Should you be doing content marketing? An honest review

We’ve been undertaking a robust content marketing strategy at Podymos for many years now, so we know all the ins and outs and are well-placed to give you an honest overview of exactly what you can expect. Although it’s powerful, it isn’t always plain sailing.

We’re going to go through everything you need to know before deciding to go ahead with content marketing, including its good and bad sides. By the end of this article, you should have enough information to decide for yourself if it’s the right path for you.

Although there is a time and a place for this, consumers are becoming increasingly sceptical of traditional advertising, and content marketing provides an effective alternative.

Instead of shouting about the benefits of your device, the content is supposed to add value to your audiences’ lives through education, helping them solve problems, entertaining them or supporting them make to well-informed decisions. You’re still promoting your company and device, just in a subtler way.

Unlike other marketing strategies, it aims to bring your audience to you, rather than going out to them, which is why it’s considered synonymous with inbound marketing and why it’s growing in popularity, year on year.

We’ve written a full article that dives into detail on exactly what content marketing is, the activities involved and how to get started, check out the complete overview of content marketing here.

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a crucial aspect of content marketing. By incorporating relevant keywords and optimising content for search engines, you can improve your website’s visibility in search results. Higher rankings mean increased organic traffic, resulting in more opportunities to convert visitors into customers on your website.

The rule of 7 states that your customers need to see your brand at least 7 times before they commit to a purchase, but in this digital age where channels are saturated with branded content, that number is likely to be closer to 25 times.

Content marketing allows you to consistently get in front of your audience to increase your visibility, which in turn decreases your customer’s journey because they are more frequently exposed to your brand.

One of the primary goals of content marketing is to engage and connect with your target audience. By creating valuable and informative content, you can establish a relationship of trust with your customers. Engaging content encourages readers to share it with others, expanding the reach of the brand and potentially attracting new customers.

Content marketing enables medical device companies to establish themselves as thought leaders within their industry. By sharing insights, research, and expertise through content, you can position yourself as a trusted authority. This helps build credibility, enhances brand reputation, and fosters trust among healthcare professionals and potential customers.

The medical device industry is highly competitive, and content marketing provides an opportunity for you to differentiate from your competitors. By highlighting unique features, innovations, and patient outcomes through content, you can showcase the value and superiority of your devices. This can influence purchasing decisions and create a competitive advantage.

Furthermore, you can differentiate yourself from your competitors by honestly and openly addressing the questions and your concerns of your audience. This means addresses the topics that others don’t, such as pricing and good fit questions, to earn their trust. You can learn more about this idea by visiting our content marketing overview.

Medical device companies can utilise content marketing to provide training and educational resources to healthcare professionals. This can include instructional videos, product manuals, webinars, and interactive platforms. By offering valuable training materials, you can enhance customer satisfaction, increase product adoption, and improve overall customer experience.

Additionally, great content can act as a 24-hour customer service representative for you. Content never sleeps, so if what you’re producing answers the questions that your customers have, they’ll be able to access the information they need on your site, whenever they need it – even if you’re not available online at that moment in time.

This section of the article will run through the main drawbacks of content marketing that might not make it suitable for every company.

Developing and executing an effective content marketing strategy requires time and effort. You need to research and understand your target audience, create customer-centric content, and consistently publish it across multiple channels. This can be a resource-intensive process, especially for smaller businesses with limited manpower.

Content marketing is a long-term strategy that requires patience. Unlike some paid advertising methods that provide instant results, content marketing takes time to build momentum. It may take months or even years to see significant growth and tangible returns on investment. Your company should be prepared to invest in content marketing for the long haul.

On the other hand, when you do start to see the results that make your competitors jealous, you will already be too far ahead for them to catch up.

To maintain audience engagement and keep up with competitors, you need to consistently produce fresh, valuable content. This can be challenging, especially for companies with limited resources or a lack of in-house expertise. Sustaining a consistent content creation schedule requires planning, creativity, and a dedicated in-house team.

In the saturated digital landscape, creating content that stands out from the competition can be a challenge. Maintaining high-quality standards and relevance is crucial for content marketing success. Producing subpar or irrelevant content (also known as fluff) can harm your brand’s reputation and fail to engage your target audience.

Measuring the ROI of content marketing can be complex. While it’s relatively easy to track metrics such as website traffic, social media engagement, and email subscriptions, connecting those metrics to tangible business outcomes like sales and revenue can be more challenging.

It’s not impossible though. Tools such as HubSpot can help you to track your customers’ journey to give you a better understanding of how they’re interacting with content. It also allows you to analyse revenue attribution, so you can report on how much money your articles are making you. Although great, you have to pay for these features of HubSpot.

You can draw customers to you rather than you going to them which can save you and your company so much time. But it’s not a strategy to take on lightly as it is a longer-term project requiring focus, consistency and commitment.

If you want to get started with your content journey, check out these other articles:

Repurposing content: How to create more by doing less

How to come up with fresh, new content ideas

The complete guide to Medical Device SEO

Do you want to communicate more effectively with HCPs and patients? Do you want a high-quality content to support your larger multichannel marketing strategy? If so, you’ve come to the right place.   

Podymos is a healthcare marketing agency, specialising in downstream Medical Device marketing.  

We’re more expensive than non-specialised agencies and freelance teams because we only work in the Medical Device space so we have specialist knowledge and experience that other agencies may not be able to offer you.  

If you want high-quality, compliant campaigns that help achieve your business goals, we’d love to hear from you. Simply leave us your contact details below and we’ll get back to you very soon for a no-obligation chat.