Hospitals, health systems, and private practices are constantly competing for patients. That’s why it’s critically important to make your brand stand out.
Content marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to build brand awareness and establish yourself as a trusted expert. Here are seven advantages to expanding your brand’s online presence:
1. Building a Friendly, Caring Brand
Content marketing is the perfect way to exhibit your brand’s unique personality. From inspiring patient testimonials to conversations with doctors and nurses, showcasing your expertise, compassion, and dedication to patient care will help set you apart from your competitors and create affinity for your brand.
2. Capturing New Patients
More than 80% of American adults have looked up health information online and use it to make decisions about their care. Whether you’re trying to promote a nationally recognized specialty service or raise awareness in your local community, content marketing will help you get your message in front of more people – and do it in a way that gets them listening.
3. Creating Patient Engagement
The more the content you produce speaks directly to patients’ needs, the more likely they are to engage with it. And the more they engage, the more likely they are to be loyal to your brand. The key to this is knowing your audience and segmenting it so you can deliver the right content to the right people at the right time.
4. Repurposing Content
One of the biggest advantages of content marketing is that you can often repackage content for use on multiple platforms. Blog posts can be promoted on social media platforms, in emails, and even in newsletters or advertorials. Videos can be shared on multiple platforms and transcribed to create Q&As. These kinds of strategies help you get more bang for your buck from the content you produce.
5. Managing Your Online Reputation
Whether you like it or not, when people post about the care they receive from you, it won’t always be in the most positive light. And the less content that is available about your organization online, the more prominent those negative stories will be. While it’s important to learn from these experiences and in some cases respond to dissatisfied patients in a positive and helpful manner, one of the best ways to limit the impact of negative mentions is to create more content so any negative stories get pushed further down in search engine results.
6. Focusing on Health and Well-Being
Most of the contact people have with their healthcare providers occurs when they are sick or injured. No matter how great their care is, this still has an impact on how they think about your brand. But as a healthcare provider, one of your goals is to become a proactive partner in their health and wellness. Content marketing that provides healthy lifestyle and prevention tips can help you achieve this, while creating a more positive association for your brand.
7. Getting Patients to Promote Your Brand
There’s nothing more valuable in marketing than word of mouth. In the digital era, that can happen when patients share positive stories about the care they’ve received, or when they share content you’ve created with their friends. Whether it’s health advice, a patient testimonial, or a new type of treatment, the more engaging the content you create, the more likely it will generate free, high-value marketing that will grow your patient base.
Developing a Right-Sized Content Marketing Strategy
Whether you’re a large health system or a small private practice, the content marketing experts at LIGHTSTREAM can help you come up with a strategy that’s right for your organization. From developing content that resonates with your target audience to packaging that content in innovative ways designed to maximize its impact, we can help you accomplish more with your marketing budget. Think of it as an investment in growing your business. Contact us to learn more.