Building Blocks of a Content Marketing Strategy

In today’s episode, Jenny breaks down the fundamentals of building a successful content marketing strategy, using the example of the multi-pronged content marketing strategy Hedy and Hopp built for St. Louis Children’s Hospital with two key components: A separate website to aggregate the content became an “owned” platform that offered a huge SEO boost, and allowed for creative flexibility compared to the main property. It was important to have a platform to aggregate content, too, because actual social channels shift over time. A dedicated YouTube channel the brand to drive more organic traffic, and the SEO value for the YouTube channel is also tremendous. As new social channels pop up, the brand has flexibility to try them without putting all of their eggs in one basket. Jenny shares a few things to keep in mind when building a content marketing strategy from the ground up, which include the following: Content Strategy. Understand what topics are trending in the healthcare space you’re in by reviewing monthly search trends. Create a big picture plan quarterly or biannually to stay relevant. Optimization. Make sure content is personalized by platform, as different platforms require different optimizations when it comes to content length, style, and strategy.  Goals. Align your content structure with your goals. The original goal for St. Louis Children’s was to improve brand perception by the community (which surveys showed we accomplished), but we have very clear new patient goals also. For example, if a new doc comes on board and needs their schedule filled, you can feature them with a clear “Book Dr. Sally now” CTA and their schedule will fill up if you do it right. Paid Support. Bolster organic optimizations with paid promotions to ensure new content and topics reach your target audience. Video Production. Don’t let video resources stop you from creating content. Your videos don’t have to have super high production! While you may want to earmark certain topics and content for higher production value, sometimes lower quality video can be seen as more trustworthy by consumers. One of St. Louis Children’s Hospital’s most popular series for MomDocs came from a Facebook Live that was filmed on an iPhone! Patient Privacy. Keep patient privacy top of mind. Even if your content is on a separate property, it’s still a part of your organization. Make sure that the analytics and privacy solutions you use for your main property carry over.