Social Media Content Ideas That Perform Best for Healthcare

Trust is crucial in healthcare. Without it, you’ll have trouble connecting with your audience and gaining new patients. These proven social media content ideas can help your healthcare organization build trust with your patients.

Social media platforms are a great way to reach an audience. Facebook — the most-used social media site — has more than 2.9 billion monthly active users, with two-thirds checking the platform daily.

Healthcare marketers and providers need to understand how to use social media to:

  • Promote positive health behaviors.
  • Establish your organization as a trusted source.
  • Engage patients in their care.
  • Highlight successes.

These social media content ideas perform best online and can help you build your audience.

social media profile

Preventive Care News

A recent study looked at the way communities benefited from social media during the COVID-19 outbreak. However, social media is also a place where misinformation spreads quickly. You can combat this by curating good information from sources like the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

Keeping Up With the Latest Recommendations

Official guidelines for preventive care change regularly. For example, the USPSTF recently recommended adults aged 50 to 80 who currently smoke or have smoked within the past 15 years to get an annual lung cancer screening using a CT scan.

Publish this information on social media and make it easy to share online. This helps patients navigate through confusing (and sometimes incorrect) information.

Educate Patients About the Importance of Screenings

With preventive care representing over a third of health center visits, it’s one of the primary reasons why patients seek care. However, millions of Americans don’t have access to preventative care or are unable to keep up with official recommendations from screenings and other recommended appointments.

From discussing routine vaccination to cancer screenings, social media posts can act as powerful reminders to schedule these important appointments.

Your role is also to educate your audience about what happens during these visits and how preventive care can mitigate health risks. You can also discuss how early diagnosis and treatment can significantly improve health outcomes in many cases.

More Preventive Care Content Ideas

These content ideas will help you place preventive care at the core of your healthcare social media marketing campaign:

  • Share patients’ success stories that show how a routine screening led to an early diagnosis.
  • Facts and numbers about the prevalence of a health condition can make the risk feel more tangible and motivate patients to seek preventive care.
  • Educate about early symptoms to recognize, or how a healthcare professional can use diagnostic tools to screen for a specific condition.
  • Address and remove potential barriers to seeking preventive care by educating your audience about insurance options, income-based assistance programs, or discounts.

content

Educational Content

People go online to find information about symptoms, diseases, and treatment options. A study published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE found that about 20% of online searches were health-related.

That presents many opportunities for healthcare organizations, but it also has some pitfalls for patients. Remember, not all information online is accurate, and sometimes it’s hard to sort through what’s good and bad.

Curating Content

You can make this easier for patients by sharing educational content on social media. Create this content from scratch or share information from reputable sources. The best are government sites, educational sites, and non-profit scientific or medical research societies.

With a plethora of educational content available from trusted sources, educating your audience can become a pillar of your healthcare social media marketing strategy.

You can schedule regular posts where you simply share links to government resources, peer-reviewed publications, and other trustworthy resources.

Adding Value with Your Own Content

In spite of the internet making health information readily available, an estimated 88% of adults don’t possess a level of health literacy that allows them to navigate the healthcare system and receive the care they need.

You can help bridge this gap by developing content that is educational and engaging. As a health organization, you have unique insights into your community and the health risks that exist among the population you serve.

Take a more personalized approach to educating your audience by focusing on health risks that are prevalent among your community and the demographics you serve.

Another way to create value is to make educational content feel more accessible. Peer-reviewed studies and other publications can be dry and technical. Creating engaging summaries of the latest studies, official recommendations, and other important health information are great ways to keep your audience engaged.

Social Media and Blogging

Did you know that 68% of marketers use blogs? Blogging remains one of the most effective ways of connecting with your audience while supporting your SEO efforts with a steady stream of fresh content.

Don’t make the mistake of developing your blogging strategy independently from social media. You’ll get more out of your content marketing efforts if you create blog posts with social media in mind.

A blog with a weekly publication schedule will provide you with regular updates you can share on social media. Social media can become a powerful channel for driving organic traffic to your blog with engaging posts that feature eye-catching images and interesting facts your audience can learn more about by clicking on your latest blog post.

More Social Media Content Ideas

There are other healthcare social media marketing strategies you can use to make educational content feel more engaging:

  • Host a Q&A on social media so users can send their questions and get answers from an expert.
  • Take advantage of events like cancer awareness months to publish a series of posts designed to educate your audience about a specific condition, symptoms to watch for, and the importance of regular screenings.
  • Sum up important information in an infographic to help your audience learn about a new topic at a glance.
  • Share a quick fact of the day. A series of bite-sized posts with impactful statistics and other important facts can increase awareness of health risks and treatment options.
  • Have a specialist take over your social media account for the day. It’s an engaging way to have them share their expertise while increasing awareness for a specific condition or treatment.
  • Social media surveys can be an effective tool for assessing health literacy among your audience and designing better educational programs.

social media networking

Raise Awareness for Events and New Treatments

Healthcare is a field that evolves at a fast pace. Help patients keep up by turning social media into a hub where you share the latest updates for your organization.

Updates about Your Organization

Sharing regular updates about your organization will keep your audience involved while showing that you’re growing and evolving to better support the community.

These updates can also increase the usage rate of new services. Don’t just announce what’s new at your facility. Create content that connects new services with benefits that resonate with patients.

Better yet, keep your audience involved by sharing updates throughout the process of rolling out a new service, building a new location, or hiring a new physician. This approach will strengthen your connection to your community and create anticipation for upcoming changes.

