Health-related research is among the top three online activities worldwide. In the United States alone, more than 100 million Americans per year will visit health-related sites such as WebMD, Familydoctor.org, Healthfinder.gov, and CNN Health, among thousands of others. Within the massive ecosystem of health-related content websites, community-based sites are critical sources of trusted information for patients and caregivers. They offer a single spot for multiple stakeholders ’ including marketers ’ to interact with and contribute content to the community. And that’s where marketers need to get smart.

The customer journey of trust

Online engagement is usually modeled in relation to the customers’ journey. When creating this life cycle journey, consider your ’degrees of trust’ for content categories at each stage.

For example, a diabetes care provider may consider the customer life cycle to be:

SymptomDiagnosisTreatmentUse

A layered content strategy

Many health care organizations are adept at creating, optimizing, and disseminating personalized content to specific targets. Yet, social media has changed the landscape in so many ways, and in health care, in particular, it elevates the role bloggers and other online influencers play in the information value chain.

A patient is highly influenced by these independent players when weighing treatment options and purchase decisions. While it is not entirely credible for a health care provider to provide, for example, a product comparison, a layered content strategy can enable a third party to supply information indirectly on your behalf.

Be very conscious about how to approach and engage with third parties, however. Bloggers are obliged, sometimes required, to be transparent about their associations with health care companies.

See on medcitynews.com