Here’s a link to a great article by Twitter Business called 6 tips for a Successful 2018 Content Strategy. It’s definitely worth a read for any healthcare marketer.
One area I would like to develop here in regards to healthcare content creation strategy is the “how to” of identifying content management themes for 2018 within a typical healthcare organization.
This requires 3 steps.
First, ask your medical director what are the 3 – 5 most pressing healthcare issues facing your patent population and the organization as a whole.
This is critical. The medical director of a healthcare organization will be at the confluence of the health priorities of the population and the financial priorities of the organization. They are the one in a position to know what area, if improved, would have the greatest impact on both the health of the patient population and the financial position of the organization.
(Note- understanding the financial impact of a given possible area is quite important, because it not only helps with resource allocation, it helps move marketing from a branding mission to an operational mission.).
For example, in a multi-specialty clinic an example list may look something like this:
- HgA1c control
- Hypertension control
- Vaccination rate
- Opioid overuse.
Second, ask you medical director is who are the respective thought leaders in the clinic in this area, you might get a the names of an endocrinologist, a cardiologist, a pediatrician, and a primary care doctor.
Third, reach out to these thought leaders with a simple call, and an email, and you ask them what are the four areas which would have the greatest chance of improving metrics in these respective areas.
You will now have a list of 18-20 themes, with some possible overlap. ( For example, you might find that ‘Medication compliance” comes up as a topic for both HgA1c control and hypertension management).
These 18-20 working themes will be a very good starting point to start brainstorming specific content ideas, and often will be supported by pre-existing committees within the organization.
Anyway, the key point is to recognize that it’s likely the medical structure within an organization has a very clear idea of the organizations medical and financial priorities. An internal information architecture is already in place.
The essential step for Marketing, who are usually the gatekeepers for content distribution, is to have a system of accessing this internal information architecture.