What are the Most Effective Strategies for Efficient Content Creation and Management in Healthcare Newsletters?

Regularly published healthcare newsletters promote connectivity and awareness with patients, strengthen relationships with staff members, increase patient satisfaction rates, and encourage brand loyalty. An email newsletter is relatively easy to create, low-cost to maintain and helps boost Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

However, a roadblock that content marketing managers often face is a feeling of overwhelm and burnout when brainstorming new content ideas for their newsletter. The stress of creating fresh, relevant, and valuable content month after month (or week after week) can take up far too much of your precious time. Add in trying to find and retain clients, as well as SEO considerations, and it’s no wonder that managing a healthcare newsletter feels too hard to keep up with!

This blog post will discuss the key elements of creating engaging healthcare newsletters. We will also discover ways to streamline content creation and management so you can focus on building and maintaining client relationships.

The Importance of Tailoring Healthcare Newsletters to Your Audience

Knowing your audience is one of the most essential things you can do to craft an effective healthcare newsletter. Ask yourself the following: 

• Who am I trying to reach/help? Are they patients, staff members, or both? 
• What do they need to know and want to learn about health care? 
• What topics are relevant to their local culture?

Personalizing content for your audience builds trust and shows readers that you care about their preferences. Try to determine your target audience’s pain points and create content that provides practical solutions. An easy way to do this is to include polls that ask what your readers want to know about. You can also invite your readers to contribute their experiences and feedback and then feature their contributions in future publications. These strategies will make your reader feel “seen” and increase engagement with your healthcare newsletter.

How to Craft Engaging Content for Healthcare Newsletters

It’s crucial to craft content for your healthcare newsletter that is patient-centric and uses the active voice. Avoid passive, narrative-style segments and instead present your content in a way that engages your reader. Some ways to do this include the following:

• Present a healthcare topic in story format. Bonus points for using a personal story submitted by a reader!
• Include alternative content formats, like articles, infographics, interviews, videos, and quizzes.
• Use your audience’s name, location, or other relevant details in your content whenever possible.
• Create headlines that are specific and catchy.
• Ensure that the content you produce is high-quality and shareable.

Efficient Content Creation Processes for Healthcare Newsletters

Now, let’s explore how to streamline the content creation process for healthcare newsletters.

Create an Editorial Content Calendar

First, create 3-5 general content categories with three subtopics each. Doing this will establish a theme for your newsletter and make brainstorming content ideas much more manageable. Remember to keep your target audience in mind. Determine the overall goal of your healthcare newsletter (think creating new customers and gaining their trust).  

Decide how often you will publish—weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly are all viable options. The schedule you choose isn’t as important as sticking with it. Many different tools exist to help you do this and allow you to collaborate with team members.

Schedule time in your calendar for batch content creation days, and create all of your content for that month’s healthcare newsletter on those days. Batching and scheduling content beforehand ensures that your newsletter will still be published and sent out even if you miss a content creation day. 

Also, use your calendar tools to track basic content parameters, build a source material library, and organize your workflow.

Utilize Tools and Techniques to Manage Healthcare Newsletters

Even with content calendaring, managing every aspect of your healthcare newsletter alone is probably still impossible. Tools like SolutionReach provide automated outreach and education campaigns crafted specifically for healthcare newsletters.

You may also consider outsourcing the bulk of your content creation duties to subject matter experts. Nurse writers are the perfect fit for crafting high-quality, trusted, and patient-specific healthcare newsletter content.

Focus on SEO

Ensure that your healthcare newsletter content is optimized for search engines by using plenty of high-relevance, low-competition keywords, concise and Google-friendly meta descriptions, and SEO-friendly headlines that are specific and catchy. Tools like SEMRush and KeySearch are great for this. 

Check that your writing follows the “5 Cs” of content marketing as much as possible: produce content that is clear, concise, compelling, credible, and includes a call to action.

