Healthcare content marketing delivers if you craft a concrete plan that highlights your unique brand, targets the right audience, and focuses on delivering value.
This blog post is to help anyone with building a results-oriented, customer-centric content marketing campaign, even if you are starting from scratch.
5 Steps to Develop a Value-Added Medical Content Marketing Plan
Content marketing is the cornerstone of almost every known digital marketing strategy, from search engine optimization (SEO) to paid advertising. It:
- Raises brand awareness by bringing your medical practice in front of your audience
- Engages your audience and builds relationships
- Increases website traffic, online visibility, and search engine rankings
- Drives conversions and sales
But these are not guaranteed benefits. You should learn to make your content marketing campaign work through a reliable plan that produces your desired results.
This guide touches on the most salient steps, especially if you are new to launching campaigns.
1. Define Your Brand and Audience
The Internet is a vast space with plenty of room for growth and dominance. But it is also chaotic and noisy. Your field is one of them, with so many new and established players.
How do you get in, make a mark, and beat your rivals? The answer is building content that revolves around a specific brand and defined audience.
Here is how to do it:
- Identify your unique selling proposition (USP). What sets your practice apart from the competition and makes you stand out in a crowd? Is it your modern technology, experienced doctors, or competitive pricing?
- Describe your company. What are your core values, mission, and vision? This question helps you identify the key factors that further make your facility or service different.
- Know your audience. Understand who you are creating content for: their age, gender, location, interests, pain points, and more. Use free tools, such as Google Analytics, to determine the demographic of existing website visitors.
- Create a buyer persona that best fits your target market. A buyer persona is a fictional character that embodies the characteristics of your ideal customer. Make one by collating information about your target market and combining it with the insights you get from your data.
2. Pick Keywords That Align with Your Brand and Targeted Leads
According to Digital Authority Partners, keywords are the foundation of any content marketing plan. After all, these are the phrases or terms your prospects use to find you.
The problem with keyword research is that many focus on broad terms with high search volume and competition. This technique can result in problems such as:
- High web traffic but low conversions
- Difficulty in ranking in your chosen keywords
- Inability to track the effectiveness of your campaigns
- High marketing spending with low returns
The best approach is to match the targeted words with your brand and customer journey. Let us say you are a drug rehab clinic that wants to advertise your programs. Your keyword research process will look like this:
- Outline your sales funnel. What are the different stages your leads go through? Are they looking for resources or already in the decision-making stage?
- Brainstorm seed keywords. To start, write down the relevant terms related to your service or product. These may be “drug rehab,” “addiction treatment,” and “sober-living facilities.”
- Get more specific with your terms. You can expand your research by modifying and adding terms from these seed keywords. Two examples are “drug rehab in Los Angeles” or “addiction treatment centers for women.”
- Expand your keywords further according to search intent. Are your prospects looking for informational content, a product to buy, or videos? Adjust your keywords according to the intent of their search. For instance, you can modify the keyword “drug rehab” to “drug rehab cost” for patients ready to choose a program or facility.
3. Make Your Various Content Types
Armed with your keywords, you are ready to get into the meat of the plan: producing your content.
Newbies can never go wrong with creating a blog. It is SEO-friendly, cost-effective, and a good way to build your online presence.
But you should consider diversifying your content if you want to convert leads fast or guide them through the sales funnel until they are ready to become your patients or customers.
Consider this:
- Infographics, charts, and visuals are ideal for patients in the awareness stage. They simplify complex data, and you can share them on social media.
- Those in the interest stage might want to watch videos to learn more about you and your services. They might also want to listen to podcasts, join webinars, or read interviews.
- Clients in the consideration phase may want to see customer reviews, case studies, and e-books. These content types can build trust among leads who are on the fence about your services.
- You can use email campaigns or direct mailers to those in the decision-making stage who already know what they want. You can share user-generated content (UGCs), exclusive discounts and promos, and gated content with them.
4. Promote Your Content
A well-rounded healthcare content marketing campaign always includes two other critical steps: promotion and maintenance.
Let us discuss promotions first.
The goal here is to get your content in front of as many people as possible. You can start by
- Leveraging paid ads on social media, search engines, and other relevant channels
- Building relationships with influencers and other healthcare providers
- Appearing on podcasts and webinars related to your niche
- Fostering conversations in online forums, groups, and Q&As
- Optimizing your content for SEO by ensuring that you have well-crafted titles, headings, and meta descriptions
- Performing local SEO if you are a brick-and-mortar clinic
- Making the most of your existing customers by nurturing them with personalized campaigns, such as email newsletters,
These ideas are just a few of the many ways to promote your healthcare content. Experiment with different channels and see which ones work best for you.
5. Review Your Performance and Repeat the Process
The best medical content marketing campaign is one that is sustainable, manageable, and measurable.
You can achieve these with these tips:
- Review your performance regularly and refine your content accordingly. You can measure the effectiveness of your campaigns using key performance indicators (KPIs), such as website traffic, subscribers, lead generation, conversions, and so on.
- Compare historical data and your performance against your competitors. Use information over a certain period to help you gauge where your campaigns are heading, what new goals to set, and what changes to make.
- Create a content calendar to manage and maintain your campaigns. This document should include all your topics, themes, target audiences, budget, timelines, and more.
- Refine your content as often as possible. Be sure to keep your content fresh, relevant, and engaging at all times. Keep yourself updated on new trends, topics, and industry-related news to produce copies that resonate with your audience.
Summing Up
A healthcare content marketing plan is a must-do to succeed in promoting your practice online. This guide has detailed steps that you can take to ace your next campaign. It inspires you to be consistent, produce engaging and relevant copies, and promote your content.
But if you want to enhance your strategies, partner with content marketing agencies specializing in healthcare. With the right help, you can easily establish your brand and authority, stand out from the competition, and provide the best online support for your leads and patients.
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