How SME-Written Content Reduces Marketing and Advertising Costs

Are you looking to cut costs in your business’s marketing strategy? Or do you seek better engagement with your health-related consumer content? Healthcare-related marketing content often deals with technical subject matter, requiring knowledgeable content writers’ expertise. This blog post will explore how SME-written content can improve consumer engagement, offer top-quality health information, and, ultimately, help you maximize your marketing strategy.

What Is an SME?

What exactly is an SME anyway? An SME is a subject matter expert with considerable knowledge and experience in a specific job, technique, department, role, technology, service, or industry. Companies will often consult SMEs to identify potential problems in their chosen industry and develop solutions.

Some of the most valuable SMEs in the healthcare industry are nurses. Aside from being innate caregivers, they are also knowledgeable in pharmacology, medical procedures, medical terminology, standards and practices, hospital throughput, quality measures, and much more. Nurses are the perfect choice for your SME-written content because they will often work in various specialties throughout their careers and are committed to staying current with the latest evidence-based practices.

5 Benefits of SME-written Content for Reducing Marketing and Advertising Costs

So, how can SME-written content help grow your business while reducing costs? Here are five ways:

1. Save with relevant content: SMEs have the background, education, and experience to create content that is more in-depth and relevant to the interests and education level of the intended audience. Working with an SME saves time and resources in training current staff to write relevant health content.
2. Drive consistent traffic: SMEs can produce healthcare-related content to serve as reference material for peers and consumers alike, which can ultimately drive traffic to social media platforms. SME-written content is evidence-based and meaningful, written from the perspective of someone with first-hand experience. Use your SME-written content internally or repurpose it for increased savings.
3. Streamline your process: Employing or contracting one SME to create content for a desired campaign can positively impact your business by streamlining the process and eliminating waste. As a result, team members can focus on other tasks. Allowing your team to focus on the tasks they are best at means cost savings for you because, after all, your team’s time is valuable. 
4. Utilize versatile services: Businesses can enhance their workflow and content by working with SMEs adept at communications, collaboration, time management, and issue resolution. In utilizing an SME, you might find they have more to offer than merely content writing abilities. They may be able to provide consultation in other aspects of business, thus offering valuable savings.
5. Employ based on your needs: Companies often employ SMEs as full-time internal staff members to provide recurring and distinctive insights to the company. They may also decide to employ SMEs as independent contractors or consultants who charge an hourly rate for subject-matter services rendered on a needs-based basis. Depending on your business needs, you can utilize an SME as little or as much as necessary without overextending your budget. 

Types of Healthcare Content Best Suited for Use in Marketing and Advertising

Interest in wellness and enhancing one’s health is on the rise as more people are empowered to take charge of their health. Given that many people spend a considerable amount of time “scrolling” through posts and reels on social media sites every day, these platforms can be an effective marketing tool for a wide range of audiences. Healthcare delivery companies enable patients to take on a more active role in their health by offering education that includes easily understood health-related content about medical disorders, treatment options, and medications. Social media material may serve as a springboard for targeted audiences looking to delve deeper into healthcare subjects. 

Partnering with a healthcare SME and utilizing the following recommendations will ensure your content reaches your audience effectively and through the most appropriate channels.

Best Healthcare Content Formats

Presenting complex and technical subjects to non-technical people is one of the difficulties in healthcare content marketing. Medical terminology might seem like jargon, hindering their learning and engagement. It is equally important to vary your content and stay competitive in your marketing efforts. It’s crucial to recognize that not every format is appropriate for conveying this specific category of information. Here are a few suggested formats:

• Short-form videos
• Infographics
• White papers
• Social media posts
• Audio recordings (or podcasts)
• Interactive games
• Blog articles
• Surveys

Best Healthcare Content Topics

The content you present to your audience should be relevant, easy to comprehend, and helpful; your message is just as important as the method you choose to deliver it. Consider leveraging a third-party service specializing in search engine analytics to pinpoint the health subjects that resonate most with consumers. Here are a few suggested broader topic areas:

• Heart disease and heart health
• Diet tips and recipes
• Pain and pain management
• Drugs and pharmacology
• Women’s Health
• Children’s Health
• Covid-19
• Sleep
• Smoking

How to Measure the Success of Your Healthcare Content

Now that you have taken the plunge and hired an SME to produce your content, how can you be sure that the healthcare content will reduce your marketing costs? SME-created healthcare content can achieve the following:

• Be repurposed and re-imagined in different formats. This flexibility can be beneficial in delivering your business’s message across different platforms. Measure success by a reduction in marketing campaigns, which, in turn, is a cost savings for you.
• Increase client loyalty by providing easily understandable, educational content from a reputable source. Measure client loyalty by an increase in leads or contacts for future communications or survey responses.
• Help your content rank higher in search engines. The majority of online experiences start with a search query. SMEs may utilize search engine optimization (SEO) marketing in their content to ensure it appears prominently in search engine results. There are many great SEO analytics tools to integrate into your communications platforms to provide better insight into your average views, clicks, and other consumer interactions.

Final Thoughts

Content written by healthcare SMEs, such as nurses, who have expertise in providing one-on-one care and education to your target audience, could benefit your business’s healthcare content distribution. Nurses connect with and communicate pertinent information to healthcare consumers, whereas marketing specialists may not have first-hand experience. Consider using SME-created content to improve your business’s health content strategy today!

References

Baer, J. (n.d.). The 26 Best Topics in Healthcare Content Marketing. Convince & Convert. Retrieved January 3, 2024, from https://www.convinceandconvert.com/about/ 

Ceralytics. (2018). 2018 Healthcare Content Marketing Report. https://ceralytics.com/healthcare-content-marketing-2018/ 

HIMSS Media. (n.d.). What You Need to Know About Content Marketing for Healthcare. HIMSS. Retrieved January 3, 2024, from https://www.himssmedia.com/news/what-you-need-know-about-content-marketing-healthcare 

Novak, J., & Smith, A. (2024, January). Best SEO Tools & Software (January 2024). Forbes Advisor.

https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/software/best-seo-software/