1 Idea, 5 Formats: Maximizing Your Content Strategy’s Reach
Maximizing your content strategy starts with remixing your content. Here’s how the one idea-five format approach can help.
5 Parts Of A Quality Patient Testimonial
Word of mouth is one of the most powerful forms of marketing out there. When looking for a qualified babysitter, a go-to restaurant, or a new car, people rely heavily on the opinions and experiences of others.
When it comes to healthcare marketing, word of mouth isn’t just helpful — it’s absolutely critical.
Patients have options when choosing where to receive care. Whether they’re searching for a new primary care provider, a place to have surgery, or a place to deliver a baby, many will turn to one of the vastest resources out there — the internet.
Roughly 70% of patients say online reviews are a top reason they choose their healthcare providers.
Source: HealthLeaders
Patient testimonials are where the internet meets word of mouth. They offer your healthcare organization the ability to showcase your excellent care in a high-traffic and controlled environment, like your website.
Patient testimonials are effective, but quality patient testimonials take work. Here are 5 components of a quality patient testimonial.
1. A Patient Who Is Excited About Your Healthcare Organization
This may seem like a no-brainer, but it often gets overlooked. When you’re choosing a subject for a patient testimonial, reach out to patients who have had an excellent experience they’re excited to share.
Some ways to find these patients include:
- Scour existing online reviews. Then, ask positive reviewers if they’d like to share their experience.
- Leverage your website. Dedicate a place on your website and in your e-newsletter where patients can request to share their stories.
- Recruit your team. Encourage your providers and staff to let you know when a patient has been particularly satisfied with their care.
- Use old-school signs. Place a few signs throughout your building that explain how patients can help support your organization through patient testimonials.
Note: Always, always use real patients in patient testimonials. Fabricating stories isn’t just unethical, it seriously diminishes your credibility as an organization.
2. An Engaging Title
There is great power in headlines. A boring title may get overlooked, but an enticing title will lead users to click on and read your patient testimonial.
With a great headline, your page traffic can vary up to 500%.
Source: Neil Patel Digital
Encourage people to read your patient testimonial by making it:
- Unique: While you may target a common keyword, make sure your title is one-of-a-kind and engaging.
- Specific: Let readers know exactly what they’ll learn by reading this testimonial.
- Useful: Help readers understand why reading this post will benefit them.
Here’s an example of a bland, vague, and unuseful title:
Patient Undergoes Heart Surgery to Save Life
Here’s an example of a unique, specific, and useful title:
Routine Screening Leads to Heart Surgery: How a Blood Pressure Test Saved Katrina’s Life (and Might Save Yours, Too)
3. Content That Is Both Accurate And Easy To Understand
Patient testimonials are promoting more than just your brand — they’re also promoting the service itself. For instance, a patient testimonial about heart surgery should highlight the importance of heart care and why a patient should receive care at your organization.
That’s why your content needs to be accurate, useful, and patient-friendly.
Take that heart surgery patient for instance. Their testimonial should include:
- An explanation of their heart condition, including risk factors and symptoms
- Types of heart screenings and who should get them
- Accurate, easy-to-understand information about the medical procedure
- How patients can learn more about this condition
In order to meet the needs of your users, keep your content easy to understand. Over half of adults in the US read below a 6th-grade reading level, so it’s important to use simple language and define everything that they might need to know.
4. Engaging Details About The Patient And Their Experience
The beauty of a patient testimonial compared to a generic online review is that patient testimonials tell a story. These narratives provide useful information, but they’re also detailed and engaging. This keeps users on the page longer, learning more about your organization.
Writing an engaging patient testimonial starts with keeping your patient front and center. Paint a picture of them by including:
- Who they are, such as family, career, hobbies, and life goals
- What landed them at your facility to begin with, such as a routine screening or an emergency
- Direct quotes from the patient
5. Images, Video, And Other Multimedia
No matter how engaging your story is, no one wants to read a text-heavy page of content.
Images, video, and other multimedia are a content writer’s best friend. They enhance your content by making it more exciting and easier to read.
Strategically place images throughout your text. While you should definitely use images of your patient (with their permission), consider using other images, such as ones of your facility or a machine that you describe. Always choose high-quality images that support your content.
Don’t forget — be sure to use alt text (alternative text) to ensure your images are accessible and able to be indexed by search engine crawlers.
