Share Moving Media

Social Media Isn’t Enough: Why You Need Content to Feed Your Media Mix

By

Social media is an effective way to connect with and engage your online audience. However, when it comes to an impactful content marketing strategy, social media isn’t enough. 

Today’s consumers spend nearly 3 hours a day on social media. It’s a great way to reach a highly targeted audience with custom messages, and users can share information easily for an even broader reach. But social media posts are just one aspect of a successful content marketing strategy. To reach more people in the healthcare supply chain, medical sales, and hospital purchasing, you should create an omnichannel media mix that will attract attention, drive traffic to your site, and generate revenue.

Keep reading to learn about content marketing and why social media isn’t enough to feed your media mix.

Quick Takeaways

  • Content marketing is the creation and distribution of information that provides tailored solutions and answers to users’ unique needs.
  • Social media should be one element of an omnichannel content marketing strategy.
  • There are five main reasons why social media isn’t enough for a successful content marketing strategy, from limited visibility to hindered conversions.

What Exactly Is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is the creation and distribution of useful information that answers users’ specific questions and addresses their unique needs. Forms of content marketing include:

  • Email campaigns
  • Blog articles
  • Social media posts
  • Videos
  • Newsletters
  • Print materials (like direct mail and brochures)

Today’s consumers are more discerning than ever before. With the help of the internet, they’re able to conduct their own research and find the brands and products they feel will best meet their needs. For this reason, content marketing is extremely important. Content that resonates with readers delivers numerous benefits. It helps to:

  • Raise brand awareness
  • Set you apart from the competition
  • Deliver valuable resources to your readers
  • Establish your business as a thought leader
  • Provide expert information
  • Drive traffic to your site
  • Solidify brand loyalty and repeat business

Content marketing is an impactful way to establish and foster relationships on a deeper level. People will think of your business for their solutions and will be more likely to recommend you to their network of contacts. This helps build a successful media mix that drives business, increases sales, and continues to grow your company. 

The following video explains the ins and outs of content marketing and the best approach for optimal results:

5 Reasons Why Social Media Isn’t Enough

Although social media is an effective channel to incorporate into your content marketing plan, it cannot singlehandedly sustain your efforts. Here are five reasons why social media isn’t enough.

1. It Doesn’t Reach Your Entire Audience

It’s true that 82% of the U.S. population actively uses social media. However, by using social posts as your sole means of content distribution, you could exclude a significant portion of your prospective customers. Social media use differs between demographic groups. If you’re targeting people between 18 to 29 or 65 and older, you’re not reaching them through this medium. That’s why it’s important to include social media as an omnichannel approach. 

Social media use varies by demographic.

Image Source

For maximum results, it’s best to reach people where they’re spending their time. This means sending email campaigns, publishing blog articles, and posting on social platforms to ensure a wider reach. The more channels you use, the more people you’ll connect with and deliver content that resonates. 

2. It Limits Visibility

Social media platforms use algorithms that affect who sees your posts in their timelines. Organic posts that don’t boost through paid ads offer no guarantee that your audience will see them. As a result, tracking reach and overall impact of this aspect of your content marketing campaign can be difficult. Email campaigns and display ads not only increase visibility but also provide trackable data that can help improve the effectiveness of your efforts. While social media can limit your visibility, including it as part of a media mix is a good way to engage your audience while increasing brand awareness. 

3. You Don’t Own Your Content

Any time you share content on social media, the platform obtains ownership of the material and can redistribute it for its benefit. If your entire content marketing plan revolves around social media, then you don’t own any of your material. Expert blog posts are an effective way to create original content your company owns. You control who sees it and how it’s used. You also reap the financial benefits. 

Losing ownership of social media content isn’t detrimental as long as you have other material in your content marketing arsenal (like blog articles and whitepapers) that belongs to you and is under your control.

