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How to Map Your Content to the Customer Journey in Healthcare

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The customer journey might seem straightforward enough. A person thinks, “Hey, I need that product,” and then buys it. In fact, the customer journey is a complex five-part process. Mapping out the steps and tailoring content to target the customer at each step is a great way to bring them on board with your brand at any stage of the sales funnel. 

Below, we provide a step-by-step guide to customer journey mapping in healthcare to help you boost sales.

An Intro to Customer Journey Mapping in Healthcare

Understanding the customer journey’s steps is the first step in content mapping. Here they are:

  • Awareness: This stage makes the consumer aware of their want or need for a product or service. The consumer identifies a problem to solve. Example: A private physician’s practice recognizes the airborne infectiousness of the COVID-19 virus. The physician realizes they need FFP2 masks to protect staff and patients.
  • Evaluate: The consumer starts researching their options, comparing differing providers. They are looking for a solution to their problem. Example: The physician investigates FFP2 vendors, looking for a reliable product, affordable bulk orders, and fast delivery.
  • Decision-making: Having weighed the options, the consumer selects a provider. Example: The physician finds a vendor that meets their criteria and places an order.
  • Advocate: The consumer uses the product or service and is so happy with the experience that they refer other consumers to the product or service provider. Example: The physician is satisfied with the FFP2 product and customer experience. They recommend the vendor to a fellow healthcare practitioner who is also in need of FFP2 masks.
  • Retention: The consumer continues to use the product or service without switching to a different vendor. Example: The physician becomes a recurring customer, placing a new bulk order every month.

As you can see, customer journey mapping in healthcare allows you to step into the consumer’s shoes. With the example above, we peek into the physician’s mind and identify three selling points (reliable product, affordable bulk order, fast delivery) that would be relevant to them.

So, what is the role of content?

Content marketing can come into play at any stage of the journey. The right content format with the right message allows you to target your potential consumer effectively.

4-Step Checklist: Mapping Content to the Customer Journey

Follow these steps to create content according to customer journey mapping in healthcare.

1. Create Your Buyer Persona

Create a theoretical sketch of your target audience. This is your buyer persona. Research and write down a list of traits, like profession, demographic details (age, location, gender), professional goals and challenges, and influences (like medical journals they read).

Forbes recommends consulting frontline workers who work directly with consumers (like salespeople) to create buyer personas.

2. Draw the Map

Next, take your buyer persona and walk them through the customer journey described above. Again, this is about adopting their mindset. Ask yourself these questions at each stage:

  • Awareness: How will the person seek a solution to the problem they’ve identified, e.g., via Google, healthcare publications, industry thought-leader websites, etc.?
  • Evaluate: What points are important to the person, e.g., the price versus convenience?
  • Decision-making: What touchpoints will the person come into contact with to conclude their decision, e.g., visiting a company website versus calling a healthcare sales rep?
  • Advocate: What will convince the person to advocate the brand they end up choosing? What channels will they use to spread the word, e.g., word of mouth versus social media?
  • Retention: What will keep the person coming back, e.g., reliable delivery, special deals, etc.?

3. Perform a Content Analysis

With the answers to these questions, it will become clear what content formats you should use to guide your target consumer through the sales funnel.

Here are some ideas:

  • Awareness can be driven via info-packed content in the form of blog posts or infographics.
  • Evaluation can be informed through website landing and sales pages or live demos.
  • Decision-making might be driven via free trial sign-up pages.
  • Advocacy can be encouraged via shareable social media posts and forward-friendly emails.
  • Retention can be encouraged via engagement-boosters, like user guides, webinars, and podcasts.

4. Craft the Right Content

Finally, you’ve got the information you need to start crafting content according to your customer journey mapping in healthcare.

Let’s get back to that private physician in need of FFP2 masks, for example. He’s a GP running a family medicine practice in his early 50s, has been in private practice for 20+ years, is a family man, and prioritizes giving his patients affordable care.

When he’s looking for FFP2 masks, he’s prioritizing efficacy and convenience. He needs masks that work that will be delivered to his clinic doorstep fast. Cost-effectiveness is another concern, though: He’s willing to pay for quality but would prefer bulk pricing to keep costs down.

How are you going to get this guy’s attention at every stage of the customer journey? Maybe a blog post summarizing clinical study results on the efficacy of different types of masks will catch his eye at the awareness stage.

A clear sales page that offers bulk pricing options might be what wins him over when evaluating.

You might then follow up the sale with an email, asking if he’s satisfied – and whether he wants to place repeat orders, so he doesn’t have to think about re-ordering. There’s your retention phase.

