Content Delivery Through Healthcare Inbound Marketing - the right content at the right time

According to the Pew Internet Project, searching for health information is the third most popular online activity after email and search engine use. This provides healthcare organizations a tremendous opportunity to engage and educate consumers on their site.

When consumers are looking for health information online, they are looking to be educated. Inbound marketing places the right content in the right place in front of the right audience, at the right time, engaging potential patients and drawing them into your hospital or organization. Inbound marketing creates and utilizes informative content that will help consumers educate themselves about their health concerns. These more “personal” messages are effective because they are useful and relevant, not disruptive and invasive.

Social media is an integral part of any successful inbound marketing campaign. As the healthcare industry becomes more adept at integrating social media into their marketing mix, inbound marketing will become more prevalent in the industry.  As long as your marketing team practices due diligence and protects the privacy of patients, inbound marketing, with social media as its cornerstone, can be an extremely powerful tool for patient engagement, lead generation, and patient acquisition.

Inbound marketing creates:

• Informed patients who understand basic and complex health issues that matter directly to them.

• Effective and efficient patient-provider conversations.

• Greater trust and a stronger relationship between the patient and provider.

How do you set up a successful inbound marketing campaign?

Develop Audience Personas

You need to know whom you are talking to before you can form an effective message. Creating audience personas allows your efforts to be laser focused on the right messaging to the right patients. Personas are based on market research and information already gathered about current and past patients. For example, a persona might be “expectant mother.” What are their likes and demographics? What questions or concerns might they have? What types of conversations do your current expectant mothers have with the obstetricians in your practice?

Right Content at the Right Time

Increasingly, the Internet is where people turn to with their health care concerns before they consult with their own physician. Consumers are looking for solid content that answers their questions and educates them. Creating user-friendly, valuable content is crucial. Content like tip sheets on “Battling Flu Season”, or a blog post about bringing home a new baby, or an app geared toward weight management offer value to the consumer and keep them engaged.

Always include a call to action. Examples include “Contact Us” links, or buttons that make it simple to schedule a consultation or an appointment. This makes your site more easily navigated and captures contact information for potential patients.

Spread the Word

Recruit promoters organically. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn make it easy to connect with patients and promote your practice and your content. It also makes it easy for them to share your content with their own contacts. Include social media buttons in your content, such as in your blog posts, to make it easy for visitors to share and promote it with their network.

In order to compete online in the highly competitive healthcare market, make search engine optimization (SEO) a priority in your inbound marketing strategy. SEO gives your content a greater chance of being found in search results. Consider keywords and build content around them. Make it easy for potential patients to find you and then give them something of value once they do.

What are you doing to engage your website visitors and position your healthcare organization as a leading source of health information for your community?