You stay current with CME requirements and incorporate new medical technologies. So, why hold onto outdated medical marketing methods? Suppose you rely solely on traditional tools like printed brochures and display ads instead of embracing digital marketing. In that case, you might overlook the chance to attract more patients, achieve better conversion rates, and establish a more personalised connection with your patients.
What is content marketing?
Digital marketing covers all the promotional activities conducted online. Among these, content marketing is a particularly successful strategy utilised by many businesses, from small local stores to industry giants like P&G and Microsoft.
The Content Marketing Institute provides a definition: “Content marketing is a strategic marketing method centred around producing and sharing valuable, pertinent, and consistent content to attract and maintain a well-defined audience—and ultimately, to encourage profitable customer interactions.”
Content marketing involves delivering valuable and helpful content like blogs, eBooks, and videos to your customers or patients rather than simply promoting your products and services.
Instead of promoting your products or services directly, you’re offering genuinely pertinent and valuable content to your potential customers and existing clients, aiming to assist them in resolving their concerns. Content marketing is the digital adaptation of a strategy that perceptive businesses have historically employed.
Content marketing strategies for medical practices can include the following:
- Blogging
- Email newsletters
- eBooks
- Whitepapers
- Webinars
- Patient education videos
- And even your website.
How Can Content Marketing Benefit Your Practice?
Content marketing seamlessly aligns with healthcare providers. Among its advantages, it is a marketing strategy to enhance patient engagement, foster retention, establish a strong brand presence, and cultivate a professional reputation.
Healthcare professionals already possess an advantage due to their perceived credibility as reliable sources of medical information online, surpassing other sources. For example, as reported by Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry News, 60 per cent of consumers expressed trust in posts from doctors, compared to 36 per cent who exhibited confidence in posts from pharmaceutical companies.
Through content marketing, doctors can cultivate trust and forge personal bonds with patients, all before they even step foot into your practice.
In today’s environment, patients are increasingly seeking more personalised relationships with their doctors, and content marketing offers a way to establish such connections even before an in-person encounter. A blog post or social media update composed in a conversational style can introduce potential patients to your practice and provide a sense of ease.
When patients feel at ease, they are more inclined to develop an emotional attachment to your website and medical services, ultimately making you a preferred choice when deciding on a healthcare provider.
Tips to get started
Does your practice currently possess a website, blog, or Facebook page? Excellent! These serve as valuable initial strides. Now, expand upon these foundations by executing the subsequent actions:
Continuously prioritise your audience: Who constitutes your target demographic? Is your aim to enlighten current patients or entice new ones? Do you primarily cater to young professionals or seniors? It might encompass a blend of these segments, yet for every content piece you generate – a blog post or a social media update – it’s crucial to customise it according to the designated audience.
1. Maintain consistency:
Content marketing only produces short-term outcomes; it involves time and regularity. Consistent blogging captivates fresh visitors to your website and enhances search engine optimisation (SEO) – in other words, the volume of visitors discovering you via online searches.
A speciality medical practice observed a 58 per cent upsurge in search-engine traffic upon initiating a blog, attended by a rise in appointment requests through their website.
A significant obstacle in content marketing is consistently producing high-quality content that merits sharing. The absence of regularity in content creation obstructs numerous practices from reaping the complete rewards of content marketing.
2. Seek assistance:
To maintain consistency in your content marketing endeavours, If you encounter challenges in sourcing content and maintaining a frequent posting schedule, your Rx Growth Success Manager is at your disposal to aid in devising a plan for numerous video-based posts to schedule throughout the seasons.
This encompasses content for disease awareness months, prompts to arrange routine checkups, and holiday messages that contribute to nurturing patient loyalty and enhancing brand recognition.
3. Optimise your content
When you commit resources of time and funds to produce top-notch content, ensure you’re maximising its reach. Publicise your blog posts across social media platforms, incorporate them into email newsletters, and feature videos in your waiting area, website, and social media channels.
Creating compelling content, simplifying medical terminology, and becoming a thought leader are essential for effective communication and trust-building in the medical industry; premium patient education videos can be customised with your practice’s logo for sharing with your patient base.
Value of content marketing in the medical industry
Content marketing is pivotal in the medical industry by educating patients, building trust, and establishing authority. Through informative articles, videos, and resources, it empowers patients to make informed healthcare decisions, fosters patient-doctor relationships and enhances a medical practice’s online visibility and reputation.
Effective content creation strategies in the medical industry encompass various approaches, including blogging, video marketing, patient testimonials, and developing informative medical guides, all aimed at educating and engaging patients and healthcare professionals.
Conclusion
Content marketing empowers doctors to attract fresh patients, offering versatility through utilisation across diverse platforms that spotlight the doctor’s expertise and knowledge. This approach harmonises a doctor’s online and offline marketing, yielding impactful outcomes.
Content marketing is a pivotal choice to achieve an exceptionally potent marketing strategy. Numerous advantages accompany content marketing, encompassing lead generation, credibility establishment, immediate cost efficiencies, and bolstered brand reputation.
Engaging a proficient content marketing company is advisable for further insights into content marketing. Digital marketing can evaluate the existing marketing initiatives of your practice and formulate a results-oriented strategy poised to elevate a doctor’s practice to new heights.
Read More:
Content Marketing Strategy for Doctors: A Step-by-Step Guide
Google Ads for Doctors: Know the Benefits and How to Use
Online Presence for Medical Practices
Measuring the Success of Medical Marketing
Social Media Marketing for Doctors: How to Do It Right