Plus, with the digital healthcare market expected to grow at an annual rate of more than 16%, social media can become an effective tool for communicating the new digital tools you’re adopting and helping patients feel comfortable with this new environment.

Updates about your organization are also a great way to get feedback from your audience. Keep track of engagement and take the time to read the comments and questions you receive.

Comments can provide you with valuable insights into the expectations and needs of your audience. Use this information to inform future decisions regarding events, classes, and more.

Social Media and Hiring

Leveraging your social media presence can support your recruitment efforts. As a majority of healthcare organizations face a staff shortage, it’s more important than ever to use digital channels to reach out to a wide pool of potential candidates and show how your organization is innovating and making a positive difference to attract talent.

Plus, you can use social media to promote job fairs, open positions, and other events related to hiring. Increasing your outreach will help you find the best talent in the healthcare field.

For healthcare organizations with a volunteer program, social media can become a powerful tool for showcasing the accomplishments of these volunteers. You can promote new volunteering opportunities, reach out to a wider audience of potential volunteers, and celebrate everything your volunteers do.

Preventive Care and Health Literacy

Digital tools can help connect patients to health resources. A study from UC Davis showed that using an electronic population tool had a significant impact on helping patients receive the preventive care they needed.

Social media can be a valuable tool for increasing awareness of health fairs, screenings, and other events or services.

You can share dates for these events ahead of time and show images and other content from these events. Those who didn’t attend might decide to take part in the next event after seeing this content on social media.

As more organizations adopt a holistic approach to healthcare, more physicians develop personalized treatment plans that encompass societal and environmental factors.

Your Facebook posts or tweets can raise awareness for these issues and promote classes, webinars, Q&As, and other events designed to increase health literacy for these issues.

Plus, you can share content from these classes on social media as part of your outreach efforts. Filming portions of a class can be an engaging way to educate your audience, but you can also have an instructor share their thoughts in a Facebook post.

New Services

Keeping up with the latest trends and treatments in the healthcare field is challenging for 68% of physicians. Patients run into the same challenge of not knowing about the latest diagnosis or treatment methods, making it difficult for them to feel empowered and act as advocates for their own health.

Leverage social media to educate patients about the latest services you’re offering:

  • Discuss new drug trials you’re participating in.
  • Let your audience know about new equipment you’re investing in.
  • If you’re hiring a new specialist, introduce this professional to your audience in a social media post.
  • Tell your audience about your plans to launch a new patient management platform.
  • Show the benefits of scheduling a telemedicine appointment if you’re offering this service.

Educating patients about your services can increase their usage rate. It can also improve health outcomes. Something as simple as educating patients about what happens during a regular check-up, by sharing tips on how to prepare ahead of the appointment, can help patients get the most out of this service.

Fundraising

On average, Americans gave 4% more in 2021 compared to the previous year. If your organization uses fundraising to finance some projects, social media has the potential to become a cornerstone of your fundraising efforts.

A mix of organic posts and paid ads can help you target potential donors in your community. You can use social media to promote in-person events or request donations via a digital portal.

Using social media to celebrate accomplishments or educate your audience about new services will also show donors how their contributions are having a positive impact on the community.

smiling-coworkers

Staff Highlights and Accomplishments

When your staff is dedicated to your mission, they make patients feel comfortable about coming in for care. Highlight the great things your staff does by creating social media spotlights of them.

Use Visual Content

“Get to know you” posts with a picture of a friendly face are a great way to introduce staff members to your audience.

You can also use video to your advantage here, letting the staff member discuss their job and talk about why they love the work they do. It doesn’t require advanced video editing skills, just a smartphone and a room with good lighting.

Build Trust With Staff Highlights

With only 38% of Americans saying they trust the healthcare system, building trust is more important than ever.

Staff highlights can help repair trust by putting a human face on your organization. This type of content can also show what goes on behind the scenes and support your branding efforts by helping you create a unique voice.

Seeing content that features a caring healthcare expert can be a pivotal moment for a prospective patient who is still hesitating about seeking care. Staff highlights can also reassure patients that providing the best care possible is a top priority and having staff members discuss their job results in concrete examples of how you provide quality care.

Connect Staff Highlights to Your Other Goals

Beyond establishing trust, this type of content can support other goals such as educating patients about the services you offer or the importance of preventive care while sharing information in an engaging format.

Plus, highlighting staff accomplishments is a great way to celebrate those who make a difference. It can shape your organization’s culture and send a positive message to your audience about your values.

As mergers and acquisitions continue to shape the healthcare industry, focusing on your staff and using social media to put forward the human dimension of providing care can help you stand out.

Staff highlights can also send a powerful message to your workforce. As stress, burnout, and fatigue continue to create challenges in the healthcare field, using your healthcare social media marketing campaign to show how much you value care providers can help reduce the average 19.5% turnover rate.

User-Generated Content

One of the biggest misconceptions about social media content is that you have to create everything you post. Many successful organizations encourage users to create content they can post online.

For example, CaringBridge is a non-profit that helps people create websites to update family and friends about their healthcare journey. They frequently ask followers to share information and ideas on their Facebook page about various topics related to healthcare and overcoming illness.

However, there is one important caveat to sharing consumer content in the healthcare industry.

UGC and HIPAA Requirements

Patient privacy laws (HIPAA) protect your patients’ privacy. Sharing protected health information without the patient’s written consent can get you in legal trouble and cost you a lot in fines.

Anyone can comment or share information on your social media sites without you worrying about HIPAA violations, but if you plan to share something about a patient, make sure you have their written permission to do so.

