The number of Indians using the internet has been soaring in the past few years. According to to a research report by The Statistic Portal, India has over 460 million Internet users out of which nearly 200 million are active internet users. With an ever growing Internet base, more and more traditional marketers have been using content marketing as a core ingredient for brand awareness. A study conducted by eMarketer states that 54 % of Indian marketers say that content marketing helps in retaining and attracting customers. Content marketing in India has seen a scintillating rise in the recent years. More and more marketers have been including content marketing as a part of their strategic marketing plan.
When it comes to the healthcare industry in India, marketers are yet to make use of content marketing as an important tool to attract consumers. The healthcare industry comprises of hospitals, doctors, nurses, pharmaceutical companies, health insurance firms, companies manufacturing medical equipment, and all kinds of ‘diagnostic, remedial and therapeutic services’.
Let’s take a look how we can develop strategies to foster content marketing in India for the healthcare industry:
1. Develop a good content marketing strategy plan
A good content marketing plan is necessary to achieve your marketing goals. It is the blueprint which enables you to track all your marketing efforts. A plan ensures that you don’t make the same mistakes again. In most cases, having a strategic content marketing plan helps companies attract new customers and retain old customers. For the healthcare industry, most of the marketing is done inbound. Healthcare companies try to market their brand subtly through SEO blogs. In order to do this, first, various buyer personas are identified and then the content is created keeping those personas in mind. For example, a company manufacturing birth control pills will target women who don’t wish to conceive. All marketing efforts will then be planned and directed keeping this persona in mind.
2. Personify your brand
Personifying your brand is very important in the healthcare industry. This helps people connect with your brand better. This applies to companies in other sectors as well. For example, Taco Bell has used twitter to humanize the brand. The content posted on their twitter page is exciting, witty, and fun. They have nearly 1.8 Million followers. Taco Bell achieved this by communicating to its audience as a brand with human values. This technique can be very useful in the healthcare industry where it gets even more difficult to get into the minds of customers. A healthcare company which has done this effectively is the Floating Hospital for children in Boston. They have an online community blog called OurCircleOfMoms.com for mothers whose children are patients.
3. Quality of content
The quality of your content will determine the success of your content marketing strategy. With so many marketing campaigns cluttered in the web, it is necessary that you create content which stands out in the crowd. You have to ensure that the content you put across is unique and engaging. Using videos on your website/blog increases the level of engagement of your audience. These days more and more people are using their phones to access content. So as marketers you should be mindful and create content which can be easily consumed. Zomato uses quality content to revive ‘the foodie’ in their customers. Take a look at the image below
Content marketing by Zomato
Image Source URL – http://blog.zomato.com/
As you can see, the content is interesting, engaging and easy to consume. As marketers, you should come up with quality content in the healthcare industry to attract more customers.
4. Increase customer engagement through sign ups and subscriptions
Another effective way of increasing your reach as a brand is through sign ups and email subscriptions. Hospitals and other medical institutions can come up with an online wellness magazine which has quality content on various illnesses and their prevention measures. Customers who log into the page will then be asked to sign up and continue. Coming up with useful content for customers will increase the credibility of the brand and also increase customer traffic to your site. An example of good customer engagement is Mayo Clinic. Their blogs are comprehensive and give people insights about various illnesses. This works well as there are a huge number of people who surf the net to read up on symptoms and causes of illnesses to self-diagnose themselves before they approach a doctor.
Content marketing in India in the healthcare industry is still at a nascent stage. As marketers, you should start incorporating key content marketing strategies in your core marketing plan or get in touch with us, as we can help formulate content strategies specifically catering to your industry requirements.
