Online Medical Marketing Blog

Healthcare Content Marketing: An Industry at the Tipping Point

Written by Alan Duro | Sep 17, 2015 4:00:00 AM

There is a shift happening in the world of healthcare digital marketing. It's been happening for a while but it seems that very soon it will reach what Malcolm Gladwell refers to as the "tipping point" for healthcare marketers.  The "tipping point" is defined as a point at which an issue, idea, product, etc... crosses a certain threshhold and gains significant momentum. At MD Connect, we believe this to be the case with content marketing in healthcare. 

"Custom content spending on production and distribution rose to 43.9 billion, the second highest amount to be recorded." 

- Publishing Executive

One of the reasons for the continued growth in the healthcare industry is that content marketing is cost-efficient. The strategy as a whole is measurable, scalable, and easy to implement. When compared to other possible marketing options, content marketing has proven to be a more acceptable form of marketing to patients.  Patients desire educational resources as they search the internet to determine their condition. As more and more CMO's and CEO’s start to realize this, it will only continue to tip the scale of popularity towards this marketing strategy in healthcare.

"Per dollar spent, content marketing generates 3 times as many leads as traditional marketing"

- Leaders West

While the content marketing industry as a whole is clearly on the upswing, you can be more effective if you drill down one step further. If you’re looking to pinpoint the most effective area of content marketing, it's blogging.  Blogging is the most effective content strategy for increasing traffic and leads to your website and one of the easiest strategies to implement. If you aren’t using blogs as a healthcare marketing strategy yet, you should strongly consider adopting it quickly. 

"Companies with active blogs report that they receive 97% more leads"

- Content Plus

With Google's recent algorithm updates over the past few years we've seen a major decline in what's known as "black hat" Search Engine Optimization tactics. Black hat tactics include:  keyword stuffing, the use of link farms, and the creation of "spammy" blog content and comments. Google has made it impossible to cheat their algorithm and businesses have begun to realize that there are no shortcuts. Quality SEO, and in particular quality content creation, has become one of the necessary foundations of a digital marketing strategy if you want to compete in the healthcare industry.