Leverage Your Patient Testimonials On Your Website
Once you have a quality patient testimonial, use its content throughout your site as much as possible. Posting it to your blog or patient testimonial section is a great start, but you can also incorporate it (or parts of it) on landing pages, social media (like TikTok), or other marketing materials.
As a healthcare organization, patients have always been at the center of what you do. Patient testimonials allow you to highlight the excellent care you provide as well as highlight how other patients can benefit from your services.
Looking for help creating patient testimonials or other content for your healthcare website? We can help with content strategy, creation, and promotion.
Guide To A Great Provider Directory
I’ve moved a lot in my adult life, leading to a pretty common list of Google searches upon settling into a new place. Those “The truck is unloaded and you’ve eaten half a pizza and are wondering if you made the right choice” kind of Google searches. You know the ones.
Megan’s Post-Move Search History
- Primary care providers in “Insert City Here”
- Ice cream shops near me
- Thrift stores in my area
- Birds in my state
While all of these searches are equally important — to me at least — one of them probably has more relevance to your healthcare organization. (It’s the birds, of course.)
Okay, it’s the search for providers. Potential patients looking for a new provider might come upon your healthcare organization through a Google search or a word-of-mouth recommendation to check out your practice.
To get that potential patient to make an appointment and get in the door, your healthcare website is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Yet no matter how much work has gone into making that journey happen for a user — to them, it has to feel effortless.
If they’re looking for a primary care provider, they should be able to find one. If they’re looking for a specialist, that information should be at the tip of their fingers.
That’s where your provider directory comes in — and why it needs to be a good one.
A Good Provider Directory Should Be Usable
This might sound like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised by how many provider directories are not easily usable.
For most people, unusable can mean a clunky interface, a slow loading time, or a search and filter function that is unreliable at best — and nonexistent at worst. All of these small inconveniences can create big patient frustration. Each is a ding against your healthcare organization and your credibility.
But usability isn’t only for the people using your site. Your provider directory is also under yet another scrutinizing eye: Google.
While keeping Google in mind might feel like just another task on your to-do list, it’s actually a pretty exciting one. With the right information, you can have a big impact on your visibility on a Google results page.
You need to make sure your pages are filled with the right information — and that that information is tagged correctly for Google to find it. Physician information comes with its own tag schema that can boost a page in Google’s local search.
Become familiar with the kinds of info you need to include, and make sure to collect it for each individual provider profile.
Top 3 Qualities Of A Good Provider Directory
- Valid data that is kept up to date — like location, phone numbers, and insurances accepted
- Information for patients to make a decision (depends on organization goals, intended user interaction)
- Good search and filter function to easily find the providers that are relevant to a user
Your Provider Directory Is About Your Providers
On the backend of creating a provider directory, there are a lot of moving pieces. There may even be some office politics, too.
But for your patients and their user experience, it has to be all about the providers.
Your provider directory — done well — gives a human face and personality to what otherwise would be simply a name on a screen. Credentials and specialties alone won’t tell potential patients what a provider is actually like, but simple additions to a provider’s page can.
Consider including things on a physician’s profile page like:
- A warm and welcoming headshot
- A short bio explaining their background, medical, or educational journey — even interests or hobbies
- A provider video that shows them talking about themselves and in their own environment
Google also rewards longer content, so including more information can have exponential benefits in addition to increasing the amount of time a user might stay on a particular page.
Wondering what this could look like? Here’s a provider profile from one of our awesome clients!
Provider Directories Aren’t One And Done
While many healthcare website trends ebb and flow with time, one thing that probably won’t change is users coming to your website and wanting to find a physician. This makes provider directories a worthwhile long-term investment.
But just because provider directories as a tool aren’t going out of style any time soon, that doesn’t mean you can create it and forget about it.
Data clean-up is an area that a lot of organizations underestimate in terms of time and effort. Though it may not be something you do until after your directory is set up, it’s actually a critical step in ensuring a good directory.
“When it comes to provider directory longevity, it’s important to have a clear process for data governance, ownership, and maintenance. Without a detailed and agreed-upon process, data can become out of sync and stale over time.”
Crystal Choi, CareContent Operations and Project Manager
In one study conducted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, they found that more than half of the provider directory locations assessed had at least one inaccuracy. This alone is a good reason to double-check the information in your provider directory.
- Does a provider currently practice where your directory says they do?
- Is the contact information for each provider accurate?
- Is a provider actually accepting new patients if it says they’re accepting new patients?
