Improve Patient Knowledge With Healthcare Content Marketing

Using the latest strategies in healthcare content marketing, you can share vital health information to your patients. Let’s learn about these marketing strategies by taking a closer look at the following:

• An overview of the online medical industry
• Essential components of content marketing for healthcare companies
• Ways content marketing promotes patient knowledge

Patients use the web to look for health information and connect with medical experts. Take advantage of this patient behavior by creating content that will engage and educate your audience.

Let’s go!

An Overview of the Online Medical Industry

The online healthcare industry is one of the US's most extensive industries. It covers a variety of customer segments, each with specific needs, pain points, and behaviors. A few of the most popular segments in this industry include the aging population, people looking for COVID-19 info, and those searching for information about politics and healthcare.

The internet has made finding answers to healthcare-related questions almost effortless. Patients can find treatments, health tips, and research topics online. They also use the web to find health products and remedies, often unfortunately searching for information from non-credible online sites.

A marketer working for a healthcare provider or practitioner should ensure that they are publishing clear, concise, and reliable information. They should recognize the healthcare industry segment they serve and create content that’s accurate, factual, and useful to their audience.

With healthcare content marketing, marketers can assist medical professionals and businesses in engaging and retaining clients. They help health professionals build their trustworthiness and authority by using content that answers patients’ health-related inquiries.

Vital Components of Healthcare Content Marketing

Creating healthcare content is not merely writing articles and using keywords for ranking. It also involves analyzing patients' journeys and understanding how to use the different online platforms for reaching your target market.

But creating healthcare content requires you to observe three vital requirements of content marketing for healthcare sites: accuracy, credibility, and compliance. Considering these components helps you create better and more effective content.

     1. Prioritizing Accuracy

Patients rely on healthcare sites to provide up-to-date and accurate information. And to show the most accurate answer to a question, Google considers a site’s expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (E-A-T). To improve E-A-T in creating healthcare content, you must remember to:

• Add sources and credits clearly to foster trustworthiness
• Create different types of content to promote your expertise and authority
• Review your content marketing strategies regularly to ensure expertise

Meanwhile, “Your Money or Your Life” (YMYL) content has realistic effects on your audience. Develop this kind of content carefully and with high accuracy. Consider these strategies:

• Write only about healthcare topics you know
• Always add external links
• Cite sources correctly
• Check spelling, content structure, and grammar
• Regularly update your content and update as necessary

     2. Promoting Credibility

Marketers use well-researched and high-quality content to promote trust with their patients. They establish credibility in their industry by using research articles, journals, reviews, product comparisons, and other helpful content. Increase the credibility of your content by:

• Using data and statistics to back up your content
• Providing actionable health tips
• Creating content based on current issues and trends
• Honestly addressing complex topics or subjects

     3. Ensuring Compliance

Marketers ensure that their content is well-organized and adequately worded to comply with strict regulations. They need to avoid legal issues arising from incorrect content because the stakes involved by making these errors can be very high.

Content creators and marketers must comply with the following:

• Intellectual Property Rights: Content creators must be aware of intellectual property rights when using photos, videos, text, audio, and other content forms. They must observe proper citing of sources, obtain rights from independent contractors, track licenses and rights for artwork or images, and use trademarks in their content.

• Testimonial Disclosure Requirements: Content creators must follow FTC Guidelines when using customer testimonials. This includes transparency in disclosures and the avoidance of creating misleading content. These guidelines apply to all types of content, including social media and blogs.

• Advertising Compliance: All your claims must be truthful, clearly stated, and not misleading. Marketing standards protect consumers from fraud or scams. Some laws protect a consumer’s privacy rights,  considering that they have an option to share their information with a brand and what type of information a brand collects.

6 Ways To Promote Patient Knowledge With Content Marketing

Consider these top content marketing strategies to ensure that you provide accurate, credible, and industry-compliant content.

     1. Prepare a Documented Content Strategy

Plan your content marketing strategy and document every step to make improvements easy. Your team of content creators can use a calendar as a guide. A content calendar tracks distribution and publication.

A typical content calendar is similar to a written schedule. It includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• Your topic
• Content type
• Content channel
• Publishing date and time
• Person in charge of the content

With your content strategy well-documented, you can easily create, change, or update content that promotes patient knowledge. Offering high-quality content becomes easier when you have clear content marketing steps to follow.

Selecting content sources is part of the content strategy documentation. When writing material, use reputable sources. Use up-to-date information from credible sources. Whether your source is a research paper, video, or internet article, cite them properly.

     2. Publish Clear Content 

Your patients must clearly understand the healthcare content. Consider that most people searching for medical or health information may not be familiar with medical terms. Thus, you must explain medical concepts and topics in a language that's easy to understand.

Also, you must consider the best content format to use. What type of content will your patients like? You may try videos, photos, infographics, podcasts, etc. Test which content is more engaging for your audience to get the best results.

     3. Show Your Expertise

Healthcare is made up of a variety of services and specialties. Which service makes you stand out from your competition? Once you’ve determined your expertise, you can further enhance your content and create your brand voice to target a specific audience.

If you're a dermatologist specializing in acne scar removal, you can create more optimized and quality content targeting people looking for this service. Use content formats such as videos and photographs that appeal to a younger market.

     4. Share News from Reliable Sources and Thought Leaders

Patients also rely on health provider websites to read healthcare news. To provide your audience with the latest news, curate some news from reliable sources to promote your credibility.

Your audience should view your website as a source of updated news information, a reliable website that they can visit anytime for timely updates. Meanwhile, content from thought leaders in the healthcare industry can also boost your online reputation.

     5. Take Advantage of Video Content

A survey of marketing experts revealed that 81% preferred pre-produced videos as a digital marketing strategy, while 13% said they were considering future video marketing. These numbers show that many businesses view video as a part of their content marketing arsenal.

People prefer videos because they find them more engaging, easier to connect with, and more welcoming. Videos also allow marketers to convey complex information, such as health guides, preventive measures, and first aid tips.

     6. Create Engaging Blog Posts

One of the most engaging forms of content marketing is blogging. Your blogs could include your opinion on a new health regulation or a post about your community.

Blog posts update your audience about your business and industry. At the same time, they show your stand on the events. With a well-planned healthcare content marketing strategy, you can turn your blog into an engaging and unique platform to connect with your audience.

Summing Up

To produce patient-friendly information, consider accuracy, credibility, and compliance. Creating reputable, compliant content helps boost your healthcare brand.

Proper documentation, clear and simple material, and advertising your expertise through content will gain you more readers. Credible sources, videos, and blog entries can help you rapidly spread up-to-date knowledge.

All these techniques will improve your healthcare content marketing strategy, no matter your marketing goals. Contact us today to learn how content marketing can help promote your healthcare business or practice.