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A Guide to Healthcare SEO for Smart Manufacturers

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Search engine optimization is one of the most effective inbound marketing tactics you can employ as a healthcare manufacturer. SEO optimizes your company website so that it ranks higher in search engines like Google, driving organic, unpaid traffic to your primary sales portal.

This allows your target audience to find you naturally on the internet based on their interests. Instead of blindly trying to target potential leads, you will have potential leads coming to you. These leads will already have an expressed interest in your market area, making them more likely to convert.

Done right, SEO can drive conversion rates of 14.6%. Consider that traditional media advertisement has a conversion rate of 1.7% to put that into context. Given those statistics, it’s no wonder that more companies are investing in SEO.

That said, SEO marketing for healthcare sales requires a unique approach compared to other industries. This guide explains the complexities of SEO in healthcare and provides step-by-step guidance to help you improve your search engine page rankings.

How the “Your Money or Your Life” Principal Impacts SEO in Healthcare

Google, the primary gatekeepers of SEO rankings results, is incredibly strict regarding so-called “Your Money or Your Life” (YMYL) sites.

YMYL content is information that could impact an individual’s health, safety, emotional well-being, or financial stability if it’s presented untruthfully, incorrectly, or deceptively. Examples of YMYL content include medical and financial advice.

Smart manufacturers must present their products objectively and ensure any medically relevant information is clear and factual.

A Quick Guide to Healthcare SEO

When someone types a phrase into Google – say “hearing aid manufacturer” – they get many search results pages. Being at the top of that first page of results boosts your website’s visibility dramatically. Research reveals that the first position in the SERPs achieves an average click-through rate of 28.5%. The CTR drops to 15% for the second search result and continues to decrease, with the search result in the tenth position achieving a CTR of just 2.5%.

Here’s how to increase your odds of climbing the SERPs.

Ensure Your Content Meets the E-A-T Principle

High-quality, value-added content is critical to successful SEO, especially in the YMYL category. Your content should meet Google’s E-A-T guidelines, demonstrating expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.

You can boost your EAT score by citing high-quality sources, for example. Always provide data for any assertions you make, ideally with citations to reputable “.gov” or “.edu” sources. Medical journals are also a great source.

Make Your Website Technically SEO-Friendly

Your content further needs to be optimized for SEO. This is a way of structuring your on-page content so that Google’s algorithm-driven bots can “crawl” through it, figure out what it’s about, and confirm its relevance and value for internet users.

Here’s a quick on-page SEO checklist to get you started. For each page on your website, you should:

  • Select one primary keyword to include in the content.
  • Choose three to four secondary keywords to include in the content.
  • Add the primary keyword in the webpage’s title tag, meta description, and H1 header.
  • Break up content into scannable chunks with H2 and H3 headers.
  • Include at least one image.

If you want to know more about technical SEO, Google offers a wealth of resources.

Tap into the Power of High-Value Backlinks

Google recognizes a website as trustworthy and providing valuable content to consumers via backlinks – when other websites link back to your website. Getting high-quality backlinks from high-ranking, authoritative sources is a great way to improve SEO results.

Getting backlinks from respected healthcare publications is one option. You can further drive valuable clicks by publishing your blogs, whitepapers, and more on platforms like LinkedIn or Medium.

Infographics are another great trick for generating high-quality backlinks. An attractive visual with relevant, industry-specific facts or statistics is share-worthy. Create your graphic, email it to thought leaders in your field, and invite them to share it. They should include a backlink when they publish it.

Don’t Forget to Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly

Google ranks mobile-friendly websites higher. Ensure your website is mobile-friendly, both technically and in terms of content structure. For example, since mobile screens are smaller, it’s best to use larger fonts.

To get you started, Google has a free tool that can tell if your website is mobile-friendly. It even gives you hints on how to improve, for example, by telling you if the text is too small to read or the links are spaced too closely together.

Boost Your SEO Today

Share Moving Media is dedicated to helping medical manufacturers boost sales and increase market share. From blogs to white papers, our value-added content marketing in healthcare can help you climb the SERPs.

Subscribe to our newsletter to learn more about digital advertising in healthcare. Want support for your SEO strategy? Contact us.

