content marketing

Content Takeover: If Millennial Physicians Aren’t Joining Your Medical Association, Try This

Dear Professional Medical Association Owner/Marketer/Etc.,

Are your membership numbers dropping?

It might be because baby boomer physicians are retiring (more than a third of all active physicians will be 65 or older within the next 10 years) and millennial physicians are taking over.

And they’re not joining medical associations in droves.

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Not everyone agrees on the exact age that constitutes a millennial, although the general idea is millennials = those born between 1981 and 1996, so ages 23 to 38 in 2019.

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It’s not that millennial physicians don’t see any value in medical associations — nearly 75% of physicians under age 40 believe that professional associations and communities are useful.

However, there are some revealing statistics that should be a red flag for associations: 

• About 25% view associations as “old school.” 
• 45% have left associations because they are too expensive.
• 55% say that professional associations and organizations are not tech-savvy.

Old, expensive, not tech-savvy — these are three things that will make millennials run for the door.

Also, while medical associations may provide valuable content, they have some stiff competition. There is plenty of free information on the internet, so strapped-for-cash millennials are a little less likely to shell out the big bucks for content they could find without spending a cent.

Embrace Millennials

You can’t afford to lose millennials. They are the largest generation in the US workforce, comprising about 35% of US labor, and that percentage is set to become even greater.

As baby boomer physicians retire, they may let their professional memberships lapse. You need to reel in millennial members in order to avoid taking a major financial hit and to ensure that young physicians are receiving the expertise that you have to offer.

So, what do you do?

Content is a craft: Perfect it. Curate content that appeals to millennials on every level. Millennials may be a little picky about what they open their wallets for, but they will spend if the product is valuable.

Millennials hate waiting and reading unnecessary content, so let’s just get this thing started already.

1. Create content that meets needs and piques interests.

No one likes to waste time reading content that’s not valuable to them, and millennials are no exception. When you’re putting together a content strategy (literally the most important thing you can do for your site), get creative and find topics that interest millennials. What’s keeping the boomer docs interested might not capture millennials’ attention.

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What Do Millennials Want To Know About?

ℹ️ Evidence-based medicine: Millennials like data-driven information better than expert opinion or experience. 

🗓 Work-life balance: 92% of millennials say that balancing work with family and personal responsibilities is important, but only 65% feel that they have achieved it.

💰 Finances: 75% of medical students who graduated in 2018 did so with debt — an average of $196,520. Finances are also a major contributor to the career paths that physicians choose.

📝 Future career options: 80% of millennial physicians want to work in a related field beyond patient care at some point, such as healthcare consulting or academic research.

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2. Go mobile.

In the US, internet use on computers is declining. Instead, it’s all about smartphones. About 93% of millennials own smartphones. And among physicians under age 35, almost 90% use their smartphone for professional purposes.

This means that if they’re reading your content, it’s highly likely that they’re doing so on their phone. It also means that your content needs to be easy to read on a tiny screen.

Break text into small chunks rather than large paragraphs, and use lots of headers to break things up. Bullet points, lists, and mini infographics can also be invaluable for making text easier to read.

If possible, you may want to consider building a mobile app. Users spend 16 times longer on apps than on mobile websites. Just make sure to have a good app logo — 21% of millennials have deleted an app simply because they didn’t like the logo. 

3. Don’t forget about visuals.

While on the subject of aesthetics…

Videos and images should be your best friend.

Be creative — 30-second “behind the scenes”-style videos, cartoons, infographics — you name it.

Just remember that while pictures and videos are great content tools, media platforms like Flash don’t always work on mobile, or take too long to load.

4. Meet millennials where they’re at.

If there’s one thing that millennials can’t stand, it’s being talked down to. They don’t want information “dumbed down” for them. 

That being said, they don’t want boring, drab text and they don’t want to have to dissect each word to figure out exactly what the text is saying.

The trick is to get directly at eye-level. Write content that is conversational and in plain language, but not condescending or first-grade storytime in tone. Don’t be afraid to write in second-person and address the reader personally. 

5. Don’t overcharge for content.

They won’t pay.

6. Remember that variety is the spice of life — and content.

In addition to varying content, change up how it’s presented. 

There isn’t a magic length for content — in fact, people are very much divided on ideal length. 

Millennials like short and sweet. But, there are topics that require a substantial amount of text, and some millennials do love to read longer content. Don’t set one specific length. However, if you notice that you’ve made a bunch of short posts recently, switch it up and do a couple of exposes (or vice versa). 

For example, one of the next posts CareContent publishes should probably be shorter than this.

Also, vary up the authors. Some millennials respond to first-hand accounts, while others want a more anonymous voice. 

Include millennial authors. More than 65% of millennials prefer to join an organization that was founded by peers their own age. While your founders may be older than the millennial generation, giving millennials a voice can at least frame your organization in a younger way.

7. Don’t call us millennials.

Millennials don’t like being called millennials. I’m going to switch to first-person here — as a millennial, I can vouch for this claim.

Even though we’ve proven to not be the duds we were predicted to be (well, for the most part), the damage has been done. The word “millennial” has a negative connotation, and is often associated with laziness and entitlement. So, it sort of rubs us the wrong way to be called that.

