Create Patient Marketing Content with a Proven Strategy
In today’s world, marketing strategies revolve around social media because that’s where most people are spending their time. Unless you’re outsourcing your social media marketing to a professional, it’s difficult to consistently create the content you need to make the most of these audience-building opportunities. Even more daunting is knowing where to begin!
The reality is that creating content is one of the biggest friction points for most practitioners. I want to help relieve the overwhelming task. I want to show you that it can be easy and clear to know what kind of content you should be making, how to make it, and help you understand how to repurpose one single piece of content effectively. This will save you time to get you back to what’s most important – caring for your patients.
Creating Content for Social Media
As you’re probably already aware, there are several platforms you can be sharing content on, and while it may not be necessary for you to utilize all of them, it’s a smart idea to share your content on as many of these platforms as possible. There are different audiences and opportunities for growth on each.
Top Audience Building Platforms to Leverage
- TikTok
- Podcasting
- YouTube
- Google My Business (Yes, this one is important and often overlooked. Add pictures and posts regularly.)
To Dance or Not to Dance
I can’t stress this enough: You do not need to dance on TikTok or Instagram to grow your business. This is not the only option for growth. Whether TikTok is a social media platform you’ve never heard of or isn’t interested in learning the ins and outs of it is okay.
You only need to go where your potential audience is and that may be different for your goals and for each business.
Do Health-care Practitioners use TikTok?
You might be thinking that practitioners don’t use TikTok, but believe me, they do! It’s a very fast-growing platform. It may even shock you how much traffic the videos can get on TikTok, and the benefits that can provide leads for you and your business.
Aside from TikTok, there are still many opportunities to build an audience, and I’m going to provide information that will help you on how to create content for use on multiple channels.
Speak to Other People’s Audiences
It’s good to note that you also have other people’s audiences that can be utilized to build your own audience on social media. This doesn’t solely rely on an audience built from scratch. In addition to your current audience, think about what other audiences you can participate in to share your message.
Look for Guest Expert Opportunities
There are many ways you can put yourself in front of someone else’s audience through the following resources:
- Webinars
- Podcasts
- Online events
- Collaborations
- Facebook groups
- Radio shows
- Summits
Start thinking bigger about where your ideal patients are online. Don’t feel restricted to the current audience of followers. Who else are they following? What are they currently listening to or watching? Your content can unlock a great potential if you find more ways to gain followers by getting access to other audiences.
Gaining Omnipresence Without Getting Overwhelmed
You must get into the mindset that it is possible to be in more than one place online without being overwhelmed, and it all starts with strategically creating content. The first thing you need to do when you begin forming a content strategy is to make sure you are creating it from your ideal patient's perspective.
All content should be catered to them by answering their questions and needs. Narrow your focus so that they can relate to the topics you talk about causing them to want to share this with others.
Tailor Your Content for Your Ideal Patients
Once you’ve researched and thoroughly established the identity of your ideal patients, then you can easily identify the following:
- Pain points
- Emotions
- Stage of awareness
- Frustrations
- Impact
- Beliefs
- Values
- Stressors
- Desires
It takes some time and effort to narrow down your list of topics, but once you’ve landed this aspect, then creating content from their point of view becomes incredibly easy.
Break Down Your Content into Categories
To keep your social media output varied and intriguing, there are six categories you should be creating content for your maximum reach. These categories also serve to help relieve yourself from becoming overwhelmed because they provide a basis to start making content creation more time efficient. These categories involve:
- Education: share your expert knowledge, infographics, and blog posts
- Entertainment: memes, funny stories to be reshared
- Motivation: inspirational quotes, patient success stories
- Conversation Starters: ask questions relating to patient’s points, “this or that,” or “would you rather,” etc.
- Sales Posts: promote your services, and new programs, include calls to action in your posts to guide your patients on how to get in touch, such as a link in your biography
- Lifestyle and Expert Positioning: share behind-the-scenes information, and professional photos of yourself, your team, and your clinic
Create Scroll-Stopping Graphics
When it comes to creating and designing content, especially within the health and wellness industry, it should include multiple graphics. You aren’t going to be able to record a video or write long copy for every piece of content, especially when so much of your industry is education-based.
The Beauty of Infographics
Creating infographics is an ideal way to get your knowledge out to your ideal patients in an aesthetic, yet informative way that’s provided in an easy-to-understand manner. Your audience will love them.
If you haven’t tried it yet, check out Canva — a free graphics tool that has become one of the most user-friendly ways to fulfill all your graphic needs. You’ll find many infographic templates that you can customize with your information and branding.
About Video, Stock Photos, and Professional Photo Shoots
Getting Comfortable With Videos
When it comes to another type of digital media that you can quickly create on your own, you’ll want to try to record video content as often as possible. Video is currently the best-performing content. Yes, it is a little more time-consuming to start out, but if you can set small, achievable goals of recording 3 to 5 short videos a week, you’ll be amazed at how quickly it becomes second nature.
Putting in the effort to get comfortable and fast at video creation is more than worth it because of how well it connects you to your audience. Best of all, you don’t need a videographer; just your phone and a sunny window will do the trick.
A Professional Photoshoot Will Pay for Itself
It's highly recommended to get a professional photo shoot done at least once a year. Having those images on hand to cycle through, along with your content, can be used in different ways that will make the creation of graphics a breeze.
It will also do wonders for your online presence, not to mention keeping your personal brand up-to-date, which will have you standing out like a pro.
Don’t Be Afraid to Use Stock Photos
Once you have your own photos scattered throughout your media, it’s absolutely fine to use royalty-free stock images to fill in the gaps. Whether you need stock images for your graphics for stand-alone posts, or whether you’ll feature them alongside your blog posts, there are fantastic websites out there with free stock images like Unsplash, Canva, and Stocksnap. These provide a variety of high-quality royalty-free stock images so that you’ll never have to worry about getting out there and taking your own lifestyle photos.
Top Tips for Every Platform
Here are some quick tips to keep in mind that are true across all social media platforms:
- Videos are currently performing the best
- By creating engaging posts, followers will want to comment on and share (think conversation starters, entertainment, and motivational)
- Use 5th grade English; you need to speak at your ideal patients’ level, so take it easy with the medical terms
- Be consistent, as you cannot grow without consistency
- Tell people what to do next by having a call to action
- Be social and engage with other accounts, making sure to regularly respond to comments and direct messages
Get Started
Now, it's time to put everything in motion. Try starting with a monthly calendar picking one to two themes for the month to focus on. This will help you stay organized and feel empowered to start creating.
