Putting the finishing touches on a stellar piece of content feels like a huge accomplishment. And it is. You’ve written a hard-hitting headline, a great introductory hook and a full body of text and graphics to make your point. Now it’s time to sit back and pour yourself a cup of coffee, right?
Wrong.
Great content that never gets promoted is doing zilch for your pharma company. That’s right, zilch. It’s just sitting there in cyberspace. So how do you take those blog posts, ebooks, infographics and videos and put them to work for you?
Every piece of content you create should flow through a content promotion plan so that it reaches the right people, drives them to your website and gives them a reason to take action. Without intentional content promotion, your pharma content marketing strategy isn’t a strategy at all.
So let’s talk about some content marketing ideas you can use to put that content in front of the right eyes.
Free Content Marketing Channels You Control
Remember that saying, “Nothing in life is free”? Well, it’s true. These content marketing channels won’t cost you anything in terms of paid subscriptions or marketing dollars, but they do require time and energy if you want to use them effectively. Let’s take a look at five of the best “free” marketing venues you can use to promote your pharma content.
- Your Blog. Every time you post on your blog, you give Google another page to index and that means more chances to be found in organic search. Create standalone blog posts as well as posts that promote other pieces of content like ebooks, infographics and slideshare presentations. Include a call to action at the end of each post that drives readers to your landing page, and encourage social sharing with embedded social media buttons.
- Your Social Media Channels. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are still free, so use them to your advantage. Post several times a week and develop unified promotion campaigns across all your social media channels so your content speaks the right message to the right audience.
- Email. Segment your email subscriber list to target specific patient personas, and encourage readers to share the content with friends and family members who may find it useful. You can also embed sharing capabilities in your emails so patients can easily post to social media.
- Organic Search. Optimize your content for SEO to increase visibility on search engines. Start by incorporating keyword best practices like updating URLs, page titles and meta descriptions, incorporating authoritative links and using keywords naturally—not stuffing—throughout your content. You can also post on high-traffic sites like SlideShare or YouTube for additional momentum.
- Employee Ambassadors. Promote content internally by asking your employees to share on their personal social media channels. Their reach may extend farther than you think, creating potential connections with an otherwise unreachable audience.
Paid Channels To Incorporate In Your Pharma Content Marketing Strategy
The next step is to consider promoting your pharma content via paid channels. Paid channels extend your reach and boost engagement by making content visible to a wider audience. Here are two ways to get started:
- PPC Ads. PPC ads have been around for years because they work. Despite a nationwide case of banner blindness, your patients still click on well-written, targeted, persuasive ads. Get ideas from other pharma companies who seem to be running successful campaigns, and split test your ads to see which keywords perform best with your patients.
- Social Media Advertising. Boost social engagement by investing marketing dollars into LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter promotions. These ads appear in the newsfeed and target people similar to the ones who already engage with your channel.
Explore External Opportunities
By external opportunities, we mean venues outside your company that are controlled by someone else. When your content appears on a channel you don’t own, it lends credibility to what you’re saying—and it gives you access to a completely new network.
- Influencer Marketing. Reach out to people who have large followings and can effectively promote your content to an engaged audience. Consider guest posting on their blog or asking them to write a post for yours. Offer to link to the content (which gives them an authoritative inbound link) and promote your service on their social media channel.
- Live Events. Keep your ear to the ground for opportunities to participate in live events. Run a booth, conduct a workshop, or host a table and be sure to hand out business cards with links to your best content. You can also include links in any slideshow presentations you do or use the event’s hashtag to promote on social media.
Content promotion is the key to reaching more patients with your valuable information. If you need help building out your strategy, set up a free consultation with our healthcare marketing consultants and put your content to work.