At the end of the day, bad data in equals bad data out — and a poor experience for users. If your directory says Dr. Smith is a physician at your practice but moved out of state 2 months ago, it doesn’t matter how beautiful or welcoming their page is. It’s still out of date.
The Power Of Your Provider Directory
Depending on the size of your organization, building or revamping your provider directory might feel like a Herculean-sized undertaking. You may be thinking, “We have thousands of providers — I wouldn’t even know where to start.”
But isn’t that all the more reason to make sure potential patients can find someone quickly and painlessly?
Or maybe you’re thinking, “We’re a small healthcare organization — we don’t have that many providers to comb through, anyway.”
But isn’t that a good opportunity to show patients you offer the same high level of quality as larger institutions?
No matter the size of your healthcare organization, everyone can benefit from a more efficient provider directory — and CareContent is here to help.
Does your provider directory need some love? Here’s how CareContent can help you figure out where to start and create something that WORKS.
What’s Your Social Media Style?
Social media style is like fashion style — everyone has one. You may have a few statement pieces, or maybe you’re a thrift shop queen. You might know your signature colors, or maybe you’re just making it up as you go along.
When it comes to the actual clothes you wear, knowing your personal style can help you choose the outfits that make you feel your best.
Social media style is no different — figuring out what your style is can help your digital presence look its best, too. With the right tools (clothes) and approach (how you put your outfit together), your social media style can help you achieve your business goals.
Is your social media presence trendy? Vintage? Business Casual? Artsy?
Take this quiz to find out!
Think we’d make a great team? Then shoot us a message, and let’s chat!
What Is Content Strategy?
If you’ve ever spent a Sunday afternoon binge-watching house flipping shows, you know the importance of having a plan before diving into a big project. Without one, mistakes are made, arguments are had, and a whole lot of drama (and wasted money) ensues.
The same concept applies to content creation.
A well-thought-out content strategy is critical to delivering useful and useable content that your users can navigate easily and efficiently.
According to our in-house content strategy expert, Sammi Gassel, UX Content Strategist, content strategy is a lot like a house blueprint. And that blueprint is the basis of your website’s success.
“You wouldn’t build a house without a blueprint. From an aesthetics perspective, it could look jumbled if you realize halfway through building that you missed some things. From a functionality standpoint, putting in the wrong pipe could render your plumbing useless. And most importantly, the house wouldn’t be built on a solid foundation and could crumble around you. The same goes for web content (sans the physical safety risk),” explains Sammi.
Content Strategy Provides Design, Functionality, And Foundation
“Without those three elements in place, your content won’t attract audiences, won’t lead them to take action, and ultimately won’t be beneficial to the health and stability of your organization.”
Sammi Gassel, UX Content Strategist, CareContent
Content Strategy: What Is It And Why Does a Website Need It?
Content strategy is a plan that identifies your business goals — and uses content to get you there. It identifies what already exists on your site, what should exist, and, most importantly, why it should exist.
The goal of content strategy is simple — to create content that users actually want. A strong content strategy helps ensure your content is relevant, engaging, long-lasting, and cohesive.
What Does Content Strategy Look Like?
Content strategy is not a one-off concept. Instead, it exists in stages:
- Audit & Analyze: Identify business goals, determine targets to achievement, interview stakeholders, assess the landscape of competitors or comparable sites, and analyze current websites.
- Strategize: Determine content (including what needs to be completely redone, touched-up, and archived), taxonomy, sourcing, voice, brand definition, and workflow.
- Create: Write search-engine-optimized content, and produce other appropriate assets.
- Maintain: Audit content periodically, and stay up-to-date with current trends and user needs.
5 Quick Tips On Creating Your Content Strategy
- Center your content strategy on your organization’s goals and user needs — and make sure you know how you will measure your outcomes.
- Create and structure content based on how your audience thinks according to user testing and market research.
- Ensure accessibility of your website, including adhering to all ADA requirements.
- Observe current trends or standards, such as inclusive language or online reviews.
- Leverage social media, and choose channels that are the most popular and helpful to your audience.
Need help with your content strategy? Whether it’s setting analytics goals, making sure your site is accessible, or deciding the best marketing strategy, we can help. Contact us today.
What Makes An Engaging Healthcare Website Video?
A lot has changed in the last 18 months. You might find yourself going to physical stores less. You may be working from home full time. Or maybe you’ve gotten real tight with your local delivery drivers.