Measuring Success: Analytics for Healthcare Newsletters

Your healthcare newsletter should contain at least one link to your site. Using a tool like Google Analytics, along with special tracking links in your newsletter, shows you how many readers click your link and what they do on your site afterward. Measuring metrics such as click-through rate (CTR), unsubscribe rate, opt-in rate, after-click activity, and open rate can show you which of your healthcare newsletters are performing best with your audience. This data reveals what motivates patients to choose your organization for their health and wellness needs.

Mastering Healthcare Newsletters for Maximum Impact

To recap, these are the best strategies for efficient content creation and management of your healthcare newsletter:

• Know your audience
• Craft engaging content
• Use a content calendar for brainstorming, collaboration, scheduling, and batch content creation
• Use automation and outsourcing to distribute your workload
• Focus on SEO
• Measure analytics

Implementing these strategies will drastically improve the reach, efficacy, and the quality of your healthcare newsletter. Need help getting started? Book a discovery call with our team at WriteRN to see how we can help you implement a customized healthcare content strategy.

FAQs: Answering Your Healthcare Newsletter Queries

How do I determine the right content mix for my healthcare newsletter?

Healthcare newsletters should be personalized to your audience. Think about who reads your content: how old are they? Are they primarily clients, staff, or doctors? Men, women, or both? Consider the needs of your specific community.

What are some effective ways to increase subscriber engagement?

Including polls, asking for subscriber stories/ commentary, and writing stories involving community members are effective ways to increase engagement with your healthcare newsletter.

How can I measure the impact of my healthcare newsletter on patient outcomes?

Utilize tools like Google Analytics to track how many subscribers visit your organization’s website directly from the healthcare newsletter. You will be able to see what patients do on your website and keep track of various metrics, like how many patients make an appointment. You can also ask patients to report outcomes directly through online submission forms.

What are the best practices for incorporating visuals in healthcare newsletters?

Using visual communication in healthcare helps patients understand processes and increases feelings of empathy. Below are five best practices for incorporating visuals in your newsletter:

1. Use graphics to tell a story.
2. Stick to the most important facts—use headings and subheadings to structure visual messages, and use icons to denote actions rather than writing a paragraph within your visual.
3. Use company branding.
4. Visualize healthcare processes by creating infographics. These can be helpful internally for staff use and externally for clients. For example, include an infographic with steps for preventing the spread of disease within a public health newsletter.
5. Humanize your content by keeping it jargon-free and multicultural.

How often should I update and revise my healthcare newsletter content strategy?

We recommend evaluating your content strategy every quarter. Perform a gap analysis and become familiar with upcoming trends at least every three months.

References

Balkhi, S. (2024, January 22). How to set up email newsletter tracking in Google Analytics. WPBeginner. https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-set-up-email-newsletter-tracking-in-google-analytics/

Dietz, J. (2020, November 16). Your questions answered: What metrics should I use to track the success of my healthcare e-newsletter? Coffey Communications. https://www.coffeycomm.com/blog/posts/your-questions-answered-what-metrics-should-i-use-to-track-the-success-of-my-healthcare-e-newsletter/

Gandolf, S. (n.d.). The benefits of creating an eNewsletter like ours. Healthcare Success. Retrieved January 26, 2024, from https://healthcaresuccess.com/blog/healthcare-marketing/32701.html

Mohan, R. (2021, July 15). 5 best practices for using visual communication in healthcare. Spectrio. https://www.spectrio.com/healthcare/5-best-practices-for-using-visual-communication-in-healthcare/

LinkedIn. (n.d.). How can you create engaging healthcare newsletters? Retrieved January 26, 2024, from https://www.linkedin.com/advice/0/how-can-you-create-engaging-healthcare-newsletters#:~:text=Healthcare%20newsletters%20are%20a%20great,promote%20your%20services%20and%20achievements.

Wiredus Media. (2023, October 7). Create content that converts: The 5 Cs of content marketing. LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/create-content-converts-5-cs-marketing-wiredus-media-pvt-ltd/