4. Online Experiences Begin with Search Engines

Studies show that 93% of all online experiences begin with a search engine. When healthcare suppliers or group purchasing networks are looking for products and services, they don’t immediately head to social media platforms. They enter their question into a search engine, which directs them to websites that provide answers and solutions. If you’re only focusing on social media posts as your content distribution method, you’re unlikely to appear on search engine result listings. That means you’re losing business to companies who appear on the listings. 

Image Source

To stand apart from the competition, you need to create a well-rounded content marketing campaign that includes multiple sources for content. This enables search engines to identify you as a helpful resource for their users and rank your company among their recommendations.

5. Doesn’t Drive Traffic Straight to Your Website

To get people to make a purchase, you need to drive traffic directly to your website. While social media posts can help build brand awareness and increase audience engagement, they don’t necessarily help conversions. To reach your site, social media users must click on one more link, adding another step to becoming a customer. While social media posts can be a tool to help guide people to your website, they don’t directly boost conversion rates. 

Develop an Effective Content Marketing Strategy 

Share Moving Media is a media and content company that provides communication and educational resources to healthcare businesses. Whether in group contracting or hospital distribution, our experts can help you create a content marketing strategy that gains market share and positions you as a leader in the healthcare industry. 

Contact us today to learn how we can help you create an effective content marketing strategy!

Maximizing Healthcare Supply Chain Visibility Through Content and Ad Campaigns

By

The global digital market is growing relentlessly. Securing consumers and audiences is increasingly tough. Businesses in the healthcare supply chain are not exempt from this. 

As a healthcare supplier, you need to maximize your healthcare supply chain visibility not just by providing high-end products and services, but by marketing medical distributions and medical sales through campaigns that appeal to your customers. 

In this digital era, there are various ways to market your business. Seeing that the healthcare industry expends three trillion dollars per year, it is essential for you to stand out in the competition.

Now and then, a healthcare organization succeeds in providing stellar campaigns that reach its audience. They attribute it to good content and ad campaigns. 

But what exactly are these two components?

Content Campaign vs. Ad Campaign

A well-defined marketing strategy can have positive long-lasting effects on a company, but this includes properly planning and executing content and ad campaigns. 

Healthcare marketing can be tricky, but through these two strategies, you might just start your new campaign. 

Content Campaign               

A content campaign is an aspect of a digital marketing initiative. It is a goal-oriented content strategy that creates and distributes valuable content through blog posts and videos. 

Chart, funnel chart Description automatically generated

Alt-Text Infographic showing the content marketing pyramid
Source: Curata.com

It is important to note that a content campaign differs from a content strategy.  A content strategy is an overall plan for all the marketing efforts in a business. Implementing a content campaign without a content strategy will never help you reach your goal. 

A content campaign with a good content strategy can be launched over a period of a few months, depending on its scope.

Blog posts and videos are not the only examples of a content campaign. In fact, the strategy can be as big as creating and maintaining eBooks, webinars, best practices guides, and online tools for a variety of topics such as a lab, the flu,  a diagnostic test, physician office supplies, and more in the healthcare industry.

It is quite easy to develop your content marketing campaign with a solid framework.

Here are a couple of quick steps in formulating your content campaign:

  1. Find Your Goal: It is vital to starting the campaign that you lay down the groundwork for why you are creating it. The key to finding and defining your goal is to make it specific by putting context around the reason.
  2. Identify Your Audience: You must determine whether your audiences are prospects or current customers. Through good research, you can root out the factors that influence your audience’s buying behavior and maintain a connection with them. 
  3. Choose Relevant Topics and Identify Keywords: There are a lot of tools you can use in choosing relevant topics such as Google Alerts and Quora. Identifying keywords that are connected to your chosen topic can help the audience find your content. Keyword clustering can be used in a content campaign by selecting a group of keywords that are all related to the pain point you are addressing. 
  4. Distribute Your Content Campaign: Content is a common resource but when handled creatively and properly, it can be a very powerful part of your marketing strategy. One effective promotion plan that yields results is integrating the PESO (Paid, Earned, Shared, and Owned Media) model in your campaign.

Ad Campaign        

Advertisement campaigns, in its simplest definition, are specifically designed strategies distributed in a form of paid media.  

