Content Marketing Strategies for Health Wellness€¦ · with players like Google aggressively...

Content Marketing Strategies for Health & Wellness

A Hands-On Guide to Successful Content Marketing in the Health & Wellness Industry

• Establish Credibility• Engage Your Audience• Create Trust• Build Your Brand• Drive Sales

IntroductionTrendsIndustry Implications

Web Marketing TrendsSemantic SearchContent EngineeringMobile-Driven User BehaviorSocial Sharing

Content Marketing Tactics for Health & WellnessInfographicsEbooksProduct and Service ContentIn-Depth ArticlesBlogsSEO Best Practices

Conclusion

About Brandpoint

030405

0607080910

11121314151617

18

19

TABLE OF CONTENTS

3

The changes within the industries that comprise healthcare and health & wellness in the United States have never been as profound as they are today. A nexus of demographic shifts, technology innovation and a new regulatory landscape are transforming the way companies provide products and services to a broad range of consumers.

The amount of change has been profound, leading to gaps in knowledge among numerous audiences. That’s where content comes in. While content marketing has many benefits for companies, one of the core ones is the simplest: content answers questions.

Answering these questions gives companies authority, trust and the ability to shape conversations. The scope and breadth of these questions is unprecedented in today’s healthcare environment.

Today, every marketer involved with healthcare, health and wellness needs to be a content provider. This Ebook gives you the background and tools you need to put content to work for your organization.

Introduction

CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGIES FOR HEALTH & WELLNESS 4

“Promises of Amazon-style online experiences for individuals shopping for health insurance will be put to the test … when 12 million people are expected to enroll in insurance exchanges. With consumers demanding a greater say in how they spend their healthcare dollars, and the development of state insurance exchanges, health insurers are re-thinking business strategy moving forward.” – PricewaterhouseCoopers

TrendsThe trends driving change in the health & wellness arena present both challenges and opportunities to companies marketing related products and services. These trends include sea-change shifts in demographics, technology and government regulations.

The population in the United States is steadily aging, and as people age, they place increased demands across all healthcare systems. Furthermore, access to healthcare is expected to drastically increase via the Affordable Healthcare Act, bringing diverse new groups into the system. Population management, wellness and continuing care will be areas of focus, and these factors introduce new challenges and opportunities.

As most people know, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) implements a requirement that each citizen acquire health insurance. ACA also establishes strict new regulations that will impact healthcare payers and providers and their vendors. The healthcare industry has traditionally been one of the most regulated industries in the nation, and it will only become more complex.

Managing this complexity will continue to require more sophisticated technology. Additionally, the technology employed by care providers is becoming more advanced, including diagnosis, treatment and medical device technology. Ongoing training and education will continue to be important for patients, providers and anyone utilizing or interfacing with this complex and rapidly changing industry.


Industry ImplicationsAs industries and customers change, communication becomes more important. Content has become central to web marketing, with players like Google aggressively promoting features designed to encourage quality, useful content.

But what exactly is quality, useful content?

That’s not determined by companies, organizations or even Google. The people that read, view and share content determine whether content is useful or not. Creating great content for health & wellness is not easy given the regulatory, organizational and technical subject matter of healthcare.

To successfully communicate complex information and move consumers across a highly involved purchase process, it’s critical to know who they are, and what drives their decisions. Understanding the customer segments within healthcare is critical to successful web content marketing and communication.

“Try to make sure that you’ve got high-quality content, the sort of content that people really enjoy, that’s compelling, the sort of thing that they’ll love to read that you might see in a magazine or in a book, and that people would refer back to, or send friends to, those sorts of things.” – Matt Cutts, Google

6

Web marketing has undergone several changes recently. In many cases, these changes have been developing over time, but now we are seeing the results more profoundly than ever before. It is important to understand these changes.

Content marketing isn’t complex at all. But it does require a basic understanding of several components. One is “search” – how the search engine algorithms actually operate to bring consumers to your content … or to someone else’s.

Other essential ideas include content engineering (improving your placement in the search engines), mobile devices (more and more people are staying off their PCs for personal use) and social sharing (making your content good enough so that consumers pass the material along).

Web Marketing Trends


Semantic SearchGoogle recently updated its search algorithm and labeled it “Hummingbird.”

One of the key objectives of this update was to be able to process longer queries or strings of words, and not just deliver results on exact matches to specific keywords. In short, Hummingbird strives to infer the meaning of words within the context of the search. This concept is grounded in semantic search, which differs from keyword-driven search based on its ability to better understand the intent behind search.

This is important to healthcare marketers for a number of reasons. As the search function improves to answer questions rather than queries, the demand for information relevant for key healthcare segments will grow. It’s important to begin thinking of the web as an infrastructure to answer questions … and not simply sites, pages and keywords.

Bottom line: You need to be creating original, engaging and informative content for people … not something that tries to satisfy the rote needs of an old-fashioned search engine. Those days are gone!

“Rather than using ranking algorithms such as Google’s PageRank to predict relevancy, semantic search uses semantics, or the science of meaning in language, to produce highly relevant search results.” - Wikipedia


Content EngineeringGetting content to rank on Google is increasingly moving beyond keywords and into a set of specifications called Schema to clearly identify content types, sources, location and other meta (tag or label) information.

