The Importance of Content Strategy for Community Hospitals
Community hospitals are often cornerstones of the region, providing accessible, local care to patients, personalizing services to the needs of residents, and extending support to community programs and initiatives. While these hospitals are uniquely able to deeply connect within their communities, they may not always have the resources of larger healthcare systems. While competing with the larger systems can seem daunting, a thoughtful content strategy is imperative for community hospitals to effectively communicate, engage, and build trust with their audience.
Why Content Strategy Matters
In today’s digital age, information is readily available at our fingertips. Earning a position as the trusted healthcare information resource requires that community hospitals publish information that is accurate, timely, and relevant to residents. Whether articles, blogs, patient stories, social media posts, or provider profiles, community hospitals need to be present where those initial inquires begin – online.
Content strategy is also an important tactic for driving community health initiatives. Community hospitals are well positioned to identify local health needs and drive improved outcomes for their communities. Consider the importance of community hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic, during which they led outreach efforts, provided information, and responded to vaccine demands at a grassroots level.
A good content strategy addresses immediate healthcare needs as well as longer-term priorities like raising awareness, encouraging participation in preventative health measures, and empowering individuals and families in their health journey. Over time, this has a significant impact on reducing the burden of chronic diseases and improving overall community well-being.
Developing a Content Strategy
For a thoughtful content strategy, community hospitals need not only well-developed content, but also an alignment with hospital objectives. Here are foundational elements tailored to the needs of community hospitals.
- Know the Community
Community hospitals are designed to meet the unique needs of local residents. A content strategy should define the healthcare needs and preferences of its patients. Patient personas help identify specific concerns, areas of interest, and information gaps of patient segments such as young families, rural residents, seniors, and chronically ill patients.
- Understand SEO Best Practices
There is competition for attention online, and community hospitals want to position themselves as the trusted resource when residents are searching for health information. Understanding search engine optimization (SEO) allows content creators to optimize on-page elements (titles, meta descriptions, headers, and ALT text for images) to improve rankings for relevant keywords on search engine results pages (SERPs). While there are techniques for search engine optimization, the cardinal rule is to create high-quality content that addresses healthcare questions important to the community.
- Leverage Anchor Pages
Anchor pages, also referred to as cornerstone content or pillar pages, are the central hub or comprehensive resource on a subject or service. A content strategy ensures that anchor pages are created, provide authoritative content, and cover all related essential information. Anchor pages are then supported by satellite pages, linking to and from the anchor page. Identifying this structure determines the primary pages to which to deliver patient traffic, as well as all the ways a patient might get to that anchor page.
- Monitor and Adjust
Marketing is a soft science, but data analytics is no less important. While HIPAA presents challenges to tracking common in other industries, there are analytic platforms that are HIPAA compliant. Community hospitals also can monitor engagement with content on other platforms like social media, patient surveys, and community outreach to evaluate your content strategy and identify trends, strengths, and opportunities for improvement.
Unlocking Additional Resources
It can be challenging for community hospitals to compete with larger systems when it comes to the resources necessary to meet content demands. However, community hospital marketers also can use this as an opportunity to differentiate their organizational identities as providers for the community, underscoring how the hospital engages with the community in ways beyond patient care. When content strategy becomes a facet of larger brand awareness and differentiation, it elevates its importance and can sometimes unlock additional resources. If there aren’t enough people to generate the content necessary, consider outsourcing content strategy with an agency or freelancer – investments that extend your team and deliver results.
Effective communication is essential for patient engagement and satisfaction, and content strategy connects all the various platforms and channels to ensure the right messages are delivered to the right audiences at the right time. As the digital age evolves to reshape the way patients require information, community hospitals must embrace the power of content strategy to remain relevant, impactful, and a trusted sources of healthcare expertise in their local communities.
Need extra help? Chartwell Agency would love to share our ideas for helping your community hospital or healthcare system develop a content strategy that meets the needs of your community.
