Enhancing the patient journey is a strategic priority for more healthcare organizations, so marketing is shifting focus to support that objective. As a result, content marketing is a hot trend in healthcare, with 83% of organizations currently using it, up from 69% in 2017, according to research by True North Custom.
It’s also going to be a major topic at Modern Healthcare’s Strategic Marketing Conference on October 25. I’m attending and can’t wait to hear from Intermountain, Advocate, Avera, Baylor Scott & White, UCHealth and so many other healthcare marketing leaders about how they are improving the ROI on content marketing and patient experience initiatives.
It’s all about the patient
Content marketing and patient experience go hand-in-hand because content marketing is designed to focus on the patient as opposed to the sales pitch. It’s all about developing and distributing relevant, timely and useful information to potential and current patients, often through digital channels. The goal of producing this content is to reach and engage target audiences, with the aim of encouraging them to take action, such as make a doctor appointment, schedule surgery, go to rehab and so on.
Still, healthcare organizations report mixed success so far with content marketing: 36% say they are very effective and 58% are somewhat effective, according to the True North Custom survey.
To improve ROI: Plan the work, then work the plan
While more than 8 in 10 healthcare organizations are using content marketing, just over half, or 52%, say they have a content marketing strategy. Even fewer, 33%, have documented that strategy, says True North Custom.
Knowing where you are headed and figuring out the steps in the journey makes getting there a whole lot likelier, plus faster and easier. That’s what developing a cohesive, strategic content marketing plan can do for you.
If you want to improve your return on content marketing, plan the work, then work the plan.
Please contact me at [email protected] if you’d like more information about how content marketing and developing a content marketing strategy and plan can help your organization.
