9 Ways To Improve Your Healthcare Marketing Strategy

Content marketing is a natural fit for healthcare providers. One in every 20 searches on Google is related to health, and blogs and social media posts are the ideal way to answer these queries. The key to capturing as many searches as possible and increasing conversion rates is to create a smart healthcare marketing strategy. With a healthcare marketing plan, you can attract potential patients with the content you create.

To rise above competitors, you need a website that confirms both your expertise and exceptional customer service. This comes from your healthcare content strategy, which is the main source of traffic and potential leads. Readers come looking for answers, which you can supply in skillfully written blog posts. A good healthcare marketing strategy helps visitors feel satisfied with what they read, which can also be the secret to lead conversion.

Healthcare Content Marketing Is Essential

With a vast amount of knowledge available at the touch of a button, it’s up to you to help potential leads recognize that your services will fulfill their needs. To patients, your value is contained in the health care you provide as well as your dependability and customer service. Healthcare content marketing can tip the scale by proving to readers what makes you a better choice than your competitors.

How To Create a Healthcare Marketing Strategy

A little content can go a long way. If you’re not convinced, MarketingProfs found that 84% of healthcare organizations such as clinics, hospitals and nursing homes use content in their healthcare marketing strategy. If you’re not using content now, you’re falling behind. Luckily, we have nine healthcare marketing tips that can not only help you create content but also improve your blog posts and reach more potential patients.

1. Know Your Target Audience

The first step, and quite possibly the most important part of a successful healthcare marketing strategy, is to know who you’re marketing to. Are you trying to reach female patients between the ages of 18 and 35? Does your practice center around healthcare services for families with kids? The answers to questions like these are important because they make sure your site’s content appeals naturally to the right people. After all, your goal is to speak directly to potential customers.

How To Find Your Target Audience

One of the best ways to improve your healthcare marketing strategy is to get specific. As a healthcare service, you cater to many people, which is why you need to get as specific as you can. Here are some additional questions that can help you identify your target audience:

• Who are your competitors targeting?
• What group of people can benefit the most from your services?
• What kind of customer is most likely to make an appointment?

The great news for healthcare providers is that they often have a large amount of data available to draw on, such as the age, gender and social status of their patients. Market analysis can also help you to establish content creation priorities.

Once you find your target market, focus on the needs and interests of potential patients. The more personal you get with readers, the more trust you build as a healthcare provider.

2. Use SEO in Your Healthcare Marketing Plan

When potential clients perform searches on Google, your medical practice isn’t going to show up by magic. Ranking high on web searches takes hard work. It means building media with search engine optimization in mind, making good use of keywords and high-quality content.

SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process by which search engines rank your content. Depending on quality, readability and even popularity, your healthcare content strategy is highly based on how well you tailor to Google’s needs. This includes keyword strategy and optimized meta elements.

The effort you put into SEO is absolutely worth it. The top three results on Google get around 40 percent of the total click-throughs for that search term. So when a potential client asks Siri or Alexa about diabetes symptoms, for example, content that features keywords such as “common diabetes symptoms,” “diabetes treatment options” and “how to tell if you have diabetes” has a higher chance of appearing. With a little work, you can make your blog posts more “googleable.” For more information on how to use SEO in your healthcare marketing strategy, check out our helpful content writing guide.

3. Answer the Health Questions That Your Audience Cares About

Two-thirds of people looking for information about a health problem search online. In fact, 75 percent of women, caregivers and people who have chronic diseases turn to the internet in search of help. If you can anticipate which questions readers are asking, your website can grab their attention immediately. Writing rich content about these keyword search terms also increases your page rankings, so it’s a win-win situation for click-through rates.

Determining what topics your target audience is most worried about is closely related to your overall healthcare marketing strategy. People are looking for answers. Depending on what type of services you offer and the resources you have, you can specifically answer questions that people want solutions to. Here are a few types of healthcare questions that visitors often have in mind:

• What do the symptoms that I have mean?
• Should I be worried about this condition?
• How can I deal with this disease?
• Are there any treatment options available?
• What tips can help me feel better or make my life better?