We see the results of this when we type in a search for information like a recipe, food reference or sports score. Facebook also has a similar set of specifications, called OpenGraph, within its platform.

Producing quality content is critical, but it’s also important to get maximum visibility and ROI for your investment in content. Making sure content is formatted to 1) be found, and 2) shared effectively, will be critical. Think of this as “content engineering.” Platforms such as Facebook and Google have a vested interest in keeping their user experiences optimized, and it will become critical that content is formatted to fit within their specifications.

FACT: Schema.org recently implemented markup for health and medical content. These microdata tags are delivering better search results for topics within healthcare.


Mobile-Driven User BehaviorThe way people interact with sites, brands and information via computers has changed deeply in the past decade. One of the most profound drivers of this change has been the wide adoption of mobile devices, and a corresponding change in online behavior.

Location forms the basis of many mobile interactions. Finding a clinic, locating a store, getting directions to a hospital or trying to identify a neighborhood insurance agent are all tasks that can be done effectively on a mobile phone, and many companies have optimized their user experiences to support these interactions.

But mobile driven user behavior doesn’t stop at the phone. People are using tablets more often, and consuming content within mobile apps.

Consumers watch videos on their phone, but not for long periods of time. Mobile experiences tend to be simple in order to be effective, and those expectations are being carried back into the content being consumed via laptops and desktops.

Like all industries, companies within healthcare, health and wellness need to recognize the behavior of end users. Mobile is no longer just for maps. Make sure your user experience is clear, and that content can be easily found across all devices.

“77% of mobile search happens at work or home even though a computer may be accessible.” – Search Engine Land


Social SharingSocial networks have become central to broad demographics online, from teens through middle-aged professionals and even retirees. Platforms like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn have become sharing platforms.

As an industry that requires a large amount of regulatory compliance, and is often structured to move in a disciplined, methodical way, companies in the healthcare, health and wellness environments often neglect opportunities to participate and share via social networks. This needs to change.

Social sharing metrics are key signals for search engines: The more your content gets shared, the more valuable the search engines see it, and the higher your page ranking.

Moreover, developing and maintaining a social relationship with key constituents gives health-related companies the ability to facilitate ongoing relationships at scale, and effectively respond in real time to developments within an industry, locale or customer segment.

FACT: Only 26% of hospitals in the United States participate in social media.

11

So, how do marketers close the gap among their industry, customers and the constantly changing marketing environment of the web? Can existing infrastructure such as websites, email lists and social profiles be leveraged? What else is required?

For many years, content has been the last thing considered in user experiences. However, in 2014 and beyond, content will be the primary factor that determines success or failure for web programs. There are a number of tactics that health marketing and communication professionals can leverage to impact their success.

Descriptions of five of the most important of these tools and tactics follow.

“On average, healthcare marketers spend 23% of their total marketing budget on content marketing activities, compared to 31% for all marketers.” – Content Marketing Institute

Content Marketing Tactics for Health & Wellness


InfographicsHealth & wellness is an industry in which it is often challenging or difficult to grasp the subject matter. Distilling a complex topic into a simple concept can be critical to facilitating everything from lead generation to policy development. Infographics have become recognized as an effective tactic for this type of application.

An infographic combines facts and information into graphics to tell a story. The story can illustrate a process, a concept, or even be used as how-to information. The idea behind an infographic is to take what might otherwise be a thousand-word article (that few people would read) and distill the concept down into an easily digestible graphic with few words (that a consumer will happily review, study and digest).

As one-page, stand alone documents, infographics are easy to share, so they are an effective tactic to leverage in social media. When they are shared, they can also build organic links to your website, which really benefits search engine optimization.

FACT: Search volume for infographics increased 1000% between 2010 and 2013.


EbooksSales support and lead generation are some of the most important tasks in any organization, but they are also some of the most challenging activities to facilitate. People offer up their contact information only when they believe they will receive something of value. Often, this exchange can be effectively facilitated with content that promises to impart quality information that is actionable, and/or offers knowledge of real value.

An Ebook is a standalone document, typically in PDF format. The text content can range from 1,000 to 2,000 words, and the piece typically runs 10 to 30 pages long. You’re reading one right now.

Ebooks typically combine text and graphics to tell more complex stories than infographics. They are designed to be print friendly, and also be easily read on desktops, laptops and mobile devices (most likely a tablet).

You can promote Ebooks on websites, within paid media and via social media. For many online marketing campaigns, offering premium content deliverables (such as an Ebook) can multiply the number of leads you create. Ebooks are also effective tools to be leveraged by inside sales teams to establish relationships with potential customers

e-booknounplural noun: ebooks1. An electronic version of a printed book that can be read on a computer or handheld device designed specifically for this purpose.


Product and Service ContentProducts and services serve as the core content for most websites within the healthcare, health and wellness industries. These pages are often the ones that need to rank highly in organic search, serve as landing pages for paid search, and contribute intrinsic value to a lead or sales conversion.

In short, product and service content are the pages that your prospects access, often multiple times, before they take action on a website.

