you can attract new patients, retain them, and build your brand awareness and authority. Even in the highly competitive and regulated healthcare industry, a savvy marketing plan tailored to your practice can yield significant results.
In this guide, we’ll take you through the fine art of crafting a healthcare content marketing strategy that drives growth and increases visibility. We’ll cover the basics of content marketing in healthcare, as well as some useful tips on creating and promoting your content.
What Is Content Marketing?
Content marketing refers to creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to potential and existing customers. It can come in many different forms, including blog posts, white papers, social media, videos, newsletters, and emails.
How does healthcare content marketing impact your healthcare practice? Below are some key benefits:
- Share your expertise to build trust and authority;
- Connect with potential patients, generate leads, and boost conversions;
- Establish an audience and develop your unique brand to achieve an edge over your competitors;
- Provide patients with guides and answers to their queries, reducing their anxiety and stress;
- Reach a broader audience using multiple content-sharing platforms (Google, social media, email, etc.).
Of course, to experience these benefits, you must first have a strategic medical content plan.
Healthcare content adheres to the same principles as any other content niche – it must be unique, add value, be relevant, etc. However, healthcare content marketing has distinct requirements and regulations that must be followed to maintain compliance and keep patient trust.
Content Marketing in Healthcare
Healthcare is a challenging niche for content marketing – as an experienced healthcare marketing agency, we know that better than anyone.
That’s because, as an industry, healthcare is very compliance-driven. Even the slightest content mistake can violate the Privacy Rights Act, and can have far-reaching consequences like lawsuits or fines.
Unfortunately, there is a growing element of distrust toward medical professionals, particularly since the pandemic. The good news is that your content can help build trust and nurture the patient relationship when it is accurate, relevant, and high-quality.
These days, patients expect simple answers to their health-related queries. They also want to locate information quickly and easily, and they have every opportunity to do so online. Still, creating comprehensive healthcare content that is accessible, engaging, and compliant is a challenge.
It’s also worth remembering that different specialties will target different audiences. For instance, a urology practice will launch a different content strategy than a pediatric practice, and vice versa.
How to Craft a Winning Healthcare Content Strategy
To summarize, your healthcare content marketing must be:
- Unique and top-quality;
- Simple and engaging, yet trustworthy and authoritative;
- Well-researched and compliant;
- Tailored to your target audience.
These rules are the cornerstone of any healthcare content marketing strategy, and they sound simple enough. Putting them to work, though, requires skill, time, and considerable effort.
#1 Do Your Research
Every successful marketing strategy requires thorough research and planning. A haphazard approach will yield haphazard results, and a half-baked marketing strategy is worse than none at all.
First, define your target audience. Consider their demographics, determine whether they might know your brand, and explore what forms of communication they prefer.
Gathering this information will help you hone your tone and voice while tailoring content appropriately. It will also help you identify in-demand topics so you can effectively speak to your patients’ needs, concerns, and queries.
Identifying content topics is something of a fine art, and we recommend the following:
- Perform online keyword research using a dedicated tool or typing your practice-related keywords into search engines;
- Look at frequently asked questions, testimonials, and comments from your existing patients to determine the most searched queries;
- Compare your current content to your competitors to identify topics you might be missing.
With all this information gathered, you can proceed to the next step.
#2 Determine Your Content Marketing Goals
It might seem obvious, but don’t forget to get specific with your marketing and growth goals. What do you want to achieve with your medical content?
Do you want to generate new leads? Build your authority? Retain your existing patients? Chances are, you have your eye on all of the above.
Answering these questions is a simple way of deciding what you’d like to achieve with your content marketing. Once you’ve gotten specific with your goals, you can start to see the bigger picture: who you want to target, which marketing tools and techniques you’ll try, and what tone and voice you’ll adopt to speak with both empathy and authority.
For example, if your goal is to reach more potential customers, you should use a more transactional approach, using emails, paid ads, or videos to display why your medical practice is the best choice.
On the other hand, if you want to build trust and establish authority, a better option would be to create blog posts or white papers that display your expertise.
With your content marketing goals set, it will also be easier to determine the budget for your campaign. Once you have that out of the way, you can start creating your content.
#3 Focus on Quality
You’ve probably heard the words “high-quality content” a time or two (hundred). That’s because content without value, creativity, and thoughtfulness is a waste of your time and marketing funds. Everyone has content, but not everyone’s content is high-quality. If you’re looking to distinguish yourself from your competitors, this is the way.
