A Case for Healthcare Content Marketing

CMI Media, LLC. Confidential Material. All Rights Reserved. 1
Healthcare audiences trust content from online resources as a primary source of learning new information in the
educational journey, all the way through their decision to take action with a prescription or medical device. This is true
of patients and HCPs alike. This whitepaper makes the case for content marketing by providing actionable strategies
and valuable statistics that brands can use to integrate their message into the content journey, drive action, and create
trust with their respective audiences.
Executive Summary
CONTENT MARKETING
STRATEGYfor Healthcare Brands
Adopting a
Content, the byproduct of written language, has been a
powerful means of transmitting information long before
we were able to share it so readily online. Dating back
as far as 3500 BC Sumeria, content has enabled strong
empires to record their story. But even the earliest
content was largely aimed at solving its people’s
problems. This ranged from mathematics, the arts, and
astronomical texts to military strategy and some of the
earliest laws.
Today’s brands could benefit from these lessons in
history. Solution-oriented content marketing still aims
to solve its audience’s problems. Fortunately, today’s
marketer can trade in that clay tablet for the wealth of
search engine and social media data. The following
sections will cover actionable strategies and valuable
statistics brands can use to integrate into the content
journey, drive action, and build trust with their audience.
Background

Today’s marketer needs to be solution-oriented.
This means solving the unique challenges brands
face in a competitive market. These can range
anywhere from internal factors preventing optimal
brand reach, high-budget competitors who make it
difficult to compete for your audience’s attention,
or a lack of overall education among even the
experts in your audience. Solution-oriented
marketing aims to match challenges with data;
connecting our audiences’ needs and intent with
solutions brands can use to maximize their results.
Why Brands Should Care More About Their Content
Search engines are an important source of the data
solution-oriented marketers need to consider.
According to Google, 7% of all search activity is health
related. That’s 70,000 searches EVERY MINUTE for
content that is advising health decisions. True... the
top health searches commonly include questions like
“What causes hiccups?” and “How to lower
cholesterol?” But third party and proprietary
CMI/Compas data shows that search engine insights
can help us understand the unique content needs of
our audience whether patient, doctor, nurse, or payer.
HCPs using search engines 1+ times per day for professional research
68%
84%
GASTROENTEROLOGY
RHEUMATOLOGY
ONCOLOGY
79%PULMONOLOGY
78%ENDOCRINOLOGY/DIABETOLOGY
UROLOGY
Source: 2019/2020 Media Vitals
In keeping with industry trends, content preferences have
also shifted toward digital. While this is a byproduct of
societal changes and our constant engagement with
technology, it affects prospective health information
seekers just the same. 73% of American households
surveyed in a Reuters study prefer digital content—even
content from brands—to traditional forms of advertising.
The only caveat is relevance. 75% of households are
open to receive content from brands if it is “relevant to
them.” But creating a brand that is trusted and relevant
doesn’t happen overnight. It also doesn’t happen by
addressing your audience’s questions with product
information they didn’t ask for or aren’t ready to receive.
each month. That’s a lot
of publicly available data.
36 billion health-
related searches
Google estimates

