Christopher Earle: Don’t Skip Leg Day: 7 Content Marketing Must-Haves for Healthcare Marketers

Never skip leg day.

That is, when you’re working out, it’s important to change it up. Vary your routine and work different sets of muscles. It’s the difference between looking incredible, and looking like Mr. Incredible.

Your healthcare marketing needs just as much variety as your fitness routine does. Different types of content will appeal to different audiences, or the same audience in different ways. Stick with a single content marketing strategy—whether it’s white papers, webinars, or trade events—and you may see gains in one area. But you’re skipping leg day, and you’re going to end up top-heavy.

Fortunately, there’s plenty of variety to be had in healthcare content. With the content types below, you can build a well-rounded workout that will improve your content marketing’s overall fitness.

#1: Data Stories

Modern healthcare is all about data. We’re looking for more efficient ways to capture patient data, make it more widely available across the health system, and use that data for better-informed patient care.

Healthcare marketing is similarly data-driven. We don’t have to wonder how many radiology scans a certain hospital does, or how much cloud storage hospitals need—all that data is captured and available. Odds are your organization is sitting on a wealth of data. But it’s not just the data; it’s how you use it.

Strive to bring context, narrative, even emotion to your data. Don’t just list the stats and figures. Say your solution increased efficiency in the Emergency Department by 5%. What did that mean to patients in the ED? What do the physicians that work there say about it? What can the hospital do with that 5%?

Data provides the logical proof for your solution, but tying it to emotion makes it far more likely to inspire change.

#2: Infographics

If your marketing is mostly white papers and blog posts, odds are your audience could use a little visual stimulation. Infographics are a compelling way to present data for any B2B audience. Healthcare audiences are no different; we’re all people, and we all enjoy a good infographic.

Good graphic design can help your data shine. This 2017 trends infographic is a good example of a clean and simple presentation of a metric ton of information.

Keep these tips in mind for creating your own infographics:

Keep the design simple – one or two colors is enough
Organize your data left-to-right, top-to-bottom
Optimize your image for mobile – avoid blocks of tiny text & huge file sizes
Include a logical CTA – they’ve seen your data, now what should they do?

#3: The Patient Perspective

In B2B healthcare marketing, it’s easy to get overly focused on the hospital or physician’s perspective. On one level, that makes sense. You’re selling to radiology department leaders, or the hospital’s C-suite, so the majority of your content addresses them directly.

However, as in all B2B, it’s important to keep your customer’s customer in mind. Our client McKesson Medical Imaging realized their target audience was hungry for that patient perspective and we helped create content to meet that demand. The resulting blog post and infographic, A Tale of Two Patients, is one of the top-shared articles in the blog’s history. It continues to drive traffic nearly a year after it was posted.

When you talk about the difference your solution can make to a health system, take it a step further: How does your solution improve patient care? You can make it a mental exercise, or even better, find patients who can share their experience with your audience.

#4: Your Customers’ Voices

There are few marketing forces more powerful than a customer’s rave review. That holds true for anything from the latest trendy restaurant to a multi-million-dollar PACS system. Your satisfied customers hold tremendous potential to persuade their peers and colleagues.

How do you get your customers’ voices in your marketing? Ask them! Ask for an interview for your latest case study. Feature their expertise in your blog content. Include them in your latest eBook, or grab a quote for your snazzy new infographic.

In short, treat your customers like the influencers they are. Help promote them, celebrate their successes, and ask their opinions. Not only will you get more compelling content, you will strengthen your relationships with your most valuable customers

#5: The Latest News & Trends

It’s ironic that as the healthcare industry moves towards holistic patient care, healthcare marketing still struggles with tunnel vision. Creating content that doesn’t directly address your business’ solution can be a tough sell to both the marketing team and management. There’s a definite preference for bottom-of-funnel content aimed at matching your solution to specific pain points.

Healthcare marketers should follow the lead of health systems and treat the patient, not just the problem. Content that may seem irrelevant to the buyer’s journey is actually crucial, provided it meets a potential customer’s needs.

Include news and trends in your content to keep your customers informed, establish your organization’s thought leadership, and raise brand awareness. Provide the insights your buying committee needs to succeed at their jobs, and they’re far more likely to consider you when the committee convenes to make a decision.

#6: Interactive Content

B2C healthcare marketers already understand the benefit of interactive content. There’s no shortage of calculators, quizzes, and social media challenges to engage healthcare users. It’s high time that B2B healthcare marketing joins in on the fun.

Interactive content is yet another powerful way to tell stories with data. A calculator or quiz can help personalize your marketing to each potential customer’s specific use case. User-generated content campaigns can help you surface and promote compelling client stories.

#7: Influencer Content

What does influencer content even mean for healthcare marketing? Is it Kim Kardashian posting your latest MRI machine on Instagram? LeBron James posing with your Vendor Neutral Archive? The glamorous world of influencer marketing and the less-glamorous reality of B2B healthcare marketing may seem like an odd fit.

The key is that influencers are those who are influential to your audience. Taylor Swift won’t convince a hospital CEO to buy your solution. But there are people in the industry who that CEO respects and trusts, and they might. Your influencers might not have millions of followers, but their hundreds (or dozens) of followers are the people you want to reach.

Unlike sports stars and pop musicians, your potential influencers may not immediately see the value in creating content with you. Start by recognizing and promoting them, as we did in this healthcare marketer roundup. Follow them on social media, share their content, and then reach out with a small request. Continue to build the relationship, and you can move to interviews, guest blog posts, even full co-creation on a major content asset.

Give Your Healthcare Content A Full-Body Workout

Is your content addressing the diverse needs of your diverse audience? Or are you still skipping leg day? Expand your audience, and better engage your existing followers, with the different content types in this post. You will be better equipped to engage at the top of the funnel, develop relationships, and ultimately drive purchase decisions with a holistic content fitness routine.

For more healthcare content marketing advice, check out our recent interview with Amanda Todorovich.

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