It is a digital marketing strategy that aims to promote content, increase brand awareness, boost sales, and improve communication within a specific market.

Online ad campaigns are one of the most effective ways for marketers, especially for businesses in the healthcare industry, to expand their reach, find a new audience, and branch out their revenue streams. 

Ad campaigns are part of the digital market strategies, and it is built around the content marketing campaign and strategy. Therefore, the steps for launching your ad campaign are pretty similar to developing a content campaign—except for tweaking designs and communication to appeal to your customers. 

There are a ton of options to launch your online ad campaign on and here are a few of those: 

  1. Pay-per-click Advertising: Pay-per-click Advertising (PPC), also known as Paid Search, is one of the most effective types of online advertising. Search engines such as Google and Bing allow marketers to advertise on the search engine results page (SERPs). PPC works on a bidding system wherein you select target keywords and compete with other marketers to advertise on the SERP. An advantage of this option is that, as the name suggests, you only pay when users click on your advertisement thus giving you a controllable and measurable channel.
  2. Social Media Marketing: Social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are growing by the minute. These sites present a range of opportunities for marketers to reach their target audience efficiently. Advertisers can modify their ad campaigns to fit their required demographics, from age to location, and maximize results. According to B2B marketers, 50% find social media to be a cost-effective option for launching online ad campaigns due to its relatively low price.
  3. Email Marketing: This is one of the most common and oldest elements of online advertising. Marketers engage in email marketing to sometimes launch email-only campaigns that highlight time-sensitive offers or content and in other times for complementing digital marketing channels.

Why You Need Both to Succeed in Healthcare Marketing

A picture containing diagram Description automatically generated

Source: Neil Patel 

Content marketing strategies are at the heart of a good healthcare supply chain. 

Whether you are in group contracting, a medical distribution rep, or a healthcare supplier, the digital world is ever-growing, and understanding content and ad campaigns ensure visibility. 

Content campaigns help you meet your audience in their journey and encourage actions. Ad campaigns help deliver these messages to such an audience and ensure that you are visible to them. 

If you are looking to expand your reach and increase your patient connections, you must implement both campaigns in your content strategy. Moreover, you can also promote significant medical services and enhance the patient experience from valuable content. 

Implement Content and Ad Campaign in Your Healthcare Business 

Behind great healthcare marketing, is a wealth of valuable resources, through content and ad campaigning that connects companies to their audiences. It is essential to keep up with the trends of technology and digital marketing. 

Share Moving Media is dedicated to assisting healthcare suppliers in understanding the marketplace of the healthcare industry.  

Contact us today to know more about implementing content marketing strategies for maximum visibility and results. 

Master the Growth of Your Healthcare Digital Marketing Program: A Guide to Digital Marketing in Healthcare

By

The world of marketing is constantly evolving. From technological advancements to updated research findings, marketers must continually adapt to the latest trends and platforms to most effectively reach their audience. This is especially true for businesses in the healthcare supply chain. With ever-changing medical advancements, government regulations, and healthcare research, companies must adjust their messaging to deliver timely and relevant information to their audience.

A digital marketing strategy should be evaluated and updated on a fairly regular basis. To ensure that you are meeting the needs of your audience, delivering current information, and maximizing marketing efforts, keep your campaigns up to date— both in strategy and execution. For maximum impact and best results, learn how your healthcare digital marketing strategy should evolve with this e-guide on digital marketing in healthcare.

Why is a Healthcare Digital Marketing Strategy Important?

Your healthcare digital marketing strategy helps set your business apart from the competition. Whether you are in hospital purchasing, group contracting, or hospital distribution, an effective digital marketing strategy enables you to communicate with your audience. 

A healthcare digital marketing strategy helps healthcare suppliers:

  • Identify your audience: Through research, you can discover qualitative and quantitative data, from traditional demographics like age and gender to job title and medical product needs. This guides your content strategy and how to reach your prospects for the best results.
  • Build trust and develop relationships: Useful content helps to build trust with your audience while personalized messaging enables you to develop meaningful relationships with your readers. This equates to more purchases and referrals.
  • Earn more customers: A well-developed and intuitive website can serve as an invaluable resource for your users. Strategic content can guide visitors through the sales funnel and convert them to customers.