COVID-19 has altered the fundamental ways we go about accomplishing many different tasks. And in the process, digital marketing has become even more essential — not to mention more competitive.
If you’re producing many different types of content already, you’ve taken a step in the right direction for staying relevant and engaging to your audience. Videos might be a key part of your content strategy, but if your videos are boring, you may actually be doing more harm than good.
Why Video?
“Videos convey tone and emotion associated with your brand in a way that words cannot. You can tell your prospective audience that you’re an organization that truly cares about and listens to patients — or you can show it through curated audio and visuals.”
Nicole Pegues Riepl, Multimedia Content Designer, CareContent
In order for your video to stand out and be more than just background noise, it needs to be engaging. It needs to be interesting. It needs to be good.
Here are 3 ways to make sure your healthcare website video is worth watching.
1. Capture Audience Interest With Strong Characters And Storytelling
Take a second and think back to a book or movie that you didn’t finish. Maybe it was boring. Maybe the characters didn’t seem real or compelling. Maybe it was about a topic you just weren’t that interested in.
The same applies to the videos.
Finding The Right People For The Job
“If you’re creating a video where people are speaking, finding the right people is absolutely key. They can enhance the authenticity and attractiveness of your organization — for prospective patients and employees alike.”
Nicole Pegues Riepl, Multimedia Content Designer, CareContent
There are 7 basic story plots that can help you flesh out a video for your healthcare website. These basic story arcs are not the only ways you can tell your story, but they are the tools writers have used for thousands of years — from the Epic of Gilgamesh to the most recent plotlines on your favorite sitcom.
Here are the 4 that can best help you frame your own videos and stories.
- Overcoming the monster: Your subject has overcome a great obstacle or challenge that is threatening them or their family. This plot can be useful for framing patient testimonials where they have overcome an illness or injury.
- Voyage and return: Your subject travels somewhere new and brings new knowledge back. This can be a great story arc for providers or for resident video bios.
- The quest: Your subject sets out to acquire something or go somewhere. This is another useful plot for patient — or procedure videos — especially if a patient was able to travel to your hospital to receive care they couldn’t find elsewhere.
- Comedy: A light or humorous story with a happy ending. A comedy plot doesn’t necessarily mean that the story is “funny,” but rather that it has a lighthearted tone and a happy ending. This can be a good angle for any videos featuring children or families.
Learning more about how storytelling works is just one way you can tell better stories through the healthcare videos you produce.
2. Use Your Time Wisely
If you’ve ever been to a long meeting and thought, “This could have been an email,” then you know what having your time wasted feels like.
Don’t make your audience members feel the same way. If they’re taking time to watch your video, each and every second should add value either in the form of new information, an answered question, or simply entertainment.
To make sure your audience actually gets to that information, answer, or entertainment, you have to draw them in right away.
You only have 8 seconds to capture the attention of Gen Zers, and that number only goes down for video consumption. According to Facebook, you have 3 seconds (THREE SECONDS!) to capture a viewer’s attention — regardless of their generational status — if you want them to keep watching a video.
Whether you’re in the planning, recording, or editing stage, keep in mind how you can best fill the time frame you have. Whatever story you’re telling or service you’re selling — jump right into the important stuff and get to the point.
3. Be Real
While healthcare continues to become more consumer-oriented, patients have more choice than ever about the care they receive. This is a driving force in many changes to healthcare, but two main points stick out:
- When it comes to the patient journey, your organization is selling a service — one that patients will get cheaper, better, and more conveniently elsewhere if they can.
- While your healthcare organization may be in the business of selling, you don’t want your marketing to just be about the selling.
And since you are selling a service, your healthcare videos should be engaging and well-produced — but they should also be genuine. This is where videos can make a key difference.
Setting An Authentic Tone
“Don’t claim that your organization is one way in your video messaging, but in real life, it’s the opposite. People will either see through that or discover the truth when they use your services, and they won’t hesitate to be vocal about it as a warning to others.”
Nicole Pegues Riepl, Multimedia Content Designer, CareContent
This means using patient testimonials that capture the energy and personality of your patients. It means getting that candid B-roll of your providers doing their job to cut in between an interview. It means having conversations with your marketing team about the voice of your organization.
There are many definitions of “realness” — and your version of real might look completely different from another organization. The important thing is that you decide what that target is and orient your videos toward it.
