7 Questions to Ask When Choosing a Content Marketing Agency in Healthcare
You know you need help, but you’re not sure where to look.
What’s your story?
Your website needs an overhaul, but you don’t know where to start. Your SMEs are eager to share their ideas in a blog, but you need someone to interview them and finesse their words. You know you aren’t going about your email, newsletter and social media campaigns in quite the right way, but you aren’t sure how to redo your strategy.
You know you need help, but you’re not sure where to look.
You need help from a healthcare content marketing agency
A respected healthcare content marketing agency has mastered 3 things: healthcare, content and marketing. A full-service, or A-to-Z marketing agency may say they “work in all industries” and “understand healthcare.” Or they may have experience in everything from ads to programming without an intense focus on content. But with a healthcare content marketing agency, you get all healthcare, all content, all the time.
Working with experienced healthcare marketers means you won’t spend extra time onboarding us. We get it, immediately. We can also share best practices from different sectors and help you gain deeper insight into the broader marketplace.
While a full-service agency might seem right for your website redesign or huge project, they rarely have the depth of expertise to get healthcare content right.
The good news? We can work alongside a full-service agency to give you the necessary focus as part of a larger project.
What is healthcare content marketing vs. healthcare copywriting? And which one do you need?
Healthcare content marketing is a series of tactics designed to build an audience of potential clients and customers. You build trust with people when you provide them with information that helps them make decisions about their healthcare, which doctors to refer to or what type of software is best for running their private practice.
Healthcare copywriting is writing any type of content, including web pages, blog posts, social media posts, eBooks, whitepapers or annual reports. Healthcare copywriting, or content writing, supports a content marketing strategy. To be effective, it should be clear, audience-centered and optimized for search.
Our best projects begin with strategy and move into copywriting. We build a team that sees the project through from start to finish. This approach creates consistency and results for you.
And even if your marketing strategy is already set, it’s most effective to work with writers who understand the goals and tactics involved. When you hire a content partner, look for an agency with expertise in both strategy and writing.
Should I hire a freelance healthcare content writer instead of a healthcare content marketing agency?
It depends. If you have smaller projects and a small budget (read: under $10,000), it might make sense to hire a freelance healthcare writer. However, with a freelance writer, you manage the project.
With Aha Media, you get:
- Award-winning team: We’ve won awards for our healthcare content writing and content strategy.
- Industry thought leader: We create and set the best practices for SEO, UX and plain language healthcare content.
- Dedicated team: Our account managers and project coordinators oversee every interaction, deadline and hand-off. We have scripts to introduce us to stakeholders! We create timelines and stick to them! We manage the editing with subject matter experts! (Anyone who has worked with doctors and experts knows this is probably the most important part — right?)
When should we choose a healthcare content marketing agency?
Typically, clients come to an agency with a specific need — we need 150 pages for our new website! We must publish an eBook to generate leads for our sales team in the next month!
And we get it. You need content, and you need great writers, editors and account managers who can create it for you.
That’s why it’s best to reach out as soon as possible — even when you have an inkling of a content marketing or copywriting project. Sometimes we talk to clients as early as a year before they initiate a project. It’s helpful to understand which partners can help, who you have chemistry with and whose fees suit your needs. And as experts, we like to weigh in on the strategy and planning.
We’re happy to talk anytime — even when you don’t have a specific project in mind, and you’re just looking at different healthcare content marketing partners in your sector. Want to chat now? Send us a message.
Questions to ask your potential healthcare content marketing agency
When researching potential partners, look for an agency with experience, expertise and enthusiasm. And the top choice is not always evident from their website FAQs. Here are 7 questions (and our answers) that get to the root question: “What is it really like to work with you?”
1. What are your rates compared with freelance healthcare writers?
You’re probably wondering about rates. What will an agency cost as opposed to a freelance health writer? Asking this question provides insight into an agency’s transparency and affordability. Transparency — because they should give you an honest answer. Affordability — because you should know the value you’re receiving.
