Marketing has always been about relationships, but traditional advertising has changed. For today's marketers, the single best way to maintain relationships with patients and referring health care providers is through content marketing. The people you work with-and want to work with-are skeptical of marketing, especially from a health care provider. They're not looking to be sold. They're looking for a professional with a solid reputation.
By providing valuable content, you can meet the needs of patients and referring health care providers and build relationships with them. Whether it's a blog, eNewsletter, printed newsletter or social media, a content marketing strategy can build powerful relationships and generate results.
Here are four tips to make your content marketing work for your health care practice:
1. It's about them, NOT you.
The focus of traditional advertising was always "me, me, me." But the truth is, your patients and referral sources care much less about you than they do about what you can do for them. That's what makes content marketing so powerful. A dentist, for example, can develop content related to the latest breakthroughs in treatment options and provide links to these with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media.
By informing your audience, you'll demonstrate that you are the expert they should trust with their health, not the one simply trying to sell them a service.
2. Provide value.
Remember that it's about them, and your content marketing will best meet the needs of your readers. Ask yourself, will my patients or referring health care providers care about this? Why should this matter to them? These questions will help you keep the focus on information they will value. And they'll remember you for it.
3. Persist.
Sometimes, if they don't see instant results, health care practices can become discouraged with their content marketing strategy. You often won't know the full long-range impact of your blogs, newsletters or social media posts. But remember that quality content is doing something very powerful: It consistently reinforces the idea that you're the expert in your field, whether it be pediatric dentistry, orthodontics or physical therapy. It also keeps you top-of-mind with your audience.
Be consistent and you will see results.
4. Measure results.
Although you won't know the full impact of your content marketing strategy, you must continue to monitor and measure results.
If you're blogging, your blog will need to be monitored to ensure that comments and questions are addressed. Analytics into the types of articles people are reading on your health care blog will be especially helpful for you when determining future content. (Remember, it's about them!)
Newsletters, especially eNewsletters, are very easy to monitor and often come with comprehensive reports that should tell you which articles were clicked on or forwarded, the names of subscribers who open newsletters and other useful data. You'll know the topics of greatest interest to your readers, and you'll know how many readers are clicking back to your Web site.
Social media, of course, is quite measurable, because you can see the shares, comments and new followers immediately. Comments and feedback received through these tools can be very telling.
Beyond these, measure the impact of your content marketing strategy for other positive "bumps." If a newsletter includes a special offer for a treatment, note the number of people who opt in. If the blog announces a new treatment your practice offers, track the inbound inquiries you receive. By measuring these activities, you'll have an even better understanding of your content marketing success.
Your patients and referring providers represent a relationship gold mine. The best way to extract those treasures is to provide patients and colleagues with meaningful content that demonstrates that you're the health care expert they should trust.
Steve Klinghoffer