Lights, Camera, Action
Video can be used for patient testimonials, physician introductions, virtual tours, or even to explain a procedure — and that’s just scratching the surface. A well-produced and engaging video can give your healthcare website a fresh feel while also communicating important information to your audience.
At the same time, while it can be tempting to turn everything into a video, slow down. It’s better for your time and strategy to determine what will most benefit your audience and what you can effectively produce.
Focus on the videos that will best serve your goals and your audience’s needs. Then, set out first to do both of those right.
What should an engaging video for my healthcare website actually look like? Check out some of these client videos produced by CareContent.
Quizzes Part 2: How To Make Quizzes That Actually Work For Your Content Strategy
It can feel like every day there is a new type of content you could be experimenting with. You may ask yourself, “Should my organization start a podcast? Are we missing out on connecting with Gen Z if we’re not on TikTok? Which new content tools are worth the time and investment — and which are not?”
There are so many different ways you can approach your content strategy based on the needs and scope of your organization.
But no matter what your approach is, interactive content can help give you that boost you’re looking for.
Why Invest In Interactive Content?
- Interactive content drives 100% more conversions than static content.
- 77% of marketers say interactive content has “reusable” value, resulting in repeat visitors and multiple exposures.
- 96% of quiz takers who start a BuzzFeed quiz finish it.
Sources: HubSpot, OutGrow
One type of interactive content that we love at CareContent is a quiz. It’s simple, effective, informative — and it’s fun. We love making them, and our audience loves taking them.
Here are 3 tips that will help your organization create effective quizzes.
1. Choose A Quiz Tool That Works For Your Needs
There are many quiz tools available, but finding the right one is key. You want a tool that aligns with your needs and business goals.
Some things to consider before choosing a quiz platform:
- Cost
- Available analytics
- HIPAA compliance
- Ease of use or learning curve
- Customizability and branding
- How many quizzes you can create per month
- Limits on the number of quiz submissions per month
Learn why quizzes should be a part of your content strategy with Quizzes: Part 1.
Don’t be afraid to experiment during a free trial. Make a joke quiz or two, so you can understand everything from the creation process to what submissions look like. If a quiz tool is difficult to use or its capabilities don’t match your organization’s goals, then that may not be the best platform for you.
2. Make It Personal — But Not Too Personal
If you’ve ever gotten sucked into a quiz with a title like “Tell Us Your Favorite Cheese And We’ll Tell You Your Astrological Sign,” you’re not alone. Well, maybe you are alone, but we’ve all taken a personality quiz that’s just as weirdly specific or absurd.
Social media is filled with personality quizzes, and some platforms have perfected the art. Everyone loves to learn more about themselves or test their knowledge.
One easy way to make your quizzes personal and compelling is to use the second person in your questions and use the second or first person in your quiz answers. This helps your reader feel more connected to the questions and results.
How To Use First And Second Person In Your Quiz Questions
1. The most important thing to determine BEFORE creating [your] quiz is:
a. What “success” will look like, so [I] can monitor aligning metrics
b. The purpose of [my] quiz
c. How many questions [my] quiz will have
d. What possible results a user can get
If someone on your team is particularly funny, have them write your funny quizzes. If someone on your team is in Generation Z, then it probably makes sense for them to write any quiz aimed at that audience. No one wants to be the Steve Buscemi of content strategy (“How do you do, fellow quiz takers?”).
Source: Giphy
While you’re trying to be personal, what you don’t want is for your quiz to get too personal. Don’t ask for contact information like an email address unless you’re very transparent about how that information will be used.
3. Make Your Quiz — Or The Results — Shareable
The only thing better than taking the “Tell Us Your Favorite Cheese And We’ll Tell You Your Astrological Sign” quiz is sharing the result with your friends. Because everyone needs to know that my favorite cheese is Monterey Jack and that I’m an Aquarius.
While a silly example, the motivations underpinning it are true. Human beings love sharing things with each other. Food, supplies, photos of our vacation, bad-smelling candles — we want to share experiences with those who are closest to us.
Social media thrives on this desire, and quizzes can play a starring role.
Making the results of your quiz shareable is a low-effort way for your quiz to reach more people. Create a clear call to action on your quiz thank you or results page that allows the quiz taker to share their results to the social media of their choice. This is especially effective with knowledge quizzes and personality quizzes.
User-generated content is like free marketing. With a shareable quiz, you connect with people who may not already be in your audience — all without running an advertising campaign or coming off as pushy.
