Healthcare companies previously primarily directed their marketing efforts towards in–person visits by sales reps to provide product information to healthcare professionals (HCPs) and hospitals. Since the digital transformation, this has taken a back seat.
Today, medical information is just one Google search away and patients now make active healthcare choices. According to a survey, every minute, there are 70,000 health-related Google searches daily.1
To meet the rising expectations of patients as well as HCPs, healthcare companies should consider producing high quality educational content. Research conducted shows that after engaging with early-stage educational content, consumers are 131% more inclined to make a purchase from that brand. Same research highlighted that a week after the engagement, consumers remained 48% more likely to buy from the brand that presented educational information.2
A strategy involving blend of traditional methods while leveraging digital tools to provide informative and engaging content.
In this blog, we will discover the need for educational content, different approaches towards educational content and finally, steps to produce insightful educational content with digital tools available at our disposal.
Need for Educational Content
After the COVID-19 pandemic and digital transformation, attitude of HCPs towards a product is also becoming heavily patient centric. According to a report 27% of HCPs are likely to prescribe, provided they are satisfied with the customer journey. Healthcare companies are therefore making efforts towards producing more valuable and meaningful HCP interactions.3
86% of HCP's
consider helpful that pharma companies change their content beyond product information. 4
Consumers are looking for content that focuses on in-depth, valuable and non-promotional information. Educational content is effective because it instills trust. People are encapsulated with tons of misinformation, especially healthcare based and promotional material every day. Educational content sets you apart by offering genuine insights and solutions that resonate on a personal level. This approach additionally avoids compliance issues and builds credibility.
Approaches Towards Educational Content
Educational Resources: One of the most effective ways is by creating content that addresses the common pain points of consumers. Cleveland Clinic5 famously boots its online presence via long form blog content, podcast, and social media. Consider releasing white papers, research articles, or webinars on current trends, innovations, and best practices.
Patient Stories and Case Studies: Sharing real-world examples of patient experiences and outcomes will help personalize your content for your consumers. Mayo clinic’s blog, Sharing Mayo Clinic6 shares stories and experiences related to every health issue they’ve addressed so far. This content should be kept relatable and provide practical insights into treatment efficacy and impact.
Industry Updates and Thought Leadership: Regularly sharing updates, opinion pieces, and expert interviews on relevant topics keeps the consumers involved at all the stages of customer journey. Dr. Howard J. Luks7 is an orthopaedic surgeon and sports medicine expert in New York. He also produces blog content categorized by specialities, hosts a regular podcast and runs a YouTube channel.
Healthcare companies often avoid creating educational content because of time constraints, concerns about regulatory compliance, and the challenge of translating complex medical information into easily understandable language. Additionally, limited resources and lack of writing expertise is a hurdle. We have outlined few steps that can help you produce educational content effectively.
How to Produce Educational Content
Identify Key Topics: Begin by identifying the key topics that matter most and are relatable to your target audience. You can conduct surveys, analyze industry trends, and engage with your audience to understand their pressing concerns and interests.
Develop a Content Calendar: Only 28% of healthcare marketers can say they have a clearly documented content marketing strategy in place.8 Planning your educational content strategy with a comprehensive content calendar gives you immense leverage. Strategy can outline the types of content you'll create, the platforms you'll use, and the frequency of your posts. This ensures structured approach, consistency and helps maintain a steady flow of valuable information.
Leveraging AI for content production: Perplexity and ChatGPT are free access AI tools that can act as your research assistant, generate initial drafts, optimize content and SEO, simplify complex medical concepts, and support for continuous content improvement. Jessie van Breugel in these posts demonstrates how he created a content strategy for LinkedIn using ChatGPT in 5 minutes.9 However, it's essential to note that these platforms are not GDPR compliant, so it's best to avoid sharing your company's sensitive data on them.
A way to produce educational content in hours without requiring endless manual edits is with our platform, Caidera. It further simplifies this process by integrating compliance pre-screening into your content creation workflow. This ensures that every piece of content aligns with regulatory guidelines from the outset, giving you peace of mind and freeing up resources for creative innovation.
Sources:
1. https://medicalfuturist.com/googles-masterplan-for-healthcare/
2. https://www.conductor.com/academy/winning-customers-educational-content/
3. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/life-sciences/our-insights/from-product-to-customer-experience-the-new-way-to-launch-in-pharma
4. https://www.mmm-online.com/home/channel/pharma-content-for-hcps-better-but-with-room-for-improvement/
5. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/
6. https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/category/sharing-mayo-clinic-2/
7. https://www.howardluksmd.com/
8. https://www.socalnewsgroup.com/2022/10/12/guide-healthcare-marketing-strategies-2/
9. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessievanbreugel/