It comes from answering the questions your audience needs and wants to know and creating an experience for
them in the places they already go for information.
Successful brands ARE thinking about trust—and winning because of it. There are countless examples of consumer
brands winning on content. You may have heard about how Popeye’s Twitter War over the chicken sandwich
generated 300,000 likes, or the 8 million monthly views GE’s #GEInstaWalk was able to generate through content,
but healthcare brands are equally well-positioned to benefit from the impact of education. The Cleveland Clinic
thought about content—and cashed in on a 16% increase in appointments set. “A Hair Raising Message” from The
Swedish Children’s Cancer Foundation was another example that landed successfully with its audience—and been
viewed 12 million times on YouTube.
If you’ve spent time around enough marketing folks, you may have heard them say something along the lines of,
“the backbone of an optimally performing website is a strong organic search presence.” That’s a valuable bit of
advice. But how important is it? The answer is straightforward, and can be broken into three parts:
What Should You Be Thinking About When Starting Content Marketing?
1. Search engine content tells us EXACTLY what our audience wants to know online.
Remember those 70,000 health searches per minute? They add up quick…to the tune of 36 billion per year and growing.
If that data is mined and sorted properly it can tell us a lot. It serves as an additional source of quantitative research to
help influence brand messaging, audience, and targeting decisions. At CMI/Compas, we work with trusted vendors to help
us uncover the wide range of searches related to our brands and indications, as well as where our competitors are
challenging for precious digital real estate. This helps as a guide to create content that matters to our brands’ audiences.
The key to understanding this data comes from categorizing it and comparing it to our brand's goals and objectives. Has
misdiagnosis among an uninformed HCP population prevented proper prescribing? Does your consumer audience simply
not know about your brand despite its favorable safety profile and Tier 1/2 formulary access? In these and most other
cases, we see that the specific questions health audiences are asking online can provide the information needed to make
actionable decisions.
Start by understanding your content funnel. Categorize every related keyword you can
get your hands on. Make sure your search team is leaning on materials like brand
research, audience analysis, and your strategic plans to dig a level deeper. Now that
you understand the funnel by each of its segments, take the time to understand the
unique relationships and sub-themes that emerge at each level. Understanding the
nuance of these content themes will open opportunities and present content gaps.
Now think about what those content gaps mean in relationship to your brand’s
challenges or goals. Are patients looking for an alternative dosing mechanism versus
their current painful injection? Are HCPs looking for diagnosing criteria and tests, but
nobody is providing relevant educational information? Not only is this data relevant
for website content, it can go a long way in helping shape a brand messaging strategy.
That means ad and email copy, digital creative, and even KOL programs can be
positively impacted by content insights.
AWARENESS
CONSIDERATION
DECISION MAKING
ADHERENCE

According to our Media Vitals research, 39% of
healthcare professionals use top social media
channels like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and
YouTube each month for professional purposes.
Additionally, Deloitte data shows 65% of HCPs are
interested in engaging with pharma over social for
clinical data. This is a powerful indicator that
these platforms are powerful tools to distribute
content.
2. A robust content marketing strategy has to include awareness of the social space.
39% of healthcare
professionals use
top social media channels
According to our
like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter,
and YouTube each month for
professional purposes.
Media Vitals research,
25% 5% 6% 10%
16% 11% 6% 22%
13% 16% 9% 19%
Every Day Once Per Week Once Per Month
Source: 2019/2020 Media Vitals
Social marketing campaigns aimed at patients show
even more opportunity for engagement. Overall,
American users spend an average of 1 hour and 15
minutes each day on platforms including Facebook,
Instagram, and Snapchat, consuming content. With
almost 70% of Americans active on Facebook alone,
the platform enables reaching an engaged audience
at scale regularly, with most users checking in daily.
Repurposing existing content by optimizing it for
social feeds is therefore a quick way to reach an
engaged audience. Additionally, this content can be
promoted to key audiences through paid media
promotion, expanding reach and awareness.
Health is a frequent topic of conversation on social
channels, making them ideal to distribute health
content for all age groups. Even for older adults (65+)
social channels are used to find and share health
information. Almost 90% have visited platforms such
as Facebook and Twitter for health information.
Almost 40% of young people (14-22-year-olds) have
researched health information in forums and social
media, by searching for hashtags across platforms or
following people with similar health conditions. They
have also participated in online discussions around
health in online forums or closed social media
groups that focus on specific issues.
This indicates how powerful social media is to reach
the right people at the right time, which makes
having the right content integral to a successful
campaign.