Are You Ready To Incorporate A Quiz Into Your Content Strategy?
Now that you’ve learned a couple of tips and tricks about quiz writing, test your own knowledge to see what you remember!
Contact CareContent if you’re interested in building content and quizzes that work. We’d love to work with you.
The Power Of Patient Testimonials (And How To Use Them Effectively In Your Content Strategy)
Word of mouth is one of the most effective forms of marketing. Whether you’re looking for a new grocery store, babysitter, or pair of shoes, word of mouth is social proof. When another person says something or someone was a successful investment for them, it can be just what you need to pull the trigger.
The same goes for choosing a new healthcare provider.
Choosing where to receive care is a huge decision, one most patients do not take lightly. Reviews and recommendations — whether personal or online — are a major driver of patient acquisition.
As a healthcare marketer or leader, it’s easy to talk about the excellent care you provide. But rather than making prospective patients take your word for it, let them hear it from the source — other patients.
Patient testimonials are like marketing superfoods. They take everything you want to highlight about your healthcare organization and put it into one engaging, relatable piece of content.
Patient testimonials can be a strong pillar of your content strategy. But they must be done right in order to help reach your healthcare organization’s goals.
What’s The Big Deal With Patient Testimonials?
Whether you’re looking to increase your patient base, introduce new service lines, or highlight already existing ones that need some love, patient testimonials do two important things:
- Provide helpful information about your organization
- Promote trust
A patient testimonial is like an amplified online review. It has the personal touch of a Google, Yelp, or HealthGrades review — backed by the guidance and expertise of your healthcare marketing team. Real patients provide a genuine feel, and your marketing team lends engaging writing, keyword optimization, and stimulating design. Good patient reviews are a win-win, and they’re a sure-fire way to convince potential patients to take the next step.
Nearly 85% of patients trust an online review just as much as a personal recommendation.
Source: Invoca
How To Create Excellent And Engaging Patient Testimonials
Patient testimonials are undoubtedly an effective part of a solid content strategy. But here’s the bad news — not all patient testimonials are good ones.
It’s up to your marketing team to make patient testimonials thrive.
When creating content for patient testimonials:
- Choose longtime patients who loved their experience. If no patients come to mind, comb your social media platforms or online review sites to find patients who have great things to say. Or, ask your providers if any of their patients would be good candidates.
- Ask the right questions, and be specific. Instead of “Why did you love your experience?”, ask “What factors made your experience a positive one?” Instead of “How were your outcomes?”, ask “What have our services helped you achieve?” (Pro tip: Don’t forget to record your interview — and ask their permission to do so.)
- Keep the patient’s personality in the testimonial. As much as it might feel like your piece, this is still their story. Capture the essence of who the patient is, what they have achieved, and where they are now.
- Interview patients who look like your patient population. Promoting an inclusive space on your website means highlighting patient testimonials that represent the population your organization serves.
- Consider video testimonials. Videos capture a patient’s personality, emotions, and experience in a way that writing sometimes cannot.
Remember: Before posting any testimonials to your website, be sure to get the patient’s approval.
How To Promote Patient Testimonials So They Get Read
Patient testimonials do nothing if nobody reads them. It’s up to your team to cultivate a distribution plan that ensures this happens.
Consider promoting your patient testimonials in one or more marketing efforts, such as:
- In your blog section: Sprinkle a few testimonials throughout your website’s blog — and make sure your blog section is easy to find from the main navigation.
- A dedicated patient testimonial section: If you think you’ll be able to gather a large number of testimonials, create an entire section to promote them. This makes it easy to navigate to them, and it also increases the number of indexed pages on your site, which helps with SEO.
- On your social channels: Share your testimonials on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and any other social channels. Tag any physicians who were named in the testimonial, and have them share the content, too.
- In your e-newsletter: Include one or two patient testimonials, and watch your pageviews skyrocket.
- In print: Don’t underestimate the power of an old-school print article — especially in a local publication. They can reach a population that might not end up on your website.
Building Trust With Patient Testimonials
A trusted referral is an incredibly powerful marketing tool, especially in healthcare. Patients want to know they are in the hands of the best and the brightest medical professionals — and a patient testimonial can do just that.
By creating content that portrays your healthcare organization from the perspective of other patients, you can garner trust and highlight the amazing work your organization does day in and day out.
