Trust and expertise are paramount in the healthcare industry, and many constantly lean on search engines for health information. In fact, a recent study found that over the last year, 86% of Americans have used the Internet for medical advice before consulting a doctor.
Content marketing offers healthcare providers a unique opportunity to connect and educate patients while establishing authority in the space.
But let’s be real — standing out in a crowded industry isn’t easy. With so much competition and the need to provide accurate and reliable data, a solid content marketing strategy can make all the difference.
In this guide, we’ll explore content marketing ideas for healthcare that help inform, inspire, and build lasting relationships with your audience. Let’s dive in.
What Is Healthcare Content Marketing?
Healthcare content marketing is all about creating and sharing relevant, valuable health-related content to attract and retain your audience. This content can take many forms (which we’ll cover more in-depth below) — from blog posts and videos to interactive tools and health quizzes.
The goal? To educate, inform, and establish credibility by earning the trust of your patients and community.
So, what’s the difference between healthcare content marketing and regular content marketing? The key lies in the emphasis on factual information.
Accuracy is crucial in any industry, but it’s a nonnegotiable in healthcare. That’s why every piece of content you create needs to be educational and backed by research and facts to ensure it provides real value to patients.
The Importance of Content Marketing for Healthcare Companies
Content marketing in healthcare is extremely valuable for a variety of reasons, as it:
- Builds trust and credibility: First and foremost, high-quality, factual content can position your brand as a reputable source for health information. This allows you to build trust with your audience and increase the chances of someone choosing your services.
- Attracts and retains patients: Sharing informative and valuable content attracts new patients and strengthens relationships with current ones.
- Strengthens brand reputation: Creating content that includes thought leadership, customer testimonials, and data-driven information can increase your authority in the industry, thus strengthening your brand reputation.
- Improves visibility: High-quality SEO content can boost your search engine rankings, potentially putting you alongside industry leaders like Healthline or Mayo Clinic.
Effective healthcare content marketing enhances your brand’s visibility and credibility and positions your brand as a trusted leader in the industry, leading to more meaningful connections with your community.
5 Key Components of a Healthcare Content Marketing Strategy
To maintain trust, healthcare content must be accurate and reliable. Here are the five key components of effective healthcare content marketing:
- Credibility: Credibility is essential for your money your life (YMYL) content. Google’s YMYL guidelines require accurate and reliable information, especially in healthcare. You can build trust with your audience by providing credible, data-backed content.
- Accuracy: In the same vein, your content must also be accurate. Having your content medically reviewed and fact-checked by medical professionals is one way to ensure accuracy and credibility.
- Data: Supporting your claims with relevant data from external sources and internal research further enhances credibility and accuracy.
- Timeliness: Information should be timely, include up-to-date information, and comply with the most recent regulatory requirements.
- Compliance: Healthcare content must always maintain HIPAA compliance. To do this, you should avoid sharing protected health information (PHI) and obtain written consent from patients if you’re including their stories in content and case studies.
Let’s look at an example from Healthline. The brand immediately establishes credibility by highlighting the medical reviewer and the date the article was last updated, demonstrating its commitment to accuracy and timeliness.
Healthline offers reliable information by linking to data sources to support its claims. When hovering over links, you can easily verify the information and learn more about why these sources are trustworthy.
To further show its commitment to providing timely, credible, and accurate information, Healthline includes a section at the bottom of each post that indicates when the article was last updated and fact-checked.
9 Healthcare Content Ideas To Add To Your Content Strategy
We know why content marketing in the healthcare industry is essential, but what content types are most effective in driving results? Let’s dive into our top picks for healthcare content ideas that you can add to your healthcare content strategy.
1. Write High-Quality Blog Posts
Creating valuable healthcare content starts with high-quality blog posts that educate and engage your audience while building trust. When developing your content strategy, lean on different content formats like:
- Definitional articles breaking down complex medical topics
- General health advice and prevention tips
- Patient stories
- Condition guides
- Seasonal health advice
- Surveys and data studies
To improve your search engine visibility, optimize your posts with relevant keywords and focus on demonstrating expertise, experience, trust, and authority, also known as E-E-A-T in the SEO world.
E-E-A-T is a set of guidelines Google uses to evaluate the quality and reliability of content and reduce the spread of misinformation, especially for YMYL topics like healthcare. While not a definite ranking factor, E-E-A-T is crucial in gaining your audience’s trust and establishing credibility.
2. Invest in Video Content
Video is a powerful and versatile content format in the healthcare industry, and 69% of content marketers say it’s one of the main content formats in their strategy. It can help simplify complex medical information while adding a personal, compassionate touch to help build trust with patients.
Whether it’s an educational video breaking down a health topic, a facility tour, or a step-by-step explanation of a procedure, video content can help patients feel more comfortable and confident.
