According to a survey conducted by comScore, a leading internet technology company, 59 percent of Internet users visited general health websites over a six month period. And, seven in 10 women and six in 10 men use these sites to identify and diagnose symptoms before visiting a physician. While in most cases these websites were unbranded, it’s estimated that eight in 10 Americans start their health-related research on search engines.
This trend further proves that health care organizations should consider publishing SEO content to enhance their lead generation. Unfortunately, as anyone in the health care marketing industry will tell you, the strategy of using content marketing is undervalued. The reason many health care organizations tiptoe around using content, such as a blog as a marketing strategy is a combination of legal and ethical issues, and plain old fear.
But what’s important to realize is that patients and caregivers are looking to online sources, including social media and blogs for information about specific diseases, treatments, and procedures as well as to find out more about doctors and health care professionals.
For some health care marketing strategists, it’s a harsh reality but content marketing offers many benefits that cannot be achieved with traditional advertising. Those include:
- Rewards from search engines: Google and Bing like fresh content and tend to reward websites that are updated regularly. The more you post, the more search engines will display your pages on search results. Consistent blogging raises the online visibility of your organization, which in turn increases your site traffic.
- Establishes leadership for your services and providers: Patients choose your site because they believe you can satisfy their hunger for information. If you don’t give them what they want, they will turn to someone else who can. By frequently updating your content and posting new articles, patients and caregivers will view your organization as an industry leader who is ahead of health care trends.
- Creates a community and builds trust: Sooner or later your articles will resonate with someone who is affected by the topic you’re discussing. That might lead them to ask questions and engage you online. That’s how communities get started. Encourage dialogue and respond to questions as frequently as possible – that interaction is the heart and soul of your blog and it establishes trust between you and your readers.
- Generates patient admissions: Experts will tell you that generating content for a blog on your website is a proven method to increase business. In fact, recent statistics show that increasing blogging from 3-5 times per month to 6-8 times per month almost doubles an organization’s sales leads. When people see your expert knowledge and ideas on your blog, they will likely come to you when they need medical attention.
It’s important that health care organizations move past concerns about legalities and patient confidentiality, and treat content marketing as they would all other forms of marketing. If not, many will miss out on solidifying and growing new patient relationships.
So, will you take the leap and incorporate content marketing into your strategic plan?