Healthcare Manufacturers’ Top Healthcare Marketing Trends for 2021

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Successful marketing relies on planning. Strategizing is even more critical in the competitive healthcare field. The medical device market alone is expected to reach $208 billion by 2023, and many companies are competing to dominate this lucrative market.

Getting ahead of the healthcare marketing trends in 2021 can help increase your market share.

5 Essential Healthcare Marketing Trends for 2021

Marketing will increasingly take a consumer-first approach. Businesses now recognize that by meeting consumer demand, they foster loyalty and encourage engagement, which ultimately boosts the bottom line. 

As you create your marketing strategy for the year ahead, take these consumer-first healthcare marketing trends into account.

1. Voice Search is Gaining Ground

Improvements in artificial intelligence and modern voice recognition technology (Alexa, Google, Siri, etc.) are reinvigorating voice search marketing. Instead of typing queries into search engines like Bing and Google, consumers are making requests verbally.

Traditional search engine optimization is geared towards writing. Modern SEO must be geared toward talking. Voice queries are lengthier and more conversational. Instead of typing in “new medical device 2021,” a person might ask, “What new medical devices are coming onto the market in 2021?”

Cater to the consumer desire for voice-driven tech by adapting your SEO – one of the most impactful content marketing techniques you can use. By driving organic traffic to your website, SEO attracts leads that are already interested in your content.

2. Retention Marketing is the New Priority

Retention marketing is expected to be one of the dominant marketing trends for all industries in 2021. This strategy focuses on fostering loyalty among existing customers instead of attracting new customers. This allows for continual sales at a lower cost per sale since you don’t have to invest in lead generation.

Retention marketing techniques like cross-selling and upselling are critical to success. If you have a customer that’s currently only buying one product from your company, look at ways to maximize that profit. Are there other products relevant to their field? Is there a chance to up their existing order?

You can also nurture your customer relationships and boost engagement through non-sales activities. Providing educational opportunities like webinars is a great way to give your clients added value that keeps them coming back.

3. Content is Still King

Content will remain a critical cornerstone of successful healthcare marketing strategies in 2021. Content marketing can include everything from blogs to thought-leader articles in healthcare publications, social media activity, and more.

The key to success is consistency. You have to publish regularly, creating value-added content rooted in keyword research that reflects your target audience’s needs. A mix of long- and short-form content is ideal, allowing you to cater to different media platforms, e.g., a medical magazine versus social media.

To take your content to the next level in 2021, make it interactive. Interactive content captures the user’s attention span for longer. Quizzes, videos, and infographics are all great ways to engage users actively. Visually driven content is also popular and highly shareable.

4. The Chatbots are Set to Take Over

AI technology has improved the functionality of chatbots immensely. In the past, this tech could do little more than give a standard greeting and then direct the user to an alternative resource (like a customer service email) for real help.

Today’s chatbots are fast, responsive, and intelligent. Need proof? The technology is so advanced that it’s been used to conduct COVID-19 risk assessments in 2020, alleviating the burden on overworked healthcare professionals.

Incorporate chatbots into your website to provide your clients with an improved online experience. A chatbot offers immediate assistance, decreasing wait times and increasing customer satisfaction.

5. Nostalgia Marketing Has Customers Looking Back

So far, this list has been all about modern approaches, with a heavy emphasis on tech. Consumers don’t just want what’s shiny and new, however. Nostalgia marketing is a significant trend to watch out for in 2021. This emphasizes human connectivity and authenticity.

To make the most of the nostalgic mood, capitalize on the moment’s cultural trends – or consider reintroducing a discontinued product or service. If you previously held informational podcasts about your product line, for example, consider bringing this back.

Prepare Your Healthcare Marketing Strategy for 2021 Now

Share Moving Media can help you harness the power of 2021’s top healthcare marketing trends. As a full-service media and content agency, we help medical manufacturers keep their marketing current to boost healthcare sales. Our quality content includes blog posts, podcasts, webinars, ebooks, and more.

Sign up for our newsletter for the latest healthcare marketing trends. Want support for your 2021 strategy? Contact us today!

5 Ways Healthcare Marketers Need to Adjust to the Post-COVID Reality

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COVID-19 has changed many aspects of our modern world, from how we work to how we shop – and even how we greet other people. In 2020, the elbow bump has unofficially become the new version of shaking hands.

