Do you know how important it is to build a reputation as a healthcare brand? If your brand doesn’t have a good reputation, people won’t trust it, especially when it comes to their health, even if you are visible everywhere online.
Don’t worry now, if you are struggling for a good reputation. Here, healthcare content marketing can help you change that and stand out in the industry.
Since content is the king of marketing, if you can make good use of content marketing in healthcare, it can turn people into loyal supporters of your brand. But creating great health or wellness content is not easy. It should be attractive, informative, accurate and follow the rules. It’s even more difficult when you need to keep producing good content regularly without going over budget.
To make it work, you need a strong content marketing strategy that is often developed by a content marketing agency. Because without the right plan, your content won’t send the right message, match your brand voice, connect with your audience, or grow your business.
So, without wasting time, let’s dive into this guide, to know more about healthcare content marketing trends and strategy.
Table of Content
What is Healthcare Content Marketing?
When you share informative and valuable content with patients and the general public regarding awareness of your healthcare brand, it is known as healthcare content marketing.
It can help healthcare providers like you provide important information through blog posts, articles, videos, and infographics. This type of content helps people better understand their health, learn about different medical conditions, and learn about available treatment options.
But it’s not just about educating patients. Healthcare professionals also use content marketing to share new ideas, research, and best practices with others in the field. This helps create a stronger, more informed healthcare community.
Importance of Content Marketing in Healthcare
In today’s world, almost every hospital and clinic are using digital marketing to reach more people online and make a difference.
So, now if you’re not visible online, you will be out of the race at the very first step. Here, content marketing for healthcare can help you get noticed online and attract a larger audience. This means that you need to create content that is specific and useful to people searching for health information.
When people search for healthcare content, they need it fast. So it becomes important for you to provide accurate and useful information that helps people immediately and you can do it by partnering with any best digital marketing agency.
Here are four reasons why it is important to invest in content marketing for healthcare:
Get More Patients and Grow Your Business
When you share useful, easy-to-understand information online, it helps people learn about your services. If you post good content regularly, more people will trust you and may choose your services. As you read earlier, people don’t usually go to companies they don’t trust, and that could cost your healthcare business. So, if you want to build trust, you can use content marketing in healthcare and can show that you are also a good brand and can help patients.
Show Up on Google for Free
Google is keen to show healthcare sites in search results because healthcare topics impact people’s lives. In order for your website to show up on Google, you need quality content to do content marketing for healthcare that proves that your information is trustworthy and comes from experts. This helps people find your website when searching for health-related topics as studies show 77% start their healthcare search on a search engine.
People Look Up Symptoms Online
As you can see in the picture above, more and more people are accustomed to finding out their symptoms online instead of going to the doctor immediately. They search for things like “how to know if you have it” or “early signs” of certain diseases. A good healthcare content marketing plan can use this behavior to attract potential patients by providing helpful clues or lists of symptoms. You can also suggest booking an appointment or calling for further assistance.
Guide Patients to Read and Write Reviews
More than 71% read online reviews before they choose a new doctor or healthcare provider. Content marketing in healthcare can encourage your patients to write reviews about your services. You can use these positive reviews on your website or mention them on your blog to show others how good your services are.
And good online presence can help give your patients a great first impression of your brand.
Healthcare Content Marketing Trends To Watch
While using content marketing in healthcare, you cannot take the opportunity to make any mistake as this industry is very competitive. Here is one mistake that can take you out of the competition.
You can keep up with the fast-paced industry, by paying attention to these four healthcare content marketing trends:
Reviews Matter More
As you just read above, how many patients check reviews before choosing a healthcare provider they don’t know. Although managing your reputation by getting reviews isn’t exactly content marketing, they are related. Here you can share success stories of your patients and it could be a great way to use positive reviews in your content. If you have any new ideas you can pursue them, but if not, this is a reliable way to keep your content engaging.
Accurate Information is Crucial
More than 70% of people have encountered incorrect health information online, and 82% say social media is the main place this happens. Getting wrong information about health can cause real problems, such as making people doubt vaccines or stop seeing a doctor when they need help.
You should be aware of this issue when you create content for your websites. Many people aren’t sure who to trust with accurate information, so your content should always be reliable and honest.
Healthcare Influencer marketing
If we are talking about being reliable and honest, how can we ignore influencer marketing in healthcare?
Healthcare influencers can help you to be more reliable in this industry. If you partner with popular social media influencers to spread the word about your brand, people are more likely to trust you. Although this strategy is not new in digital marketing, it is still rare in the healthcare industry.
One approach is to have influencers try your products and share their experiences through short videos. They can also see your activity on platforms like Instagram or TikTok. This is how influencers can influence your target audience and bring them to your brand.