You can prevent HIPAA violations by developing a process with clear guidelines for the creation of user-generated content. This process should include guidelines for identifying patients who are good candidates for sharing their stories, as well as best practices for obtaining their consent and keeping track of this documentation.

UGC and Testimonials

Patients can bring a unique viewpoint when discussing their experience with an illness or what receiving care at your facility was like.

Having patients recount these experiences via testimonials will result in content that feels relatable. For a prospective patient, seeing another human go through a similar health struggle can be inspiring and act as a pivotal moment in the decision to seek care.

You can also create content that features patients and the medical team they worked with. The patient’s testimony will feel engaging and relatable while the medical team can make the content feel authoritative, providing your audience with a behind-the-scenes look into how your organization develops treatment plans.

Use Patient Voices to Raise Awareness

User-generated content can also break down the stigma associated with certain health problems. For instance, experts believe that as many as 50 million Americans suffer from mental health problems, but it’s a topic many struggle to discuss openly.

Seeing patients discuss mental health, sexual health issues, or even aging can feel empowering and encourage patients to open up about their symptoms.

social media channels

Take Your Healthcare Social Media Marketing Campaign to the Next Level

Social media can have many benefits for healthcare organizations, including:

  • Educating patients about the importance of preventive care and boosting usage rates for various services.
  • Creating a meaningful connection to the community by sharing updates and celebrating achievements.
  • Inspiring prospective patients to seek care through user-generated and educational content.
  • Providing value to patients with content that supports health literacy.
  • Supporting your organizational values and culture.

Implementing a successful healthcare social media marketing campaign is a worthwhile project, but it can be challenging, especially for organizations that lack time and resources.

How Tempesta Media Can Help

It’s where a managed service provider can make a difference. Tempesta Media has been helping healthcare organizations for more than a decade and can develop a highly customized approach to social media marketing, reflecting the unique goals of your organization.

As a managed service provider, our first step is to learn as much as possible about your organization with our Prova digital marketing assessment. It’s a 90-point assessment that takes two weeks to complete. It gives us a comprehensive idea of your goals and challenges so we can tailor our approach.

Next, we’ll use our Performica turnkey solution to put together a personalized marketing plan. Performica is a flexible platform with different digital marketing modules that allows us to create a unique plan with social media marketing strategies, content creation services, SEO, analytics, and much more.

This approach allows us to implement the right strategies for your goals and budget while delivering measurable results. Contact us to learn more or get started with our Prova assessment!

Ultimate Guide to Why You Need an Employee Advocacy Program

What is an employee advocacy program, and why does your business need it?

A business can’t survive without its employees, and an employee advocacy program helps ensure you have the best team. These programs offer incentives to your employees that help promote your brand. Aside from the obvious benefits, you’ll find that your employees are often more loyal and invested in your brand.

Advantages of an employee advocacy program

About 54% of employees are not engaged in the company where they work, meaning they’re unattached to what they’re doing. At the same time, companies with emotionally attached employees are 24% more profitable. When you allow employees to communicate what they love about your company, you instill a sense of responsibility to help your brand succeed.

Benefits of an employee advocacy program include:

  • Achieving business goals
  • Driving quality leads
  • Increasing social media reach
  • Building employee trust, and much more

Download the complete eGuide that will walk you through each detail of building your employee advocacy program:

How to start an employee advocacy program

Company morale can boost your business’ image and build your brand. When a brand keeps its employees engaged, the entire company benefits. It’s as simple as setting goals, creating a policy, and preparing your employees.

Once you’ve established these areas, you can plan your training. Identify your biggest champions to get the ball rolling. Friendly competition makes the program more fun. Make sure to let employees know there are rewards as well.

Before you launch your program, have some content prepared ahead of time. Remember to be flexible and keep it in good taste. If you don’t want to take time away from your in-house employees, you can always hire a managed content provider.

Launching your program

When you’re ready to launch, you’ll want to make sure you have an easy way to measure results. It’s important to measure the success of the program along with employee participation and compliance. Making adjustments is often needed and a great way to make sure the program is successful.

Bullseye Effect™ – a Digital Marketing Turnkey Solution Case Studies

Our case studies show how Bullseye Effect™ digital marketing managed service can drive a 600% increase in leads.

Having a strong marketing plan is important to any business, and hiring a digital marketing managed service provider (MSP) can relieve much of the stress. These case studies show how the right digital marketing MSP creates content that produces results.

MSPs and content marketing

One of the main areas of a digital marketing managed service provider is content marketing. This type of marketing requires knowledge of changing trends. Tempesta Media is known for keeping an audience engaged and the content SEO compliant.

Why Tempesta Media should be your digital marketing managed service provider

As digital marketing evolves, so do MSPs and their services. Many brands don’t have an in-house marketing team, which can add more work for employees. CEOs often ask employees to handle social media, email, blogs, and other similar tasks.

Tempesta Media transforms digital marketing for business, and these case studies prove it. We showcase results from seven clients in different industries. Some of the results include:

  • 600% increase in leads in 12 months
  • 186% increase in social media leads
  • 300% increase in blogs
  • 514% increase in website users
  • 4,960% increase in referrals
  • 1,346% increase in LinkedIn follows
  • 518% increase in backlinks

Download the case studies to see how Tempesta Media can help your business:

How to choose the right MSP marketing services

MSP marketing services are great for both small and medium companies since most can’t afford an in-house marketing team. Tempesta Media takes these MSP services to a higher level with our Bullseye Effect solution.

These case studies highlight a proven track record backed by results. Our reviews, service, and referrals show just how many clients trust our services.