Healthcare marketers are facing unique challenges in light of these changes. How can you market medical supplies when you don’t see your clients face-to-face? How can you present new product developments when medical conferences are canceled? Most importantly, how can you make sure that your medical supplies are penetrating the market and reaching the patients who need them?

Although the way healthcare marketers do business is changing, the healthcare marketplace itself is thriving. Global healthcare spending is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 5% through 2023.

The world isn’t going to return to its pre-COVID state anytime soon, if ever. Now is the time to adapt your healthcare marketing strategy to the new post-COVID reality.

This guide provides five tips for successful healthcare marketing post-COVID.

What Will the Post-COVID Reality Look Like?

The COVID-19 crisis has made it clear that you can’t anticipate every scenario, be it in business or beyond. Just one year ago, nobody predicted a global pandemic putting the world on pause.

There is no surefire way to know what the “post-COVID” world will look like. That said, a few trends are already evident in the healthcare market:

  • Digital is gaining ground: Healthcare is no longer shying away from digital technologies. Telemedicine has become increasingly valuable as people are worried about COVID-19 infection, for example. As healthcare becomes more open to digital tools, healthcare decision-makers, from doctors to hospital administrators, will become more tech-savvy.
  • Remote is the new norm: Companies across the United States have put in place work-at-home measures. In July 2020, Google announced that its employees would work from home until summer 2021. The move towards remote is also evident in healthcare. Med students (future doctors) are learning remotely, for example, while medical conferences are taking place online.
  • Spending shift: In light of the two points above, healthcare providers are shifting their spending. Hospitals may put more money towards video conferencing tools in the future, for example.

5 Tips for Successful Healthcare Marketing Post-Covid

The above trends will have a lasting impact on the way that the healthcare industry functions. Understanding the implications as a healthcare marketer will give you a competitive advantage. Here are some healthcare marketing tips and tricks for the “new normal.”

1. Build Virtual Relationships

Tap into the new remote environment and use it to build virtual relationships. Find online conferences and events that are relevant to your distribution field to attend. You may be able to identify new leads from the program’s list of panelists and participants, for example.

You can also build virtual relationships via social media. One option is contacting people via LinkedIn. A direct message can lead to a video call – and even a potential sale.

2. Boost Your Touchpoints

In marketing, touchpoints refer to an effective action spurred by some form of human contact, physical interaction, or communication. Your customer’s experience is a collective group of touchpoints.

With marketing becoming more digital, you have a greater variety of touchpoints to use than ever before. There are blogs, online magazine articles, social media, digital events, and more. Since in-person opportunities are limited, focus on boosting touchpoints through these media.

3. Embrace Social Media

Social media is one of the most valuable healthcare marketing tools you have at your disposal. You can use it to establish your brand as an authority in the industry, connect with others in your field, and foster those virtual relationships mentioned above.

Some healthcare marketers remain wary of social media because of the highly regulated state of their industry. Before you dive in, consult HIPAA’s social media guidance to ensure you don’t go astray.

4. Enhance Your Digital Presence

Social media isn’t the only digital platform you have at your disposal as a healthcare marketer. Take a look at other aspects of your digital presence – such as your corporate website. If you don’t have a company blog, now is a great time to incorporate one into your web presence.

Why do blogs matter? They establish your healthcare company’s knowledge and offer a platform for engagement with others (via comments). They can also reiterate your authority status, paving the way for further opportunities – like thought leader articles in healthcare magazines.

5. Prioritize Analytics

One of the best parts of digital and social marketing tools is that you can easily measure their success. For example, you can see how many people engaged with a social media post, visited your website, or read a blog. You can even see how much time people spend on your website.

Take the time to analyze your marketing efforts in the post-COVID-19 world and see where you are succeeding – and where you could use improvement. Analytics gives you the knowledge you need to tweak your marketing strategy and perfect it.

Learn More About Content Marketing for Healthcare Distributors

Share Moving Media offers comprehensive marketing solutions for healthcare distributors. We are a full-service media company, creating blogs, e-books, webinars, and more. As you adapt your healthcare marketing post-COVID, we can help you grow your brand and boost your market share.

Sign up for our newsletter for the latest healthcare marketing trends. Want help adapting your healthcare marketing strategy to the post-COVID reality? Contact us today!

6 Content Optimization Tweaks for Effective Branding in Healthcare

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Why do you, as a healthcare supplier, publish content? 