Okay, back to second-person.

8. Stay ahead of the game.

Millennials want what’s next. They don’t want to be left behind — which means you can’t afford to be left behind, either.

Revisit your content strategy frequently. The healthcare landscape is constantly changing — does your content represent that? Technology and ways of consuming information via technology are also always changing. Is your content optimized for those changes? Will the format and way in which the content is written — not just the actual content itself — appeal to your readers?

A Final Piece Of Advice

Do your research. And that means going to your target audience. 

Ask your readers for their feedback and have them submit ideas for topics they want covered. You can’t give them what they want until you know what they want — and there’s no source better for figuring that out than their own mouths.

Sincerely,

A Millennial Who Doesn’t Mind Being Called a Millennial (but still, avoid calling millennials “millennials”)

Your 6-Step Plan To Website Redesign Success

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In this post, we discuss . . . 

• Challenges faced during a website redesign
  
• What it takes to prepare your content for a redesign
• How to plan a website redesign

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Challenges We Face Before, During, And After Website Redesign

The saying, “ignorance is bliss” is so true. My first website redesign was a wonderful experience because I didn’t know everything that could go wrong. I knew it would be challenging in general, but the constant worry wasn’t dancing in my head, giving me the freedom to successfully migrate 8,000 pages to a new content management system. The outcome?  We launched on time and received praise for all of the amazing content we created. (The praise was from IT, too, which was a huge win).

Twelve years later, and a few dozen website redesigns under my belt, I’m grateful to have the wherewithal to anticipate the common and new challenges. More importantly, having the knowledge to solve the challenges before they ruin the project is key. 

In my experience with website redesign projects, I have found that clients lack 5 common things:

1. Internal governance and alignment
2. Resources to assess and clean up content that exists
3. An understanding of how much time and effort it takes to revise current content and/or develop new content.
4. An understanding of what should happen after launch
5. Success metrics

What It Takes To Prepare For A Website Redesign

I’ll run through the 6 steps  below, but first, let’s talk about the behavior needs to achieve success: 

1. True Grit: A website redesign is not an easy task. You will face setbacks and roadblocks, but you must persevere and have the passion to find solutions.
   
2. Optimism: You must believe that your leadership and your team will work together to drive success.
   
3. Constant Communication: When people know what’s happening, and why,  it’s easier to get the job done.
   
4. Constant Improvement: While you have a plan, there is always potential for improving your plan as you go. Always think about how you can do something better.
   
5. Supportive Leadership: When you know someone has your back, you’re more willing to take risks and do the work to make it happen.
6. Sense of Humor: At the end of the day, we need a sense of humor. It will make the project less stressful, increase creativity, and improve productivity. In the immortal words of Elle Woods in Legally Blonde:

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The Step-By-Step Plan To Start Your Website Redesign

The following steps are tried and true. The more effort you put into planning, the better your outcomes will be. 

STEP 1: IDENTIFY KEY STAFF

A governance plan helps you align all players and standards.

Governance is the people, processes, and systems that help create and manage content through all stages of the content lifecycle. The two key components of a governance plan is to identify roles, responsibilities and required skills and define policies and procedures.

What are the roles, responsibilities, and required skills?

In hockey, every new season starts with determining which roles need to be filled with players who have the skills to help the team win. It’s the same when putting together a website redesign team. This is your chance to identify who on your team can help you win, and who you need to hire.  

• Roles: What’s the reason they are on the team?
• Responsibilities: What tasks and decisions should they take ownership of?
• Required Skills: What do they need to master to fulfill their responsibilities?

What are the policies and procedures?

My personal favorite task as a content strategist is to outline policies and procedures. This is what will make your team a well-oiled machine. It helps everyone, from IT to content producers to stakeholders know how to get things done. From both a content and technology perspective, policies and procedures provide standards and guidelines for keeping the site up-to-date, such as:

• Adding new pages
• Adding new content owners and permissions
• Auditing content
• Updating IT systems

STEP 2: DEFINE GOALS & REQUIREMENTS

Setting goals and requirements will help you define success.

If you’ve ever signed up for a marathon or a 5k race, the first thing you probably did (after shaking your head wondering what you had just done) was set a goal and define what it takes to achieve the goal. This is the same idea. Setting website goals and requirements will help you across the finish line with the intent of winning. When working on a website redesign, I like to set goals and requirements for:

• Strategic priorities and revenue
• Messaging
• Voice and tone
• Online-to-offline experience
• Functionality
• Visual design
• Key performance indicators

STEP 3: INVENTORY & ASSESS

Conducting a content inventory will make your life easier.

While listing every piece of content may sound tedious and time-consuming (oh, it is), it’s the step that will help you determine what content you have that will work in the new redesign and what content you’re missing, aka content gaps. This inventory will be used to help you audit your content based on your new goals and it will help with listing URL redirects. When you see the list of the pages you have on your website, trust me, you will be amazed.

A qualitative assessment will help you keep your brand and message inline.

Sure, you have content on your current site. But does it fit your brand? Is the right information available? Is there too much or too little information? You need to assess the quality of the content so you know how much will need to be revised to fit your brand message.

