What's on the horizon for healthcare content marketing?

Content marketing has proved successful for organizations in numerous industries, helping to educate audiences and lead them through the different phases of the customer lifecycle and sales funnel. This is particularly true for the healthcare sector, where content has proven to be a significant asset. However, in order to be successful, marketers need to not only take into account the demands and preferences of the target audience, but overarching industry trends as well.

When new trends emerge, healthcare marketers must ask themselves, "Will this work for my organization, and will this resonate with my audience?" Currently, a few practices and approaches are gaining traction in healthcare content marketing - let's examine what's on the horizon and what to consider with each trend.

Robust content marketing will continue

According to Accenture's State of Content for Life Sciences study, 78% of marketers in the pharmaceutical and biotech field noted that the amount of content their organization is producing to support its marketing has reached the "moderate" to "enormous" level. In fact, 93% of respondents reported that the amount of content they're creating today is considerably higher than the level produced just two years ago.

It appears that this trend won't be slowing down anytime soon - actually, readers seeking health information are currently demanding even more content. A study from Pew researchers showed that 80% of individuals looking for informational healthcare content turn to search engines first, but are most often unable to find what they're looking for.

In this way, as marketers continue to expand their healthcare content marketing strategy, it's imperative to take note of the queries that their audience is currently asking, and create content that maps to these questions in particular. This will not only boost the potential for improved search results, but can help put a company on the map as an authority and a thought leader in the field.

Informational healthcare content is highly in-demand nowadays, and a well thought-out content strategy is imperative.

Increasing investments require improved strategy

In addition to planning future content around the needs of the audience, the horizon of healthcare marketing will also see improvements in overarching strategy documentation. This comes in answer to increased investments in content and other marketing approaches, which are being put in jeopardy by a current lack of documented strategy.

Respondents to the Accenture study admitted that while 58% of marketers in the pharma and biotech fields, as well as 60% in the medical technology sector, plan to up their spend on content, only 11% and 4% respectively have a clearly documented strategy in place. This comes in stark contrast to the 42% of companies across all industries that have a documented strategy.

As a result, before organizations can funnel more investments and resources into their content and other marketing efforts, they need to take the time to better establish and document their strategy. This strategy should include:

• Marketing goals, supported by achievable key performance indicators.
• Audience analysis.
• Marketing channels and the types of content that will live on each platform.
• A timeline or calendar for content.
• A strategy just for content distribution.

This only scratches the surface, but taking the time to plan out these marketing essentials will ensure that future investments are well-placed.

Advancements in content: Video

Another trend that is quickly taking hold in healthcare marketing, as well as in other verticals, is the rising use of video content. According to Medium contributor and marketing expert Kathy Selker, putting a video on a landing page can boost conversions by as much as 80%, and more marketers than ever are planning to leverage live videos on social media.

As with any marketing trend, though, stakeholders must ensure that video content plans are well thought out and used to support audience needs, as well as the overarching marketing strategy.

For more information on the future of healthcare marketing, connect with one of our expert consultants today.