Making sure that these pages conform to SEO best practices is a top priority in authoring this content. Ensuring that these pages are authored with the appropriate level of information, with the right voice and tone, and that they effectively link to supporting content, is critical to acquiring leads and sales.

Tip: When creating products and services content, consider the questions healthcare consumers have. Answering these questions builds trust with the customer, and makes the content more relevant for semantic search. Remember: You are creating content for people, not search engines!


In-Depth ArticlesOne of the new content types supported by Google is a specific type of content called In-Depth Articles. This content takes advantage of Google Schema, and is displayed as a rich snippet (pullout of key introductory/explanatory information) in search results.

In-Depth Articles are intended to be information that is long-form (more than 1,000 words), evergreen (relevant for not months, but years) and authoritative. These articles need to be tagged based on Google’s Schema, and should follow Google’s SEO best practices.

The types of topics that are best considered for in-depth articles should be highly involved, multi-faceted, and answer multiple questions end users have around a topic or set of topics.

“Diabetes,” “depression” and “pregnancy” are all in the top 25 search results that feature in-depth articles.


BlogsAs a web marketing tactic, blogs have evolved from being an outlier tactic to nearly mandatory! There are many reasons why blogs are so popular … and essential.

First of all, blogs are easy to update. They can accommodate a variety of topics. And they can be easily updated. One of the keys to smart blogging practices is to blog often – one, two, even three or more times per week (as long as the content is interesting and relevant). New blogs – well written and featuring orginal content – keep the search engines coming back to your website, and that’s good for traffic.

In short, blogs address many key signals for search engines, but chiefly: Search engines like fresh, relevant content. Take advantage of Google Authorship to stand out in search results: Link your Google Plus profile to your blog content; Google rewards this.

Many healthcare organizations could benefit from blog content, but far fewer take advantage of this tactic due to organizational structure, the requirement for regulatory compliance, or simply a lack of awareness of the viability (and effectiveness!) of this tactic. Editorial planning, informed topic selection and a structured content workflow can overcome these obstacles, and create a sustainable marketing and communications advantage for organizations that recognize the value of blog content.

58% of health care marketers use blogs, versus 74% of all marketers.


SEO Best PracticesRecent updates from Google, and the evolution of social media platforms, are changing the way SEO gets implemented. Some best practices still apply, and Google gives strong guidance on basic do’s and don’ts:

• Ensure that each page has a unique title and description

• Avoid duplicate content (the search engines frown on that, which is why fresh, original content is so important)

• Make sure your pages can be found

• Use appropriate page level elements for emphasis

But what’s changed is quite profound. Earning links based on quality content is paramount; sites that try to buy their way to higher domain authority are penalized. Tagging content based on Google’s schema, Facebook’s open graph and the Dublin Core standards can help content be more easily found and shared. Promoting content via social media impacts SEO as well.

As more people turn to the web to get their healthcare questions answered, ensuring that content is formatted to these SEO standards will often be the difference between content being found or not found.

“Today Google’s algorithms rely on more than 200 unique signals or “clues” that make it possible to guess what you might really be looking for. These signals include things like the terms on websites, the freshness of content, your region and PageRank.” - Google

18

At first blush, creating a content marketing program for your business – or improving the content marketing plan you currently have going – might seem daunting. But it doesn’t have to be a complex process. And it certainly is essential: Content marketing is the new marketing. Your competitors are doing it; you need to be doing it too.

The secret to good content marketing for the health and wellness environment is simple: Put a plan and schedule together, then just get to work creating and posting content. The ideas in this Ebook will get you going on strategies to do just that. Keep your plan simple to start, and build from there as you see results.

For instance, you might start blogging, or increase your blog frequency. Try to create an Ebook a quarter. Improve your product and service content. Have experts within your organization create in-depth articles surrounding the problems/challenges your products or services solve.

Be a thought leader and an information provider, to build trust and loyalty among consumers. Then reap the rewards as they turn to you when it’s time to purchase. That’s content marketing for health and wellness.

Conclusion


About BrandpointBrandpoint has been creating content for the world’s biggest and best brands since 1996, and is a leader in the ever-evolving content marketing industry. Ebooks like Content Marketing Strategies for Health & Wellness pass along hard-earned expertise to other organizations that care about great content and putting it to use in their marketing programs.

Brandpoint creates quality content that delivers measurable online results for our clients. We have the team, tools and process to quickly deliver quality content that can address the marketing challenges faced by companies within the healthcare, health and wellness industry.

Brandpoint’s content marketing solution features:• Deep experience delivering results for health and wellness clients• Dedicated account manager and strategist to get your campaign going and keep it humming• Assigned writer for your account: You work directly with your writer to assure proper tone and quality

content results• Proprietary content platform that makes workflow smooth and easy for you• Custom online reporting dashboard so you can measure the results of your content investment

Contact a Brandpoint Digital Marketing Consultant for details.

http://www.brandpoint.com/contact-us/

Content Marketing Strategies for Health Wellness€¦ · with players like Google aggressively...

Documents

Transcript of Content Marketing Strategies for Health Wellness€¦ · with players like Google aggressively...