If you ask us: After exhaustive research, we’ve found that our pricing is in line with the freelance market. You get all the additional features of working with an agency for a comparable cost of hiring freelancers and managing the project internally. Plus, we work on fixed and/or hourly projects to suit your budget.
2. Who are your healthcare marketing writers?
Is the agency you’re interviewing using AI? One-time freelancers from Fiverr? Jargon-heavy academic writers? Find out how a healthcare content marketing agency sources their writers, the relationships they have with them and how they’re trained.
If you ask us: We have award-winning healthcare writers. Each one brings years of experience writing healthcare content and is an expert in various sectors, including: providers, payers, medtech, biotech, pharma, B2B, B2C and B2P (business-to-physician) healthcare marketing. Most of our team has been with us for 5+ years.
We run quarterly trainings in SEO, plain language, readability, UX and stakeholder interviewing techniques. Our team is among the best healthcare content marketing teams in the business, and we are proud of our success. See our healthcare content marketing case studies and meet our amazing team.
3. What’s your experience in SEO?
SEO is critical in today’s marketplace. If people don’t find your content, then your investment in the agency is worthless. Ask this question to see if an agency is more than just fluff and has experience with audience-building, keyword research and on-page SEO.
If you ask us: We have an in-house content strategist who often reviews copy and site maps to ensure they align with SEO best practices. All our healthcare content writers and editors train regularly in the latest and greatest best practices. We share SEO challenges or the latest research questions on a dedicated company message board.
We have a 10-step process for creating healthcare content, and step #4 is SEO research. Our writers research long-tail, short-tail and keyword phrases before and after stakeholder interviews. This process ensures they are using the right vocabulary that draws in searchers who become readers and then customers.
4. What is healthcare content strategy?
Content strategy has many definitions in the world of user experience. Asking this question tells you if an agency is using “strategy” the same way you are.
If you ask us: Our content strategy has 3 parts: editorial content strategy, content engineering, and workflow and governance.
At Aha Media, we embrace the editorial side of content strategy. That means we offer audits and discovery reports, including competitive gap analysis for your brand, , and voice and tone workshops. We can also help you refine your workflow and build a business case for why you need more employees or resources for your content marketing. See more about our healthcare content strategy solutions.
5. Can you describe your project management processes and systems?
Asking this question tells you a lot about an agency’s process (like if they even have one). It also tells you how much work you’ll have to do to keep them on task. The right partner should become an extension of your team and lead the projects.
If you ask us: We take our mission seriously: empowering people to make the most important decisions of their lives. But we still love to have fun, and we want you to have fun, too. This balance of professionalism and enthusiasm is what makes us a great partner.
After scoping (set up a call with us), we’ll introduce you to your account manager. They will assemble the best team for your project of writer(s), editor(s) or content strategist(s). We will introduce you to our trademarked 10-step content creation process, called The create™ Process and get that ball rolling.
Our process means that you never have to drag us along. We’ll lead the way and help you see around corners.
6. How long do healthcare content marketing projects take to complete?
Asking this question gives you an idea of the timeline. But don’t be surprised if the answer is, “It depends.” Because the timeline really does depend on your project and the agency’s capacity.
If you ask us: 10 blogs? Probably 6 weeks. 200 pages? Probably 4 to 6 months. A lot of timelines depend on the availability of your stakeholders for interviews and the amount of upfront research our writing team does. But we work hard to make sure you have the content in hand when you need it. And we set realistic expectations with your team from the beginning, so there are no surprises.
7. Can you sum up why we should work with you?
Working with a healthcare content marketing agency isn’t for every project and every business. But if you’re excited about making powerful connections with your healthcare audience, end your questioning with this. It gives the agency a final opportunity to tell you what makes them different. If they don’t have an answer, keep looking.
If you ask us: We have more than 120 clients who can tell you that we bring experience, expertise and enthusiasm to every page, project and call. We take pride in becoming a true partner — supporting you when you need it and working seamlessly with your team. You won’t find a better group to tackle your healthcare content challenges.