Content marketing is a vital element of any company’s marketing strategy and can play a key role in helping your target audience connect with your brand especially in the healthcare industry. Clients need information in order to empower them to take action and this is where content marketing plays a pivotal role. So what are the goals and current trends for healthcare companies when it comes to content marketing?
Healthcare Companies Lag Behind in Content Marketing
A recent study by the Content Marketing Institute indicated that healthcare companies lag behind other industries when it comes to content marketing. This is in part due to the numerous regulations that often affect healthcare companies but other factors also play a role such as fear. Healthcare companies must move carefully when it comes to deploying content in order to ensure compliance. In addition, content approval may also be a lengthy, cumbersome process within many healthcare companies.
The study indicated that just 23 percent of healthcare companies use content marketing as part of their marketing strategies while 31 percent of companies in other industries use content marketing. Over the next 12 months, 42 percent of healthcare companies plan to implement content marketing as a part of their marketing strategies. The reason for the changes is that healthcare companies are beginning to see as a main component of brand strategy.
With regard to the delivery of content, healthcare companies tend to use printed materials more than other industries and they also are less likely to use social media. However, healthcare companies tend to use video slightly more than order industries.
Better Content Marketing Can Help Companies Compete
Since there is a lot of room for healthcare companies to better utilize content marketing as a marketing tool, there is an opportunity for companies to outpace the competition. Better healthcare company content marketing means that brands should create both transparency and connection with their content. Potential clients need to be able to connect with a brand in order to buy and content can make that possible.
Better content marketing means that companies should be using content to start a relationship and answer questions. Both of these steps should be taken with the goal in mind of establishing trust in the brand which will eventually lead to a connection.
Results of Effective Content Marketing
The indicators of effective content marketing include not only sales, but a high level of engagement with your brand. Your company’s content strategy should invoke curiosity about your brand and the willingness of your clients to initiate interactions with your brand.
Effective content marketing is developed through consistency and a continuous production of relevant content. Both factors must work in tandem without interruption along with an ongoing careful analysis of the results from the execution of the content strategy.
As analytical methods of obtaining tracking content marketing effectiveness continue to evolve, content marketing usage will only continue to increase. If your brand wishes to remain relevant in a changing marketplace, content marketing must become a main focus of your brand strategy. Your company must realign your company’s content so that it is consistent with the message and overall perception of your brand in order to achieve content marketing effectiveness.