4 Myths About Content Marketing For B2B Healthcare Professionals—Debunked

It involves a lot of moving pieces working in coordination with one another, with the hope of a cohesive, straightforward output in the end. Further, it’s paramount that the engine you’re building takes you in the right direction (towards your target audience) without expending excess fuel (burning through budgets.)

A key (yet underutilized) component of this marketing engine is content marketing. Content marketing refers to blogs, social media posts, email newsletters, educational videos, and other media that aren’t crafted with the sole intention of driving a sale. 

This type of marketing goes beyond just trying to get your leads to go down the sales funnel, however. It is about creating relationships, authority, and trust in your field. It’s about building the foundation that establishes your business as a relatable and noticeable presence in the lives of your prospects. 

It’s unfortunate that content marketing is so overlooked in the B2B world of healthcare marketing because it’s remarkably effective in this space. While we might have the impression that the healthcare industry is cold and dry and that our marketing efforts have to be the same in order to be effective, this is not true. 

Here are 4 myths about content marketing for B2B healthcare professionals—debunked.

Content Marketing Does Not Work

A prominent (and incorrect) myth that surrounds B2B healthcare marketing is that categorically, it doesn’t work. This is simply false. In fact, the opposite is true—it’s very effective. Here’s why. 

B2B healthcare marketing is much stronger when it’s backed by a library of educational, authoritative, and relatable content. For example, when a prospect hears of your brand, they may go straight to your website or social media profile to take a deep dive into who you are and what you do. You’ve done this for countless other businesses; yours is in the same position to be examined under a microscope.

Therefore, it’s crucial that you have plenty of blogs and updates on your website, along with regular posts on your social media channels. It’ll show your prospects that you’re active in your industry, and will demonstrate your commitment to being involved within the medical community. After all, specialized businesses in the healthcare industry often look to one another for collaboration and to do business together. You’ll need to join the conversation. 

Additionally, content marketing can boost your ability for your prospects to find you online. Having a solid content library on your website helps search engines like Google rank your site higher in their search results, and having regular posts and engagement on social media helps the platform’s algorithms prioritize your content in prospects’ feeds.  

Overall, content marketing is a great way to contextualize and build on your central marketing messages while demonstrating your authority and building value for your prospects. Further, it helps make the internet powers that be (like Google and social media algorithms) more likely to show your organic content to a higher number of prospects who are in your target audience. 

Content Marketing Isn’t Worth Investing In 

Of course, ROI is always important when determining the best path forward for your marketing. However, many people are misled in their understanding of content marketing’s value. They may not think it’s worth the time and money spent, since it doesn’t directly turn into cash. 

Yes, it’s harder to track the direct digital impact of blogs and other content on your prospect’s journey towards becoming a client, but they have a categorically positive impact. According to profitwell.com, companies that blog effectively tend to have 67% more leads than other businesses in their field.

Further, content marketing is relatively affordable. The biggest cost is simply paying a team or person to plan, create, and execute the content. Posting on your website and on social media is free (at least for organic content), so the time and effort to bring it to life is really the only sunk cost. Obviously, you can boost your posts by paying Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or other platforms to show your posts to more people, but the base level of engagement is completely free. 

In a nutshell, content marketing provides great ROI because the cost is low and because the tactic is a must-have for any business looking to take itself seriously in the online world. 

Social Media Presence is Not Necessary

Follow this assumption about B2B healthcare marketing and you’ll miss out on an easy, effective way to reach your prospects. Social media is a part of the vast majority of consumers’ lives. According to the Pew Research Center, over 72% of the United States population are Facebook users. 

This number increases as you enter demographics with higher education experiences, as well. According to the same article, 77% of adults with a college degree use at least one social media account, compared to 64% of those with a high school degree or less. This translates into real-world engagement for the healthcare field, as it’s obviously an education-driven industry. 

Further, social media is part of your audience’s daily routine. You need to utilize it to stay in front of them and remain recognizable in the vast sea of brands, influencers, and other content sources they see every day. According to that same Pew Research Center article, 7/10 Facebook users and around 6/10 Instagram users visit the sites at least once a day. 

The data doesn’t lie. Social media is absolutely necessary for staying in touch with your prospects. It allows you to build authority, maintain engagement, and helps you drive traffic, but it also keeps your audience from forgetting about you. 

Healthcare Content Marketing Doesn’t Have to be/ Can’t be Personalized

A common misconception about content marketing is the belief that it doesn’t have to be (or can’t be) personalized. It’s easy to understand why this misconception exists, but it’s just as easy to debunk it.

Healthcare content marketing—like any content marketing—is created with the intent to educate and inform your audiences to help them recognize and trust you. This requires a certain amount of ambiguity, as you obviously can’t speak to your prospects individually in a blog or a social media post. 

This is why it’s important (and very realistic) to maintain a content marketing presence that’s both proactive AND reactive. 

For example, you should still put out pre-scheduled content like blogs and newsletters, but you don’t have to exist entirely in the future. You can use prospects’ social media comments, contact form questions, and other engagements to ideate new content. 

Further, you can post content that actually encourages engagement by asking questions, starting discussion threads, and other things along those lines. Remember, people want to talk speak just as much as they listen. 

Get More Prospects to See Your Content Marketing with Perla

As discussed earlier, your content marketing will help to build your presence online and position your business as a trustworthy, intelligent authority. Perla will get more interested and qualified prospects to see it. 

Founded to correct the inefficiencies of traditional healthcare sales and marketing, Perla is a private networking platform that enables you to market DIRECTLY to healthcare entities and professionals in the segment your organization specializes in. 

Powered by intelligent matching, Perla allows you to get in front of your true target audience by ensuring you’ll only receive leads from healthcare entities and professionals that are searching for your exact offerings. 

This will make your content marketing even stronger. You’ll have more qualified leads entering your digital landscape, meaning your content bank will be visited more often by prospects who are actually looking for the materials you are putting out. 

Add Perla into your sales and marketing process to make the most out of your investment while speeding up your sales timelines. 

Visit our website to learn more about Perla, see how it works, and request a demo.