As a localized business with a distinct geographic reach, your online marketing initiatives inevitably include search engine optimization (SEO) with an emphasis on “local” SEO. That is, targeting your optimization efforts to capture the market within your geographic region effectively.
Is your medical practice or healthcare-related business using CRM to manage customer relations? Did you know that more than 60% of the country’s hospitals and clinics now use at least one form of CRM? Do you even know what CRM is?
We recently read an article about healthcare-related digital marketing that noted that 15 of the 72 healthcare companies on the Fortune 1000 list had no content presence, such as a blog or resource center, on their websites. Website content provided by 30 other healthcare companies on the list was described as “extremely limited” to include only corporate news and information or perhaps a blog hidden on the site’s footer.
If that many big-name companies neglect medical content marketing, we wondered, how many smaller medical practices and healthcare-related businesses also fail to take advantage of this powerful marketing tool? Whatever the number, in today’s digitally driven world, those companies are missing out on the best patient/customer outreach available. For the healthcare industry medical content marketing serves as an inherent dual-use tool that can provide your patients and/or potential customer base with detailed information about your practice or medical-related services, while at the same time serve as a powerful marketing tool to generate new patients/customers.
Your healthcare-centric website essentially serves as a primary information portal that describes what your company does and who it helps. Basic information typically includes a description of the company, services offered, about us, contact information, and perhaps patient tools relating to scheduling and billing. Content marketing involves adding supplementary information to the site designed to attract new customers, build your brand, and establish your company as a thought leader in its field. Such supplemental content is typically presented on your website as blog posts, articles, infographics, videos, eBooks, and other formats. Distribute content via email, newsletter, social media, press releases, podcasts, and other outreach methods.
Know that content marketing is not a form of direct response advertising. It is not so much goal-oriented towards making a sale as it is in building a long-lasting relationship with your patient/customer base, both current and future.
If your company has a website, you have already primed your medical content marketing initiative. You just need to keep it moving forward—new content expands your marketing reach. Blogging is a mainstay of content marketing, as each new blog posting organically drives new viewers to your website. As such, most companies begin their content marketing strategy with blogging.
To start blogging, your website needs to have a dedicated blog, and you need a decent writer with expertise in your medical specialty. If no one in your company has the time or skills to handle the blogging, consider outsourcing the work to a freelance writer or digital marketing company, like Moxxi Marketing.
Once you’ve got the blogging down pat and are seeing results, you can expand into other content, such as videos.
The extent to which “build it and they will come” may apply to your medical content marketing once initiated will depend upon numerous factors. There are some things you can do to ramp up its attraction to organic traffic. Because search engines drive this traffic in large part, start by incorporating search engine optimization (SEO) within your content. Besides producing well-written, relevant content with prime keywords, ensure that the content encourages backlinking (when outside websites provide links to your content). To encourage backlinks, post your content on social media, email it to email newsletter subscribers, and share it with others in your field.
While your medical content marketing is designed to promote your healthcare company, the content should be focused on the patient and/or prospective customer. That is, what interests them and what information you can provide that can spur their interest, teach them something new, and make them perceive you as a reliable source when they need related information?
When you begin your medical content marketing initiative, don’t take on more than you can successfully manage and/or afford. Put enough resources into your efforts to get the marketing up and running. Then build upon that as your audience grows.
Once your medical content marketing initiative is up and running, keep it going. If you post a few blogs on your website, engage with social media, and indulge in some other content marketing, if you decide to take a two-month break, whatever traffic this may have generated will inevitably subside.
Other tips to keep in mind include:
If you want to learn more about initiating medical content marketing for your healthcare practice, the medical marketing experts at Moxxi Marketing can get you started. With expertise in all forms of digital marketing, we help healthcare practitioners grow their businesses with data-driven results. You can consult with Moxxi Marketing by contacting us today at 239.330.6236.