Tempesta Media’s Prova™ Assessment Is A Digital Marketing Game-Changer For B2B Businesses

Increase revenue and optimize your digital marketing with Prova’s comprehensive, insight-driven analysis.

MICHIGAN CITY, IN, December 5, 2022 – Tempesta Media, a leading performance-based provider of digital marketing solutions that drives business revenue, has developed a unique digital marketing assessment service called Prova. Prova is a detailed, actionable analysis of current marketing programs designed to spur growth and increase revenue.

ABOUT PROVA

Prova analyzes more than 90 elements of digital marketing programs to gain a deep understanding of their performance. It gives unmatched visibility into digital programs in about two weeks and assesses all key marketing areas, including: 

  • Content marketing performance. Content is carefully measured to identify and resolve gaps in current programs.
  • SEO performance. SEO is analyzed to identify best practices and tactics to boost performance and improve results.
  • Competitive insights. Prova evaluates competitors’ marketing to find gaps that reveal unrealized advantages.
  • Social media presence. Social media channels and content are assessed and optimized to drive engagement and awareness.

PROVA MAKES A DIFFERENCE

Prova is a new and intelligent approach to digital marketing assessments, providing ROI-driven insights and optimization recommendations into current program performance. No other marketing assessment is as comprehensive, detailed, or valuable.

It measures the strengths and weaknesses in marketing, creating a roadmap to improve results. Prova also spots gaps and finds missed opportunities, resulting in marketing programs that leave competitors behind.

In the process, Prova helps pursue content marketing that drives engagement, lead conversions, and revenue. It improves marketing across all platforms with the underlying goal of exceeding business objectives.

Prova assessment results can provide the basis for our Bullseye Effect– managed solution. It combines content and influencer marketing with social media to deliver better ROI and lead generation.

SPECIAL OFFER

Choose to implement Bullseye Effect after completing Prova and receive a credit toward the $2,500 fee in the first month of the program. To learn more, please visit https://www.tempestamedia.com/managed-service/.

ABOUT TEMPESTA MEDIA

Created in 2011, Tempesta Media is a leading performance-based provider of digital marketing solutions that drive business revenue. Our managed service combines cutting-edge technology with our expertise and industry knowledge to drive leads and revenue for B2B companies. We serve B2B businesses across the U.S. Contact us at Sales@TempestaMedia.com.

A CMO’s Guide for Better Content, Social and Influencer Marketing Teams

Learn how to create better social and influencer marketing teams with better content.

This eBook is the ultimate guide to creating a top-notch marketing team while building content that produces results. Content creation is more important than ever, but not all content ranks the same. Get insight into the types of content that will work best for your business and inspire your marketing team to create with purpose.

Improve your marketing team’s performance

Did you know your marketing team can quickly improve its content just by having the right plan? In this eBook, you’ll see how to improve each stage of your content production cycle. You’ll learn how to see growth, higher ROI, and lower costs in your campaigns.

You can greatly improve your marketing program simply by leaving the strategy and content to third-party vendors like Tempesta Media.

Learn from our expert marketing team

Specialists from Tempesta Media offer tips on how they create effective campaigns, including:

  • Program strategy
  • Objectives and action
  • Metrics and tech tools
  • The right marketing team
  • Workflow and reporting
  • Optimizing and audits
  • Third-party resource options

This eBook will cover the latest marketing trends, and guide you on how to use them to your advantage. It will explain how to make your content marketing accountable and see trackable results. The marketing experts behind this guide have over a decade of experience in various industries and are ranked in the top 3% of marketing specialists.

Download the eBook today to get your marketing team on the road to better productivity using the recommendations from the marketing experts behind this guide have over a decade of experience.

Tempesta Media’s Bullseye Effect™ Makes Content Marketing Accountable

The company’s managed service solution, Bullseye Effect, holistically leverages content, social, and influencer marketing channels to drive more leads and revenue.

MICHIGAN CITY, IN, September 12, 2022 – Tempesta Media, the performance-based content marketing solutions company, has released v2 of its managed solution, Bullseye Effect. Bullseye is a managed solution that combines a sophisticated technology platform, deep analytics, and strategy components to predictably drive incremental revenue for B2B companies.

ABOUT BULLSEYE EFFECT

Tempesta Media’s Bullseye Effect™ now has over 30 modules, including: 

  • Prova™ – a comprehensive digital marketing analysis that assesses over 90 different areas of a company’s digital marketing program. 
  • Simple Social Share™ – leverages customer employees and stakeholders to amplify content marketing performance.
  • Vetted subject matter expert network – with over 27,000 vetted US industry experts, companies can secure experts from their industry for their content marketing programs.
  • Distributed publishing – whether a company’s website, social media profiles or other channels, Tempesta Media’s advanced publishing module makes it easy to distribute content.

BULLSEYE EFFECT BENEFITS

Because of its breadth and depth, Bullseye Effect is customizable to each company’s specific program objectives and KPIs.  

In addition, Bullseye Effect can eliminate the expense of hiring, training, and supporting an internal, dedicated content, social, and influencer marketing team.

“It took me a while to decide to use Tempesta Media,” commented James Ashford, Oklahoma & Arkansas Sales Director at Vision Care Direct. “Tempesta Media is one of the best services we contract out. Their content, ease of business, and staff’s patience are top-notch. We have continued to add other Bullseye Effect components as they have earned our trust. I recommend them to any business.”

By tightly integrating content marketing, social media, and influencer marketing capabilities into one seamless solution, Tempesta Media can uncover unique insights, reduce operational costs, and drive predictable, superior performance for its customers.

