Date posted: 26 September 2017
Welcome to the another Method Minute.
Today, we’ll look at SEO content and what you can do to help physicians find your content in search engines. And we’ll provide How To advice that pharmaceutical marketers (and their agencies) can use to plan and execute SEO and content marketing strategies. Together.
Physicians Need Quick Answers. Google!
Google search data shows that almost every physician uses a computer, smartphone, or tablet every day for professional purposes. More enlightening, busy healthcare professionals (HCPs), across all specialties, are turning to search engines first to find the clinical information they need. Not their peers, or HCP-only networks.
Busy HCPs are turning to search engines first to find the clinical information they need. Not their peers
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Pharma Marketing Impact
As a pharmaceutical marketer, if you’re not creating and optimising content to appear in search engine results pages (SERPs), you’re missing a fantastic opportunity to provide value to your customers in the moments they need it most. This impacts your ability to build relationships and earn their trust. Important if you want to sell to them in the future.
The problem is, we’re just not seeing pharma optimise its content for organic search traffic, despite physicians’ and patients’ reliance on search engines.
Why?
At a strategic level, pharma is still developing its content marketing capabilities. This often results in the production of content in a haphazard manner; lacking the consistency and regularity required for success.
Tactically, content is being created by traditional medical communications agencies who are unfamiliar with the creation of search- and social-channel content.
The result, Pharma content isn’t being found by physicians or patients. Instead, audiences are turning to other sources, where you are unable to control the content or customer relationship.
SEO + Content Marketing = SEO Content
Define and align
Search engine optimisation is the process of maximizing the number of visitors to your website by ensuring that it appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine.
Content marketing is a marketing technique for creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience — with the objective of driving profitable customer action.
SEO content is the practice of creating and optimising your valuable, relevant content to drive free, organic traffic from search engines.
Whilst SEO & content marketing are distinct practices, one without the other cannot work. Not with today’s Google it physicians Tweet This!
Bringing Content Marketing and SEO Together
Here we’ll share some actionable advice that you can use internally and with your agency to support your SEO content efforts.
Strategically, take the following steps to improve your SEO and content marketing efforts:
- Align your SEO content and brand goals
How will your content help you meet your brand goals? Do you need it to increase disease awareness? Do you want to support compliance with product education? Whatever it is, ensure your content and brand goals are aligned - Define and characterise your target audience
Using search and social insights, interviews and questionnaires, create personas for your target audience. Develop a deep understanding of their needs, motivations and online behaviours - Raison d’être — set your mission
Create your content marketing mission statement. Define who your content is for, what you will offer them and how they will benefit. This will guide all your future content marketing efforts - Find your Sweet Spot
Your content marketing Sweet Spot is the overlap between your knowledge and expertise and the needs of your target audience. Use this to articulate your mission - Schedule it out
Now you know who you’re targeting and why, it’s time to populate your editorial calendar. This will ensure your content creation efforts are consistent and regular; key characteristics of a successful content marketing strategy. Only in this way can you build relationships with your target audience and earn their trust.
Tactically, ensure your agency is creating great content using the following practices:
- Address an identified want or need
This is the big one. Put your audiences’ needs first. Think 80:20 when considering the balance of your content. Education/information/inspiration/entertainment makes up 80% and promotion (for physicians only, obviously) 20% - Identify target keywords
Using keyword research identify the search terms being used by your target audience and determine which ones you can be competitive in. Not sure how? See our previous post - Use your target keywords strategically
Include them in your URLs, page titles, headings, sub-headings and body content. Without getting spammy. Write for your audience first and Google second
SEO Content: Key Takeaways
- Create great content. Consistently. Great content is relevant, timely and actionable. It supports your business goals and fuels your SEO efforts.
- Optimise it for search. Research, identify, utilise and track your keywords. Religiously
- Don’t think of SEO and content marketing as separate disciplines. Your SEO campaign will fail unless you integrate content marketing. Your content marketing campaign will fail unless you integrate SEO
Happy [keyword] hunting!
Have you been engaged in SEO content? Please share your experiences in the Comments section below.
About the author
Sam Collins
Sam founded Method in 2017 to create and share great content. Content valued by patients, physicians and pharma.
