Content Marketing in the Healthcare Industry
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Year after year, the healthcare industry continues to see more growth. As generations grow larger and needs
continue to evolve and change, it's essential that healthcare brands like yours proactively address patient
questions, answer consumer needs with innovative products, and stay ahead of the increase in competition by
creating a brand image that's trustworthy and thoughtful. The secret to checking items off your long list?
A solid content strategy.
This guide will help you address content marketing in the healthcare industry.
Benefits of Investing in Content Marketing for Your Healthcare Brand
More than 7 in 10 companies
say content marketing is effective at generating more leads. In the healthcare industry, those leads may
come in many forms — whether they're new patient applications, client consultations, or consumers looking
for products and services. Regardless of the niche your brand fills in the healthcare sector, content
marketing can offer wonderful benefits.
If there's one thing content marketing can do for your healthcare business, it's fostering trust and
loyalty amongst consumers. In the world of healthcare, trust is fundamental to a business' success.
It not only plays a role in enabling you to acquire new clients, but it's also essential to breeding
loyalty and getting the referrals and word-of-mouth marketing you want and need.
In the healthcare sector, brands are often better off avoiding trends and instead focusing on answering
common questions and becoming a resource for honest, factual advice on the topics readers care about.
It's up to you whether you decide to build a mega resource library, like Healthline and others have
done, or focus on offering niche advice that's ultra-targeted to your potential clients. In any case,
keeping the content factual, digestible, and empathetic is key to resonating with consumers in the
industry.
Since building trust is paramount to building a healthcare brand, another strong suit of content marketing
is the ability to offer a variety of content that touches on an array of different topics. The best
healthcare brands have recognized this and they're using content marketing as a tool to not only explain
products and services, but also to showcase their company values and how they're acting on them each and
every day.
In the healthcare industry, consider offering content that focuses on your community impact and dedication
while showcasing your team members and all the people behind your business that make things work. In
doing so, you'll come up with a content strategy that helps people connect with your brand on a personal
level while rallying support for your business.
For many companies, content marketing is the backbone of their digital marketing strategy, and that's
great. Content marketing can play a fundamental role in growing your brand's online presence — even doing
so single-handedly.
When done right, a content marketing strategy will be built around a long list of search terms, allowing
your content to increase organic traffic to your website. What's more, your strategy will focus on the
topics and platforms your consumer personas care about the most, allowing you to focus your efforts so
you get the most results for your money, whether that's followers, shares, or website visitors.
Growing your digital presence is great, but that in itself means very little unless you're using that
digital presence to improve your brands reach and convert more leads. When you add end-of-funnel content
into your strategy — that is, content that nurtures prospects to the point where they take action and
become a client — you're able to harness your digital presence into a revenue stream, too.
This may all sound quite complex, but when you follow the steps we're going to lay out in this guide
and you really think your content strategy through, you'll see that it's entirely possible to make
your content work for you. Not only will it attract new readers and prospects to your site and boost
engagement, but the right content strategy will ultimately help you get more customers and boost loyalty, too.
Tips for Creating a Winning Healthcare Content Strategy
Getting inspiration from major brands is a great start, and so is looking at your more direct competitors
and studying their content marketing efforts. However, in order to make content work for your brand,
you have to come up with a strategy that's realistic, goal-based, and executable. Here's how to do it
in just a few steps.
The very first step to coming up with an impactful content strategy is to lay out a solid foundation
for your upcoming research. This requires you to know three things: who your audience is, who your
brand is, and what your brand seeks to offer its audience.
Your to-do list should include:
- Researching your audience and identifying at least one consumer persona.
- Thinking about who your company is and layout out a brand book.
- Detailing your brand's offerings and how it solves your audience's pain points.
Only after you've done these three fundamental things should you move on to the next step. These foundational items will inform and fuel your content strategy from here forward, so make sure you put in the time to research them so you can be confident about the information you're acting on.
With the foundational elements laid down, you're ready to build upon them. The key to a content
strategy is truly to reverse engineer things — that's the most reliable way to ensure you build a
strategy that will actually get you to where you want to be. For that reason, you need to identify
where you want your content strategy to take your brand.
You should identify both short- and long-term goals. The former should take between 1-3 months to
complete while long-term goals may take up to a year to complete. You can start by identifying your
long-term goals and then break them down into smaller milestones.
For instance, if your long-term goal is to get 10% more consultation requests through your website,
your short-term goals may include: doubling your social media followers, reaching a 50% engagement
rate on Facebook, and seeing a 30% increase in organic traffic to your website.
When setting your goals, check them against the SMART framework to ensure they're specific, measurable,
actionable, realistic, and time-bound. SMART goals set you up for success by having you define all the
metrics necessary to actually track your progress toward them and achieve them.
Once you know exactly where you want your content strategy to take you, the next step is going back
to your consumer personas and looking at which platforms your audience is most likely to engage with
your brand on. This may include Facebook, YouTube, or a host of other social media platforms. You
should also look at the type of content they prefer to consume, whether it's long-form written
content (like eBooks and white papers), short videos, long videos (i.e., online courses), or something other.
Popular types of content include:
- Articles and blog posts
- eBooks and white papers
- Short videos, either standalone or in a series
- Long videos, either standalone or as part of a course
- Newsletters and email content
- Social media posts
- Audio content, like podcasts
- Visual content, like infographics
Chances are, your brand may not have the resources to create all of these types of content. As a brand,
it's your job to determine what types of content your audience is most likely to consume and share,
and then focus your efforts in those areas. For many businesses, written content will form the core
of their content strategy and it may even be the entirety of it. Remember the adage of "quality over
quantity" and don't try to stretch your business too thin.