You want to demonstrate your authority as a brand and set yourself apart from competitors, right?

You can’t accomplish any of your goals without solid branding throughout your content.

Branding your healthcare content isn’t as simple as tossing in a logo and colors. Instead, it requires a more nuanced strategy.

Today, we’ll cover some untapped content optimization tweaks for effective branding in healthcare to solidify your presence. 

6 Content Optimization Tips to Improve Branding in Healthcare

For healthcare suppliers and manufacturers, branding cannot be an afterthought. You must incorporate branding throughout every piece of content you publish. 

In some cases, branding will indeed include obvious logos and colors. In others, however, branding will ooze from your content in less noticeable ways. 

Potential buyers and current customers need familiarity with your content. Familiarity breeds trust. Trust encourages loyalty. 

Consistent branding is especially important for healthcare suppliers where the buyer’s journey is long, and the stakes are high. Your branding must be standardized and preserved over time. Make it your goal to prioritize branding in every comment, blog post, tweet, video, and more.

1. Look for Content Gaps to Position Yourself

7% of Google searches – over 1 billion a day and 70,000 every minute – relate to healthcare. While some come from consumers, many are doctors and decisionmakers searching for answers to their problems and questions.

Your job is to figure out which of those queries you can answer. 

Start with your competitors– research their content strategy to see which topics they already cover thoroughly. From there, study your audience’s pain points to find a content gap and focus on creating content within that arena.

2. Develop a Thought Leadership Strategy

Thought leadership isn’t reserved for Silicon Valley startups, and it’s not about nuance for its own sake. Thought leadership is about leading in your industry through well-researched content and conversations – and it’s an important part of content optimization for branding in healthcare.

In an industry like healthcare, it’s especially vital to use real author names for your content instead of generic terms like “staff writer.” Make sure only experts in your field create your content and use the same author names to build familiarity. 

All of Share Moving Media’s unique publications fill a distinct gap as thought leaders. The Journal of Healthcare Contracting, for example, is the only publication dedicated to the healthcare supply chain, and readers rely on us for the authoritative content we provide.

3. Incorporate Your Identity into Media Content

Multimedia content is your big chance to incorporate branding like logos and colors into your content marketing:

  • Custom email newsletter and social media header images
  • Adding a color filter to your images and graphics
  • Using your brand’s color scheme for infographics and social graphics
  • Adding a watermark to your image content
  • Including a brand logo in the corner of your videos 
  • Using your brand color palette for video production

First, make sure every piece of multimedia you publish is authoritative, useful, and relevant to your audience. You don’t want your brand associated with generic or boring content. 

4. Settle on a Specific Brand Voice

Remember, branding must be standardized and preserved. You can’t preserve your branding if you don’t create a standard. Comprehensive brand guidelines are key. 

Most brands know to include logo and color rules in their guidelines, but they neglect voice and tone. 

Setting the standard for voice and tone ensures your blogs, videos, and social media posts all sound the same no matter who writes them. A consistent tone might seem subtle, and it certainly is. However, a consistent tone also has a huge impact on trust and familiarity. 

5. Interact with Your Followers

Don’t be a broadcaster. A broadcaster publishes content to social media but never interacts with their followers or shares content from other accounts. 

Social media is most useful as a conversation or relationship-building tool. For healthcare suppliers and manufacturers, casual conversations in your comments and tweet replies go miles towards humanizing your brand. 

6. Include Emotional Social Share Triggers Throughout Your Content

Creating useful content is important, but usefulness alone won’t earn you shares. You must trigger an emotion if you want people to share your content with others. 

If sharing the content will demonstrate that someone is a good person, they’re more likely to share it:

  • People want to look intelligent and informed on the most current medical best practices (urgency, importance)
  • People share content to help others, like tips or insider information (exclusive, interesting, unusual)
  • People want to show their humanitarian nature by sharing content on important causes (heartwarming, optimism, inclusivity, sadness)
  • People share content that sparks conversations (intrigue, excitement, surprise)

Certain emotions work better than others. Consider what emotions you want associated with your brand. 

Prioritize Content Optimization for Branding in Healthcare and Build Better Relationships

Consistent branding in content humanizes your business and is necessary for technical fields like healthcare supplies. Content is your big chance to connect with decisionmakers at offices and hospitals and form professional relationships. 

