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For medical professionals who maintain longstanding relationships with their patients – and whom they often recruit via insurer networks – one might ask:  why should a medical practice engage in digital marketing?

With the costs of running a practice increasing exponentially, especially with investments needed in EMRs and cutting-edge diagnostic technology, medical practices might struggle with investing resources in intangibles like a website, blog, Facebook page, and the like.

However, a medical practice should absolutely consider maintaining a website and engaging in multiple digital marketing strategies.  The ability to present thought leadership and increase the likelihood of getting found by prospective patients are proof of the positive outcomes of a robust digital marketing program.

A Little Help from Friends
The good news is that several participants in the healthcare industry – from large hospitals to insurers to startups – have made it easier for doctors and other medical professionals to begin building their presence without having to start a website from scratch and hope patients find it.

Hospitals and healthcare systems, for example, maintain increasingly sophisticated digital presences, and often feature physicians on several of their webpages or microsites.  This could serve as a good first start for a doctor.

 
The website for Scottsdale Medical Center. 

Healthcare startup HealthTap, which started out as a Q&A site in which patients can ask a medical expert a question, and ZocDoc, an appointment-setting app, have created opportunities for physicians and other medical professionals to create their own personal pages and upload various digital assets.  

Physicians see the value of participating on these apps and networks when new patients discover their practice and make appointments.  Usually it takes one such conversion to get a doctor hooked.

 
The website for HealthTap, connecting patients with physicians and other medical experts.

Not Giving Away the Store
A huge concern with medical marketing is content:  what should a physician or medical expert broadcast online?  What would be considered appropriate or valuable – or legal?   

The idea of giving away advice, opinions, or perspectives via a public blog has been a tough decision for many professionals, not just physicians.  The basic rule of thumb:  if it wouldn’t be appropriate for a healthcare blog or the health channel of a major news site or portal, then don’t publish it.  

Finding the time to blog often proves to be difficult, as even CEOs and other business leaders are still figuring out how to engage in content marketing.

There, of course, exists the possibility of a reader – a current or prospective patient – taking the advice and simply not scheduling an office visit.   

But the good news is that as content builds, the site is being optimized for search, and after a few months, the doctor can enjoy higher discovery, more clickthroughs, and multiple inquiries on the Contact page.  

Joining the Conversation
Thought leadership is what separates one expert from another online, and in the competitive medical industry, a highly regarded blog can make all the difference.

As individuals consume the Web with more specific intent, users are increasingly typing in longer phrases, questions, and search strings.  A medical practice’s blog that can anticipate and address such expected medical questions, or specific medical terms, acronyms, conditions, symptoms, or medications, is sure to get found more quickly.

These thought leadership efforts can be amplified by syndicating the content with links published to the practice’s social channels, like Twitter, Facebook, or Google+, and any email newsletters or alerts distributed by the practice.

Final Thought:  A medical practice should have a digital presence for several reasons, perhaps starting as a page on an existing healthcare social network and eventually building to a robust, standalone presence.  The key is to present compelling thought leadership and engage in proper search engine marketing.  Getting found based on insights and expertise will serve the medical practice well.
 

Want Help? Contact our team today to ask a question via the form to the right.
ChangeU: for your independent study…

ChangeU: independent study…
Healthcare Social Networks:  New Choices for Doctors, Patients
http://www.informationweek.com/healthcare/patient-tools/healthcare-social-networks-new-choices-for-doctors-patients/d/d-id/1234884
A review of social networks for the medical community.

Social Media on HHS.gov
http://www.hhs.gov/web/socialmedia/
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ guidelines on social media usage.

3 Keys to Digital Marketing in Healthcare
http://blog.hubspot.com/insiders/digital-marketing-in-healthcare
Digital marketing insights from marketing software provider Hubspot.

What is Content Marketing?

According to Wikipedia, content marketing ‘is any marketing format that involves the creation and sharing of media and publishing content in order to acquire customers.’

This catch-all phrase certainly means different things to different marketers, in different companies and in different industries.  As such, a community of content marketers and professionals has evolved to address the ever-changing needs of this business process.

A content marketing strategy occurs when a brand, company, or organization utilizes longer-form content – articles, videos, photos, research findings, among other assets – to capture the attention of potential customers – hopefully leading to engagement, and then eventually, sales. 

While advertising campaigns are designed to generate awareness, the discipline of content marketing involves a dedicated, focused approach that includes any or all of the following aspects:

• The development of a content marketing team of bloggers, researchers, editors, designers, and developers to create the company’s content
• A schedule or calendar for content distribution
• A platform to publish and distribute the content, often the company’s website but also various social media channels and email or automation programs
• Monitoring and metrics tools to measure audience reception to and engagement with the content

Spreading the Love

Discussions of content marketing generally include social media, but there are many other business functions to which content marketing extends.  As such, one or more individuals from these departments could take a more active role in a company’s content marketing strategy.

• Sales.  Salespeople and those supporting sales operations need a consistent stream of content to put in front of prospects.   Sales professionals are a perfect group to measure the strength of content assets, as they can give immediate feedback to the marketing team as to what is performing and what is not.
• Customer service.  As customer care has largely moved online, a customer community, self-service site, or FAQ webpage are all considered content marketing, as customers go online to search for the information they need.  Customer service managers can measure the impact and utilization of such content, and so by extension, their content is content marketing.  (They can also insert some helpful information about the company’s new products as well.)
• Human resources and administration.  Many companies large and small have realized that their corporate intranet, in which reside dozens of important employee-related policies and documents, need to be more clearly organized and utilized.  Document retrieval and utilization are by extension, content marketing, as HR managers, using the proper tools, can determine which pieces of content are accessed more than others, and give attention where needed.  Indeed, employees can be considered an internal audience.

Automating the Process

With the proliferation of Twitter timelines, blogs, Facebook Pages, YouTube channels, and Pinterest boards, marketers are very well aware of the need to constantly and consistently feed ‘the content beast.’ 

As such, shrewd marketers understand that not all of their content needs to be original.  Indeed, marketers have learned that they can capture the interest of their core audience of buyers and influencers by aligning themselves and the brands they represent with the content of others, a process otherwise known as content curation.

Examples of content curation include retweets – merely passing along a tweet which you find interesting, while still identifying the original author.  Another example of content curation is finding a YouTube video or SlideShare presentation which you consider interesting, and then embedding it on your website or blog, and including your remarks or commentary.  Thanks to embedding technology, this process is legal and ethical, and serves to promote both the content of the original creator as well as your own.

There now exist several content marketing services that include curation tools, that automate this process and introduce efficiency to content marketing efforts.

The Evolution of an Industry

Content marketing is not new.  Some clever marketers have been utilizing content marketing practices for at least a century.  Recipes and cookbooks featuring branded packaged goods – from Betty Crocker to Martha Stewart – serve as longstanding examples of content marketing.  Magazines, eBooks, How-To-Guides, research studies, articles, and even entire courses have served their purpose in performing content marketing for their underlying brands and companies.

ChangeU: For your independent study….

Annual Research: Content Marketing Budgets, Benchmarks and Trends, for both B2B and B2C - http://bit.ly/1uv4tMu

The Content Marketing Institute’s 2015 study of content marketing in both B2B and B2C environments.

Why Your Content Marketing Team Needs A Marketing Technologist - http://cmo.cm/1uv4EaC

A discussion of the technology needs for a full-in content marketing program.

The Social Customer Engagement Index - http://bit.ly/1tZIThy

The results and analysis of a survey of online communities that serve the social customer.