Build Your Healthcare Technology Content Marketing Plan Right

Even with the COVID-accelerated shift toward digital marketing, many healthcare technology marketers are still focused on product-centric content and pure sales collateral instead of human-centric content and thought leadership.

Mike Sweeney, CEO of Right Source Marketing, and Yvonne Lyons, COO of Right Source Marketing, recently discussed the 5 areas that deserve more attention when it comes to building your healthcare technology content marketing plan. Here is a quick recap (link to view the entire webinar is below):

1. Planning Process and Setting Reasonable Goals and Objectives

We know data that shows less than half of technology companies have a specific plan for content marketing. And, given what’s been happening in the world this year, it’s not surprising that companies running fast and furious either may not have the time to plan or the resources to follow through on those plans. This happens for three reasons: either the planning was never made a true priority, they realize they simply don’t have the time, or the team actually doesn’t know where to start, leading to a kind of paralysis.

A good planning process solves for these problems, while setting realistic goals and expectations. Quality content marketing isn’t a short-term performance vehicle — it’s a long-term investment.

2. Benchmark the Market & Your Competition

It’s easy to go down a rabbit hole while investigating the competition. We’ve seen 40-plus slide decks with magic quadrants analyzing every aspect of a competitor’s content, strategy, and approach. The important thing is to learn what ideas you can borrow and improve on, and which you can ignore.

It’s also important not to get confused by who is your “sales competition,” vs. who is your “content competition.” Your sales competition are the other companies which sell the same kind of services or software as you. Your content competition are those companies which are ranking for the same kinds of content you want to own on search. These content competitors may include major publishers like newspapers and trade associations, in addition to pure sales competitors.

3. Fine-Tune Your Messages, Themes and Topics

Although it may be easy to come up with a giant list of content ideas, what we call ideation, it’s important to understand which topics and themes are truly worth the time and effort in order to stand out and begin to support your business goals. Core messages, themes, and topics are like a big content tree with different branches – the leaves are the individual content ideas, but these stem from the themes which address your business goals and personas, all of which are supported by your core messaging.

A lot of people just create content randomly. They start writing things and then wonder why it doesn’t work in the end. Fine-tuning your messages, themes, and topics, and making sure they are all part of a unified whole, is a big part of what helps ensure your content succeeds in the end.

4. Address All Four Content Distribution Channels

Content marketing doesn’t stop once you create a remarkable piece of content. Five or six years ago, you might still be able to have relied on a strategy of build it and they will come, but that’s no longer the case. Today, you have to keep in mind all possible distribution channels: internal channels, owned media, paid media, and earned media. Within each of those buckets are multiple options for content distribution, each with their own applications depending on your company’s particular situation and business goals.

5. Get the Most Out of Your Content Marketing Efforts

If content marketing is an investment, a good plan accounts for maximizing that investment with the three R’s: Repurpose, Refresh, and Repromote:

Repurpose: This means change the format. For example, parse a case study down into an infographic for social, or (what we’ve done here) summarize a webinar into a blog post.

Refresh: Update an older piece of content that performed well. This also means updating the internal links to more current, timely information as well as changing the publish date.

Repromote: Promote & redistribute older pieces of content, especially those that have previously performed well in addition to those that discuss trending topics.

View the entire webinar

There is much more in the full webinar, including Yvonne and Mike’s answers to listener questions. If you’re still curious about how to get started with your healthtech content marketing plan, watch the recording and check out our eBook for healthtech marketers on how to build a content marketing plan.

MATT REICHENBACH

Matt Reichenbach is a Right Source content marketing coordinator, helping to ensure that client accounts run smoothly, while assisting with marketing technology and content creation. Matt recieved a bachelor's degree from Elon University in journalism and media analytics and has a passion for writing, digital media strategy, and marketing analytics. You can connect with him on LinkedIn.

The original version of this page was published at:  https://www.rightsourcemarketing.com/content-marketing/build-your-healthcare-technology-content-marketing-plan-right/