More people are spending more time online than ever before. According to Pew Research, 85% of Americans use the internet daily, and nearly one-third say they are “almost constantly” online. Reaching your healthcare audience in a crowded digital space requires a strategic approach. To stand out, it’s essential for brands to develop a thoughtful healthcare content marketing strategy.
At Activate Health, we’re experts at crafting engaging, informative content that’s tailored to our clients’ most important audiences. As you build your healthcare content marketing strategy, let our experience guide your efforts.
What is content marketing?
Content marketing is focused on delivering valuable content to a particular audience online. Content marketing is often educational, but it goes beyond product brochures and promotional materials. It should be well-rounded, dive into industry trends or news and provide actionable takeaways for the reader. It might also provide a fresh perspective on challenges your customers face or offer solutions for pain points. By offering well-researched insight into a relevant topic, you establish trust with your audience and curate thought leadership on behalf of your brand.
These are just a few examples of high-quality content that offers value to your audience. Content marketing can take various forms, including articles, blogs, Q&As, videos and more. These assets are then distributed via a mix of channels, including email newsletters, industry publications and social media sites.
Setting a foundation for quality content
A good healthcare content marketing strategy is not overtly promotional; instead, it focuses on engaging key audiences and building meaningful relationships with them. The key to creating valuable, quality content that resonates with your customers and prospects depends on who you’re trying to reach.
So, start by asking the right questions to lay a solid foundation for a strong healthcare content marketing strategy. You might tap into your sales team or other internal subject matter experts to help answer these.
- Who is your audience? When you know demographics, interests and behaviors, you can tailor content to specific preferences and needs.
- What are their common pain points? Putting yourself in your audiences’ shoes shows that your brand understands their issues and that you can help solve them.
- What are their goals? Similarly, having a grasp on short- and long-term objectives can help your content support their success.
A snapshot of healthcare stakeholders
There are tons of different individuals that participate in the healthcare ecosystem, and they all have different needs. Depending on your organization’s goals and products, consider building personas. Persona-crafting is a useful marketing exercise that provides a composite sketch or snapshot of a target audience for marketers.
Because we have extensive experience working with a variety of stakeholders across the industry, we’ve outlined common buyers, influencers and decision-makers for you as you craft a healthcare content marketing strategy.
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Providers
Healthcare providers deliver medical care and treatment across a variety of domains like primary care, nursing and specialty care. Their key focus is improving patient health, but they’re often burdened by a lack of system-wide interoperability, personnel shortages and burnout.
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Commercial payers
These companies provide individuals and groups of people (e.g. through employer-sponsored health plans) with health insurance plans. They manage healthcare coverage, provider networks and reimburse providers for services. Because of this, they spend ample time aligning incentives and negotiating reimbursement with providers. Health insurers also struggle with a lack of technology interoperability. They spend a lot of time on consumer education around coverage and costs, and often must quickly respond to industry reform and new mandates.
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Brokers
Also known as consultants or producers, these individuals provide personalized guidance and health insurance policy options to businesses and individuals. They act as intermediaries between consumers and payers and help find the best insurance plans to meet their clients’ needs. As healthcare costs rise and reform continues, brokers must navigate a broad range of health insurance industry changes to continue meeting their customers’ expectations.
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Employers
Companies, individual business owners and HR professionals fall into this category. Many employers offer health insurance (and other benefits like dental, vision, disability insurance, wellness perks and so forth) to their employees. They often share the cost of health insurance premiums to attract and retain talent. Employers play a significant role in shaping healthcare systems through benefit structures and negotiations with payers. They’re focused on addressing the needs of their workforce and bracing for projected rising healthcare costs.
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Patients, consumers and members
This category comprises of individuals who are the end recipients of healthcare services (patients) or users of health insurance (members), as well as end-users of consumer-geared healthcare products. While this is a broad group, oftentimes these people are most concerned with getting affordable, quality care. They want personalized, convenient experiences and digital connectivity. Their pain points include rising costs of care and services, understanding healthcare complexities, and managing their health.
Understanding the distinct needs, priorities and pain points of major healthcare stakeholders is a must before you start tailoring the types of content that offer value. For example, resources like white papers aimed at providers should focus on solutions relevant to them (like tackling employee burnout). Other assets like checklists or how-to guides for commercial payers may help those organizations deliver health-literate consumer education. By familiarizing yourself with buyers’ and prospects’ specific pain points and goals, your content has a higher chance of being engaging and catching the right eyes.
Need help elevating your healthcare content marketing strategy?
At Activate Health, we support a whole host of organizations in their healthcare content marketing strategy and tactics. If your organization could benefit from support to elevate your efforts, contact us today.