4 Questions That Help Define Effective Healthcare Content

Providing the right content at the right moment helps patients and inspires a long-lasting, trusted connection with your organization.

As a patient, when we turn to a healthcare provider’s website, it’s typically in a moment of need. And if we have to struggle through a counterintuitive user experience, it compounds our stress and frustration. Providing the right content at the right moment not only helps patients find what they need when they need it, but it can also educate, empower, and inspire a long-lasting, trusted connection with your organization.

Having an effective content strategy paired with a content hub empowers you to do just that. A content hub will take the complexity out of stitching together content to create a tailored digital experience based on your customers’ needs. All the while, content is still king.

So, what makes for valuable content for healthcare patients? In a recent webinar, “Building Connected Healthcare Experiences,” we provided four questions to help you identify valuable content for powering your healthcare experience.

Is it unique?

Each healthcare provider has a unique story to tell. To uncover what that story is for your organization requires a focus on the experiences that leave a lasting impression – whether it’s impactful, helpful, or memorable. As an example, Airbnb, the online vacation rental service, and healthcare providers may not seem to have a lot in common on the surface, but they both have unique stories about their customer experience. Airbnb host stories focus on the people that are creating these travel experiences and what those experiences look and feel like, which ultimately helps people make decisions about their own travel purchases.

In healthcare, providers can do the same with their content to help surface stories that will be key to the decision-making process. Like the travel industry, healthcare needs to tell unique stories about their customer experience as part an effective outreach program.

Is it exclusive?

Every day, patients pay for access to healthcare experts to benefit from their knowledge and expertise. It can be a challenge for healthcare providers to balance how much information they are offering while preserving their unique, value-added services.

A good place to start is by looking at MasterClass, an online education resource. MasterClass gives members exclusive access to filmmakers, artists, engineers, and architects to learn from their experience and unique expertise. Creating access to your healthcare experts, even remotely and through a shared experience, allows your audience the same type of exclusive access to a story only you can tell. Many healthcare providers are still just beginning to scratch the surface of the potential from their internal experts.

Is it engaging?

Health and wellness require engagement. Nobody gets better by just reading or watching content. Unless you create compelling engagement opportunities, your content will just be another screen moment in your audience’s lives.

The Nike Training Club (NTC) and Nike Running Club (NRC) membership programs engage customers through an array of content, including guided workouts, drills, and runs. The free app creates personalized exercise experiences with localization and weather features, as well as coaching plans tailored to the individual athlete. Just as Nike’s content ties directly into their brand and their brand story, healthcare providers will need to realize narratives that speak to their corporate identity.

Is it creative?

Content has to create a connection with your audience to resonate. The same old, same old is a quick route to irrelevance. Rather than try to compete with WebMD or Wikipedia by publishing derivative content that’s not core to your business, you need to complement your site with material that speaks to your unique audience.

The New York Public Library did just that with their “Insta Novels.” Witnessing a disconnect with younger audiences, they created content that reached kids where they’re already engaging — social media. By reinventing classics like Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” with cover art and in-book animations accessed through Instagram, they not only grew their membership, but also made classics accessible to a new generation.

Content strategy is a process. Once you’ve identified valuable content, it’s all about maintaining a consistent and constant management process so you can continue to create engaging content and optimize patient experiences.

See the original article at Sitecore Insights. Learn more best practices for creating human-centric digital healthcare experiences.

As Director of Content Strategy, Derek is focused on building PK’s content strategy practice and has deep experience working with regulated industries, including utilities. He works alongside other discipline leads to develop processes, templates, and best practices that enable strategic approaches to content for PK’s clients. His recent projects include Portland General Electric, NW Natural, BMC Software, Spectrum Health, Priority Health, Banner Bank, Everence Financial Services, Zimmer Biomet and Citrix.

The original version of this page was published at:  https://pkglobal.com/blog/2020/07/effective-healthcare-content/