“It’s great to have customers rave about their Bullseye Effect results,” commented Michael Marchese, CEO of Tempesta Media. “For too long, content marketing has been viewed as nothing more than a vehicle to drive awareness. Bullseye Effect proves that it can drive real, tangible results.” 

AVAILABILITY

Bullseye Effect is now generally available to mid-sized B2B companies within the US.  To learn more, please visit www.TempestaMedia.com.

ABOUT TEMPESTA MEDIA

Created in 2011, Tempesta Media is a leading performance-based provider of digital marketing solutions that drives business revenue. Our managed service combines cutting-edge technology with our expertise and industry knowledge to drive leads and revenue for B2B companies. We serve B2B businesses across the US. Contact us at Sales@TempestaMedia.com.

Finding a Path Forward Post-COVID. Part 1: Understanding the New Marketing Environment

COVID-19 resulted in a sustained period of disruption. Many businesses adapted by accelerating their digital transformation efforts, an approach that ushered significant changes in marketing post-COVID.

What does the buying journey look like in a post-COVID world? Between social distancing, closures, and a growing number of customers expecting a convenient omnichannel experience, more marketers are moving offline processes and campaigns to a digital environment.

This digital-first approach isn’t a new trend. Businesses have been focusing on digital transformation for years, but digital marketing post-pandemic comes with its unique share of challenges, including heightened competition and higher costs.

This four-part series will discuss the changes and new challenges CMOs are facing and explore some solutions.

COVID-19 as a force for change

Before we delve into digital marketing post-COVID, it’s important to understand how COVID-19 created change for organizations.

Some businesses had to change out of necessity. Established processes that involved in-person interactions became impractical, and many teams had to adapt to fluctuating demand.

Two years later, some significant challenges still force businesses to change. Close to 80% of small business owners feel that the economy has been getting worse recently. Inflation, supply chain issues, and labour challenges are emerging as the long-term economic effects of COVID-19 and creating a particularly challenging environment for businesses.

Some businesses also embraced change because they saw new opportunities during the pandemic. Moving some processes online helped organizations find a new way of doing things. Some adopted more flexible processes, while others discovered new niches.

The current trend is to transition toward a data-driven model. For organizations ready to embrace this model, there is a strong need for products and services adapted to remote or hybrid processes as well as a buying experience that supports data-driven decisions.

digital journey

An increasingly digital buying journey

Digital transformation has been shaping growth for decades, but it’s been accelerating at a fast pace, with more businesses adopting remote work, automation, and data-driven processes. Plus, technologies like AI or low-code platforms are providing businesses with a sound foundation to accelerate their digital transformation.

It’s no surprise that the buying journey is increasingly happening online. In 2020, eCommerce grew by 27%. Growth has continued, and eCommerce now represents 22% of all retail sales. Experts believe eCommerce sales will exceed $7.3 billion by 2025.

This phenomenon goes beyond consumer products. The B2B buying journey is also moving to a digital-first environment.

Some organizations that already relied on digital channels strengthened their online presence with new post-COVID marketing strategies, while others shifted entire processes online. A striking example is a video-conferencing market, which is currently growing at a CAGR of 9.5%.

As the buying journey continues to move to a digital-first model, we’re also seeing buyers prefer a self-directed experience. They expect an omnichannel environment, and more organizations are investing in websites or apps to support buyers through the different stages of their journey.

Online experiences are quickly becoming the new normal, with 65% of B2B companies offering eCommerce. Digital channels are also outperforming in-person sales.

And, with buyers becoming more comfortable with digital channels, they’re increasing their budget for online purchases. In 2022, 75% of buyers are willing to spend over $50,000 through online sales channels, and a record-breaking 35% are ready to spend more than $500,000.

digital marketing

What does marketing post-COVID look like?

Between rising costs and new challenges linked to operating in a digital environment, many CMOs are seeing their profit margins shrink. Successful marketing campaigns are more important than ever due to the prevalence of online buying journeys and require a strategic approach.

Higher costs

Higher costs are one of the defining trends of digital marketing post-pandemic. Inflation has been wreaking havoc on businesses’ balance sheets lately, but there are deeper issues at play.

Many organizations switched to digital channels during the pandemic with little warning. The social media market alone is currently expanding at an impressive CAGR of over 39%.

The marketing industry wasn’t prepared to absorb marketing dollars from offline budgets. Costs went up to curb this sudden increase in demands.

Having more businesses develop their digital presence also results in heightened competition. It’s an issue for newcomers to the digital space who need to make significant investments to grow their presence and establish awareness of what they offer. Achieving marketing goals now requires a more significant investment of time and resources due to the increased competition.

Pay-per-click ads are an example of this trend. Marketers now need to spend more to target popular keywords on platforms like Google Ads or Facebook Ads. They can still expect an ROI of $2 for every dollar spent on average, but keywords can cost an average of $58 to target for industries like business services.

Plus, the growing complexity of the digital environment and the heightened expectations of customers mean marketers need to branch out. For instance, PPC costs are going up due to competition, but many CMOs are increasing their budget to account for video searches, and voice searches, or even targeting additional search engines like Facebook, which is currently getting 20 billion search engine visitors each month.

Anticipating future trends

While PPC ads are a good example of this trend, there are other channels driving costs for marketing campaigns.

Now that all the major browsers are moving away from third-party cookies, many businesses need a new approach. Retargeting strategies are no longer viable, and there is a need to invest in first-party data and content creation.

Plus, the shift to a 5G network will likely have an impact on consumer behaviours. Businesses will have to adapt by focusing on mobile experiences that facilitate the buying journey.

