4 Truths Healthcare Providers Need to Know About Content Marketing

 Healthcare marketing isn’t easy. (But you already knew that, didn’t you?) New Affordable Care Act stipulations, HIPAA laws, and increasing government involvement have regulatory committees tightening their grip on all forms of outbound communication.

This means that while marketing departments and compliance professionals have always butted heads, the new state of healthcare has created an unyielding stalemate between the two departments. But there is a cure. 

Though Healthcare Marketing isn't easy, reaching your audience through content marketing has never been easier. According to Pew Research, about 72 percent of internet users searched online for health information within the past year. Additionally, Healthcare is the second most-searched-for service online. With so many people seeking expert healthcare information, and so many channels and platforms at your fingertips, converting prospects into champions for your organization online is highly possible. So long as you’re marketing by the rules, of course.

In other words, when marketing and compliance learn to join forces, healthcare providers can revolutionize their brands and become a leader in the industry.

To successfully market the organization’s brand and earn a positive reputation within the healthcare marketplace, healthcare marketers need to understand these four truths:

1) There is No “Quick Fix”

I know you were hoping you’d leave this blog post with an easy, straightforward roadmap to achieving dozens of gratifying comments and glowing reviews overnight, but that’s not going to happen.

Wait—don’t leave!

Just as you couldn’t win a marathon the day after ankle surgery, when it comes to achieving content marketing success, you have to learn to walk before you can master the run. That means starting with the basics: building a foundation of great content.

Owned content, or the content your organization develops for the channels and platforms you create and maintain, is where you need to start. Also, this is where un-siloing your marketing and regulatory departments is especially important. Marketing professionals must be well-versed in compliance, while regulatory specialists must grasp the importance of growing a healthy and consistent content strategy.

Successful owned content paves the way for earned content, such as editorial coverage, and shared content, like those highly coveted online reviews.

2) Disaster Avoidance Requires Cooperation

If a retail company posts inaccurate information, they look careless and may lose a few customers. If a healthcare provider posts inaccurate information, the FDA could slap down hefty fines and put all marketing on ice for months. In an industry where credibility is everything, healthcare providers can’t afford to make mistakes. (Which, of course, is why regulatory and legal teams exist in the first place.)

From inception, compliance professionals need to be involved in the content strategy. If you’re working with an agency to develop your content, make sure it’s one that really gets the breadth, nuances and, most importantly, the risks of healthcare marketing.

From website copy to blog posts, properly targeted owned content will shape your brand’s reputation. Every marketer knows it takes great care to craft the right message, but, for healthcare providers, the stakes are higher than for any other industry.

3) Garnering Positive Reviews Requires a Healthy Content Strategy

Why do some healthcare providers rake in heaps of social media accolades and five-star reviews while others amass little more than an occasional Facebook “like” or, worse, nothing but negative reviews?

It’s not just about the level of care and expertise these physicians, clinics and hospitals offer their patients —although that’s obviously one of the most important factors. It’s also because the organizations succeeding in generating a buzz online have become a trusted industry leader and resource of valuable information. They create content that connects people with solutions to their problems and insight into their concerns.

Achieving a positive, robust and highly influential reputation online is the result of a carefully executed strategy. As I mentioned before, the owned media you create — the web copy, blog posts and library of guides, eBooks and other helpful resources, will lead the way to shared media — the online reviews, complimentary tweets and other consumer-generated praise.

Plus, when regulatory teams and marketing teams work together, organizations can rest assured less-than-enthusiastic reviews will be addressed responsibly. Given that 92 percent of consumers worldwide admit to trusting earned media above all other forms of advertising, keeping your strategy airtight is key to driving revenue through content.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

HIV rates rising: Could new forms of PrEP help?

 In 2021, HIV continues to be a disease with huge national and international impact. There are over 1.2 million people in the US estimated to be living with HIV today, and approximately 1.7 million new infections occurred globally last year. In parts of the US, HIV rates are currently climbing among underserved populations. We’ve seen a recent epidemic among people without stable housing in Boston, and similar outbreaks in areas like West Virginia and Philadelphia. The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the problem because many people have had less access to testing and medical care for HIV. Now more than ever, medicines known as pre-exposure prophylaxis — or PrEP — could help reverse this worrisome trend by preventing people from getting HIV. And new formulations could make it easy for a much broader range of people at risk for HIV to use PrEP. Already, one is being reviewed by the FDA. What is PrEP, and is it an option for me? PrEP is a combination of medicines that significa...
Read more

WERE YOU NOTIFIED ABOUT MISSING TAX FORMS FOR YOUR ACA SUBSIDY? BLAME COVID.

When they file their annual taxes they complete an IRS form that reconciles how much they received in advance tax credits against their actual income for the year. The letter from the marketplace said they hadn’t filed for 2019, but Schenker knew they had — just as they have every year. “I was more annoyed than anything else,” Schenker, 55, said, remembering an earlier enrollment problem that took months to resolve. “I didn’t want to get stuck in some sort of appeals category.” Schenker’s 25-year-old daughter, Kaily Schenker, who is part owner of the family’s organic farm, got the same letter about her plan. Schenker helps her with her taxes, and she also filed the Form 8962 paperwork, he said. Officials at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which oversees the ACA marketplaces, confirmed that some consumers received notices from the agency alerting them that, according to the IRS, they hadn’t filed a tax return or reconciled their advance payments for tax credit...
Read more

Healthy Habits May Help You Live More Than 10 Years Longer

New research published by the American Heart Association (AHA) suggests that adults in the US who follow 5 healthy lifestyle habits may live more than a decade longer compared with people who follow none of the 5 habits. These 5 habits are: eating a healthy diet getting regular exercise not smoking staying at a healthy weight limiting alcohol Starting at age 50, men in the study were estimated to have an average life expectancy of 14 years and women were estimated to have an average life expectancy of 12 years when they followed all 5 habits. The study was published April 30, 2018 in the AHA journal Circulation. The study authors point out that the US ranks 31st in the world for life expectancy among those born in 2015, even though it’s one of the richest countries in the world and spends more on health care per person as a percent of gross domestic product than any other country. According to the authors, the US healthcare system focuses mainly on drug discovery and disease management...
Read more