Looking to Break Into Healthcare Online? Here are 5 Essential Pieces of Advice.

You could be getting all kinds of benefits from content marketing, but I bet you have no idea how to start.

Every business owner knows that you’re “supposed to” be doing something with online content, but few know why or how. This challenge is especially difficult in healthcare, and that’s true whether you’re native to the industry and just getting started online, or are taking your first steps into online healthcare content and are unsure of where to start.

To help you breeze past some of the most common challenges and misconceptions that can keep you from creating a beneficial online content presence, I’ve put together some of the most common conceptual challenges I’ve helped my clients get over.

Understand that there is a culture. Know that you have to respect it.

If you’re a healthcare native, you probably know this already…still though, it’s easy to forget in an online context.

If you’re following too much generic content marketing advice (to be fair, some is actually useful), you can easily forget the tone and values of our industry, putting you in a very similar position to a company that’s just starting out.

Know that the culture of healthcare is a generally serious one. We’re an industry that discusses some of the most vulnerable points of the human experience on a regular basis, so too much levity can come off as crass or disconnected. For that same reason, it’s important to demonstrate genuine care and concern for the seriousness of the challenges we face. The same goes for respect for existing networks and connections in the industry.

On a practical level, this means that social media accounts shouldn’t simply be tossed to the closest millennial. The tone of your communications should be appropriate and mindful of what you see around you. A good example of this can be found at athenahealth.

They’ve proven that they look at healthcare differently, and have managed to strike a balance between pushing the limits of healthcare communication and honoring the core values of the community. (Check out their Twitter account and new athenainsight magazine.)

Know that the process will be slow.

The most common question I get from new clients is how long it will take to see results.

I never give hard answers, because that’s simply not how content marketing works. When I do give numbers, it’s almost always in terms of months, sometimes years. That might give you pause, but there are reasons for that, and the first of which was the previous point.

Content marketing is all about establishing awareness, affinity, and then trust. In healthcare, largely because of the existing culture, building that trust takes time. This is why it’s so important to create defined, reasonable goals and metrics when launching a content presence.

Also, since healthcare is just learning to respect (and to expect) online content specific to their needs, you’re undertaking the additional challenge of conditioning your audience as you find them. It’s extra work, but the payoff of being an early-mover in this space could be huge.

Understand that your technology/solution/platform/idea isn’t enough.

I see this a lot…businesses leading with their solutions instead of a solution to a problem.

Your solution is great, I believe you 100 percent.

Unfortunately, healthcare sees a lot of solutions (both technical and non-) and really, all your clients want to know is whether you can solve their problems. Stay focused there in your online content and you’ll go a lot further in winning over the trust of your clients. Some great ways to achieve this include

• Showing off proof of results from working with a hospital or other healthcare entity (with efforts such as case studies or case summaries)
• Featuring your biggest wins plainly on your website
• Explaining the benefits your solution offers in plan, straightforward ways
• Offering access to deeper details (in the form of specs, case studies, product descriptions, etc.)

Speak the language.

I always start my interviews with clients with a discussion of who they serve and the problems they solve. That’s how I figure out what key words (not the SEO kind) and ideas are going to resonate with their potential readers.

There are some standard concepts that will be resonate across the industry (such as patient-centered care and value-based initiatives), but there are also likely regulations, technologies, and terms that are specific to your corner of healthcare.

Use those terms. Look for hashtags. Put them in your article headlines. Make sure you’re focused on signaling yourself as a competent and connected insider.

Listen.

I listed this last because it’s what I want you to remember most.

You should not start your healthcare presence without first listening — listening to questions, concerns, challenges, ideas. While healthcare isn’t as busy as other industries online yet, there are more than enough conversations going on to provide you with information and insight into how you should shape your content presence.

Start quiet, take notes, and keep listening as you go.

Everything I’ve mentioned here is an ongoing process. I’ve had clients pass the entire job off to me, but some simply need some advice. If that’s what you need, just give me a call at or shoot me an email, and I’ll be glad to pass on insight into what I see in healthcare content, and what your business could be doing to build your online content marketing presence today.

Megan Williams, content strategist, MBA