Healthcare Content Marketing: SEO, Social Media & Blogging

August 2, 2022

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For a long time, the dissemination of information in the health sector was reserved exclusively for experts in more or less personal discussions and publications in specialist journals. This has changed significantly with digitization and healthcare marketing is becoming increasingly relevant.

Thanks to the Internet, patients can now access information more quickly and easily. This gives him a more active role in all stages of his health care from prevention to treatment.

What is “Healthcare Marketing”?

Medical & healthcare marketing refers to marketing activities carried out by companies in the healthcare sector. In addition to health insurance companies and hospitals, these can also be pharmacies, doctors, pharmaceutical companies or providers of medical technology.

The peculiarity of this industry-specific marketing lies above all in the strong regulation of the market and in legal restrictions on marketing communication.

How digitization is changing healthcare

Even if the majority of over-the-counter (OTC) medicines (over-the-counter (OTC) medicines) are still bought in brick-and-mortar pharmacies, online research and online purchases are increasing with every passing day. Healthcare services and products are expanding in the digital spectrum.

The development of the Internet has fundamentally shaped healthcare in recent years. Thanks to digitization, patients can obtain better information online and are therefore more empowered and competent overall.

Not only does increasing Google search mean that patients can obtain information and supposed diagnoses themselves but gadgets such as fitness bracelets and apps are also increasingly dominating the field of prevention.

In order for medical companies and healthcare services providers to be able to keep up, they must also communicate digitally – in an appealing, understandable and yet serious manner. In this article, you can find out how effective healthcare marketing can be.

In order for appropriate marketing measures to take effect and achieve your desired goal, there are a few things to consider.

Also read: Healthcare Content Marketing: How Providers Can Benefit

Set specific healthcare marketing goals

Setting measurable goals may be the first step because it makes sense for all marketing campaigns, but it is of enormous importance and one that we too often forget. Before you develop a strategy for your marketing, you should define exactly what you want to achieve with the appropriate measures.

Typical goals are:

Generate more leads
More traffic to your website
More clinical visits
More interactions on social media
More appointment scheduling through your website
More calls

Contact TextProz for a robust healthcare marketing plan

Use search engine optimization consistently

Any healthcare organization can benefit from optimizing its website for search engines. Patients will research your practice or company online. In fact, the Internet is now the primary way patients find their doctors – approximately 68% of healthcare consumers start by searching on search engines.

An optimized web presence includes many different aspects, including the right keywords and their optimal placement. In the meantime, the so-called position zero has emerged as the ultimate goal in search engine optimization.

Especially in the health and wellness sector, where users are looking for quickly available and trustworthy tips and information, websites that are presented in position zero have a clear advantage. It is therefore worth paying attention to backlinks, keywords, mobile optimization and other ranking factors in order to be positioned in the SERPs at this point.

Healthcare SEO holds the future

Healthcare SEO means more than just incorporating every keyword you want to rank for on your website. You need to ensure that the keywords are read naturally as Google counts readability as an SEO factor. Also, you need to take steps like optimizing the code on your site and generating quality backlinks pointing to your site to increase your search credibility.

And, you need to spend time thinking about which keywords are more likely to drive traffic to your site. Think about the intent of the user landing on your site. When looking for a doctor who could treat a problem they have, would they search for something like “knee replacement surgery” or would they look for information about “knee injuries”? That’s hard to say until you do the research.

Optimizing your website for search engines is not something you can do in a day. It takes a whole lot of time. In fact, search engine optimization is a slow process. Google won’t easily see the changes you’ve made to your website and will promote you to the top of the search engines. It can take months for the needle to start moving significantly in terms of visibility.

Also, healthcare SEO is not a one-time process. Optimizing your website for search engines takes work. You need to keep publishing content or update the content you already have, as well as optimize local directories.

There are faster ways to get your website visible in search engines. Paid search results are a way to get people to click on your brand and they will show up instantly.

SEO for your healthcare website requires a lot of work and time. We don’t recommend doing this yourself or hiring an amateur to improve your SEO. SEO is changing every day as Google changes its algorithms. Experts keep up with what’s new and know how to optimize for Google ranking.

Use long-tail keywords

Long-tail keywords usually mean that users have very specific search intent. If you are looking for “vitamin D”, you may only want to find out general information on the topic. However, anyone who enters “supplement vitamin D” or “where to buy vitamin D cheap” on Google has a very specific need that the search should satisfy.