To ensure you’re getting the most out of your healthcare digital marketing strategy, you must perform occasional housekeeping to maintain up-to-date information and practices for ultimate success.

7 Ways to Update Your Healthcare Digital Marketing Strategy

Maintaining a current healthcare digital marketing strategy is essential to building your online presence and overall business success. Here are seven ways to update your strategy for maximum results. 

1. Reassess Your Current Strategy’s Effectiveness 

Take some time to review your analytics and see what areas of your digital marketing strategy are working and what areas need improvement. This data provides insight into your audience, your company’s strengths, and your business in general. You can use these metrics to fine-tune your strategy and make any adjustments for future growth opportunities.

2. Implement New Technologies and Platforms 

There was a time when pay-per-click ads were the height of technological marketing. Now, there are constantly new apps, plugins, and digital features to help promote your business. Chatbots can streamline sales and marketing processes, and social video marketing engages audiences like never before.

The addition of new platforms to the digital space is also revolutionizing digital marketing. More people are connecting through social networks. To reach your audience where they are, you must stay on top of the latest platforms people are using. That’s where they’ll share your information, ask product questions, and discuss and review their experience with your company.

3. Try New Advertising Methods

Traditional advertising like magazine ads and billboards aren’t so traditional anymore. Today, more than 80% of Americans use social media. Consider allocating your marketing budget for ads and promotional notifications on Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat. Look into other opportunities for digital marketing that you may not have previously considered. By leaving less effective advertising methods behind, you save money and reach more of your targeted audience.

4. Evaluate Channel Performance

A digital marketing strategy doesn’t have to be a complete failure to be considered ineffective. Sometimes a marketing plan is delivering results but isn’t functioning at maximum capacity. Take a closer look at the channels used in your marketing campaigns. 

If you find they’re doing great, they may not need any improvements. But for channels that aren’t bringing the results you want  to see, consider re-evaluating those options. Update your approach, or pull out of that channel altogether. Those resources can be applied elsewhere to strengthen your campaign and maximize your efforts.

5. Interpret Current Data 

There are several tools available for analyzing and interpreting data. If you’re assessing campaign performance and can’t make sense of the metrics you’re seeing, consider purchasing a tool to assist with this process. Information still over your head? Hire a company to handle this aspect of your marketing for you. This information provides invaluable insights into campaign performance and company success. You want to be sure you can track it accurately to shape an effective digital marketing strategy.

6. Maximize Engagement 

Engagement is an important element of marketing. It aids SEO, guides your content development, and helps build brand loyalty and recognition. When people visit your website, you want them to click through your pages, spend time reading your information, and perform a call-to-action. On social media, you want people to share and like your posts and comment on your updates. 

If your website isn’t gaining attention or your social media account isn’t receiving any interaction, it is time to make some changes. Revamp your content. Survey your audience. Somehow, you’re not delivering information that they’re finding useful. When you know how to reach them and with what details, you can improve engagement and drive interest.

7. Stay Current on Algorithms 

A marketing strategy that’s worked for a long time may suddenly stop delivering results. Content may be failing to attract your audience or you may find your business listed lower in SEO rankings. This can be an indicator that something online – a formula, an algorithm, or a process – has changed. 

You’ll need to find out what it is and adjust your strategy to meet the requirements necessary to succeed. Using the same healthcare digital marketing strategy for too long will lead to an outdated program that loses impact, declines in performance, and becomes stagnant.

Develop a Professional Healthcare Digital Marketing Strategy 

To keep up with the ever-changing trends, updates, and technological advancements in the healthcare industry, it’s important to continually update your digital marketing strategy. A full-service company, Share Moving Media uses media and content to help healthcare businesses like yours reach their marketing goals.

Contact us today to discuss ways to improve your healthcare digital marketing strategy for maximum results.