The CEO’s guide to content marketing in healthcare

Storytelling is often associated with how you share memories at a dinner party or the plot of a fictional book. What’s more, storytelling is a skill that should be honed by any CEO who is trying to market their healthcare practice. Content marketing gives you the opportunity to use storytelling as a way to engage with potential patients and encourage them to book an appointment.

Content marketing involves using media, including blog posts, e-books, videos and social media, to create a narrative and show the value that you can provide a potential patient for their particular interest or concern. As a CEO of a healthcare brand, learning the ins and outs of content marketing can help you gain a better understanding of its impact on your bottom line and how to go about the process.

In this post, we’ll give you the rundown about what you need to know about content marketing in healthcare and how BURG+CO. can help. 

Why CEOs should care about content marketing practices

It’s undeniable that marketing is an essential aspect of running any sort of brand. Without it, you’re likely to have a hard time getting people into the door at your practice because they might not even know you exist. 

Since so much is done online these days, including looking for healthcare providers, digital marketing is the way to go. Here are a few reasons why content marketing should be used in your digital marketing strategy:

• As content piques a person’s interest, they start the patient journey with you.
• It’s used for search engine optimization (SEO), which is a cost-effective advertising strategy.
• Content can highlight the particular treatments for your target demographic.

How content marketing works

Content marketing requires strategizing to help you get the metrics and growth you’re looking for. Content marketing’s best practices can help bring qualified leads to your site with the promise of valuable information or through storytelling, meaning that you try to evoke an emotion with a narrative or anecdotes. The process involves multiple steps, including:

• Analyzing your target audience’s needs and pain points
• Determining the types of content that align with your demographic, such as social media or long-form videos
• Using keyword research to design content that provides relevant value and creates a narrative to connect with your audience
• Implementing SEO strategies to help the content rank high on search engines
• Tracking progress of metrics like traffic and engagement to stay on the right track

What content marketing can be used for

Content marketing goes beyond getting clicks on your site with a fun video or getting shares on social media. Let’s take a look at the specific benefits of using content marketing:

• Driving traffic

When a potential patient clicks on a link to your content, whether it be on a search engine, social media or another source, they’ll be brought to your website. The more traffic you get, the more likely you are to generate quality leads. Website traffic metrics also provide an understanding of users and their behaviors, such as how they navigate through your pages and what aspects they gravitate toward.

• Building brand authority

Credibility and expertise are key deciding factors for a person becoming a patient. You can use your content to establish yourself as an authoritative voice in your field, building a sense of trust with the user. By using your content as a way to discuss important healthcare topics with knowledgeable explanations and cited sources, you can make users feel comfortable putting their wellness journey in your hands.

Brand authority is also a contributing factor to your SEO efforts. When an algorithm deems you as authoritative, it will rank you higher on relevant search engine results pages.

• Improving patient retention

Acquiring a patient is a win that should be celebrated every time. However, you also need to focus on retaining patients so that they come back after their first visit and you can receive steady revenue.

Content marketing is just as much about patient retention as much as it is about acquisition. Plus, it’s less costly to gear your marketing toward existing patients. With the right content, you can increase patient loyalty by personalizing efforts toward their needs, strengthening your connection and staying on their mind in between visits. 

• Enhancing patient experience

There’s much more that goes into a patient’s relationship with your practice than what occurs during an appointment. You want to make them feel comfortable, supported and in the know about their health during every point of their journey. 

Through content marketing, you’re able to boost a patient’s experience by providing consistent value and relevant information. It helps them feel cared for, even if they don’t have a booked appointment anytime soon. It also keeps them connected and engaged with you, which reduces the likelihood of them forgetting about your high quality of care or looking somewhere else.

• Fostering brand awareness

It’s wonderful that there are so many healthcare providers for people to turn to when they have a concern or want to become their healthiest self. However, that means that they can be bogged down by choices and you may not be on their radar. Content marketing is part of effective SEO strategies so that you can get in front of as many eyes as possible by being at the top of search engine results pages.

Content marketing can help boost brand awareness by showing potential patients who you are, what you do and why they should consider booking an appointment at your practice. 

• Educating potential patients about medical concerns

Even though people should be regularly seeing healthcare providers to make sure that there’s nothing they need to be concerned about, many people wait until they have an issue to book an appointment. 

Through content marketing, you can raise awareness about possible medical concerns that should be checked out. For example, a blog post about the difference between the flu and pneumonia can help a person determine if they need to just rest while feeling under the weather or if they need to seek treatment. 

What CEOs need to know about the content marketing funnel

The goal of content marketing is to use high-quality, credible content as a way to move potential patients down the marketing funnel phases. They’ll start with awareness of your brand, move through consideration and end at conversion by contacting your practice or booking an appointment.

Here’s a bit more detail about each phase of the funnel:

• Awareness — Content piques the interest of a potential patient and helps them gain an understanding of what you can do for them.
• Consideration — The potential patient is trying to decide if they want to invest time and money into your services by exploring your website and comparing you to others.
• Conversion — This is the end goal of every content marketing effort. Once a person completes a conversion, such as clicking on the “appointment” link on a blog post, you’ve acquired a patient and the revenue that comes along with them. 

Want to attract new visitors to your healthcare site with content marketing’s best practices? BURG+CO. can help guide you

If you’re a CEO trying to get a handle on content marketing, we’re here to help. We have many specialties at BURG+CO., and content marketing is one of them. We’ll work with your entire team to determine the content marketing strategy that will help get patients in your door. It’s a collaborative effort that still allows you to focus primarily on providing the best care possible.

Our team has years of experience in helping businesses improve their digital presence to attract new leads and retain existing ones. If you’re looking to perform better in search engine results and attract more visitors to your site, we’re ready to talk to you to see how we can help. Contact our team today for more information about digital marketing or to schedule a free consultation.