And, as more marketers continue to embrace a digital-first approach, competition will make it difficult to stand out unless a brand uses personalization. A winning personalization strategy requires investments in data and other solutions.

ecommerce

Finding a path forward

Spending more on ads and other digital channels results in a lower ROI. It also increases the average cost of acquiring a new customer, which is why customer care is now a top priority to increase retention.

Finding a path forward is challenging for many organizations due to the current economic downturn. Many businesses have at best a reduced budget and are at worst struggling. Inflation is a problem for 34% of small businesses, and, with a third of businesses ceasing operations during the pandemic, many organizations didn’t have a chance to recover fully.

Businesses are at a turning point, and the current rates of inflation and economic downturn suggest this situation will last. Organizations that don’t find a path forward to achieve growth are likely to fail.

From a marketing point of view, the way forward is a strategic approach with a pivot toward digital marketing while prioritizing cost-effective solutions and yielding results.

Grow with a managed service solution

What are managed services? Instead of handling marketing in-house, you can partner with a managed service provider and work with a team of experts. Besides developing and publishing content, these experts can help with on and off-page SEO, email marketing, social media, and more.

With Performics, Tempesta Media offers a proven approach to managed content marketing. It’s a turnkey solution that includes thoroughly assessing your marketing program, content development services, publication on different channels (including social media), influencer marketing, SEO, email marketing, and more. Plus, ongoing optimization ensures that your ROI increases over time to get the most out of this service.

Stay tuned for part two in our series on finding a path forward post-COVID, where we’ll discuss challenges linked to inflation and a stagnating market. In the meantime, get in touch with us to learn more about our managed service solution.

Medical Content Marketing Services – What Is It and Why Is It Important?

Healthcare consumers seek answers online. Medical content marketing services provide a way for you to combine giving them solutions and solving your business goals.

Healthcare consumers are aching for answers. The pandemic amped that up:

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has kept a steady eye on this. There is concern about misinformation online and related distrust. The NIH found people are flocking to online sources of health information. But they largely distrust non-professional online sources.

This opens the door wide for you to renew a program of medical content marketing services. This promises patients that your information is reliably what they need. It also provides a new way for you to connect with audiences in business-strategic ways.

How do content marketing and inbound strategy converge?

The giants of the Golden Age of Advertising — William Bernbach and David Ogilvy — taught industry creatives to push an idea out to audiences by first considering how they interact with content. This was the genesis of inbound marketing.

Content marketing unleashes inbound marketing strategy. The old “outbound” strategy was a hard push for a single sale. Inbound pulls audiences through the funnel using content to engage audience relationships for lasting results. Healthcare content marketing shares your practice’s online material (blogs, social media, audio, video, etc.) that is not a hard push. It’s there to stimulate interest, convince customers of your brand’s value, and guide them to respond often.

How does content marketing help your medical practice?

Medical content marketing services deliver content that answers patients’ most concerning medical questions. Giving them solutions in an easy-to-understand language is key to your success. Depending on your specialties, produce content that patients will trust about the healthcare you provide. Even the more trusted sources online (WebMD, Mayo Clinic, The CDC) fail at this individualized level people seek.

readability improving

What are some medical content marketing services tips?

Tips for your medical content marketing services include:

  1. Write to your audience using your voice – professional, knowledgeable, honest, and friendly.
  2. Make the latest research easy to understand. One of your goals is to educate people and help them be more informed about their situations.
  3. Create content for their entire patient lifecycle. This will enable you to help people at any stage of their journey, which will help you get more patients.
  4. Make sure your content is shareable. Today’s consumers communicate on the internet. Make your content easily shareable on social media to broaden your reach.
  5. Use video. Nearly 95% of marketers say that video helps users understand their produce or service better.

How can you develop engaging content?

Your practice’s website needs a blog with content that best serves patients’ needs. Here are a few items to consider:

  • Track questions and common topics your patients have to inspire future content ideas.
  • Consider medical news and what is trending in your specialty to become a thought leader and trusted expert in the industry.
  • Create infographics (great actionable content) that make medical issues easy to understand. Then condense information into an ebook and link it through social media. This multi-channeled approach will help you gain visibility.
  • Don’t limit yourself. Do a guest blog. Do an interview on a podcast. Repurpose old content.
  • Become an influencer. It’s the smaller influencers (micro or niche) that are creating the best ROI.

How can you amplify your content?

You have many avenues to pursue amplification:

  • Healthcare social media marketing is a gateway for your medical content marketing services.
  • Emails are also a powerful healthcare content marketing tool. They personalize messaging throughout the patient’s lifecycle.
  • Push notifications and text messaging carry content directly to patients for maximum convenience.
  • Your online patient portal is a great way to deliver custom content and communications.

Partner with an expert

Embrace inbound strategies with your medical content marketing services program. Thanks in part to COVID-19, the healthcare industry now relies heavily on content marketing to support the needs of millions who are searching for answers every day. Use this to your advantage. Develop an integrated content marketing healthcare strategy for your business growth:

  1. Set goals.
  2. Understand your audience.
  3. Develop content.
  4. Identify channels for promotion.
  5. Implement your plan.

Start right now and download Tempesta Media’s ebook on 100 mistakes to avoid in your content marketing program. For help with planning your healthcare content strategy, contact us to get started.

Google Algorithm Update 2021- How to Optimize Healthcare Content

For companies in the healthcare industry that use a content marketing strategy, it’s essential to consider the Google algorithm update 2021. Google is at it again and optimizing ranking based on a new set of criteria.

What criteria might you ask? It’s all based on how the user interacts with your content and their overall experience. Healthcare companies should be well aware of optimizing content marketing for a better page experience for patients.