In that email, you might include social media links to your company profiles, like Twitter. He then follows your company on Twitter.

Then, on your company’s Twitter page, you might share some infographics about the efficacy of FFP2 masks in minimizing COVID-19 transmission. The physician retweets the infographic to his followers – becoming an advocate of your brand.

We Help You Create Content Your Customers Love

Share Moving Media helps healthcare manufacturers craft authority content that captivates consumers and spurs them to take action. By boosting conversions, we help you increase your market share. We are a full-service media company, covering diverse formats from e-books to webinars and more.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for more healthcare marketing tips.Contact us to take your content marketing in healthcare to the next level.

Outstanding E-Book Examples: The Powerful Content Marketing Tool You Might Be Missing

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What do a killer content marketing strategy and your next vacation have in common? E-books. Too many companies underestimate the impact that e-books can have in attracting high-quality leads, building their brand, and developing trust with potential customers. But data shows that e-books as content marketing tools are on the rise. In a recent NetLine study, e-books were the number one most requested marketing content. Take a look at these outstanding e-book examples to discover how to make e-books work for you.

Key Takeaways

  • E-books help position your brand and attract high-quality leads.
  • Your e-book should meet an unmet need for your potential customers.
  • The best e-books are formatted professionally to reflect the writer’s brand and values.
  • An effective landing page is a vital component of your e-book strategy.

The Benefits of E-Books as a Content Marketing Tool

Why are e-books such a powerful content marketing tool? Creating an e-book has many benefits, from positioning you as an industry expert to generating more high-quality leads. With an e-book, you will:

Offer Value

E-books are one of the best ways to build value with your audience. Many people worry about giving so much information away for free, thinking their e-book will replace the need for their services. In fact, the opposite is true.

Your e-book is an example of the expertise you can offer clients. By giving it away for free or at a low price, you are giving potential customers a substantive sample of what your services can do for them. When you demonstrate the value you can provide, you build confidence and value in your paid services too. 

Example: software company Devsu offers its e-book on “Tech as a Revenue Driver” to address one of its customers’ key goals. It offers quality insights that can directly assist its clients and demonstrates the value it brings to the table with its services.

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Generate Leads

E-books are an effective lead magnet: a free item you give away in exchange for the potential customer’s contact details. It’s not easy to convince people to part with their valuable contact information. However, if you give away professionally presented, in-depth information in exchange, people will likely perceive it as a worthwhile trade.

That’s why e-books are an effective way to generate leads that convert. They offer a win-win situation: your audience receives valuable and substantial insights, and you receive the contact information of people who self-identify as needing your service.

Example: fitness company Transform offers a free e-book of hunger control shake recipes. Its lean contact form makes it easy for anyone interested in weight loss to sign up for its book. The company can follow up knowing that these potential customers already need its products and services.

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Build Your Brand

Forty-six percent of consumers prefer a brand they know and trust. That’s why e-books are a fantastic opportunity to position yourself in the marketplace and build audience understanding of what your business offers.

Your brand can really shine in an e-book. Every page of your e-book, from the layout and color scheme to the content itself, will convey important messages about your brand, including:

  • Who you are
  • Your points of differentiation
  • Your level of expertise
  • Your brand’s purpose and values

E-books help build familiarity with potential customers, translating into higher brand recognition and more leads.

Example: utility company Surple uses consistent imaging throughout its e-book to convey its brand identity and values.

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Position Yourself as an Authority

When we refer to experts, we often use the phrase “they wrote the book on the subject.” Books, including e-books, carry weight and convey a sense of authority. Providing your valuable insights and expertise in e-book form helps position you as a thought leader and authority in your industry. This translates into greater recognition, trust, and ultimately sales.

Example: social media expert Gary Vaynerchuk‘s e-book “How to Make 64 Pieces of Content in a Day” is an impressive resource that clearly positions him as a leader in his field.

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Writing an Effective E-Book: Examples of How to Use E-Books in Your Content Marketing Strategy

Not all e-books are created equal. To implement an e-book as an effective component of your content marketing strategy, several important aspects must be kept in mind.

Choose an E-Book Subject That Meets Your Potential Clients’ Needs

Like any marketing content, it’s important to consider your audience carefully. You should identify your target audience and choose a topic that fulfills a need. Potential customers are significantly more likely to download an e-book that addresses their unmet needs.

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Example: cyber security company Celerity offers its e-book on “Cyber Security Priorities” to educate potential customers looking for ways to improve their cyber security. The landing page and e-book target the reader’s unmet needs.

