The healthcare industry is vast, and its players are all competing for a share of the spotlight. With your competitors pumping out healthcare content left and right, it’s easy to become discouraged. After all, how will you be able to compete with the myriad of blogs, Facebook posts, videos and other media out there?
Fear not: Becoming a healthcare thought leader is not rocket science. Whether your budget is large or small, your organization can create stellar content that resonates with consumers and effects action. The path to becoming a healthcare thought leader starts here:
Build Authority and Trust
Why should consumers trust you? Just because you’re a health plan, a hospital or another healthcare organization doesn’t mean people immediately think of you as an industry expert. Here’s where you need to put on your public relations hat and start approaching media and community partners. Let them know you’re out there and available to help with your services or goods. Contrary to popular belief, word of mouth and human interaction are still powerful promotion tools.
Speaking of tools, services such as Help A Reporter Out (HARO) shoot out regular notifications about journalists seeking information from reputable sources (aka you), and it’s a prime opportunity to get your company’s name in local, regional and national outlets. The more people hear about your organization (especially in well-known publications), the more people will begin to consider your organization a credible source for healthcare expertise.
Build Relationships
As is commonplace in other industries, it’s all about whom you know – not what you know. As you build authority and trust in the community and abroad, these new bonds with influencers and other dominant healthcare voices open a world of opportunities for collaboration. For example, maybe you need a sponsor for a hospital event or a health plan open house. Leveraging your connections can save you time and money as well as get the word out about your organization in social circles you may not usually consider.
This holds true for online efforts as well. Maybe a community partner has a blog that you could publish a guest post on. Or maybe there’s a chance to push your content on another one of their outlets like Facebook or Instagram. Each of these opportunities gets your name out there and keeps it top of mind, which is absolutely critical in becoming a thought leader.
Be Consistent
Know that saying, “80 perfect of success is showing up”? Being consistent in your online and offline efforts already puts you above a majority of colleagues. If you have a blog and social media outlets, make sure they’re pushing content and doing so regularly. Short attention spans are par for the course these days, and if you’re not producing – and publicizing – your content on an established schedule, people can quickly forget about you … and remember a competitor.
Once you’ve set peoples expectations for your content, make sure you deliver; the healthcare industry is constantly changing, and what was once cutting-edge news is now old research. Being consistent forces your organization to do its research and continue raising the bar for healthcare expertise.
Ready to become a healthcare thought leader? Wax Custom Communications is ready to help. Contact us at 305-350-5700 or send us an email at info@waxcom.com to get started.
