Inbound marketing: how to get started

First steps for a sustainable content strategy

The key to a successful inbound marketing program is content creation. Hospitals and physician practices that use inbound marketing create and publish content, such as newsletters, blogs, videos, and social media posts. Having all of this content online makes it easier for prospective patients to find your information, and if it is keyword optimized, it can help to improve your online reputation by placing a lot of great content at the top of Google search results. Here’s how to get started.

1) Mobilize your team

If you are just starting out with inbound marketing, it’s a good idea to hire or partner with a team who has experience, can explain how it all works and spearhead the plan. They should be knowledgeable of current trends and be able to apply best practices to your hospital or practice. It’s also important to work with qualified content creators, people who understand healthcare and can write intelligently on topics of interest to prospective patients, while maximizing use of keywords and SEO so your content ranks for your chosen keywords.

2) Create your strategy

These three steps will create the framework for your inbound marketing plan: SEO and keyword lists, an editorial calendar and topic ideas.

• Choose the right words: What do you want your hospital or physician practice to be known for? What can you offer patients that your competitors can’t? These are the keywords that you want your organization to rank for in SEO. Make lists of keywords by service lines, locations, and physicians, including any phrases a patient would be likely to type into a search engine.
• Map out an editorial calendar: Schedule the content that you want to rank for to mesh with both your outbound marketing calendar and national trends or events. For example, publish cardiac content in February, which is American Heart Month. Complement this content by running an outbound cardiac marketing campaign during the first quarter of the year.
• Choose your topics: The last step is to fill in the calendar with specific topics on healthcare services, news or trends. Don’t be afraid to draw inspiration from patients, just make sure the condition is the subject of the post, rather than the patient, to avoid violating HIPAA. Repurpose your content in multiple inbound channels to maximize visibility and ROI.

3) Commit resources

It sounds easy, but in order for inbound marketing to work, adequate time and resources need to be dedicated for development and maintenance. Allocate a realistic budget to fund overhead costs and manpower. Keep staff on task with weekly content meetings. It will not work overnight, but once it is in full swing, ask your team for monthly analytics reports. This will show which topics and platforms perform the best and where your marketing team should concentrate its efforts.

To learn more, download the white paper

“Inbound Marketing: Nourishment for Content-Hungry Patients”