Accordingly, it makes sense to optimize your posts for the specific search queries that the respective content element addresses. This way you can be sure that exactly the right users land on your website or blog and find what they are looking for there.

Also read: How Your Content Is Found On The Web

Pay attention to Google updates

In the past few years, Google updates are a major algorithm change affecting healthcare rankings. While Google shared little about the specifics of this update, about 40% of the affected websites belonged to the healthcare niche.

The Medic update is all about EAT (Expertise, Authority, and Trust). Simply put, Google places a high value on the trustworthiness of healthcare content that affects people’s well-being. To build trust with Google, your website should showcase your testimonials and provide accurate information about treatments and services.

Create a content plan

An editorial plan helps to publish content regularly and consistently. It also makes it easier to create more complex posts because you can plan backwards from the planned publication time and allow enough time.

Well-thought-out planning makes sense, especially in the healthcare sector, where expertise, professionalism and reliability are valued. In addition, Google rewards regular website updates, which in turn increases your ranking.

Also read: Healthcare Content Marketing Strategies (Top 7 Trends)

Keep an eye on the legal framework

The greatest peculiarity in healthcare marketing is certainly the strict legal requirements and restrictions. For example, prescription drugs (especially drugs for insomnia and psychotropic drugs) may not be advertised to end users at all!

Use multiple content marketing channels

Specialist articles are indeed packed with serious information but are often inaccessible to a lay audience, too complicated and too dry. On the other hand, blogs and articles that provide information in an entertaining and easily digestible way are much more appealing.

At the same time, it is easier to generate emotions in viewers and listeners in this way, which ensures that the relevant content is shared and disseminated more frequently.

So, SEO content, especially in healthcare, is much more than creating a website and a monthly (or just the occasional) blog post. Producing really good content is the backbone of many sophisticated (and successful) strategic healthcare marketing plans.

You should consider these formats for your healthcare marketing.

View Complete List of Content Marketing Solutions for Healthcare

In marketing, it is fundamental to think holistically. Do not look at the various channels and instruments separately, but understand social media, SEO and PR as well as your online and offline presence as pieces of the puzzle of a communication offer.

Accordingly, you should ensure that content and design are consistent and free of contradictions across all channels and complement each other – this cements your expert status. You also benefit from multiplication effects.

Write a blog

A blog serves as a focal point for health content and supports its expert status. At the same time, it promotes the branding of your practice or your company. Creating and publishing quality content for the healthcare audience has many benefits and pays off.

The healthcare readership is likely to be made up of individuals who are looking for pertinent details about a health or procedural issue or topic. Readers may be potential patients, but they may also be friends or family members.

It’s a less obvious but very valuable benefit when content contributes to visibility and ranking in search results. Of course, Google is the dominant player in the industry, but all search engines love to find credible, fresh content.

Also read: How to Get Found On Google with SEO Blogs – 5 Tips

Don’t get too promotional

The majority of people are very sensitive when it comes to advertising, especially when it comes to essential topics such as health and well-being. Because nobody wants to have the feeling that profit interests are in the foreground instead of their well-being. Content that is presented in an advertising manner is therefore usually not very credible or even has a deterrent effect.

In order not to lose the trust of your potential customers, you should play with your cards openly and label branded content transparently, but also avoid typical advertising formulations and offensive advertising measures.

Using and moderating social media

When it comes to health, users expect serious interactions and individualized advice. Closely managed social media profiles, as well as hotlines and chats, play a correspondingly important role in communication.

If you maintain profiles on social media platforms, your profile must be current and attractive. Respond promptly to questions and deal constructively with appropriate criticism.

Offer useful tools

Ideally, a post not only contains abstract information but also practical tools that offer users individual added value: This can be a calculator for medication dosage, your own calorie requirement or a practice finder. Many healthcare providers offer a BMI calculator on their websites.

TextProz is a leading partner agency of physician practice and healthcare services providers. Contact us for effective and robust healthcare marketing.

For more details visit our Medical Writing Service page.

Jim Frost

Jim Frost is an experienced content writer with a decade-long experience in helping businesses grow. He has written multiple articles on topics such as business, finance, technology, marketing, and more.