We all know people are looking online for healthcare information. And you know the key to getting patients and prospective patients to your practice’s website and keeping them there is through a quality top of funnel search engine optimization strategy. What’s the next step?
Developing a Quality Content Strategy
Patients and caregivers really are not interested in propaganda about how great your organization is, at least not initially in their online search. They are seeking helpful educational information that will help them make informed decisions about what their next step should be in consulting with a healthcare professional.
According to Pew Research, 72% of internet users say they looked online for health information of one kind or another within the past year. This includes searches related to serious conditions, general information searches, and searches for minor health problems. In fact the third most popular activity that people do online – right behind checking email and using a search engine – is looking for answers to health questions.
You should be curious as to where your potential patients are seeking information. According to Mashable, the online resources most frequently accessed for health-related information are: 56% searched WebMD, 31% Wikipedia, 29% health magazine websites, 17% Facebook, 15% YouTube, 13% a blog or multiple blogs, 12% patient communities, 6% Twitter, and 27% none of the above.
It stands to reason, then, that there will be a continued demand for educational content in the form of blogs, social media, white papers, checklists, videos, podcasts and email that are designed to create a personalized experience for the patient. Developing a content strategy that touches the patient at the right time, with the right information in the right channel will be a key element of developing a relationship with potential new patients.
Your content strategy should include the educational information your patients are seeking. Sure, you can purchase an online patient education portal, like Krames, but you should also provide unique, custom content for your audience. The best (and quite frankly, the easiest) way to accomplish this is with an inbound marketing partner. Inbound agencies provide all the content you need to reach and engage your audience.