Personalization
Most of the brands are now using inbound marketing for healthcare practice, which helps them in creating personalized content that suits the specific needs and interests of different people. This is becoming more important, as 71% of consumers now expect brands to provide personalized experiences. We understand that it is cool to read but difficult to create content for every person, but you can still create content for different groups of people, known for using audience personas. We’ll talk more about how to take advantage of characters in a later section.
Huge Internal Data Availability
In industries like healthcare, having your own data gives you a huge advantage when doing content marketing for healthcare. If your brand is able to collect and share unique information, it can make you stand out. Doing your own research on important topics, especially if it leads to helpful tips, can make your brand appear more trustworthy. This sets you apart from others who rely on the same old information found on the Internet.
Posting your listing can also attract links from other blogs, which can help your website rank higher in search engines without you having to focus on link building.
Concern Over Data Privacy
People are concerned about how their health data will be used. In one survey, nearly 75% of patients said they were concerned about keeping their health information private. Only about 20% of them know exactly who has access to their data.
Because of these concerns, it’s really important for you to be open and clear with people about how and why you use their data for marketing.
So, if you want people to feel more secure by knowing that their information is in safe hands, your privacy policy should be as follows:
- How your clinic collects information
- How you use the information
- With whom to share it
- What steps you take to protect data
- How people can stop their data being collected or used
9 Steps to Build Strategy for Content Marketing in Healthcare
Now, you need to develop a strong healthcare content marketing strategy that must take these trends into account while providing value for patients, community members, and healthcare providers.
The following steps will help you build a comprehensive strategy for content marketing in healthcare.
Tell a Inclusive Story
A relevant story from you can make people feel better and change their opinions. It’s easier to remember information when it’s shared through a story, especially if that story touches the heart and makes you feel empathy.
In inclusive storytelling you allow patients, healthcare workers, researchers or caregivers to share your organization’s goals and impact in their own language. These stories should showcase the diversity of people who help your organization, so that everyone feels welcome.
To create inclusive content, keep the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) health equity guidelines in mind.
Here are some important guidelines:
- Health Equity Lens: This means you ensure that your outreach does not replicate old patterns of social and health inequalities. Show the diversity of your community in your content and involve the community in its creation. Understand that health care is connected to other issues, and people may face more than one challenge or have more than one strength at the same time.
- First-person human language: For example, instead of saying “mentally ill people,” say “people with mental illness.”
- Inclusive images: Work with the community to choose images that reflect real experiences. Avoid images that reinforce negative stereotypes.
Create Audience Personas
Audience personas are fictional characters that represent different groups of people who might use your service or product. These people help us understand who we are talking to and how we can help them.
Here’s how you can create a simple audience persona:
- Who are they? Where do they live? How old are they?
- What type of work do they do?
- Are they comfortable using technology or do they find it difficult?
- What problem are they dealing with that your organization can solve?
- How can your organization make things easier or better for them?
- What might make it difficult for them to communicate with you? (e.g. lack of familiarity with your service or difficulty using it)
- What is the best way to talk to them so they feel understood?
Usually, you’ll create about three to five different personas to cover the main types of people you work with. For example, your healthcare website might contain personas for patients, doctors, patient families, employees, and donors.
Once you have your personas, you can create content that speaks directly to each group. Ask yourself:
- Who do we talk to with this content?
- What problem or question do they have?
- How can we help them solve it through this content?
- How can we make it easier for them to find and use this information?
Focus on the User Journey
As we know people want fast, accurate and useful solutions to their health problems. So you can respond by sharing useful information that aligns with the needs of their communities. If you help people early in their healthcare journey, you can guide them toward better health, build trust, and create brand loyalty, all while achieving your healthcare content marketing goals.
When visitors come to your website, what path do they follow? Does your website make it easy for them to do what they came to do, without any confusion or delay?
If you look at the patient journey and create user experience (UX) personas, you can better understand how people find your site and what they expect to do there. You can also find out what’s preventing them from completing important tasks.
In addition to these big changes, there are some simple things you can do to make the journey easier. For example, logos or alerts can highlight important or urgent information. Chatbots, contact buttons and contact forms should always be easy to find on every page to help patients communicate in a way that works for them.
Prioritize Accessibility
It’s really important to make your website easy to use for everyone, including people with disabilities. About 27% of adults in the United States say they have a disability. People who visit healthcare sites may also experience stress, which may make it more difficult to concentrate. To help them, it’s a good idea to keep things simple and easy to follow.
These are three simple steps you can take to make your site more accessible:
Your site should be easy to navigate. All images or videos should have descriptions that can be read by screen readers. This also helps Google find and rank your site, which can improve the number of people who see your website.