Social channels offer more than content distribution
systems. They present testing grounds for which
content resonates with key audiences, and can also
indicate where content gaps exist with the help of
social listening. This helps close the content eco-system
loop, from content distribution through to creation.
Social can be used as a channel to test the effectiveness
of content or messaging before more is created—
the channel offers test and learn capabilities. Seeding
content via social and tracking audience reaction
through engagements offers an easy reading of the
content’s relevance for the target.
Content that provides utility is key to maximize
exposure by increasing shareability. New research, trial
updates for HCPs, or tips and tricks on staying healthy
or giving care will resonate with the target audience.
Social media provides unfiltered, raw data, that when
monitored via social listening provides unprecedented
insight into ongoing conversations. This helps identify
where a given audience’s interests lie and, crucially,
may give insight into what information they are
lacking. The insights garnered from social listening can
inform new content creation, content diversification,
or broader insights that can help inform overall strategy
such as brand voice and more. Targeted content can be
developed with a higher relevance to a key audience.
In addition to content awareness and creation,
distributing content via social channels can also help
boost a site’s SEO rankings. Sharing content with a
new audience increases awareness, and with that,
the likelihood for high quality link backs is boosted as
well. This helps influence the page’s rank in search
engines to a degree. Bing, one of the biggest search
engines, has confirmed that social media plays a role
in influencing rank in search results.
For Google, the jury’s still out, but high-quality
content contributes to the ecosystem here as well.
The more people see the content, the likelihood of a
link back increases, with the potential to influence
SEO rankings.
Content is king on social channels and provides
a powerful feedback loop that can help optimize
existing content, deliver insight and help inform new
content, while contributing to a complete
SEO ecosystem.

3. Much of the digital world runs on an algorithm.
No, that’s not Shakespeare—it means that most healthcare brands rely on their brand’s content pages and disease
information websites to drive traffic from any-and-all digital (and even many offline) sources. That’s important because
relevance and sustained cohesion from an ad placement to a landing page is a key driver of campaign success…and
cost efficiency.
Look at it this way: If you go to Google, search for tips on cooking the perfect steak, click on ad for ‘Steak Grilling Tips,’
and land on a page to buy a bottle of A1, you might be frustrated. First, you need to keep searching for your answer.
Second, how dare they send me to this tangentially related information! I’d be fine with A1 teaching me to grill the
steak, but this feels like blatant deception. I’m going with Trader Joe’s steak sauce!
But we see brands do this all the time. Paid search campaigns regularly drive unbranded keyword searches to a brand
home pages. Display creative often describe “treatment resources” only to deliver visitors to branded content too early
in the content journey. These decisions are made based on the “best available option” approach—“These are the
available pages of content, and this is as close to relevant as I could find.”
Use the algorithm to your advantage. Make sure your campaign is targeting your audience’s specific messaging needs.
CPC ad platforms commonly provide cost efficiencies to brands who demonstrate sustained relevance and engagement.
Tip: Relevant Ad + Relevant LP Content = Lower Cost per…
Audience
Content Need
Relevant
Ad Unit
Relevant
LP + Content
Solution-oriented marketers are conscious of relevance and intent at each point of engagement. Sometimes this means
playing the “long” game. A common example is resisting the urge to use content as a sales tool when educational
content matches intent. Use search and social content themes to learn what your audience wants to know and ensure
a cohesive experience from creative message, to landing page, through conversion event.
Now let’s talk a bit about what brands can do to drive a better outcome through content.

How Can Your Brand Create Better Content Experiences?
Expanded content gives brands the opportunity to reach their audience more often with appropriate content at their
specific point in the journey. But remember, it’s okay to start small and grow over time. An unrealistic approach to
content optimization sounds something like “we have to create every piece of content addressing every-and-all of our
audience’s questions!” Scary right?
A more realistic starting place is to identify 2 to 3 of the key content gaps that intersect with your brand’s challenges
and objectives for the coming year. How can your brand more effectively answer those questions than anybody else?
This is a marathon, not a sprint. Repeat that process for a few years and you’ll have some seriously valuable content.
Now that we’re ready to build some content, let’s think about the key questions we should be asking ourselves.
If it’s not, it’s time to go back to the drawing board.
Brands develop goals to ensure they’re “staying the
course” and building positive momentum from past
learnings and experience. So, if we’re developing
valuable goals, each new source of research should
work together to inform our decisions.
Work with your team to understand the segments
of your audience’s search funnel. Pair this with
audience data to understand the intent of search
activity at each level. Now that you’re thinking
about intent - not keywords - it’s a lot easier to
understand how content themes align our
audience’s problems with the problems your brand
is trying to solve.
And make sure you’re aligned on the brand’s pay
off. Maybe increasing awareness of a disease state
will increase your brand’s position as market leader.
Maybe patients aren’t seeing doctors fast enough
for effective treatment. Make sure you know why
you’re building new content. And remember to
educate over selling. No one wants your stinkin’
A1...yet!
1. Is this content aligned with my brand’s goals and objectives?