Use branding to give them something to remember and solidify your presence as a thought leader in your industry.

Content from Share Moving Media reaches the offices and homes of several thousand healthcare decision-makers across the country. Get in touch with us to start planning your comprehensive content strategy today!

A Six-Step Guide to Getting New Products Featured in Health Trade Journals

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Medical manufacturers know that a big part of their healthcare marketing strategy involves getting their products seen by practitioners in various fields, and one of the best ways to do that is to get their product featured in health trade journals. 

One of the best healthcare marketing tips and tricks out there is to put your products where your audience’s eyes are. So, which publications are practitioners paying attention to?

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Source: The Script

Why Industry Journal Exposure is Good for Digital Advertising in Healthcare

While many of these publications have a printed version available, most of them have transitioned to a digital platform. This helps them get more eyes on their content, which means more eyes on your products. Sure, while it can be beneficial to have your products featured in smaller, niche publications, the results of being published in a larger publication are 10 to 100x greater. 

Another good reason to consider attempting to get your product featured in a health trade journal is that you gain instant authority in your field. How? Once you’ve been approved and published in a major health trade journal, readers know that you are a source worth investing in because you made it through the rigorous vetting processes to be featured in the first place. 

That authority and credibility go a long way, not only with prospective clients but with other publications as well. If you’re credible enough to be published in a major health trade journal, then other healthcare publications are going to be more willing to work with you in the future. 

6 Steps to Getting Your Product Featured in Health Trade Journals 

There are countless benefits to getting your product featured in a health trade journal. However, getting to that step takes a bit of work. To reap the benefits of being featured in a healthcare journal, you’ll want to follow this six-step guideline to get your product featured in the first place.

1. Make a List of Relevant Journals 

In marketing, one of the golden rules is that you cannot market to everyone. Well, that same rule applies to pitching your products to health trade journals. If your product is geared towards older men in their 60s, you wouldn’t want to pitch it to a popular yoga magazine whose target audience is women in their mid to late 20s.

That said, you’ll want to make a list of 10-20 publications that you’d like to be featured in. These can, and should, include major health trade journals, popular online blogs, etc. 

2. Research Publication Requirements

Once you’ve taken the time to find the right publications that would best suit your product, you’ll want to research them. You need to figure out:

  • Who their target audience is 
  • What their audience is looking for when reading the particular publication
  • The type of content they’re most likely to publish

No two publications are exactly alike, so you’ll want to make sure you are taking detailed notes and take time to review the content itself to help you later on when crafting your pitch. 

3. Identify Specific Individuals to Pitch To

During your research, you’ll also want to look into the best individuals to contact and pitch to. There are quite a few publications that allow for self-submissions, and others that require a rigorous vetting process. Others will only accept pitches from the craftiest of researchers who can find and pitch to the right person — say a chief editor or head of marketing. 

Once you’ve identified the best individual to reach out to, you’ll want to take some time to check out their online presence. Have they previously published work themselves? If so, you’ll want to study their work to get an idea of what kind of content may spark their interest. 

Finally, make sure you make a note of the best ways to reach them. At the very least, you’ll want to find their email addresses. 

4. Create Share-Worthy Content to Pitch

Now, when it comes to creating your pitch, you want to take adequate time to craft various pieces of content to pitch, including:

  • Educational blog post
  • A brief on how your product works, who it’s for, etc. 
  • An educational video
  • Testimonials from current customers 

5. Send Your Pitch

Once you’ve created your content, it’s time to pitch it! The best way to pitch an idea is via email. Why? Because it’s not only the preferred channel for receiving pitches by most journalists but because the average business professional checks their email approximately every 37 minutes. 

Now, research shows that there is an ideal time to send pitches, and that’s on Tuesdays or Wednesdays between 8-9 am, and then around 3 pm. Just remember to keep time zones in mind when you send it!

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Source: Publicize

6. Always Follow Up

You know how crowded an email inbox can get. Just imagine how much more crowded these individual’s inboxes must be. Show them you are serious and want to be noticed by following up on your initial email at least once, if not twice, to make sure they’ve received and seen your message. 

Increase Your Market Share with the Help of Share Moving Media

Here at Share Moving Media, we are a full-service media and content company. Our goal is to help you get noticed by creating and helping you to distribute high-quality content. 

Curious how we can help you increase your market share? Then contact us today to learn more!