With an understanding of the types of content your audience prefers, and where they like to consume
that content, you can move onto the next step.
Step four involves scheduling your content. This requires you to create a document known as a content
calendar, which is exactly what it sounds. A content calendar will enable you to lay out when you want
to publish where for an entire calendar year (January through December). If that sounds intimidating,
take it one month at a time.
The great thing about laying out an entire year's worth of content upfront is that it empowers you to
plan for seasonal content, like informational pieces on summer allergies or end-of-year reminders to
get a checkup or make use of annual insurance benefit caps. Once you start thinking about it, you may
be surprised to realize just how seasonal your brand's content may be.
For now, don't worry about adding ideas or topics to your calendar. Start by laying out the template
— quite literally scheduling your content. Once you have done that, you'll have a clear understanding
of how much content you will post and how it will align. Knowing the volume of your content requirements
will help you move forward with the production of that content in the most efficient and effective
way possible.
Once you have a content calendar in front of you, it can be daunting. You've done the brunt of the
legwork, but now you've got a year's worth of empty content slows in front of you that are waiting
to be filled. Fortunately, a bit more research is all it takes to bring your content plan to fruition
and kickoff your content strategy once and for all.
In truth, while a lot of people are overwhelmed by the thought of coming up with content ideas,
analytics tools have already done much of the work for you. Since the purpose of a content strategy
is to address the topics your audience cares about, you can start filling in your content calendar
by simply conducting a bit of keyword research.
Identify the keywords your audience is searching for so you can discover the questions and concerns
they have and help further empathize with their pain points. As an example, a healthcare brand offering
home wound care products is likely to target these keywords:
- how to treat a burn
- how to clean cuts
- best wound cleanser
Base the keywords you target entirely around who your audience is and the products and/or services you want to offer them. Tools like Google Analytics can help you explore which keywords have a high search volume and stand to increase organic traffic the most. Balance long tail keywords with short tail keywords and be sure to invest in other SEO strategies as well (like on-page SEO).
You can always make complementary content as well, which is ideal if you're creating both articles
and videos, for example. Having a video that covers the same topic as an article gives you the power
to link to them both and drive traffic across platforms. Think back to how your audience prefers to
consume content when deciding on how to execute.
As you brainstorm topics, make sure you also throw in some unique ideas. Your content marketing
shouldn't just target keywords — it should also explain your brand's history, your offerings, and
your company culture. Reinforce your company values and, above all, make sure your brand's unique
identity shines through.
Successful Healthcare Brands (and how they did it!)
Seeking out inspiration from leading brands is always a smart move. Here's a look at some of the most
successful healthcare brands and a brief overview of how they're making content marketing work for
their company.
Most people know Band-Aid brand bandages because the
term "bandaid," while a registered trademark, is synonymous with wound coverings. The brand is
owned by Johnson & Johnson, which is well-known in itself for bringing household and personal
care products to the masses. However, Band-Aid really shines as an example of content marketing.
In addition to an impressive history,
dating back to the 1920s, that chronicles the brand's rise to niche domination, the Band-Aid brand
website also offers a number of guides relating to specific wound care procedures. An explanation
of product categories and collections, along with links to the Band-Aid sister sites (Neosporin
and the Care Club), fill the site. These help increase organic traffic to all of the websites listed.
What's most impressive about Band-Aid's content marketing strategy, though, is their social media
presence. On Facebook, the company is known for their great service and interaction with customers,
but they're also always experimenting with new content — like their follower suggested
collaborations
with brands like Supreme.
What They Do Best:
As a home wound care product and a household name, Band-Aid focuses on appealing to the masses in a fun, relatable way.
Mayo Clinic is the largest network of hospitals in
the United States. The nonprofit academic medical center has over 70 hospitals and clinics across
the country, each of which takes a team-based approach to integrated health care. Of course,
most people know them thanks to their major website and online resource center.
The organization's commitment to healthcare education shines through in Mayo Clinic's content
marketing strategy. With information for individuals and medical professionals alike, the Mayo
Clinic has fast become one of the internet's best resources for those seeking information on
illness, treatment options, healthy living, and emerging medical research.
With a brand identity that's rooted in building trust and acting as an authoritative medical
resource, the Mayo Clinic keeps its tone empathetic yet factual and research-based at all times.
Content addresses questions and concerns with reassurance instead of hype and the brand's
social media presence is powered by public
service announcement (PSA) style infographics and posts.
What They Do Best:
As a major hospital network, Mayo Clinic stays true to its promise of being a reliable resource
for medical news and insights. A no-nonsense tone with a massive database of resources attracts
millions of readers from around the world every month.
Looking for Premium Healthcare Writers?
If all of this sounds like a tall order, don't fear. An effective content marketing strategy for your
healthcare business isn't but a click away. Here at Scripted, we have some of the best healthcare writers
in the industry ready to help you execute your content strategy and achieve your goals.
With self-service and fully managed plans, Scripted is proud to serve businesses of all sizes. With our
done-for-you Cruise Control service, your brand will have the confidence of knowing that our content
strategists are assembling a plan for you, so all you have to do is sit back and track your metrics.
Ready to get started? Browse our database of healthcare writers
or reach out to the Scripted team for answers to all of your questions.