2. Which channels should I be building content on? And what formats
should I be using?
We’ve discussed webpage content, but would your
CRM, PPC, social media, or publisher programs benefit
from a more targeted message including appropriate
landing page content at every level of the funnel?
Would it benefit your brand to develop custom content
addressing these gaps through publisher partner reach
tactics? In many cases, we find just this for our clients.
Where you ultimately build content should be driven
by where it will have the highest impact. You can
forecast your potential to earn organic click traffic, but
that’s just the start. Solution-oriented marketers
maximize content’s reach across the entire campaign.
Its impact is only
worth measuring
Content, like all marketing
tactics, happens in an ecosystem.
if accompanied by a solid
strategy to drive reach.
Once you’ve identified the key content themes impacting your audience, assess keyword Share of Voice (SOV) to
understand who is gaining visibility when important searches occur. Now integrate this new information with your
planning and targeting tools. For brands working with CMI/Compas, this new data can supplement the wealth of
data available through ByTarget. That means even more data to drive your segmentation, messaging strategy, and
channel mix.
And consider the format of your content. In a connected world, content’s meaning has evolved. Today’s content is
“engaging, consumable, online information” more than “text.” This is great because, as many of us can personally
attest, text isn’t always best suited to do the job. Video is one engaging alternative brands can use to get their
message across more effectively. HubSpot data shows visuals are processed 60,000x faster in the brain vs. text.
But rely on what your audience data recommends as effective content formats, including doctor discussion guides,
infographics, and webinars.
3. How will I get people to this content? And what should they do once
they arrive?
Now that you have all this quality content, you want to make sure you’re distributing it to your audience.
For CPC buys on search engines and social media platforms, match your audience segments’ content needs to
relevant ad units. Ensure when a visitor clicks through on the ad unit, you’re driving them to relevant content
matching their query. This will increase your ad relevance score, making it easier to compete in an ever-growing
digital marketplace. If content doesn’t currently exist, work with your search and creative teams to identify how it
fits into your roadmap and which content should be developed.

Publishernetworksare anotherimportantconsiderationfor
driving brand reach. Two standard offerings from many
include display media and custom content development.
Display media still serves as a valuable source of brand
awareness for many brands. Take advantage of the
programmatic buying landscape to get the most from
your display campaigns. This channel can also be
optimized with better use of search and social data.
First, by making sure to use search and social content
themes to help inform display creative messaging.
This data should expand or enhance your knowledge of
your audience segments. Also, lean on your e-SEO tool
to understand the prominence of top publishers
among key searches and social thought leadership.
Your programmatic buying team can use this data to
optimize their placements. Lastly, ensure you’re driving
to relevant content.
Custom content opportunities through publisher
networks should be viewed as an extension of your
website’s own new content strategy. Figure out how
this content fits with your brand’s goals and its proper
format/s. Select the segments your content is targeting
and how your publisher partner plans to reach them.
Great content starts by helping the audience understand
WHY the information you’re presenting is important.
Using the examples above, this can be anything from
Trusted brands
deliver content
solutions.
write strong headlines backed
with shallow content.
Pretenders
poor diagnosing criteria for HCPs to patients’ requests
for less-painful injections. Next, let them know what’s
important that they need to know. Perhaps this is a
better diagnosing solution or a less painful injection.
Lastly, tell them how. In an era of clickbait headlines,
solutions are rare. Trusted brands deliver—providing
solutions to their audiences’ problems.
And remember…this is an experience. Make sure you
tell your audience what to do next! You know your goal.
What actions need to be taken to get your patient or
physician closer to that goal? Whether they should
“Watch a patient testimonial video,” “download a
diagnosing guide,” or “sign up for updates” will vary
based on your brands’ goals, available assets, and
countless other factors.

