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You’ve heard how powerful content marketing is. You’ve probably published blogs and created videos for social media. But is your investment paying off?
If it isn’t, don’t be discouraged. You can get the most out of healthcare content marketing by addressing some misconceptions that might have derailed your efforts and implementing strategies to help your brand stand out in a sea of cookie-cutter content. In today's digital landscape, where AI-generated content is becoming increasingly prevalent, creating a strong content marketing strategy is more important than ever. With the rise of AI tools capable of producing large volumes of content quickly, the internet is flooded with generic and often low-quality material. This saturation means it’s more important than ever for B2B healthcare businesses to stand out and capture the attention of their target audience.
A robust content marketing strategy allows you to differentiate your product and services by providing valuable, relevant, and engaging content that resonates with their audience. Let's explore strategies tailored to healthcare B2B companies to ensure your brand shines amidst the competition.
These common misconceptions could be holding you back from healthcare content marketing success. Let’s look at what content marketing entails and debunk common myths preventing you from reaping the benefits of this powerful strategy.
Content marketing helps you build trust and relationships with prospects and customers through publishing blog posts, articles, videos, infographics, podcasts, e-books, case studies, interviews, etc. It aims to provide valuable insights to your target audience while positioning your brand as a helpful resource.
While you may include a call-to-action (CTA) to invite readers to explore your products, content marketing works differently than traditional, direct advertising. Also, it isn’t a one-time project. Instead, it’s a long-term strategy that requires consistent effort to align with your brand’s image while supporting your SEO efforts and social media strategies.
Here are some common content marketing myths that can hinder the performance of your content. Knowing what not to do is the first step to refining your strategy.
Simply posting thousands of mediocre posts won’t make your website appear on the first page of Google. Marketers must support a solid SEO strategy with high-quality content. Google's Helpful Content update and EEAT guidelines reinforce such an audience-centric approach.
While a blog is an essential website component, your effort shouldn’t end there. Distribute your content through authority sites, social media, emails, etc., to broaden your audience and build backlinks to improve your SEO in relevant search engine results.
A content marketing expert can collect and analyze various metrics to understand a strategy's effectiveness and identify areas for improvement. These include page views, bounce rates, subscriptions, unique visitors and views, social shares, and more.
While content marketing can be highly effective for improving visibility and reaching a broader audience, it takes time for Google to crawl a site and build traction. Unfortunately, many make the mistake of giving up after a few months because they don’t see immediate results.
AI is all the rage. But it can't replace writers and editors. An experienced writer leverages AI's capabilities (e.g., jumpstart content ideas) but adds the human touch to build emotional connections with the audience to nurture trust and relationships.
Your content strategy should be integral to your overall marketing plan, informed by sales, supplies, human resources, company news, and more, to deliver an on-brand and targeted experience that addresses your prospects’ and customers’ needs.
Today’s healthcare decision-makers expect a rich user experience. You should create content in various formats, like images and videos, to appeal to and engage with a broader audience. Also, use image and video tags to make your content SEO-friendly.
Content marketers must go beyond immediate sales to consider how their strategies support the brand’s long-term success. For example, you may leverage content at different sales funnel stages to build trust, grow your email list, and address your audience’s questions.
A comprehensive content strategy helps you engage, educate, and nurture key decision-makers throughout the buyer's journey to build trust, stay top of mind, and drive conversions. Let’s explore the nuts and bolts of implementing a content marketing strategy.
A Deloitte article published in March 2023 states:
The median health tech deal in 2022 fetched a valuation of more than US$57 million, which was substantially higher than the 2021 median (US$33.9 million) and that of years prior.”
How do you stay relevant and competitive as new healthcare companies constantly enter the market while existing vendors seek opportunities to broaden their footprints? Content marketing holds the answer.
Even healthcare companies with outstanding products often struggle to stand out. Content is your secret weapon for connecting with prospects, building trust, and nurturing them to convert. Here's how to ensure a successful implementation.
