At the same time, voice searches for healthcare topics are expected to rapidly increase in 2019. It’s time for healthcare providers and systems to really invest their digital marketing dollars into patient-centric content marketing. Forward-thinking pharma, medical device, and hospital system providers are already investing in content marketing — but there’s a lot of room for differentiation and sophistication within healthcare provider marketing programs and content marketing strategies. Examples of Powerful Healthcare Content Marketing Hospitals and health systems are uniquely positioned to deliver compelling content that drives not only audience insights, but business results. But beyond simply answering questions from potential patients, hospitals and healthcare systems have an opportunity to establish supportive online communities and gather insights to help improve their patient care. Northwell Health has also helped pioneer voice search and healthcare marketing. Document your strategy and know when it’s time to change it Documenting your content marketing strategy helps you set a baseline for success. Who are your key audiences? Documenting your strategy allows you to share it with the broader marketing and hospital organization and explain the goals of your program. As a marketer, you need to know that people are reading and engaging with your content.
Healthcare and wellness are incredibly personal topics that generate a lot of search traffic and high engagement. At least 8 out of 10 people turn to search engines as their first source for health information, according to Pew, but often they are not able to locate current and accurate information. Of course, WebMD dominates search results; it’s the top health media company in the U.S., even while Vox has raised questions about its accuracy and inherent biases in its business model. At the same time, voice searches for healthcare topics are expected to rapidly increase in 2019.
What do all these converging trends mean? It’s time for healthcare providers and systems to really invest their digital marketing dollars into patient-centric content marketing. Forward-thinking pharma, medical device, and hospital system providers are already investing in content marketing — but there’s a lot of room for differentiation and sophistication within healthcare provider marketing programs and content marketing strategies.
Examples of Powerful Healthcare Content Marketing
Hospitals and health systems are uniquely positioned to deliver compelling content that drives not only audience insights, but business results. By their very nature, hospitals and health systems are filled with subject matter experts (physicians and other healthcare providers) who deal with matters of life and death on a daily basis. Simply put, these healthcare providers, working in tandem with experienced journalists and marketers, can provide reputable answers to some of the most common and pressing questions patients are asking — whether they be about a new dieting trend or something more complex like hip replacement surgery.
Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic, frequently cited as two of the best hospitals in the world, are widely credited for jumpstarting a revolution in hospital content marketing. Mayo Clinic, perhaps the most experienced player in the space, offers an extensive library of resources for potential patients to help them navigate possible diagnoses and treatment plans, in addition to the patient and employee blog launched in 2009. A few years later, Cleveland Clinic launched Health Hub, now Health Essentials, to acclaim from marketers and patients alike.
But beyond simply answering questions from potential patients, hospitals and healthcare systems have an opportunity to establish supportive online communities and gather insights to help improve their patient care. As we recently highlighted, Northwell Health’s content has prompted numerous online conversations, with followers tagging friends and loved ones to read articles and watch videos. This type of content marketing essentially allows patients to act as a referral program for the hospital system.
Northwell Health has also helped pioneer voice search and healthcare marketing. The hospital system’s Alexa integration provides not just location information for nearby services but also ER wait times. This perfectly meets the core tenet of content marketing: create content that provides personal value to your target audience.
Tips for Building a Healthy Content Marketing Program at a Hospital
As hospital CMOs begin the shift towards a more content-centric strategy, it’s important to keep strategic priorities and best practices in mind. While some 83 percent of…
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