Learn more about preparing your organization for the Google algorithm update 2021 and ways to optimize your healthcare content for the best results.

Main components of the Google algorithm update 2021

When it comes to optimizing healthcare content for your website, the primary metric to consider for Google’s update is page experience.

Page experience will significantly impact rankings, which includes determining how easily a user can interact with your page. Google will take into account five key metrics:

  • Core Web Vitals (loading, interactivity, and visual stability).
  • Mobile-friendliness.
  • Safebrowsing.
  • HTTPS.
  • Intrusive guidelines.

These metrics can affect everything from bounce rate to page security. In an industry that relies so much on trustworthiness and expertise, healthcare organizations must have strategies that address these components.

How healthcare industries can prepare themselves for the Google algorithm update

You should consider each and every user who visits your webpage and the experience that you’re giving them. Thus, you need to consider your content, the components of your content, and the content’s metrics to create a great experience.

Ensure that you have a blogging strategy in place that highlights quality. After all, that will always be a priority for optimizing content for the healthcare industry. You want to show your patients the services you offer so that they want to learn more. Selling aside, quality educational content that covers everything from technological advances to common disease symptoms also encourages patient engagement and trust.

As you strengthen your content to prepare for the Google algorithm update 2021, you’ll get a head start on the competition as well. While others are scrambling to make adjustments after the rollout, you will be ahead of the game, reaching more potential patients and focusing on providing quality care.

advanced analytics in marketing

Consider the overall page experience and metrics

There are several different metrics to consider when creating content for each page of your website. To ensure you’re optimizing your page experience as much as possible, make sure you’re using these tools and strategies for your content marketing plan.

1. Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals are the series of metrics focusing on site speed. When loading your home page and various pillar pages, observe how quickly you can access the information.

If it takes quite some time to load a page, it’s time to consider an alternate strategy. Luckily, you can use Google tools to determine your progress when it comes to measuring these metrics. Some tools you can use are:

  • Search Console report for Core Web Vitals.
  • PageSpeed Insights.
  • Google Lighthouse.

Think about your target audience. When patients search online, they are always looking for answers – possible treatment options, explanations for symptoms, information on insurance, facility contact information, and more. They want solutions, so if their first encounter with your home page is a delay, it will set the tone for their overall experience.

2. Mobile-friendliness

Another crucial factor about page experience is mobile-friendliness. With over 52% of global online traffic coming from mobile devices, you can rest assured that patients are viewing your website on their mobile. Especially in this age of medicine, ensuring mobility without sacrificing quality is critical in offering patients what they need.

You’ll want to optimize each page for a mobile experience and make sure the content is formatted correctly for different mobile devices. A select few individuals don’t use an iPhone, so make sure they can view everything just as well. In addition to the typical considerations like speed and responsiveness, optimize for:

  • Skimmability/readability (think larger font sizes, white space, etc.).
  • Ease of use (make journeys and common traffic areas easily visible and clickable).
  • Brand consistency (don’t forget to include brand colors and style for a seamless experience).

3. Safe browsing

With so much corruption in the digital world, it makes sense that Google would consider any website intending to spam or mislead your users. Simply put, if your patients don’t feel safe accessing your website, they won’t use it. Thus, you need to make sure it’s a safe place for them to browse. Use outside hyperlinks, make sure portal pages are secure and address your communication protocol with HTTPS.

In the healthcare arena, protecting patient data is extremely important. You should never risk having sensitive physical/mental information on your patients getting out. Practices that lose patient info can suffer high fines or other legal consequences.

4. HTTPS

Does your website start with HTTPS://? If not, it doesn’t have a Secure Sockets Layers (SSL) certificate that scrambles sensitive information so hackers cannot intercept it.

With HIPAA privacy laws and other regulations, it is vital to keep information safe and secure. Otherwise, you may face hefty fines, legal issues, and, perhaps worst of all, patient distrust. To effectively optimize your page experience for the Google algorithm update 2021, remember sites without an SSL get flagged.

5. Intrusive guidelines

When including pop-ups on your website, it’s important to note that gathering patient information has legal consequences. Healthcare businesses should be particularly cautious about this component when it comes to the page experience for patients.

So, think twice about collecting a user’s information. Make sure you have compliance, meet all regulations, and that your patient’s information is safe and secure.

content marketing

Publish quality content that educates your audience

In today’s society, in a post-COVID-19 era, it’s important to keep quality at the forefront of your content marketing process. When creating your plan for your facility, you need:

  • A beneficial purpose.
  • E-A-T, or expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.
  • Y-M-Y-L, or your money or your life.

Beneficial purpose

When creating your healthcare content, are you sure it is helping your users? Each page should have a clear purpose.

Your patients must be able to easily navigate and learn more about the idea behind the page, whether it be about the services you provide or the scope of your medical background.

E-A-T

To prepare for the Google algorithm update 2021, the content on each page should highlight:

  • Your expertise in the healthcare industry and your specific field of medicine.
  • Your voice and content as authoritative, positioning your company as a thought leader in your industry.
  • The trustworthiness of your content and honesty about what your company provides.

Y-M-Y-L

Your content should always influence readers in some way. In an industry like healthcare, where the patient’s health, happiness, and financial situation are all affected, your content should always strive to address one of those areas to provide the most value.

Y-M-Y-L stands for Your Money or Your Life, and when creating content, you should always address this issue. Ask yourself, “How is my content affecting my patient’s life?” If your answer to that question is that it’s impacting your patients’ lives directly, then your content is doing its job.