According to HIMSS Media's health information and technology content marketing research:
90%
of healthcare IT buyers struggle to find high-quality, trusted content to inform their decisions.75%
want more healthcare industry perspectives.66%
seek trusted and independent sources.65%
prefer stories on how others benefit from a product.65%
are skeptical of marketing hype and empty buzzwords.53%
are bothered by overly sales-focused content.Content marketing is ideal for addressing the demand for relevant information. It also builds trust by improving visibility and credibility without being overly promotional.
Here’s how an effective healthcare content marketing plan can position your brand favorably while driving engagement and conversions.
You can position your executives as thought leaders and your brand as a valuable resource by publishing high-value content to share unique ideas and insights.
For instance, you may identify topics relevant and valuable for your key audiences. Survey their customers, analyze the data through their lens, share the data insights, and tie them back to your products or services without being overly sales-focused.
Content marketing helps accelerate the long and complex healthcare sales cycle by establishing your brand’s credibility, demonstrating your expertise, and improving your long-term SEO.
For example, you may add videos to your marketing plan to highlight your team's knowledge and make your brand relatable. Also, use social media to have two-way conversations with your followers and publish articles on reputable industry websites.
Research from HIMSS Media found that nine stakeholders with varying concerns are involved in a purchasing decision at different times and stages of the purchasing journey.
Content marketing helps you reach various stakeholders and address their concerns through multiple campaigns, touchpoints, and channels during different parts of their research process. A consistent effort is critical for engaging prospects throughout the lengthy sales cycle and staying top of mind.
Various decision-makers have different concerns and requirements. A robust healthcare content marketing strategy helps you address them and fill messaging gaps with targeted information.
Use various content formats to support the broader marketing efforts. For example, blog posts tailored to educating the audience at the awareness stage can prime the readers to develop a favorable impression of your brand and help increase conversions at the decision stage.
At the other end of your content is a human, and emotions affect their decision-making process. They’re more likely to choose vendors relatable to them.
An effective content strategy adds a human element to bring your brand to life and connect with your audience. Use storytelling techniques, case studies, and testimonials to make your product's impact memorable and inspire readers to further engage with your brand.
Content marketing delivers many benefits for healthcare companies. No wonder so many are jumping onto the bandwagon. So, how do you capture your audience’s attention?
Hubspot found that 70% of companies implemented content marketing in 2022. No wonder many healthcare marketers feel like they’re getting lost in a sea of content. Meanwhile, AI-generated articles are flooding the internet, and Google’s EEAT update has upped the antes in the SEO game to penalize low-quality content.
But don’t give up! Content marketing is highly effective if you implement the right strategy to help you stand out.
The content marketing industry has changed dramatically in recent years. Tactics that used to work just a year ago may have stopped working. Here’s how to update and optimize your approach to stay relevant and competitive.
Showcase your team’s expertise by sharing new and unique perspectives on topics your audience cares about. Let each person’s personality shine to humanize your brand and boost the "like, know, and trust" factor.
Experiment with various formats to cater to your readers’ preferences. Insightful content not only helps you stand out in a sea of AI-generate posts. It also enables you to establish expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.
Add new digital experiences along the customer journey to keep your prospects engaged throughout the long, complex sales cycles. Ensure these experiences align with your brand image and deliver value to your audience.
Consider repurposing long-form videos into shorter ones for social media or combining SEO and PPC ads to deliver a coherent and always-on customer experience. Also, posting video testimonials is a great way to demonstrate your experience.
Cookie-cutter content won't help you build trust and engage the audience. To combat the proliferation of low-quality, AI-generated content, Google is putting more emphasis on the user experience. Therefore, your content should first and foremost appeal to the human reader.
Know your audience and cater to their needs. For example, you may collect data from your marketing channels and conduct audience research to see what appeals to your prospects. Fine-tune your messaging to create timely content that resonates with your audience.
Be intentional about why you’re creating a specific piece of content, who it's for, and how you produce and promote it. Also, experiment with new formats and use insights from original research to demonstrate your commitment to serving your audience to cut through the clutter.
Your content not only needs to be relevant to your audience. It must also reflect your brand value and enhance its positioning. Shift your focus from quantity to quality by crafting each piece of content with a unique angle to set you apart.