STEP 4: DEFINE & DESIGN THE EXPERIENCE

Defining a content strategy is the foundation of the user experience.

I may be biased, but your content strategy is the heart of your website redesign. It is a comprehensive plan for developing the right information, sharing it at the right time and presenting it for the right audience. Your content strategy is a documented approach that outlines what and how to make your digital experience a success. A typical content strategy outlines (there’s more than three, but this post is long enough): 

1. Content Vision & Goals: A definition of the goals your content needs to achieve for your business and customer success. This is the crux for planning and developing the right content throughout your content ecosystem.
   
2. Content Structure (Information Architecture & Site Navigation): This determines how your content is going to be organized in the CMS and the public-facing site.
   
3. Brand Message, Voice & Tone: Stating your brand message, voice, and tone makes sure your message is consistent throughout the website. This is especially helpful when multiple authors throughout your organization are writing and sharing information.

Content guidelines ensure all content is standardized.

Your most important document is your content guidelines, used to explain standards for copy and visual design throughout the site. It is used to ensure the brand integrity is not lost when several people are developing content on the site. Everyone needs to see this document. Everyone.

Designing the user experience will make your site a delight.

The user experience (UX) shows how content is placed within specific templates to ensure a positive user interaction. Because of your due diligence of focusing on your goals, content needs and expectations, you made the UX process go so much smoother and more likely to get it right the first time (reiterations are time and budget killers). 

Your visual design will make your brand come alive.

The visual design makes your brand come to life. Again, because you have a content strategy and guidelines, your visual designer has the knowledge he/she needs to create an amazing design.

STEP 5: AUDIT CONTENT & MAP

A content audit will weed out the content you don’t need.

Soapbox moment. It drives me nuts when people say, “we need to do a content audit” at the beginning of the project. An audit means to determine what you have based on your needs, goals. So, until you’ve inventoried the site, defined your goals and outlined your content structure, you can’t do your audit. Ok, I’ll get off my soapbox.

The audit is the step you take to determine what you want to keep, delete, revise.

Mapping content to the new information architecture will make the migration process easier.

Once you’ve finished your audit, you take all the pages you’re keeping and organize it to fit the new IA. Boom, you have your site content. Now, this is an extremely valuable document. It’s what you use to project manage content revisions, development, reviews and migration. You’ll love it.

STEP 6: DEVELOP THE IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

Define a content development and migration plan so you stay on track with your timeline.

Because there are several players involved with migration– IT, content developers, stakeholders, etc. you need a documented plan to share with everyone on the team about how this is going to go down. Your IT team will love you for this.

Define the technical build plan to stay on budget.

This is simple. Now that you know how much content you have, how you want it to function and any specific needs, you can let the content management system builders know what’s involved and they can give you an accurate estimate for the build cost and timing.

There you go. Your step-by-step plan to creating a successful website redesign. It may feel overwhelming, but it’s actually a seamless plan that will prevent you from having a constant headache throughout the redesign process.

If you’d like to speak with us about this process, contact us. We’d love to help you through the process.

What We’re Thankful For In Healthcare Digital Marketing This Year

Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on what we’re grateful for in all areas of our lives—and healthcare digital marketing is no exception.

At CareContent, we’ve got lots of reasons to be grateful. Here’s what our team is thankful for in the worlds of healthcare, healthcare digital marketing, and technology.

Kadesha Thomas Smith (Founder/CEO)

The main thing I’m thankful for is this grand awakening in the healthcare digital marketing world that content should be the first priority. A long time ago, Andy Crestodina, co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Orbit Media Studios told me, “They’re not there yet, but in about 2 or 3 years they will be, and then you’ll be well-positioned to be a leader in this area.”

Now, I finally see that happening. Healthcare organizations are finally realizing that the key to having a strong web presence is making sure that the content is well organized, well produced, well promoted, and well analyzed.

This is great for us at CareContent because this shift is directly related to what we do and the approach that we think people should take.

Changing The Way We Approach Web Content Creation

Because of this shift in the world of healthcare digital marketing, I’m really grateful that CareContent has been able to start tackling enterprise-level content strategy and content creation projects for hospitals and other types of healthcare organizations.

It’s been a really exciting experience for us to tackle these projects. We’ve been able to create and plan content that meets our clients’ goals, meets their audience needs, and helps them feel like they can indeed get a handle on their website.

In the process, we’re showing them that web content creation and management doesn’t have to be this ad-hoc beast.

I think the biggest thing of all that I’m grateful for is having a team that is willing to take on this new approach and these new projects—and do an excellent job. They’re a very adaptable bunch, always willing to meet the client’s needs quickly and flexibly.

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Jennifer Martin (Content Director)

I’m thankful that augmented reality (AR) is evolving far beyond the cute critters in Pokemon Go. For example, the ARKit, unveiled for Apple’s iPhone 8 and iPhone X, will really make your everyday world “pop.”

Look through your iPhone or iPad’s camera, and you might see anything from a SpaceX rocket landing in your yard to career statistics overlaid on the heads of the pro basketball players you’re watching on TV, notes The Verge.