How do I measure if content is successful?
Now that you’re thinking about what to measure, let’s discuss how.
The magic of marketing in a digital era is realizing that data, if used properly, allows you to learn from your past
decisions to make better choices the next time around. Measurement is critical to this process. It validates (1) Who is
seeking information, (2) on what channels, (3) how often, and (4) where the opportunity exists to win through thought
leadership.
Now that you’re thinking about what to measure, let’s discuss how.
Know Your GOAL
Setting goals provides brands a baseline for measurement decision-making. Aligning your strategy around brand goals
should help you arrive at the key metrics worth measuring. Trying to reach more people? Or raise brand awareness?
Did new data show your drug class is superior for treatment? Having a clear direction will help drive what we choose
to measure.
Agree on a Timeframe
Setting goals provides brands a baseline for measurement decision-making. Aligning your strategy around brand goals
should help you arrive at the key metrics worth measuring. Trying to reach more people? Or raise brand awareness?
Did new data show your drug class is superior for treatment? Having a clear direction will help drive what we choose
to measure.
Determine Success Factors
Content marketing can enable brands to engage and educate both HCP and consumer audiences. The end results
we’re aiming to achieve are HCPs who are ready to prescribe to their patients and patients armed with information
who are prepared to talk to their doctors.
In order to get there, know what it will take to drive each audience’s decision making. Then assign the specific leading
and lagging indicators you want to measure to get them there. A few leading indicators include impressions, clicks,
reach, and on-site conversion. Lagging indicators often take longer to measure and include ROI analysis.
Incorporate Key Performance Indicators
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) allow brands to break down performance against their goals at the channel level.
Like other channels, content can be measured providing numerical values to both leading and lagging indicators.
At this point, you already know your strategic goals and the channels you’ll use to address your audience. Consider
the specific actions that you want your audience to complete—by content channel. Since no two websites, publisher
partners, or user-generated content hubs are built the same, this is where art and science converge.

Develop a Content Measurement Template
Ahh…thank goodness for automation. Identifying data, mining it to form insights, organizing it to all make sense…that
all takes a lot of time. Fortunately, once you’ve completed the process once, brands can be sure they’re working
smart by templatizing reports in most BI platforms. This simplifies the ongoing reporting maintenance, allowing
brands to focus more of their time on action.
A measurement template should include:
• Initial goal(s)
• Overview of what happened during the campaign
• Things that worked best and what you learned from them
• Things that didn’t work so well and key learnings from them
All the above will help in providing insights from the current campaign and roadmap to ensure future campaign
success. Most importantly, measure the impact and understand that content - like most good things improves and
develops over time!
Conclusion
Our audiences are telling us they need great content. And as Benjamin Franklin says, “Either write something worth
reading or do something worth writing about.”
If your brand has an audience, there is most likely a stockpile of research available through search engines and social
channels describing exactly what they want to know. The first step is finding it. The good news is that you don’t have
to do it alone. Work with your search and social teams to help with the mining and segmentation of this data. Once
you understand the data, then it’s time to think about which gaps can be filled and goals accomplished.
Jose Ferreira
Senior Vice President, Product and Innovation
Compas, Inc.
Authors Contributors
Michael Ranalli
VP, Strategy
CMI Media
Walter Schmidli
Associate Director, Social Media
CMI Media
Sandhya Nair
Manager, Business Insights
CMI Media
Justin Freid
EVP, Growth and Innovation
CMI Media
Dani Barsky
Associate Director, Media
CMI Media

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