The Value of Medical Content Channels According to HCPs vs Pharma Professionals

A study conducted from July – August 2015 by EPG Health Media, publisher of epgonline.org (a website for healthcare professionals) found some "significant gaps and imbalances" between how healthcare professionals (HCPs) and pharma industry professionals (Pharma) view the value of medical content delivery channels.

Keep in mind that the results are based on a very limited number of survey participants, which include 216 HCPs and 137 pharmaceutical industry professionals (66 pharmaceutical professionals and 71 service providers).

I selected a few channels to look at (mostly digital) and replotted the data in the following chart, which shows the percent of respondents (HCPs v. Pharma) who consider that the channels have moderate or significant value for HCPs.

Click on image for an enlarged view.

What are the key takeaways from this study?

Read more »

Getting Your Boss to Invest in Content Marketing

A man by the name of Dr. August Oetker developed his Backin baking powder in the late 1800s. In order to set his product apart from others, he would print recipes on the back. Eventually, Oetker sold cookbooks that included various recipes, all of which involved the use of his baking powder in some way.

What Oetker was doing was an early form of content marketing. This is when someone creates a form of media or published content in order to attract the attention of customers. What differentiates content marketing from other forms of marketing is that you aren’t directly approaching consumers from the point of view of “I intend to sell you something”. 

With content marketing, you are connecting to your customers in other ways. Your boss may be skeptical about an approach that moves away from more obvious marketing campaigns (and costs money that could be spent in other ways), but there are good reasons to consider content marketing a sound investment.

Making Your Brand Useful and Relevant in Different Contexts

Oetker understood that his baking powder was essential to the cooking process. Rather than simply convince his customers of how useful his product was, he demonstrated it with recipes. If you can, consider all the ways your product may be connected to the lives of your customers.

Say for instance you are a provider of construction software that is used for making estimations, project managing, accounting and other related needs. Content marketing could include options such as infographics about the construction industry or sensible project management tips. The content you produce is relevant to the needs of your customers and so you are helping them. You are also linking your company with information that they need.

When you engage in content marketing, you don’t simply stop at discussing your product. You play to all the strengths of your product and how it fits into the lives and businesses of customers.

Content Marketing Can Move You Outside the Box

While content marketing can involve images and ebooks that relate to your customer’s needs, you can also release media that isn’t directly tied to your company’s area of business. For instance, you could create a Smartphone app that allows customers to keep track of their day or even a game. The purpose of the app isn’t directly related to your company...but your company’s logo is prominently displayed.

Some companies attempting to engage younger consumers will opt for games or they may even release music.

In actuality there is no rule for how you engage in content marketing, except that you are engaging customers. You aren’t actively trying to sell at them with the content provided, but you are putting your name in the back of their mind.

Why Content Marketing Can Be the Way to Go

Today many customers have a negative reaction to being bombarded with advertising, especially on the web. Directly engaging customers in an “I’m trying to sell you something” way, particularly through forced ads, has resulted in a negative backlash. Many people even make use of ad-blocking software.

Imagine paying so much money for ads that consumers you want to reach won’t even see? With content marketing, you are able to engage consumers in a way where you’re being useful, helpful and providing them with useful information, services or even a fun game. And as the content is generally free, they’ll already associate you with a bargain.

Content marketing lets you reach out to customers and build a rapport through indirect references to your brand. When positive feelings are established in a way, it can really help customers decide that they want to see what your brand is about and bring their business to you. As this is the ultimate goal, and it has proven successful for a number of businesses, it’s definitely an approach more businesses would be wise to consider.

Special thanks to Ali Lawrence for today's post. Ali Lawrence is a content specialist for a web design company and blogs in her free time at MarCom Land. Her articles have been published by Hot in Social Media, Yahoo! Small Business, and Business2Community.

Is It Really All About Content?

There has been a lot of discussion lately about the importance of content and content marketing.  Since Google made their last algorithm change, more and more articles and blog posts are lauding the importance of developing unique content for the web.  But does the story of content development end there?

Based on recent experiments by The Marketing Blog, it looks like theres more to the idea of original content than meets the eye. Two factors in particular weigh into the content discussion.  They are; influence and engagement.  Last year Google rolled out the rel="author" tag and its gained wide acceptance.  Do you think they are providing extra juice to content published by influential voices in a given industry?  You bet. 

In addition to providing higher rankings to content produced by influencers, you can rest assure they are also providing additional weight to content that is widely shared among social networks and other online communities.  After all, Google's likely more interested in what individuals (especially influential ones), communities, and social networks have to say about digital content than any other type of source.

What this means for you

Depending on your role, you may want to consider how best to leverage the new opportunities inherent in a social world.  Guest posts from authoritative sources, engaging content that is designed for optimal shareability, and engaging with social networks can all have a dramatic impact on your website and website rankings.

Keep in mind however that the end goal isn't just for purposes of search engine optimization but rather building brand and generating leads for your business.  If you rank number one for a keyword or keyword phrase that no one searches on, you haven't accomplished anything.  focus on results if you want to make the most of this new post-Penguin 2.0 digital world.

The best place to start with any type of content marketing campaign is with specific goals and objectives.  What is your end goal?  Can a content marketing plan help you get there?  Probably but you need to begin with the end in mind.  I've spoken with a lot of marketing executives but many don't have a clear understanding or picture of what success looks like.  Define it for yourself and you'll be much more successful with your content marketing initiatives.