What does it mean for marketing? The chance to help viewers visualize everything from new home decor to the interior of a brand-new sports car. Watch for endless applications (and some app wars) in the future.

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Ros Lederman (Content Development Manager)

I am thankful for the shift we’ve made at CareContent from mostly blog creation to more of a focus on websites as a whole. To be honest, when Kadesha first put out the idea of making this change, I wasn’t sure what to think or expect.

I knew the learning curve would be steep and the climb could take a while, but I’m truly enjoying the journey because I’m learning so much each and every day. Yes, this is somewhat sappy to say. But it’s true.

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Samantha Gassel (Web Content Specialist)

I’ve been grateful that CareContent is spreading its wings beyond creating content, and moving toward creating the best places for our clients to showcase that content.

[Note: Sammi would also like to mention that because this is a Thanksgiving-themed post, the wings she mentions above are turkey wings.]

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Nicole Pegues Riepl (Multimedia Content Designer)

I am grateful that healthcare digital marketing is steering toward creating more personalized narratives.

With so many touchpoints out there to the consumer these days, healthcare institutions have a great opportunity—and, I think, a great responsibility—to speak directly to prospective patients and caregivers, and to show how they’re actually improving outcomes, not just winning awards (although that’s great, too).

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Linyi Zhang (Content Conversion Specialist)

I am grateful for the advancement of data technology. Analytics now supports almost every stage of the digital marketing process, from content creation to design. I am amazed at how fast it is spreading in the content world.

Analytics really deepens our understanding of audience’s preferences and helps deliver more relevant and valuable content to them. And it also changes how organizations think about the value of content and decide what content to produce.

Sometimes, this creative process becomes overly formulaic because of these quantitative measurements. But I am grateful that CareContent gives writers the liberty to be creative, even as our ideas are grounded in consumer insights. That’s what makes our approach unique and our content engaging.

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Crystal Suh (Project Manager)

As a mom of two young children, I love anything that makes life easier. I’m thankful for technology that makes it easy to communicate with physicians from home—from emailing to sending pictures of rashes to video chatting. It’s nice to have options before deciding to trek to the doctor’s office.

At CareContent, we’ve got lots to be thankful for. What are you thankful for this year in the world of healthcare digital marketing?

Successful Content Marketing Starts With A Solid Content Strategy

Today on the CareContent blog, we have a guest post by Rebecca Steurer. Rebecca is the founder of ContentRS and the co-founder of Content Academy, both of which focus on helping organizations understand and implement successful content strategy and content marketing practices. Here’s what she has to say about the relationship between these two key concepts.

What comes first: content marketing or content strategy? My answer is content strategy—and I’m not just saying that because I am a 16-year content strategy veteran. I say this because developing a strategy for your content will have a significant impact on reaching your audience—while also saving you time and money.

To understand why this is, let me first explain what I see as the main differences between content marketing and content strategy.

The Difference Between Content Marketing And Content Strategy

Content Marketing Defined

Content marketing is what you do to share your brand message, knowledge, and experience with your audience. It puts your services within the context of your audience’s needs through storytelling.

In healthcare, content marketing might include:

• Blogs that share patient stories, doctor stories, and clinical stories
• Infographics that explain complicated procedures
• Behind-the-scenes videos that help patients understand how the medical team prepares for surgery
• Podcasts that share thought leadership

Content Strategy Defined

Content strategy is what you do to define what you want your content to achieve, how you’ll develop the content, where and when you’ll post the content, and what you’ll measure to determine if your content is successful. It helps you focus on developing the right information at the right time for the right audience and in the right presentation style.

While there is clearly a difference between content marketing and content strategy, the two must complement each other in order to be successful.

Why It’s Important To Have A Content Strategy For Content Marketing Efforts

I love the word “strategy” because it’s about having a plan to take action. It helps you define what you need to do so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel over and over again, which wastes time—and in this case, time is money.

There are several key content strategy tasks that you’ll want to complete to make your content marketing efforts successful:

1. Define Your Business Goals

According to a May 2017 report by MDG Advertising, healthcare organizations are budgeting more and more money for content marketing. This increased funding might be used to develop more blog posts throughout the year.

Before you begin developing your content, it’s critical to have a clear understanding of what you want your content marketing to achieve so that the budgeted funds are well spent. For instance, do you want your readers to:

• Call for an appointment?
• Share your story with their friends?
• Visit your website?

2. Define The Content Elements To Include On Your Blog And/Or Website

Ensuring you have the right content elements in your blog posts and website to guide your audience to achieve the desired outcomes is the key to success.

Say you’re creating a new blog post to highlight a physician, Dr. Bob. The goal is to fill up his schedule for the next few months.

Your blog post will showcase Dr. Bob’s clinical expertise and compassionate care. While your copywriter will write a beautifully written story about Dr. Bob, your content strategist will also be working to include several key items.

3. Create A Content Development And Posting Schedule

This is the step where organizational, planning, and communications skills are required. Use this step to help you schedule relevant information that is useful to your audience and supports your business goals.

4. Define The Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Determine what you think makes your blog post a success—and then measure it. KPI can include:

• Number of page visits
• Number of shares
• Number of likes
• Number of appointments made

Once you determine the KPIs, create an easy-to-understand report to track findings over time, so you’ll know which content types work and which don’t.