Let us help you develop a plan to incorporate patient testimonials — and any other content you need — in your healthcare organization’s content strategy. Contact us today.
Quizzes Part 1: Why Your Content Strategy Should Include Quizzes
When you hear the word “quiz,” you may have a flashback to being in school. A teacher stands behind a desk, “Pop Quiz!” is written on the board, and everyone is scrambling to reread as much of the textbook as possible.
But when it comes to marketing, incorporating quizzes into your content strategy doesn’t have to induce that same kind of panic. While a quiz was never a welcome occurrence in your high school math class, it could be just what you need to liven up your website now.
Protecting Users’ Information
If you plan to use quizzes, surveys, or forms in your healthcare organization’s content strategy, consider the kinds of information you are collecting. Some quiz services are HIPAA compliant, and some are not.
Quizzes are becoming increasingly popular and can diversify or remediate your current content. They’re interactive, shareable, insightful — and the results can provide great intel.
From lead generation to patient education, a quiz is a powerful tool. If you’re looking for fresh new content to work into your strategy, quizzes may be a good option for your organization.
Quizzes Make Complex Content Accessible — Even Interesting
Healthcare can be difficult to navigate. Medical content is often filled with jargon that can frustrate a patient. There are many ways you can make your website more accessible, and quizzes can play a key role in turning confusing information into fun-to-learn content.
Knowledge quizzes — like the name suggests — test a user’s knowledge, asking them questions about a certain topic. This could be anything from “How Much Do You Know About OCD?” to “Are You An Arthritis Expert?”
Your patients may know a lot or a little about any given topic, but no matter how they score, they have the opportunity to learn something new — and find out where to learn more — just by taking your quiz!
Learn how to make quizzes that work for your content strategy with Quizzes: Part 2.
Quizzes Help You Learn More About Your Users
The benefits of using interactive quizzes go both ways — they can be entertaining for users, but they can also open your eyes to meaningful trends and insights.
With a well-designed quiz, you can learn:
- What your users value. Use a quiz to find out what your audience cares about or even how they would prefer to access content. Are they following you on social? Do they feel like they never have enough time? Would they listen to a podcast? Knowing what they find important can guide future content production or impact the services you offer.
- Key demographic information. You can also use quizzes to collect emails or demographic information, as long as your quiz is transparent about what you’re collecting and why.
- How knowledgeable your patients are. With a knowledge quiz — like this quiz about Generation Z — you could learn how much your audience knows about a certain topic or service.
- What your audience needs from you. If you create a knowledge quiz about teen eating disorders and find a lot of users are scoring poorly, that may indicate you need to shift your marketing to better educate on that one topic.
Before you design your quiz, the most important thing to do is determine your purpose — both in terms of what you want to get out of it and what you want your audience to get out of it. This will help you craft a successful quiz that keeps your audience and goals in mind.
Quizzes Can Increase Engagement On Your Site
If you’re still not convinced that a quiz is right for you, maybe some numbers will help.
Interactive content drives 100 percent more conversions than static content. And 62 percent of marketers have incorporated interactive content into their marketing strategy already.
Interactive and engaging content can increase your time on page analytics and decrease your bounce rate. By giving users something to do, you can impact your website’s traffic in significant ways.
How Will You Measure Success?
“When creating a quiz, know how you’re going to measure success. Is it the number of people who submit the form? The number of people who make an appointment? Or is it more of a fun ‘bonus’ benefit for readers? Defining ‘success’ will help you design a quiz that actually furthers your strategic goals.”
Sammi Gassel, Lead Content Specialist, CareContent
As with any piece of content, your goals will impact what analytics you are tracking and which metrics are valuable. You can continue to use your established data analytics tools to track page views and time on page to compare pages with different forms of content — all without worrying about the view metrics in your quiz software.
Test Your Quiz Knowledge
Now that you’ve learned a little bit about the benefits of incorporating quizzes into your content strategy, test your own knowledge to see what you remember!
7 Simple Ways To Repurpose Your Podcast Content
Planning, preparing, recording, editing, publishing — there’s a lot involved with making a quality podcast. This medium is one of the most popular ways to take in information, and it’s continuing to grow. But if you’re clicking “publish” and then walking away, you’re missing out on opportunities to get your content in front of more users.
Repurposing your podcast content drives more traffic to your already excellent content, and it helps your users access the information they need.
Here are 7 ways to effectively repurpose your podcast content to reach a broader audience.