What I like about content

The one true benefit that seems to be emerging from this new world of content generation is that of creating value for your audience.  No one likes being sold... they do however like being engaged.  The most productive way to engage your audience is by giving them what they want, creating value, and getting things done in a way that excites and delights them.

Marketing to customers is no longer about selling "buy me" emails but rather engaging content that can positively engage and motivate them - building a relationship.  And a meaningful one at that.  The best place to start is with a deep understand of your customer.  What motivates them?  What do they want?  By creating persona's of your target audience you can fully understand the best content to produce and how to deliver it.

Always begin with an understanding of your customer and have the end goal in mind.  When you do, you stand a pretty good chance of succeeding in your content marketing goals.  Put in place a measurable plan and you're home free.

Please share your content marketing successes (and failures) with us on the Marketing Blog!

How To Make Your Videos The Most Engaging Content On The Web

I'm excited to share great post today from Andy Havard, an executive from Skeleton Productions.  When I asked Andy about making content more engaging, he gave me more than I could have hoped for.  Listen in as he provides great tips for marketers and businesses.

The Set-Up

Today’s online video world enjoys videos shot in high definition with great audio and a good standard of lighting. Your video will need to follow this trend if it wants users to engage viewers successfully.

In terms of the content of your video you’ll want to abide by the key ingredients for making engaging and successful video content; create content that is informative, entertaining or educational, worth sharing amongst social audiences, unique or surprising. Ticking off some of those areas in your video, regardless of its length will put your audience on track to enjoy an engaging viewing experience.

The Content
When it comes to creating engaging content you want to adhere to the three golden values of great video making: Entertain, Inform, Educate

Audiences on and off the web hope to get those prestigious three values out of every video they watch. If your video can provide one, two or maybe even all three of those values your video will be well on its way to being a success.

The Viewing Experience
The experience a viewer has with your video means everything to its success. A great way of giving viewers a pleasurable viewing experience is to make your video content interactive.

Make use of Annotation tools that sites like YouTube offer to turn your video into a “video game”, an interactive video or even provide a simple feedback option for viewers to voice their feelings on the video. By connecting with your viewer within your video you can really enhance their viewing experience.

Social Media Convergence
Connecting your video to your social media platforms is essential. All video sharing sites be it Vimeo, YouTube or Daily Motion allow for convergence with your social media profiles. This convergence allows users to engage with your video through a Like, Share or Comment on their social platforms, which will really make a big difference to your videos popularity.

Call To Action
A call to action in your video encourages uses to engage with your product, brand or service after they've watched the video content. This extra engagement will help you to get more out of your video and give viewers an opportunity to find out more about you.

Measure Your Success
Always remember that measuring the current success of your video is your fast-track ticket to future success. Try to review your campaigns monthly to keep a close eye on how it is developing over time. Beware checking your content too regularly though as this could give misleading results. Allow enough time for your video content to have ran the majority of its course and make amends accordingly. 

Use tools like Google Analytics, SEOmoz, HootSuite, Wistia to give yourself a clear view of how well your video campaign is engaging with your audiences. Once you've reviewed its progress start to plan how to capitalise on its current success to make your next video even better.

Andy Havard is a Marketing Executive at Skeleton Productions, a UK based corporate video production company.

How Much Content is Enough?

I've been doing a ton of reading on Content Marketing.  Ever since the Google Penguin update (yeah, Panda too), I'm seeing more information about content marketing.  Essentially, the idea is to create unique, quality content for your blogs, websites, etc.  And I get it, content is still king.  But what is quality content?

Content is no longer a simple article that covers a topic in your niche, I think its more than that.. it has to be!  Quality content uses all types of media and packages it in different ways for a particular audience.  Here are just a few pieces of "content" you should consider.

--Articles
--Videos
--Images
--Customer Reviews
--Local Company Profiles
--Press Releases
--Infographics
--Social Media Updates
--White Papers

Think beyond the written word.  Technology has afforded us the ability to create meaningful content for our audiences in different shapes and formats.

I think the companies that will succeed in this content starved generation have to be masters in repackaging.  No one in their right mind has all of the necessary resources to keep pumping out content after content.  And truthfully, content marketing doesn't always work that way.

Repackaging
To succeed, you need to think about packaging and repackaging quality content again and again.  This can be done in a linear fashion and fewer resources.  For example, giving a presentation can produce a transcript, video, and slides to be uploaded to slide share.  You can even tweet about your presentation or post it to Facebook.  The key is repackaging.

Repackaging can take many forms.  Do you have a strategy in place to repackage your content?  Probably not.  I know that I'm just thinking about it myself based on some of the complexities associated with content distribution.  For example, I used to make all of my social updates via Twitter which was attached to my Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.  Now that a social separation has occurred and there are many new social sites online, its vital to explore new options (ex: Hootsuite).

Audience
The companies and websites that succeed in engaging their audience and win organic search will be masters in producing quality content their audience wants and producing in multiple formats.  This doesn't mean that you need to pump out new content by the minute but you do need different avenues to share your content.

You may find a few channels that work best.  Think about how you can promote your content once it's produced and share that content across each channel.  You may be surprised how quickly you can spread your content if you've considered all the possibilities at your disposal.

Share your thoughts on producing and distributing quality content in the comments section...