Along with using these kinds of questions as your muse, start thinking the way potential patients would. Different groups have different questions. For example, parents are interested in themes such as how to keep their kids safe, happy and healthy. They may enjoy content that shows how to get children to eat certain foods or tips for building a strong immune system.

In areas where business professionals have long commutes, popular topics may revolve around nutrition on the go or ways that busy people can make time for exercise. Look back at your target audience, then start formulating answers to questions they might have.

4. Connect With Patients Through Social Media Marketing

Social media is one of the most popular ways to improve healthcare marketing strategies for private practices and large healthcare brands alike. Approximately 70 percent of adults use social media, making it an exceptional tool for connecting with a large audience simultaneously. Four out of five individuals in the 30–49 age bracket have a social media account and roughly two-thirds of older adults in the 50–64 age range use sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

One advantage of social media is the ability to reach out to new clients on a more intimate level. With insightful snippets, humorous anecdotes and easy-to-remember tips, healthcare marketing on social media can show off its friendly, approachable side. Here’s a great example from Mayo Clinic:

Posts can be short reminders, such as telling readers to drink enough water that day. Colorful content can also introduce groundbreaking treatments or short-but-sweet health tips that are easy to retweet to family members. None of these messages seem like marketing to readers; they feel more like helpful messages you’re sending to a group of friends. Nonetheless, relatability and encouragement are all part of your healthcare marketing strategy.

Building a relationship of trust is especially important between healthcare providers and patients since patients are more likely to stick with doctors they feel comfortable with. Loyalty isn’t strictly related to customer satisfaction, but instead to emotional experiences like feeling cared for. Your social media account can help form a brand image that supports and cares for patients.

5. Help Readers Discover Your Solutions Automatically

Knowing how to promote your products and services in content can be a tricky aspect of your healthcare marketing strategy. On one hand, you don’t want to come off as pushy or self-centered. Potential customers need to feel that you care about them and their well-being, not their money. At the same time, successful healthcare content marketing means that readers should be motivated to learn more about your services or to schedule an appointment. How can you find the right balance?

One way to drive engagement is to direct people naturally using links within the content. Every piece should have two or three links that connect readers to informative pages detailing your services. Good links flow well with the surrounding content and appear at points where readers naturally want to learn more, such as within questions or tied to striking statements.

To further develop your healthcare marketing strategy, include calls to action in your blog posts. CTAs are concise statements that encourage action. They can include links to your “contact us” page or provide a form for interested visitors to fill out. For healthcare organizations especially, always place your contact information in visible places on your website. According to dialogtech, interested callers become patients 30% faster than visitors on your website. Your healthcare content strategy can reach potential patients in more ways than one.

6. Keep Your Healthcare Content Strategy Simple

Modern consumers value independence. They want healthcare professionals to play the role of trusted advisor, not someone who orders them to do something. This means explaining information using everyday terms.

Applying this reasoning to your content can make a huge difference in attracting readers. Plus, even Google likes simple answers. Adding a clear explanation with a few bullet points is a great way to get your post featured in a Google snippet on the first page of search results.

To see whether your current blog content for healthcare topics is reader-friendly, scan through it in 45 seconds or less. Were you able to pick up on the main points? Did the article show you clearly what to do? If not, it’s probably time to change the style of your content.

Why should you scan your content in under a minute? Well, most readers spend only 37 seconds looking through a blog post, according to NewsCred Insights. If you can’t capture your audience’s attention quickly, they may be gone for good. A huge element of your healthcare marketing strategy is to adapt to your readers’ needs.

