The beginning of the year is a great time to look back. I love rereading our content from the previous year to see what topics and healthcare marketing blogs resonated with our audience.
Some of our biggest hits delved into hospital social media, physician bios and writing about sensitive healthcare issues. Fortunately, we conducted webinars on all 3 of those topics! (Watch them on our YouTube channel.)
10 Ways to Start Your Healthcare Marketing Game Strong in 2020
To make your life easier, we compiled our favorite tips from our most popular healthcare marketing blogs of 2019. And if you want a deeper dive, we also included links to the original posts and relevant articles.
Incorporate these strategies into your organization’s marketing plan, and set yourself up for success this year!
If You’re Short on Time, These Are the 3 MUST-KNOW Tips to Start the Year Off Right
#1: Include Instagram and Facebook Stories in your hospital’s social media strategy
Stories are easy to create, visible for 24 hours (no worrying about the ideal time to post!) and a top way to increase organic search on Instagram.
If you’re not yet using this fun, personal method of connecting with potential patients, 2020 is the time to start.
Read on:
5 Hospitals Crushing It on Social Media
10 Instagram Secrets From Standout Hospital Marketers
#2: Amp up physician bios by using quotes from doctors
Write a bio that impacts. Provider profiles should reflect your team’s passion for what they do. Our research shows that people are more likely to make appointments with doctors who share similar morals and values.
Write a bio that impacts. Provider profiles should reflect your team’s passion for what they do. Click To TweetRead on:
How to Use Physician Bios to Attract New Patients: 6 Examples
Checklist: How to Create High-Converting Physician Bios
#3: Write physician bios that highlight the info people are looking for
Our research on provider profiles uncovered the 3 details potential patients want to know most:
Does this doctor:
- Have experience treating their condition?
- Have a distinguished educational background?
- Accept their insurance?
Read on:
Study: How to Write the Best Physician Profiles [New Data]
Make Sure Your Healthcare Marketing is on Track: 7 More Tips
#4: Writing about sensitive healthcare topics? Talk about people, not conditions
You would never write, “Bob is diabetes.” Because a person isn’t their condition — the condition is something they have or experience. Use the same approach when writing about mental health:
- Instead of “Jane is bipolar,” use “Jane has bipolar disease.”
- Instead of “People who are bulimics,” write “People with bulimia.”
Read on:
Mental Health Content: 5 Tips to Engage Your Audience
eBook: Writing About Difficult Healthcare Topics
#5: Don’t pad content to hit a word-count goal
SEO experts agree there should be a 300-word count minimum for most webpages. But adding flabby, unfocused content to meet that word count won’t help. Focus on:
- Creating content your audience will value
- Answering your audience’s questions
Read on:
What’s the Best SEO Content Length for Your Healthcare Site?
Crutch Words, You Are Going Down
#6: Give readers quick facts and visuals as well as long-form content
We love this infographic Leftover Lessons: What’s Safe to Eat and What’s Not from OhioHealth. It cuts to the chase with large visuals and minimal text. And people who want to know more can read the blog post under the infographic.
Make the quick scanners and deep-divers happy by writing a great blog post and then turning it into an infographic.
Read on:
5 Examples of a Health Infographic Done Right
6 Visual Content Marketing Tips
How to Pick the Right Content Type
#7: Cut ineffective web content
The most effective content solves a problem or answers a question. During a content audit, take stock of that useful, valuable content. And be ruthless when consolidating or deleting the rest.
During a content audit, take stock of the useful, valuable content. Be ruthless when consolidating or deleting the rest. Click To TweetRead on:
The Marie Kondo Method to Declutter Your Website Content
#8: Go beyond personas: Consider the real-life experience of a person with a condition
Personas enable us to tailor content to meet users’ surface-level needs. But to make your readers feel truly understood, you have to go deeper. Get to the heart of your readers’ experiences:
- Read disease-specific blogs
- Spend time in digital health communities
- Talk to subject matter experts
Read on:
Get Real: Humanize Your Content to Turn Readers Into Patients
#9: Must-have: Patient education material
Patient education content is the content you may think of as boring, standard or unnecessary: It describes conditions, tests and treatments. But it answers readers’ questions and helps them connect with your organization. Make a lasting impression by giving people the information they need right from the start.
Patient education content also increases:
- SEO
- Users’ time on your site
- Organic search
Read on:
Why You Need to Add Patient Education Material to Your Website
#10: Plan on a website update or overhaul every 3 years
Even if your organization or its offerings haven’t changed, other factors do, such as Google’s algorithm and general web writing best practices. About 3 years is a good benchmark for a full revamp.
Read on:
How Often Should You Refresh Your Healthcare Content?
We want to know what healthcare marketing blogs YOU want to see in 2020. Post on our page on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn. Or send us an email!
Grab the Checklist for Better Content