Gaining audiences’ trust is more challenging than ever, thanks to the proliferation of AI- and user-generated content. You must produce high-quality, trustworthy content while preventing inaccurate information from damaging your reputation.
Proactively scan for defamatory content about your company across the digital ecosystem to protect your brand’s interest. According to Gartner, 80% of companies will have a content authenticity team to combat misinformation and fake materials by 2027.
AI writing tools aren’t necessarily bad. But they can’t replace content experts. The best healthcare marketers will leverage AI software to support their strategies. You must understand the technology’s limitations and exercise caution when using these applications.
AI programs have read (almost) everything on the internet and can summarize key points about a topic. But they can't synthesize new perspectives or verify facts and statistics. Content marketers must implement guardrails to create unique and accurate content to earn trust.
Navigating the fast-evolving healthcare content marketing landscape is challenging. That’s why more healthcare companies are turning to healthcare content marketing agencies to help them optimize their strategies. Let’s review what you need to know about working with one.
Healthcare companies need more than a blog to get the most out of content marketing. A healthcare marketing agency can help you implement innovative strategies to deliver an engaging brand experience throughout the buyer's journey.
Healthcare content marketing has many nuances. A healthcare content marketing agency addresses multiple aspects of your strategy to help you get the most out of this essential component in your marketing toolkit.
But first thing first — why partner with a healthcare content marketing agency?
Healthcare SaaS companies face unique challenges like long sales cycles, large buying teams, and complex barriers to product standardization. Engaging with your prospects and providing tailored information to build trust throughout the buying cycle is essential for driving conversions.
Content marketing helps you cultivate brand awareness, establish credibility, and nurture customer relationships. You can also build traction on social media, improve SEO ranking, drive website traffic, and generate high-quality leads.
However, a lack of resources and expertise makes it challenging for companies to publish regularly and through multiple touchpoints to maximize the benefits of content marketing. That’s why more organizations partner with healthcare content marketing agencies to help them maximize their investment.
Most generalist marketing agencies don’t have the expertise and skills to navigate the healthcare industry’s complex content marketing landscape. Therefore, you should work with an experienced healthcare content marketing agency that understands these unique challenges.
Your expert team will help you create, optimize, and distribute short- and long-form content. They can design a content strategy to address the challenges of extensive buying cycles and complex buying committee dynamics. They’ll also track analytics, fine-tune your approach, and align your content with other marketing activities.
A reputable healthcare content marketing agency goes beyond blogging to support innovative healthcare marketing ideas with high-quality content — distinguishing your brand and strengthening your reputation.
What should you expect from your healthcare content marketing agency? Creating and distributing optimized articles is just one aspect of content marketing.
Your agency should also support your marketing objectives with other content formats, including:
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Healthcare marketing case studiesPublish customer success stories and social proof to demonstrate how users achieve results with your solutions. |
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WhitepapersCreate in-depth, well-researched content to position your brand as a trusted resource to build credibility with your audience. |
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InfographicsDevelop visual assets to simplify concepts, highlight statistics, and illustrate processes. They also encourage social sharing. |
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Research reportsPublish results and insights from original research or surveys to build credibility and establish your thought leader positioning. |
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Social media campaignsCreate social posts to share valuable information, spark conversations, nurture relationships, and drive website traffic. |
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PodcastsUse long-form, in-depth audio content to strengthen credibility and reach more people via platforms like Apple Podcasts and Spotify. |
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VideosShare valuable information and encourage social media sharing with a content format preferred by many B2B buyers. |
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WebinarsOffer interactive online events to generate high-quality leads, collect prospect information, and nurture audience relationships. |
Healthcare content marketing is complex. Misconceptions could derail your efforts while implementing a one-size-fits-all strategy is the recipe for getting lost in a sea of content.
On the other hand, the right approach and an innovative strategy can help you stay top of mind throughout the long B2B healthcare sales cycle. It can help you attract high-quality prospects, build trust, nurture relationships, and drive conversations.
The good news is that you don’t have to do it alone.
Spot On helps healthcare SaaS companies audit their content and develop targeted strategies. We'll help you design a plan to build awareness and reach new qualified leads.
Book a meeting to see how we can help you maximize the power of healthcare content marketing.
