By Sara Edwards
David Feinberg, former VP at Google Health, stated in March 2019 that healthcare-related queries account for 7% of daily Google searches. Considering the billions of searches conducted every day, this is a colossal figure, which can be tapped into by healthcare businesses. To make the most of internet searches, businesses need to create winning content that offers accurate information and beats competitors. Below, we’ll tell you how to do this.
Focus on Niche
Healthcare is a general umbrella for countless specialisms, which is why it’s important to be specific when niching down. For example, if you’re creating content for audiology, you can talk about new tech advances in hearing aids. To get the most out of your content, it’s essential to figure out pain points, which are questions consumers need answering.
To establish your business as an expert within your niche, it’s important to include information from reputable industry experts, which could include published doctors. However, while conducting research and carrying out interviews, it’s important not to allow misinformation to trickle into your content.
Make Content Interactive
There’s only one real reason people search online for healthcare information, and that’s to find out what’s wrong with them; they want access to quick assessments from medical professionals. You can do this by adding in short quizzes with immediate results or offering digital tests like this hearing test over at phonak.com/en-us/online-hearing-test, which only takes three minutes to complete. Although this doesn’t compare to being seen by a professional, it can save patients from unknowingly wasting valuable appointment time.
Understand Target Audience
We mentioned previously that expert knowledge is a crucial part of effective healthcare content, but that doesn’t mean you need to speak in technical language. When creating content, the target audience needs to be at the heart of everything. In healthcare, you will be conveying messages to patients, which means taking time to break down complex terms into understandable language.
As well by targeting correct language use through audience knowledge, you can plan a more effective marketing campaign. For example, if your audience is largely teenagers and young adults, you’re best off targeting social media platforms more frequently.
Plan Effective Social Campaigns
Your social media content needs to be memorable, which is achieved by creating attractive and useful content. Additionally, you can integrate unique hashtags based on topics you wish to increase awareness of. For example, if you’re discussing breast cancer, you can search through the calendar for notable dates like Breast Awareness Month. Alternatively, World Heart Day is celebrated on the 29th of September. When you create content designed around national events, it’s much more likely to be read by prospective patients.
While we’re discussing the calendar, it’s important to create a social media schedule, which helps keep everything on track. Using tools like Hootsuite, you can upload content in advance and set them for future posting.
Add The Human Touch
Healthcare is about much more than medical diagnosis; it’s about credibility and trustworthiness. For prospective patients to use a medical service, they need to trust that they’ll be treated competently. You can help with this before they make content, by introducing doctors through social media.
Create a page for each doctor on your team, dedicated to their expertise and personality. As well as including academic achievements, make it personal by discussing hobbies and interests. The more human your medical team appears, the more comfortable prospective patients will feel.
Tell Stories
Outside of niching down, healthcare content shares similar traits with any other marketing campaign. For example, the use of storytelling is always an effective strategy because it helps to engage readers. In healthcare, you aim to instill trust, which you can do by collecting previous patient accounts that you can display on your website and social media.
Offer Coupons or Discounts
When you remove the niche, your healthcare marketing campaign is selling a service, which can come at a considerable cost to patients. To gain an edge over your competitors, we recommend combining social proof and expert knowledge with discounts on services. For example, if you’re running a campaign for a dentist, you can offer a free hygienist appointment for every new patient that books a check-up.
Make Content Fun
The healthcare industry is relatively serious, but that doesn’t mean every piece of content needs to be heavy. Spice up your content by adding in polls, challenges, and short quizzes, which will help to boost engagement. For example, to promote more healthy lifestyles, you can challenge your readers to try one new healthy meal a week and then have them post it to social media using a set hashtag, which will provide your business with user-generated content.
Creating healthcare content is all about informing patients through expert knowledge and building an early rapport. Making content human, interactive, informative, and often fun is a great way to achieve this goal. (SJGP)