Format Your E-Book Professionally to Reflect Your Brand

The best and most effective e-books are:

  • Visual
  • Interactive
  • Easy to digest

Think beyond the words to how you present them. Your e-book is a reflection of your brand, so it’s important for the formatting and presentation to look professional, clean, and consistent with your brand. 

Example: Dropbox‘s e-book “Don’t Let Large Files Slow You Down” effectively uses white space and graphics to present the information in easily digestible chunks.

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Entice Potential Customers with an Effective Landing Page

Your landing page is another vital aspect of implementing your e-book successfully. It should:

  • Tell readers exactly what to expect
  • Give them a preview of the e-book
  • Display social proof in the form of testimonials and reviews

These elements help convince potential customers that your e-book offers them value, making them more likely to provide their contact information in exchange.

Example: this e-book from hosting platform Flywheel offers a stand-out landing page example. The page is attractive and easily digestible. When visitors scroll down, there’s a visual preview of the chapters, giving them a clear idea of what they can expect to learn.

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This Flux Academy episode goes into depth on five crucial elements for an effective landing page:

Outsource Your E-Book to the Pros

When creating an e-book for your content marketing strategy, there’s a lot to consider. Fortunately, Share Moving Media is here to help. Our content marketing specialists know how to craft unique and compelling e-books to help you build your brand and attract the leads you want. 

Contact us today to find out how we can boost your business with an e-book.

3 Ways Online Media Coverage Results in More Revenue and Brand Recall

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Reaching a wider audience. Building your reputation. Gaining credibility. You need all three to advance to greater marketing goals.

In the healthcare manufacturing industry, earning a trustworthy reputation is vital, because your products have a direct and lasting impact on people’s lives. A solid reputation also may be the deciding factor when a customer is choosing between you and a competitor.

This is where online media coverage can give your business a huge boost.

Online media coverage is PR (public relations) carried out digitally. Rather than earning mentions in print news stories or TV/radio broadcasts, you’ll pop up in social media feeds, search engine results, online articles, blogs, and other digital media formats. 

And, unlike traditional PR, you can build your online media coverage by publishing authoritative content on your website. This accomplishes three goals:

  • Showcases your expertise 
  • Builds trust with your existing audience
  • Creates inroads with a wider audience as that content is shared, reshared, and mentioned across various channels

Let’s dive deeper into the ways reputation-building marketing tactics like online media coverage boosts your brand recall and bottom-line.

3 Ways Online Media Coverage Earns Results for Your Healthcare Marketing Strategy

Greater visibility in online media means greater visibility for your brand. In turn, greater visibility is your ticket to more leads, more customers, and more revenue. Here’s how.

1. Online Media Coverage Builds Brand Awareness and Recall Through Greater Reach & Repetition

To ensure your target audience knows who you are and what you sell, you need the power of online media coverage in the form of content.

70% of marketers actively invest in content, so you’re in good company.

It takes many forms, but some of the best types that effectively build brand awareness and brand recall for your business include blog posts and guest blogs.

Blog Posts

These are one of the best tools for online media coverage in healthcare for a few reasons.

First, your company blog is under your complete control. It’s the ideal place to inform and educate your audience about your expertise and your products.

Second, blog posts can be endlessly repurposed. You can share and distribute posts across social media channels and reuse them to create new content assets, such as infographics and videos.

Finally, blog content created with SEO techniques gives you greater visibility in Google search results. That means, when customers are searching for a solution or expertise like yours on search engines, they’ll find you.

This cycle of sharing and repetition is inherent in creating blog content, and is one of the keys to building brand awareness online.

Guest Blogs

These have most of the same benefits as blog posts, but they offer one additional asset: they get your name, company, and expertise in front of another brand’s audience. And, if you play your cards correctly, this audience will overlap with yours.

Most guest blogging opportunities allow you to include one promotional link to your website in a byline. So, it’s a good way to expand your reach and pull in more potential customers.

2. Online Media Coverage in Healthcare Draws in Traffic & Leads

Online media coverage is a direct way to draw in more traffic and leads to your website.

It’s pretty simple. Increase the targeted places you appear on the web, and more of the right people will notice you. Produce more quality content, and you’ll increase your chances of getting shared, getting ranked on Google, and earning links from other websites.

Each of these represents another opportunity for a new customer to click your link. 

3. It Turns One-Time Customers into Repeat Buyers

In the healthcare industry, trust is at a premium. Your customers must be able to trust that your products are safe, reliable, and effective. That means they must also put their trust in your brand overall.

If you can effectively build your trustworthiness in the eyes of your audience, you’ll have an easier time turning them into not just one-time customers but repeat buyers and loyal followers as well.