5. Develop The Sharing Strategy

This step helps you determine where and when you’re going to let people know about the blog post.

For example, you might decide that sharing the latest stories on your hospital’s Facebook page is the best way to reach potential patients. Or maybe Twitter is more effective. Or it might be the case that sharing the content across several social networks is best. The answer all depends on your audience and goals.

Now You’re Ready For Content Marketing

Now that your content strategy is in place, all you have to focus on is developing the copy. Because you’ve created a stellar content strategy, your content marketing efforts should pay off.  This is why successful content marketing starts with a solid content strategy.

At CareContent, we’ve got your content strategy and content marketing needs covered. Contact us today to find out how to take your healthcare organization’s content marketing to the next level.

Content First: 9 Signs It’s Time To Redo Your Healthcare Website

Yes, it’s probably time.

The fact that you’re even reading this blog post indicates that you’ve at least clicked around your healthcare organization’s website and either rolled your eyes, or just let out a long tired sigh.

Revamping your healthcare organization’s website is a huge undertaking: the content strategy, the content creation, the design, the UX. Then, after all that’s done, who’s going to keep the thing updated?

Or maybe you’re not sure. Sometimes, it can be hard to tell if your organization’s website needs a makeover. And I’m not talking about just changing the layout and color scheme. I’m talking about redoing the content on the site, too.

So, how do you know if your healthcare website is in for a redo? Here are 9 signs it’s time to do it—and put the content first.

First, there are the obvious signs:

1. The Content Is Out Of Date.

If no one is keeping tabs on when new content is published—or whether the published content is even still useful or relevant—then it’s probably time for a refresh.

2. The Site Is Difficult To Navigate.

If visitors can’t find what they’re looking for right away—like within a few seconds, at most—chances are they’re leaving. And that’s not a good thing. Hint: If people are spending a longer time on your homepage compared to pages about your services, then it’s possible that they’re not finding the right path to the information they need.

3. The Site Isn’t Responsive.

I really shouldn’t even have to say this, but here it goes. More than two thirds of all health-related searches are done on mobile devices, not computers, according to an August 2016 Search Engine Land report. If your healthcare website isn’t responsive, then … just … I can’t.

4. The Site Looks Outdated.

If people are looking for some Internet nostalgia, they’ll turn to BuzzFeed posts like “6 Websites You’ll Remember If You Grew Up In The ‘90s.” But if your healthcare organization’s site looks like it belongs in one of those posts, it’s time to redo it.

While these are all obvious signs that your healthcare website is due for an update, there are more subtle signs that many people overlook simply because they just might not recognize them:

5. You Called A Web Design Or Development Firm First.

If the last time you worked on your website, you called a web design or development firm first, you probably need to redo your site.

That’s because digital marketing is all about content.

If you did not take a content-first approach to your website and instead relied on a developer or design firm, it probably means you took your old content and placed it into a shiny, new shell.

But that content might not be performing the way you want it. Even if you redesigned your website as recently as two years ago, if you didn’t take a content-first approach, it’s probably time to take another stab at it already.

6. No One Is Tracking Your Analytics.

If you cannot point to the one person or team in your healthcare organization who can tell you how your content is performing, where traffic is coming from, how long visitors are staying on your site, and what content those visitors like best, it’s probably time to for a redo.

I say this from experience. When talking to clients or prospective clients who don’t have a dedicated analytics team or partner, the organization usually has some really outdated features or stale content on their website.

And the reason it’s become outdated is because no one is telling the organization that the content is not performing well. Analytics is all about how the content is performing.

7. Even Your Care Providers Complain About The Website.

It’s probably time to redo your healthcare website if your organization’s care providers say they want the website to be a much more robust resource for their patients.

A bad website makes providers’ jobs harder because they don’t have a centralized place they can point patients toward to get answers to those repeat questions.

If your doctors are complaining about what they think should be on the site, listen to them. What they’re really saying is, “We need to invest in our site in order to make it something that helps us help our patients.”

8. There Are No Interactive Elements On The Site.

If your site has no videos, graphics, or other elements that make it visual and interactive, it’s not going to rank well in search.

Plus, nobody wants to look at a big wall of text. Graphic elements break up dense text and keep people engaged. If your healthcare website doesn’t have visuals, it’s probably time to redo your site.

9. Your Healthcare Website Is Not Ranking In Search.

Ranking in search is so important because that is how people are finding their healthcare providers.

For instance, a September 2012 study conducted by Google found that 44% of patients who looked up information about hospitals on a mobile device ended up scheduling an appointment. That study also found that search brings almost 3 times as many people to hospital websites, compared to the number of visitors who arrive there without searching.

It’s not so much that your site’s landing pages need to rank. Rather, the pages for individual doctors—especially those rockstar doctors who have patients traveling long distances to see them—should show up on the side of a Google results page, along with a picture, quote, and updated office hours and locations.

Google is trying to compile as much information as possible to help people find answers instantly. If a person is looking for an answer or a service that your healthcare organization can provide, Google should know that.

So, if your web content is not ranking well in search, it’s time to redo it.