Use easy-to-read fonts and colors with good contrast, so people with vision problems can see text clearly. This also helps people with cognitive difficulties understand your content better.
Use clear headings to organize your content. For example, your page title should contain one H1 tag, and the other titles (H2, H3, etc.) should be in order. This helps screen readers and Google understand your page structure, which can improve your site’s visibility in search results.
And finally never forget to test the accessibility of your site three to four times a year. But if you find any difficulty in designing your website, you can partner with the best website design and development agency to help you.
Simplify Your Language
People read differently online compared to offline, especially when they are stressed. Instead of reading everything, they usually browse web pages to find what they need. Here you need to make your content easier to read online and you can do this by following these tips in your content marketing in healthcare field:
- Use simple words, bullet points, buttons, and bold text so people can find important information quickly.
- Capitalization makes reading more difficult because all words look the same. It’s also difficult for people with dyslexia to read, so try to keep text in normal lower case to help everyone.
- Try not to use hard and confusing medical terms. If it is necessary to use them, explain what they mean or write down abbreviations the first time you use them. This helps people understand easily and stay interested.
- Sometimes, presentation of information through images or videos is better than using text. For example, you can use an infographic or short video to explain important concepts.
- Remember English is not everyone’s first language. Make it easy to translate your site by using tools or services that help people understand content in their language
Build Trust
Now, you understand well how important trust is for healthcare brands. People will return to your site if they believe the information is reliable and accurate.You can prove that your site is trustworthy with these tips when using content marketing for healthcare:
- Work with doctors, nurses, and other experts to write or contribute to blog posts or interviews. This shows that the information comes from professionals who know what they are talking about.
- When you cite statistics or facts, make sure they come from reliable sources, such as health organizations or scientific studies. And never forget to link to these sources so people can check for themselves.
- Add new information to your site regularly, so people know it’s up to date. If you add dates to your posts it helps show the last time the information was checked or updated.
- Make sure the content is clear and does not exaggerate or create unnecessary fear. Stick to the facts so that readers feel reassured and confident in what they are reading.
Bring Your Calls to Action (CTA)
In healthcare content marketing, a CTA is a button or link that encourages people to do something, such as sign up for a newsletter or donate money. In healthcare, CTAs must do a few basic things:
- Don’t just say ‘Click here’ or ‘Donate now’. Explain why it is important. For example, if the donation helps children in need, say that before asking people to donate.
- When people click, they should know exactly what to expect. If you want them to become fundraisers for a hospital, explain that clearly. For example, say ‘Register here to help raise money’ instead of something vague.
- Make it easy for everyone to see and use. Buttons should be bold and easy to spot, with simple text, big fonts, and pops of color. Avoid complex words or phrases that are difficult to understand.
Improve Your SEO Strategy
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a way to make sure your website shows up when people search for things online. It is a tough task, but it’s actually very useful. Good SEO brings more people to your site, makes you more trustworthy, and can even bring new patients to your practice.
To optimize your SEO, you should focus on creating a good user experience. Here are some tips to keep in mind while creating strategy for healthcare content marketing:
- Write for people, not search engines: Imagine that you are writing something that you want to share with a friend on social media. Make it interesting and useful. Don’t just repeat things that already exist.
- Make your content unique: Share new ideas or give a new perspective. If you use information from experts, make sure it’s clear who they are. Also, your content should help the reader do something, like solve a problem or learn a new fact.
- Add value: Your writing should be useful and original, not just a summary of what’s already available.
And don’t forget the technical side of SEO. This can be a complex task so you can take help from the best SEO agency to help you optimize your website. Because sometimes small changes, like improving your website’s loading speed, can help increase your rankings and bring in more visitors.
Use Multichannel Marketing
It is a smart way to use more than one method to promote your message. Businesses that use at least four different methods to reach people can make three times more money than those that use just one. Also, it usually takes about eight times for a person to hear about something before they decide to buy it. By using many ways to share your message, you can reach people without annoying them.
These are some places where you can share your message:
- Social media
- Guest blogging on other sites
- Writing press releases
Always use your logo, same color, font, and tone in content marketing and healthcare, to make everything seem like it’s from the same brand. It helps people remember your brand better.
Enhance Your Strategy for Content Marketing for Healthcare
If your healthcare content marketing isn’t working well, it is time to get help from an expert like Geek Master. We know how to give your practice the attention it needs to grow and succeed.
With years of experience in digital marketing service, we can create a plan that helps build trust with your patients and keeps them coming back. Contact our team now to set up a consultation and see how we can help!
If you found this guide helpful, share it with your marketing team and find ways to improve your strategies!