Trust is never built in a day. That’s why consistent online media coverage is so important. It adds up over time. Here are a few examples:

  • You consistently appear in trusted media outlets (like a reputed digital magazine or blog).
  • You continually publish high-quality content on your website.
  • You routinely get your content shared and mentioned on trusted social media accounts with large followings.

Think of each appearance, mention, and share as a vote in your favor. As your vote count builds, so does your authority and trustworthiness. 

Build Your Online Media Coverage in the Healthcare Industry, Build your Brand Rep & Revenue

Think of online media coverage in the healthcare industry as a compounding investment.

It’s one of the top ways to get your business noticed, to reach a wider audience, and to pull in more traffic and revenue.

The more you put in, the more you’ll get out.

Ready to start boosting your online media coverage? We can help. Contact us at Share Moving Media today to get started.

Why Medical Suppliers Need More Consistency in Content Marketing

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Over 97% of marketers agree that content marketing is essential to their marketing strategy in 2022. However, not everyone creates content equally. What you post, where you publish it, and how often you make content varies considerably between industries. Despite the differences, consistency in content marketing is crucial to every strategy.

Learn how often you should be creating content as a medical supplier and how to create a consistent content strategy for healthcare marketing.

Key Takeaways:

  • Medical suppliers should be creating content anywhere from daily to several times a week, depending on the platform.
  • Consistent content encourages greater loyalty, increases your exposure, and establishes you as an authority.
  • Create consistent content using a content calendar and outsourcing.

How Often Do Medical Suppliers Need Content? (It’s More Than You Think)

Healthcare Content marketing is a broad category of strategies that involve creating digital content to build awareness, educate your audience, and convert leads into customers. For the best results, consider using several channels in your content marketing.

Here is a general overview of how often successful businesses post content on each of their marketing channels:

Since these are average statistics, your actual numbers will vary. The best way to decide how often you should post content is to perform A/B testing. Change how often you post content on each channel during your tests and see what number of fresh posts gets the best response.

Benefits of Consistency in Content Marketing

If you stick to the above schedule for sharing consistent content, you will create hundreds of new pieces each year. That can quickly feel overwhelming without the proper healthcare content marketing strategy. However, adjusting your processes to handle that number is worth the effort, as these three benefits show.

Encourage Customer Loyalty

About 65% of your revenue comes from loyal customers. Your content isn’t just for bringing in new customers but also for keeping existing customers loyal to your brand. These loyal customers already follow you on social media or subscribe to your blog.

Consistent quality content ensures they continue to get value from your content channels so they can purchase more from your company.

Broader Brand Exposure

Search engine optimization is a strategy to rank your content in consumer searches. For example, when a hospital decision-maker searches for products for their facilities, your content can appear at the top of their search results, pointing to what products you offer.

The more content you have online, the more searches you can appear, which increases your online visibility. Over half of your website’s traffic comes from online searches.

Percentage of people performing online searches each day.

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Greater Authority in Your Industry

Brand authority comes from other people’s opinions of your company. If consumers in the healthcare industry consider you an expert and trustworthy source of information, you are considered a healthcare authority.

You must publish consistent, quality content to encourage positive opinions of your business. Each piece is another chance to establish yourself as an authority in healthcare, leading to more conversions.

How to Create Consistent Content for Your Marketing Campaigns

Use these five tips to be consistent in content marketing across all your marketing channels.

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How to be Consistent with Content Marketing

1. Brainstorm Topics in Advance

An expert content creator can write a 1,500-blog post in two to three hours. However, most people take significantly longer to research, create, and publish online content. Brainstorming for topics is one of the forgotten steps of content creation that many people don’t calculate into their schedule.

If you resort to coming up with topics as you create content, you risk settling on mediocre content themes to meet your deadlines. Instead, plan content ideas weeks or even months before you create and publish the content.

You can hold brainstorming sessions where you and your marketing team research common search phrases, questions your customers are asking, and the types of content your competitors post. Then, use that list to narrow done the best topics.

2. Create a Content Calendar

Content calendars keep you organized. For example, you will be working on dozens of content projects simultaneously if you run several campaigns, including a blog, various social media platforms, and email. A content calendar keeps all the projects and their due dates in one convenient location, so you never miss a deadline and create consistent content.

Content calendar example

Image from HubSpot

3. Plan Content Series

Some marketers use content series to help fill their calendars with predictable and regular content. A content series is a group of posts all on the same topic.

For example, as a healthcare supplier, you might create a blog post series on nursing homes where you cover their pain points, needs, and products that could ease the flow of nursing home activities. The next series could follow the same format but focus on a different healthcare facility.