If you want to cut down on the headache and the hassle of a website redo, contact us today to talk more about how we can help you put content first in your next redesign process.

Healthcare Content Marketing: How Much Should It Cost?

It all starts the same way: Your healthcare organization needs to reach a certain audience online. Maybe you’ve been producing healthcare content for years, and now you have so much that you don’t know what to do with it. Or maybe you’ve just realized that content is your ticket to engagement, and you’re just getting started.

The end goal is the same, too: When your audience encounters your content, you want them to to raise their hand and become a patient, client, member, etc.

So, how much should that action cost?

Content should be considered a long-term investment, not an expense. That said, expect to make a bigger investment if …

You Need Strategy.

It’s one thing to have already ironed out your healthcare organization’s content solution. Now, you just need help executing. But if you’re looking for insight, ideas, and solutions to challenges, then the content team that helps you is more than just an extra set of hands.

Ideally, they come in on the front end when you’ve discovered the content challenge. They can get to know your organization, your challenges, your business goals, and your audience. Then, they apply years of expertise, experience, and lessons learned to pitch ideas and solutions.

Read this twice: Solid ideas are the pulse of a strong content solution. Ideas are what distinguish you from your competitor—ideas about compelling topics, distribution channels, etc.

You want your content team to be a pack of rabid problem solvers and idea generators—and don’t expect that to be cheap.

You’re Looking For Experts.

Think of it like this: The average family medicine physician makes $225,000 annually. But a neurosurgeon—around $700,000. Why the difference? One is a specialist, offering something that you can’t find on a shelf—and you need it.

Many of our clients come to us because we are healthcare content specialists. We only work with healthcare organizations, so we know the space inside out.

Good luck trying to ask a lower-cost general interest content team to work on a project about a very technical healthcare topic, like the mechanism of action for a new drug or anything dealing with the Affordable Care Act. The acronyms alone will give them a headache.

Plus, you’ll spend precious time getting them up to speed on healthcare when they should be learning about your healthcare organization and your goals. And in the end, you may have to redo it all.

If you choose to go with a specialized healthcare content team, expect to pay for brain power, not just taskmasters.

You Need The Groundwork Done.

Content audits. Social media promotion. Analytics. Tracking down subject matter experts. These are common and important aspects of many content challenges, but they take a lot of time. And you can’t have an intern doing this unless you just like headaches.

Ideally, the same content team who tackled your strategic challenge can roll up their sleeves and execute the solution. That way, they can circle back to the strategy to build on what works and improve on what doesn’t. Plus, you’ve already developed a relationship with them.

So now, you’re paying them to lend their expertise toward taking these tasks off of your plate.

How much is that worth to you?

The Best Approach?

Let your prospective content partner know your ballpark budget. Save everyone some time, and put it out there. If you don’t know your budget, ask the prospective content partner to throw out a number. Then ask yourself: Is it worth it?

If you’re with a healthcare organization and curious about pricing for healthcare content solutions, shoot me an email (kadesha@carecontent.com), and I’ll let you know how CareContent charges.

Read/Watch/Listen/Follow: Content We’re Into (February 2017)

As content creators, we’re constantly on the hunt for interesting and inspiring stories from wherever we can find them—the internet, a podcast, television. This enables us not only to keep up with but to lead relevant conversations on the people, events, and discoveries that are impacting our world.

Here’s what we’ve been devouring lately.

Jennifer, Content Director

Reading: A Star Trek “Section 31” novel called Cloak. Very mysterious stuff. Trekkies will know.

Watching: Who Are You, Really? The Puzzle of Personality, by Brian Little. A TEDTalk from a psychologist on what personality is—and how to transcend it when you need to.

Listening to: Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits. Vintage delight.

Following: Myths and Legends, a podcast about folklore from around the world. Dragons, wizards, knights, and more—fascinating stuff.

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Ros, Web Content Specialist

Reading: “The Last Unknown Man,” a longform piece from the New Republic about a man who appears one day outside a Burger King in Georgia with no idea who he is…and it turns out that no one else knows his identity, either.

Watching: Superstore, a sitcom that follows a group of truly quirky employees as they navigate their careers at a Wal-Mart-esque store called Cloud 9.

Listening to: Justin Timberlake <3

Following: Politics. Sigh.

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Sammi, Web Content Specialist

Reading: The Little Prince—a classic children’s book that I’ve never read. One of my best friends stayed with me over the holidays, and it’s his favorite book, so he gave it to me as a thank you for hospitality. I’m only halfway through it, but I like it so far. It reminds you of the importance of imagination and creativity.

Watching: Homeland. I re-watched the whole series in a little more than a month (yes, I need a life). It’s such a great show.

Listening to: Anything happy and upbeat. It’s a grim time of the year, so I need a little energy boost. And music’s the best way to do that.

Following: The hearings for who will be on the President’s cabinet. The people he picks will directly impact health and education, so I want a heads-up of what’s to come.

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LaToya, Content Design Specialist

Reading: 100 Little Things About Pregnancy, Birth, And Being A First-Time Mom by Adriel Booker. She talks about her journey in becoming a first-time mom, from breastfeeding to post-partum recovery.