SEO

SEO strategies for the Google algorithm update 2021

You’re looking to get the most out of your marketing efforts for your healthcare facility. To do so, you need to optimize for SEO and update your strategy so you can rank higher on search engine result pages (SERPs).

For a solid strategy, you need to consider several different ways to optimize your content for your patients. A few key areas to focus on are:

  • Medical-based keyword research.
  • Meta titles, headings, and descriptions for keywords.
  • Google My Business pages.

Medical-based keyword research

When implementing your SEO strategy to prepare for the Google algorithm update 2021, start with keyword research based on your medical niche. For example, let’s say you’re in regenerative medicine. Your research tells you that users search for phrases like “regenerative foot and ankle treatments.”

Use that phrase in the title of an article, subheaders, and the body of the content so Google will recognize that article as a possible solution to that patient’s query.

Meta titles, headings, and descriptions for keywords

You can effectively drive traffic to your website when optimizing meta titles and descriptions. The meta description appears on SERPs, so include a few sentences about the article (and your keyword) to entice users to click on your page. As mentioned above, using the keyword in your headers will also help you rank, showing search engines that the actual content pertains to the topic (and you didn’t just game the meta information for higher rankings).

Create and optimize your Google My Business page

One of the easiest ways to strategize your content marketing plan for SEO is to utilize Google My Business. It’s a free tool to promote your company and website on Google Search and Maps.

You can connect with your customers, post updates, and read reviews about patient experience in your facility. It’s essential to optimize your Google My Business page to appear at the top rankings for the medical-based keywords you’ve researched.

In summary

When it comes to your healthcare facility’s content marketing plan, it’s important to optimize for the Google algorithm update 2021 if you want to prepare and keep an edge on the competition. In an industry that requires expertise, trust and quick answers, fixing up your page experience will increase your patient engagement levels, lead to stronger relationships and more leads.

Solution for optimizing content for healthcare companies

If you’re looking for a solution for optimizing your content marketing strategy, Tempesta Media has a managed services solution for your healthcare facility.

With Tempesta Media, you can optimize your content for Google while also leveraging social and influencer marketing to drive better results at less cost. When you implement a plan that considers the Google algorithm update 2021 and optimizing page experience and SEO, you’ll get the most out of your website and content marketing efforts.

As you prepare for the update, there are other areas to consider to set your content marketing program up for success. Read our latest e-book on 100 mistakes companies make in implementing their programs to learn other ways to improve yours.

5 Healthcare Content Marketing Secrets

Healthcare content marketing calls for strategies that help you connect in meaningful ways and create value for your audience. Here are five secrets for a content marketing program that drives results in this field.

Great healthcare extends beyond in-person interactions. Healthcare organizations can implement content marketing strategies to drive revenues, provide a better patient experience and even improve patient outcomes. These five secrets can transform an existing content marketing program to achieve better results.

Write for your audience

Content marketing for the healthcare industry needs to adapt to the unique audience each organization targets. It’s crucial to conduct market research to learn more about your local audience.

On average, 74% of patients have a positive view of medical doctors. Using surveys to measure trust at a local level is a great place to start with market research.
Quality demographic data can inform healthcare organizations about different patient groups and their needs, expectations and health risks to help develop content that is more relevant.

Create content for the patient’s entire lifecycle

Content marketing for the healthcare industry should focus on delivering valuable content throughout the entire patient lifecycle. Too often, healthcare organizations focus on specific pivot moments when a patient decides to seek care.

Focusing on the complete lifecycle can unlock more value through repeat visits and can deliver a better experience for the patient. It also allows for more personalization with content tailored to a patient’s unique history with your organization.

branding

Remember that branding matters for the healthcare content marketing

Mergers and acquisitions activity is on the rise in the healthcare field, with 19 mergers in Q3 2020 alone. It’s easy for patients to get confused and lack awareness of what your brand stands for.

Your content marketing program should inform patients about any M&A deals or name changes and prioritize branding through content that communicates the value proposition of your brand.

Address content blind spots

A common issue with healthcare content marketing for the healthcare industry is that content often sounds too broad and encyclopedic. If your blog looks like a collection of articles from Mayo Clinic or WebMD, it’s time to address content blind spots with the following techniques:

  • Find a tone and voice that sets you apart.
  • Update evergreen content with recent research and statistics.
  • Make a topic more engaging by adding a Q&A section with one of your medical experts.
  • Create more relatable content by integrating testimonies from patients.
  • Keep an eye on search trends to address new questions and concerns.
  • Make content more appealing with images and videos.

Amplify your content

You can increase awareness and organic traffic by amplifying your content through the right channels.

Social media is a key method for amplifying your content and connecting with your audience. Emails are another channel to explore for delivering content throughout a patient’s lifecycle, and text messages can be a great way to share more customized information. If your organization has an online patient portal, use it for personalized content recommendations too.

Final thoughts

Good patient-provider relationships are the hallmark of a successful healthcare organization. Developing those relationships goes beyond the interactions patients have in person, extending throughout the entirety of their lifecycle.

Healthcare content marketing is the tool that enables you to reach your patients, no matter where they are. By taking advantage of these five secrets, your content marketing for the healthcare industry can drive better results and deliver more value for your audience.

But these aren’t the only factors to be aware of. Download Tempesta Media’s e-book on 100 mistakes businesses make when implementing their program to set yours on the path to success.

Need help getting traction? Our managed service is built around your strategic and financial objectives. We blend the right balance of content, social media, and influencer marketing programs together to achieve performance-driven results. For a free evaluation of your current program and objectives, please contact us to learn more.