Its hard to figure out what patients want to hear. It’s harder still to create content that they’ll connect and respond to! Effective healthcare marketing should start with great content.

Want to be impactful but you can’t even start
Most of us get hung up on what we are trying to say and how we say it. That’s normal!

Whether you need a starting concept, or you are just plumb out of ideas, this article will help  you develop content that will educate, engaged and impact your patients.

When you can’t start, step outside your head
If you are trying to attract new patients, talk to your existing ones. They know why they chose your hospital in the first place! They also know what keeps them coming back to your specialists, and … even better, what would make them come back for serious healthcare! Turn those conversations into content.

Patient centered content has the added benefit of re-engagement, by activating them to interact with your hospital brand and keeping them excited to their contributions featured. Its a win, win!

+ Request feedback in your hospital emails. Utilise surveys to solicit their comments. They can tell you exactly what they want from you.

+ Start a conversation on your social network. Engage your followers and fans. Create a conversations stream, sit back and draw content from their interactions.

+ Go offline! Novel idea, I know! Chat with patients face to face in the waiting rooms and lobby. Think out of your computer!

+ Repurpose existing content. As hospitals, we have hard drives full of old video coverage, press releases that were never picked up by the networks, fact sheets that can be revived and reused.

+ Review old emails. We have all had successful email campaigns, ones with great open and click through rates. Use them, resue them!

+ Take content from your print materials. Translate it into the top 3 languages in your locality and post it.

+ Revisit our FAQ page. This is a bounty of useful information about your hospital.

+ Create a keywords search report from your website. Patients search for what they cannot find … or what is not already there!

10 statistics that prove the value and power of content

+ 60% of clients feel more positive about a company [or health system] after reading custom content on its site. (Source)

+ 99% of consumers find custom content useful, and 78% think that organizations providing this custom content are interested in building good relationships with them. (Source)

+ 9 out of 10 organizations market with content. (Source)

+ 78% of chief marketing officers think custom media is the future of marketing. (Source)

+ 70% of consumers prefer getting to know a company from their articles rather than ads. (Source)

+ Content marketing costs less. Statistics show that content marketing costs 62% less per lead than traditional outbound marketing. (Source)

+ 68% are likely to spend time reading content from a brand they are interested in. (Source)

+ 57% read content marketing sites once a month … at least! (Source)

+ Spending on content marketing, video education and social content creation will increase 15% in 2013 to total $118 billion, according to eMarketer.

+  People, and health information seekers, want to be in control of what information they receive. Here’s proof ::

  • 86% of people skip TV advertisements
  • 44% of direct mail is never opened
  • 91% of email users have unsubscribed from a company email that they had previously opted into (Source)

Good content has value to everyone who encounters your brand, from casual health information seekers to long-term loyal patients.

So, what are you waiting for? Start creating!