Watching: Moonlight—a moving story that follows a bullied young boy as he struggles with his identity. The story follows him from childhood to adulthood as he faces adversity and overcomes through the relationships that he develops along the way. It’s a very moving and emotional film.

Listening to: I have been listening to a lot of gospel music lately, artists such as Tasha Cobbs and Travis Greene.

Following: @frobabies on instagram. Frobabies is a clothing line, but they also post daily pictures of cute little babies and toddlers. Cutie overload.

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Katie, Engagement and Analytics

Reading: I just started Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance. The memoirist is only 31 years old, but he grew up in Appalachia, and wrote this book to offer insight into what’s happening in the U.S. Politicians on both sides reference this book for explaining “what it all means”—how Trump won and why a sizable section of white America feels left behind.

Watching: The Parent Trap—the original, 1961 version. I watched this movie all the time as a kid, and now it’s on Netflix. Eight-year-old me is so psyched right now.

Listening to: A Spotify playlist I made of songs that calm me down. It’s been in heavy rotation lately.

Following: All of the rogue government Twitter accounts that have popped up when the President tried to silence the main accounts—from @RogueNASA and @AltNPS to @RoguePOTUSstaff and @Alt_CDC. This is a shining example of why social media fascinates me.

Read/Watch/Listen/Follow: Content We’re Into (October 2016)

As content creators, we’re constantly on the hunt for interesting and inspiring stories from wherever we can find them—the internet, a podcast, television. This enables us not only to keep up with but to lead relevant conversations on the people, events, and discoveries that are impacting our world.

Here’s what we’ve been devouring lately.

Kadesha, Founder/CEO

Reading: The collection of Clifford the Big Red Dog stories in Spanish with my son because we’re working on his colors, counting, and his Spanish—three birds, one stone.

Watching: I lost the remote to my TV, so I’m not currently watching anything, and it’s been great.

Listening to: Tim Ferriss’ Four-Hour Work Week podcast about project and time management. As a new mom and a business owner, I have to not do as much and learn to delegate better.

Following: The hashtag #HCIC16 for the Healthcare Internet Conference that I’ll be attending next week in Las Vegas.

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Jennifer, Content Director

Reading: Celebrities Who Cheer For The Chicago Cubs. Sorry, Indians fans. Cubs Fever has made Chicago delirious.

Watching: Bull—an interesting new TV drama on jury psychology. Who knew we humans are so predictable?

Listening to: Useful Science. The science of getting drunk, getting full, and attracting mosquitos, all in one podcast. Cool.

Following: The Presidential debates. And I’m glad they’re over.

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Ros, Web Content Specialist

Reading: Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald, which was an Oprah’s Book Club pick and not at all like anything I would normally read. But I found it in the laundry room of my old apartment building and figured I’d give it a shot. It’s a historical novel that follows four sisters as they grow up on an island off the coast of Nova Scotia in the early 20th century. There’s more to it than that, obviously, or else I’d have given up on this 500-pager by now. But you’ll have to read it yourself to find out.

Watching: All of the crime and “I escaped from a crazy cult” documentaries on Netflix, from The Imposter to Holy Hell. I have no idea why I can’t stop watching these, considering how easily frightened and sensitive to gory visuals I am. And yet several times a week I find myself wondering which of these documentaries I should watch next.

Listening to: Justin Timberlake.

Following: BuzzFeed’s coverage of the second presidential debate, which they (and probably everyone else) are calling “the craziest and most surreal debate in modern history.”

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Sammi, Web Content Specialist

Reading: Several articles about whether or not doctors should turn away unvaccinated kids to protect other patients and families. It’s an interesting debate. Is it choosing one child’s care over another?

Watching: Designated Survivor. It’s completely unrealistic and pretty cheesy, but it is very entertaining—also pretty relevant in terms of combatting Islamophobia and balancing power.

Listening to: More Hamilton! I finally saw the show, and now I am listening to it even more. I’m also listening to a lot of Beatles music lately. My sister just got married, and she and her husband love the Beatles, so there have been Beatles songs on replay.

Following: The election and the Cubs—not sure which I am more interested in at the moment!

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Nicole, Multimedia Content Designer

Reading: “Parents Should Sleep in Same Room as Newborns to Prevent SIDS, Doctors Say.” Time Magazine reports new guidelines that suggest parents be in close quarters with their babies until about 6 months to 1 year old.

Watching: Opioids: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. This is a late-night take on the nation’s growing opioid epidemic, shedding light on where the addiction problem tends to start: prescription drug use.

Listening to: Out Of This World: How Artists Imagine Planets Yet Unseen. We already have actual photo documentation of what our own solar system looks like. NPR explains how artists envision and create visuals of newly discovered, unknown worlds in faraway galaxies.

Following: Matt Wiley on Twitter. He’s a Brooklyn-based designer from the UK who is currently Art Director for The New York Times Magazine. He prefers a bold, art deco design style, and he has a thing for typography (like me).

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LaToya, Content Design Specialist

Reading: Who We Were Before, a story about a couple who loses their son in a tragic accident. Instead of grieving together, the wife disconnects from the husband, and the life that they knew before is slowly fading away.