Ways To Improve Healthcare Marketing Strategies

Clear content is attractive. It engages people, drawing them in and keeping them reading. To make your blog posts and tweets like this, follow these suggestions:

• Use bullet points
• Create how-to articles
• Focus on practical tips
• Give examples or use pictures when talking about complex ideas
• Explain concepts or terms your target audience probably won’t understand

Notice the way that this blog post from AayuClinics stays professional but explains the information in a concise, easy-to-follow way:

7. Be Authoritative but Honest

Readers expect content that is well-researched and specific. This is especially true when it comes to medical topics. Blogs need to be written in a way that makes site visitors say, “This is something I can trust.” Information that inspires confidence immediately is more likely to be shared with friends, coworkers and relatives, increasing brand exposure via word-of-mouth recommendations.

Positioning yourself as an expert in the field isn’t about overwhelming readers with a ton of complicated statistics. Stuffing your content with an overly large amount of facts and figures is a poor healthcare marketing strategy. Instead, being authoritative means truly understanding the information and explaining it clearly and enthusiastically.

How To Write Quality Healthcare Content

One way you can be authoritative in your writing is by using enough scientifically proven research to support your commentary. No matter how professional you sound, without data or facts backing up your claims, readers won’t always take your word. Find data from trusty resources or use your own to create a juicy informative post. Use infographics or videos to break down the information easily to your readers.

A common mistake some websites make when dealing with health topics is overpromising. This can quickly become another blow to your healthcare marketing strategy. To make sure your visitors — and Google — hold your content in high esteem, be honest even when you’re focusing on positives. For example, instead of saying that antioxidants in vitamin C “prevent cancer,” it’s better to explain that some studies suggest that these antioxidants may reduce your chances of getting cancer and that more research is needed.

8. Use a Human Touch in Your Healthcare Content Writing

Speak directly to your audience. When people read healthcare blog articles, they should feel like they’re talking with an expert who cares about them. Professionalism is important, but your voice needs to come across as helpful, approachable and honest. In other words, each piece of content should feel warm and friendly, not cold or formal.

So how can you infuse some personality into your healthcare content strategy? One foolproof way of grabbing the attention of readers is by adding more visuals. Pictures add color and life to your words, making it easier and more pleasurable to read. Try to add some humor to your article to help followers read along and want more. Although stating the facts gives people answers, it’s even better to write in a way that takes readers on an enjoyable ride.

Showing visitors that you understand them and can help them is an important part of increasing conversion rates and customer loyalty in your healthcare marketing strategy. This can lead to added revenue, since a 5 percent increase in retention has the power to boost profits by anywhere from 25 to 95 percent, according to Harvard Business Review.

9. Have a Regular Content Release Schedule

To keep new patients and loyal customers engaged over the long term, a solid content release schedule is vital. Having a regular flow of interesting topics drives page views, and up-to-date issues are great for attracting attention. Without new posts, readers can lose interest and Google may choose to feature a competitor’s content instead.

How often should you place a new article on your website or social media feed? Data from Google Analytics suggests you should aim for one to two social media posts a day. Dual daily posts lead to an average of 16 sessions, compared to the 0.3 visit ratio of companies posting once a month. With blogs, the ideal is to create 16 posts or more each month. Of course, depending on the budget and flexibility of your healthcare marketing strategy, you choose what consistency best fits your practice.

Topics can have a wide range if they remain focused on the healthcare industry and your services. Consider writing up a few FAQ posts or guides to hook the interests of your readers. Don’t forget to share your new content on your social media accounts.

Improve Your Healthcare Marketing Strategy

If you want to expand your brand image, get more traffic, or find more leads, healthcare content marketing is a crucial step to take. Obviously, keeping up with this type of tactic can be a challenge. So is balancing the interests of readers with content that’s also practical, friendly, authoritative and SEO-driven. Many healthcare organizations and other companies choose to outsource their content creation.

Working with professionals that know how to use SEO best practices has a positive effect on customer engagement and loyalty. At the same time, a clear healthcare marketing strategy allows you to produce content that reflects your brand identity closely.

Wondering where to start when it comes to your healthcare content strategy? Along with using these healthcare marketing tips, let us take some of the pressure by handling any or all of your content needs.