Remember – healthcare is a unique niche. Medical content must be trustworthy, educational, and compliant, perhaps more so than any other industry. At the same time, it should be engaging and simple, giving patients the information they need and helping them know what to do next.
Striking the perfect balance between engaging and educational can be challenging. When setting your healthcare content’s tone of voice, be sure to follow these few guidelines:
- Be empathetic. When creating your content, be sure to keep your patients’ feelings and emotions in mind. Be sympathetic, non-judgmental, and supportive to establish meaningful relationships with your audience.
- Personalize your copy. Content marketing is about building relationships. Personalize the copy to your audience and use a conversational tone when creating content. This will help you engage with your audience and build long-lasting doctor-patient relationships.
- Keep it simple. The healthcare niche is complicated as it is – no need to make things even more convoluted for your audience. On the contrary, your content is the perfect opportunity to simplify it for your patients. Keep it simple and use storytelling to enhance engagement.
Following these four rules at all times is the key to ensuring your healthcare content does its purpose and helps you achieve your marketing goals.
#4 Experiment with Content Formats
When you hear “content marketing,” you probably think of written content. Web pages, blogs, and articles are indeed essential to a good medical marketing strategy.
But content marketing includes everything from videos to podcasts to social media reels and beyond. Essentially, it’s anything that tells the story of your practice and aims to connect with your ideal patient.
Deciding which content strategy to use depends heavily on your target audience and your marketing goals. For example, emails are better for generating leads. Blog posts and videos can help engage with your audience, whereas white papers and e-books can help boost your authority and credibility.
Don’t be afraid to mix things up and use various formats when promoting your medical practice. Just be sure to measure the performance of your campaigns to determine which formats suit your audience best.
#5 Ensure Compliance
All forms of healthcare marketing must be HIPAA-compliant. Therefore, when creating your content, you must adhere to strict industry regulations and standards to protect your patients’ sensitive medical information and privacy.
Another thing to remember is that you can’t make false promises with your medical products and services. There’s too much at stake in healthcare, so be honest and transparent, even if you fear it might hurt your marketing efforts.
Here are some general guidelines to follow to keep your medical content compliant:
- Only share general information about your services and treatments;
- Ensure you always receive written consent from your patients before sending your marketing materials;
- Always ask patients for written consent before using their testimonials or cases to promote your medical practice;
- Make sure the photos or videos you use have neutral background and don’t show your actual patients (unless they give you their written permission).
#6 Promote Your Content
Some may think that promoting the content used for promoting your business seems pointless. It’s not. It’s a natural way of ensuring your content receives recognition and serves its purpose.
For example, if you use your blog to boost your medical SEO, you can use social media posts about your recent blog entries to generate movement on your website and increase its online presence.
Or, if you have a YouTube account where you post healthcare marketing videos, you can use your website to promote it and generate more entries.
Another common way of promoting your content is through a dedicated newsletter emailed to your patients. This is a perfect way to build engagement and generate movement on your website and social media channels.
So don’t forget about giving your content some love. While it may seem like an unnecessary effort, it can give your healthcare content marketing a massive boost.
#7 Hire an Experienced Healthcare Content Marketing Agency
No one said healthcare marketing was easy. Luckily, the Practis team is here to help you hone your medical marketing strategy and see significant growth as a result. We stay ahead of the curve so you don’t have to, creating a custom content marketing plan that suits your audience, goals, and mission.
As a professional healthcare marketing agency, we carefully consider every aspect of your plan, creating compelling content and keeping it compliant. We put years of expertise and skillful strategizing to work for you, helping you increase visibility and reach the right patients.
With over 25 years of experience promoting healthcare businesses from various niches, we can help elevate your medical practice through top-notch medical content tailored to your unique audience and marketing goals.
We’ve worked with hundreds of healthcare organizations, achieving extraordinary results. See for yourself and learn about the benefits of working with Practis.
Elevate Your Medical Practice with Content Marketing
And that’s a wrap! As you can see, a correctly implemented healthcare content marketing strategy can prove invaluable when promoting your medical practice.
Crafting one, however, can be mighty challenging.
So, the next time you decide to include content in your healthcare marketing efforts, be sure to follow the instructions you’ve learned today.
Or, what’s an even better idea, get in touch with us. As an experienced healthcare marketing agency, we can help you leverage the power of content marketing and ensure your strategy meets, nay, exceeds your expectations.
That’s a Practis guarantee.