3. Create Interactive Content
Interactive content is on the rise, with 62.3% of content marketers incorporating it into their content strategies (and for good reason). It offers a dynamic and engaging content experience that resonates and responds to patient needs in real time.
Tools like health assessments, quizzes, and calculators provide personalized value and keep users engaged in a way that normal static posts and images just can’t match.
Interactive content helps you stand out from competitors, often giving your content a “premium” feel that sets you apart. On top of that, interactives are high converters. Once users are engaged, they’re more likely to take the next step or action, like booking an appointment or signing up for a newsletter.
Interactive assets are also great link building resources(more on that below). They help garner high-quality, passive links over time that help boost your SEO efforts, like this BMI calculator from WebMD.
4. Focus on High-Quality Visuals
High-quality visuals are a game changer when it comes to content marketing ideas for healthcare. They help make complex information more digestible while creating a more engaging user experience.
Plus, a consistent design style can help with brand recognition and trust. High-quality photos of your facility and staff can also go a long way and help familiarize potential patients with your practice, adding a personal and authentic touch.
But visuals don’t just make your content look great — they can also improve SEO. Search engines can index image and video content and, when optimized, they can help increase your visibility on the SERPs.
And, adding descriptive alt text that includes relevant keywords can increase your chances of ranking higher and showing up in Google image packs.
5. Produce eBooks and Whitepapers
High-value content in the form of eBooks and white papers can be powerful lead-generation tools. These comprehensive resources allow you to dive deeper into health topics, providing detailed information and data that patients are looking for.
By offering these assets in exchange for contact information, you can grow your lead pipeline while still delivering valuable content to build trust with your audience.
6. Establish Credibility With Thought Leadership
Earlier, we talked about Google’s E-E-A-T framework and how it prioritizes reliable, credible, and authoritative content. To align with these standards and further boost your search visibility, incorporating thought leadership in your content strategy is a must.
Have medical experts contribute insights on health topics through blog posts, video content, or interviews. Their experience not only adds depth to your content but reinforces the trust signals Google deems valuable. Take it further and sprinkle expert insights or quotes throughout your visuals, providing value while further establishing credibility.
7. Start a Podcast
What better way to showcase thought leadership than through a podcast? Like videos, podcasts are just another content avenue you can take to increase visibility and connect with your audience on a deeper, more personal level.
Podcast topics can range from expert interviews to patient stories and general health discussions, ultimately providing a unique opportunity to educate, inspire, and build lasting relationships with your audience.
You can even repurpose clips from your podcast to include in blogs and social media posts, allowing you to amplify your reach across multiple channels. Podcasts aren’t just about sharing information — they create an open dialogue with your audience to keep them coming back for more.
8. Promote Your Content with Digital PR
One of our most recent studies revealed that over half of content marketing and SEO professionals rely on organic link building rather than manual outreach. That’s not to say manual outreach is dead. But, more brands (and Siege) are moving away from manual outreach and focusing on creating high-quality, organic link-driving content.
This digital PR strategy is especially valuable for healthcare companies aiming to reach a wider audience and strengthen their authority while boosting their link profile. Some of the best content formats that are organic link drivers in healthcare are:
- Data studies and surveys: Share original research or statistics to position your brand as the go-to, trusted source.
- Interactive content: Tools like quizzes and assessments are highly shareable due to their engaging nature.
- Evergreen content: Definitional posts or in-depth guides provide lasting value that can continue to garner natural links over time.
When your content demonstrates expertise and provides unique insights, it will naturally attract links, helping build your authority and improve search rankings.
A good example of health content that continues to drive links is Asbestos’ survey and data study highlighting the lingering effects of 9/11. Originally published in 2021, this post currently has 90 links and continues to drive links from high-authority sites every year.
Not only does it provide valuable data, but it also includes animated graphics, helping boost shareability further.
9. Build a Content Roadmap
No content strategy is complete without a well-planned content roadmap that helps keep your content marketing efforts focused, consistent, and aligned with your primary KPIs.
At Siege, we use a Keyword Opposition to Benefit (KOB) Analysis to identify and prioritize high-impact keywords that drive traffic, links, and leads. From there, you can use your findings to identify strong organic link opportunities.
You’ll also want to incorporate content refreshes into your roadmap to ensure your health content includes the most up-to-date and relevant information.
Download our free KOB analysis template to help kick off your healthcare content strategy.
Upgrade Your Healthcare Content Strategy
Investing in content marketing ideas for healthcare can help you build a content strategy that helps you connect with patients, build trust, and establish your organization as a leader in the industry.
Our talented team at Siege Media can help put these ideas into motion and build a content strategy that will take your brand to new heights. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your health brand’s organic growth strategy.