Watching: Shameless, Season 7. A television series starring William H. Macy, the story takes place in Chicago and is about a very dysfunctional family. The mother suffers from bipolar disorder, and the father is an alcoholic and drug addict. The story follows the family of seven as they each face their own life obstacles as well as those of their parents.

Listening to: Various artists, from Hezekiah Walker to Toni Braxton

Following: @tonibraxton who is currently touring and also spreading awareness about Autism Speaks and her constant battle with Lupus.

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Katie, Engagement and Analytics

Reading: Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. This is Coates’ letter to his son, about the history of race in the U.S., what it means to be black today, and how we all move forward. Toni Morrison called this book required reading, so I couldn’t pass it by.

Watching: Dallas Goldtooth’s and Didi Banerji’s Facebook live streams from the front lines at Standing Rock. These two have been reporting extensively about what’s happening on the ground as the self-proclaimed water protectors battle construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. If completed, the pipeline would cross the Missouri River and put drinking water at risk for millions of people, as well as desecrate sacred Native burial land.

Listening to: This American Life episode 599, “Seriously?” A fascinating analysis of the way we currently view “facts” as a society and how journalists and the Presidential candidates portray them. As someone who spent her college education studying journalism, I’m so entirely frustrated, flabbergasted, and frightened by where people get their information and what they consider to be true.

Following: @SickOfWolves on Twitter makes me laugh daily. So glad this wolf masquerading as a man decided to use social media to keep the world updated on his trials and successes. Those updates include gems such as, “WELL IF I DO NOT HAVE ANY HUMAN FRIENDS WHY ARE THERE SO MANY FRAMED PHOTOS OF MARK RUFFALO IN MY HOME.”

12 Reasons To Consider A Content Marketing Agency For Healthcare Content

You’ll often hear of  content marketing as “feeding the beast.” That describes the ongoing labor of creating content to keep a content strategy working.

Although many healthcare organizations have embraced the importance of content marketing, many are struggling to produce enough content to keep their key patient audiences engaged. Even a weekly blog can become a challenge.

 So, here are your options:

1. Continue to crank out content yourself—when you and your team have time.
2. Hire freelancers.
3. Hire more full-time employees, who will be dedicated to content.
4. Contract with a web design or branding agency you’ve already worked with.
5. Partner with a content marketing agency.

Shameless plug: This blog post will endorse option five, because, well, CareContent is a content marketing agency.

Here are 12 reasons why the first four options don’t stack up to partnering with a content marketing agency.

Option 1: Crank out the content yourself.

Why this doesn’t work…

If you spend most of your days creating content, you probably aren’t focusing on strategy or promotion or the other moving parts that make content marketing successful.

You’ll also have to stay on top of all the changes in search algorithms, social media, design, and content marketing trends. Content marketing has become so competitive that if you’re not going to do it well, it’s best not to do it at all.

The title of this blog is Out-By-5. That’s probably not what you’re doing if you’re creating content. Most of the time, content is added to an already long to-do list.

Option 2: Hire a freelancer.

Full disclosure: Before CareContent, I freelanced for healthcare organizations. Okay, carry on.

Why this doesn’t work…

Freelancers have limited skills. They usually won’t know how to optimize a post for search, create visual designs, or develop and execute a plan for promoting the content. And, you may still need to do significant editing. Freelancers rarely have outside editors review content before they give it to you.

Freelancers have limited time. You’ll have to budget your content marketing projects based on the availability and capacity of just one person. Unlike a content marketing agency, the freelancer is probably not allowed to delegate work among a team.

Freelancers are cumbersome. Managing a group of freelancers can be a headache—answering their emails, tracking their invoices, negotiating rates, remembering what that rate was. And if your favorites are unavailable, do you have time to recruit replacements?

Option 3: Hire full-time employees to do it.

Why this doesn’t work…

It’s not just another person. It’s a team you’ll need to hire—and everything that goes with that: salaries, plus all the benefits like health insurance, sick days, holidays. Not to mention the time you’ll spend helping that person climb the learning curve and managing their workload. 

Full-timers tend to get stuck in meetings. Once they’re in your organization, how much time will they actually be able to sit, head down, to focus on creating content? Most healthcare marketing managers and coordinators have so many meetings that they can’t focus on content until after 5.

If you hire someone to write the content, it’s unlikely that the person will also be able to optimize the content for search, add visual design, self-edit, keep up with best practices in content marketing, etc.

Option 4: Let your agency of record do it.

Why this doesn’t work …

It might not be their primary skillset. You originally hired them for branding, web design, or advertising. Those capabilities do not usually translate to content marketing.

They might try to subcontract with a content marketing agency and mark up the price. That means their content services will come at a higher cost than if you’d partnered with the content marketing agency directly.

Even if they create content, they may be missing other elements. For example, if some of your content was best formatted as an infographic, a patient guide, a podcast or a quiz could they do that? Or would they be limited to one type of content?

Here’s the bottom line: Content comes first. It shouldn’t just be riding shotgun. It should be the driver of every website, social media channel, and digital campaign. It’s time for healthcare organizations to add a new partner to their vendor speed dial: A content marketing agency.