4. Streamline the Content Creation Process

The amount of content you can create is limited by the people and time you have available. While you can’t add more hours to the day, you can reduce the time it takes to create content.

Investing in scheduling tools, content management systems, and content creation tools will streamline the process and help you create the amount of content you need with the available time and personnel.

5. Outsource Your Content Marketing

Content and marketing agencies will help you meet your content marketing goals. They can create content consistently through scalable marketing strategies that grow as you grow.

Because of the training and experience of content agencies, you are guaranteed quality content.

When you outsource your content creation, you free up your own time so that you can focus on other parts of your marketing strategy.

Are You Creating Enough Content?

Boost your sales by creating consistent content and start seeing more revenue from your increased exposure.

Do you need help understanding your market?

Our publications and training are rich with the latest industry data to help you make smarter content and more consistency in digital marketing.

Contact us to learn more about our healthcare marketing products and solutions.

A Guide to Digital PR in Healthcare and Medical Supplies

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“Advertising is what you pay for. Publicity is what you pray for.”

This phrase has long been used to differentiate public relations from advertising. Even though both fields have transitioned from traditional media (TV, radio, print) to digital formats, it remains true today. Essentially, it means that advertising relies on paid media placement, while PR consists of earned media.

Say you want to promote a product. You can buy ad space in an e-publication. Alternatively, you might write a thought leader article for that e-publication. You share your valuable expertise while also seizing the opportunity to include a subtle callout for your product. Your readership benefits – and so do you.

This mutually beneficial characteristic defines PR. The Public Relations Society of America defines PR as a “strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.”

Digital PR maintains this principle while using modern tools, like content marketing and social media. For those in the healthcare and medical supplies space, digital PR offers a valuable means of showcasing expertise, engaging with target audiences, and building authority in a competitive field.

This guide gives you a toolbox of techniques you can use in your digital PR strategy.

A Toolbox for Digital PR in Healthcare

Effective PR is essentially about building a reputation. This requires multiple touchpoints. You have to target different media to reach a broad audience, establish yourself as a recognized authority in your field, and build trust.

Expert Commentaries

An expert commentary is a quote within a larger story, such as a case study, community panel, or news story written by a journalist. When you are quoted in this kind of objective content, you are acting as an expert. Look to tools like HARO, which connects experts and the journalists who need their insights.

With digital PR, you additionally gain the advantage of being able to gain backlinks. You can ask the author if they are willing to add a link to your website, driving traffic to your portal and increasing SEO rank.

Bylines

With a byline, you get to be the author. Examples include guest blog posts on other websites or op-ed pieces in digital newspapers and magazines. Again, this paints you as an expert, sharing your insights.

To leverage the power of bylines, try to write unique opinion pieces. Ideally, you will also address a trending topic. People will already be searching for information about this topic and be more likely to click on your article.

Blogs

You don’t always have to look externally for ways to get your opinion out there and establish your authority status. Your company’s blog can serve as a valuable tool for sharing practical, fact-based knowledge about your health or marketing niche. Blogs can increase your ROI 13x.

Blogs are easy to share on social media, where they can be disseminated widely by other users. You can also exchange blogs with others in your field, allowing them to post on your platform in exchange for you posting on theirs. With this publishing strategy for blogs, you both gain traction and new audiences.

Webinars and Podcasts

Webinars and podcasts are like the digital PR 2.0 of expert commentaries, bylines, and blogs. Webinars allow you to offer your expert opinion in a visual format, while podcasts offer an aural format. If the concept is so similar, what’s the point?

Different people respond to different formats. You might have people in your target audience who don’t enjoy reading long-form articles or blogs – but love listening to podcasts when they’re on the go. Disseminate your voice across more channels for maximum impact.

Social Media

Don’t write off social media as “fluff.” This is a valuable broadcasting tool. Take any of the formats described above and distribute it across social channels to expand your reach. You never know who will repost or retweet a provocative piece of content, rapidly boosting your clout.

Another reason health and medical supplies professionals can’t ignore social media is the price point. Social tools are incredibly cost-efficient. Most of them are free.

We Help You Create Your PR Toolbox

Digital PR in healthcare doesn’t have to be complicated. Share Moving Media can help you create your toolkit. We are a full-service media agency, making everything from white papers to webinars. Thanks to our focus on the healthcare and medical supplies space, we are uniquely positioned to know what kind of content you need to get the PR you want.

Subscribe to our newsletter for more tips on content strategy for healthcare. For help stocking your digital PR toolkit, contact us directly.