Anyone can do content marketing, but few get it right. Healthcare distributors and manufacturers can spend hours on content but never see a single quality return. Thankfully, there is a way to avoid wasting resources on failed content and consistently see positive healthcare content marketing results.
Learn three pitfalls every B2B content marketer should avoid and three strategies to help your content hit the mark every time.
Key Takeaways:
- Healthcare content marketing should be audience-centric, which first requires a deep understanding of who your customers are and their needs.
- Your content should be easy to read and understand, even when addressing complex topics.
- Let your creativity shine through your text by including images, video, and engaging language.
What Is the Current State of Healthcare Content Marketing?
The healthcare marketing industry, as a whole, has a higher-than-normal conversion rate. Marketers see 5.6% of leads turn into customers, compared to the average conversion rate of 3.9% across all industries.
That rate only shows half the picture. Another pattern you might notice from the conversion rate is that industries with high-value or expensive products also have a lower conversion rate. While healthcare facilities like hospitals might enjoy that high conversion rate, manufacturers and suppliers often don’t see those same numbers.
The average B2B conversion rate is 2.23%, considerably less than the overall healthcare industry.
You aren’t alone if you are seeing those less-than-stellar results from your content marketing. Don’t let those numbers get you discouraged about your content promotion and throw out all your work. Over 60% of leading B2B marketers use a content marketing strategy to get where they are.
You can also see that same success if you use what they learned and avoid major healthcare content marketing pitfalls.
3 Reasons Why Healthcare Content Marketing Fails
Healthcare content marketing can fail for dozens of reasons, but the most common B2B content marketing mistakes fall within three categories.
1. Don’t Understand the Audience
If you don’t know who your content is for, it will never connect with your audience. Over 45% of B2B marketers struggle with identifying the audience for their content. Copying the style and format of others in the industry isn’t the answer. For example, if you write healthcare marketing content the same way hospital marketers write their content, you won’t see the same success even though you are both in healthcare marketing.
Healthcare manufacturers and suppliers are working with businesses, not individuals. Within healthcare businesses, your specific organization will have a small number of hospitals and healthcare facilities that would use your supplies and products. If you want to resonate with those businesses, you must write to the primary decision-makers, use a higher level of content, and address business challenges like revenue and productivity.
2. Don’t Have Scannable Content
Physicians work over 50 hours a week on average, with nearly a quarter of doctors working over 60 hours a week. Content that is hard to read won’t resonate with time-strapped hospital workers looking for solutions.
Long paragraphs, no headlines, and industry jargon are all ways to turn your target audience off your content. Instead, placing scannable headlines that let healthcare workers easily find the most relevant information and plenty of white space and lists will encourage more of your audience to spend a few minutes of their valuable time reading what you have to say.
3. Content Has No Real Value
Marketers often focus on quantity over quality. As a result, many will publish new content multiple times each week. However, if your content only adds to the noise of daily blog posts without bringing any unique value, it wastes time and energy.
Healthcare content writing should not be full of fluff or repeat the same information your competitors covered. Instead, if you want your content to stand out, it must present old information in a new way or share new knowledge to leave readers with a fresh perspective and valuable insights that will help them improve their company.
How to Avoid Those Pitfalls
Include these essential elements in your B2B healthcare content marketing strategy to help your content stand above your competitors.
Focus on Your Audience
Audience-centered content is the only type of content that will see high conversion rates. You may be tempted to focus on how great your company is and the incredible features of your new products. However, that information is meaningless to your audience unless you can relate it to them and how you and your products will address their challenges.
You should write your content with empathy and understanding that places you alongside your reader instead of speaking down to them or criticizing their struggles.
Be a Thought Leader
Your content is your business’s chance to shine above the competition by positioning you as a reliable expert in healthcare. Thought leadership content will express your opinion and share valuable insights about healthcare in a way that builds trust and respect from your readers.
Some benefits of writing thought leadership content include:
- Boosts your reliability as a company
- Increases your brand awareness
- Gives you credibility and authority in your industry
- Inspires your readers
The 2021 B2B Thought Leadership Impact Study showed that 51% of executives had increased the amount of thought leadership they read. Additionally, 54% of decision-makers spend over an hour a week reading thought leadership content.
Make Your Content Unique
A misconception in B2B content marketing is that your content must be formal and rigid. While you should retain professionalism, that doesn’t go together with stiff content. Your decision-makers are still human and work in a stress-filled environment. Your content can be a mental escape that uses a variety of colors, interesting writing styles, media, and current healthcare content marketing trends that will capture their attention.
Content marketing for healthcare can also include channels outside your website and blog. For example, you can reach more of your audience by tapping into social media, videos, podcasts, and infographics.
The video below shows examples of companies using these three tips for successful B2B content marketing.
Create a Different Type of Healthcare Content
Why settle for average conversion rates when you can position your organization among the leaders in your industry? Take a few minutes to evaluate your current content marketing strategies and look for any areas holding you back.
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