Blog, Email or Social — For Doctors, It’s the Content that Counts

Websites, blogs, email, social networks — with so many platforms clamoring for your time and attention, you may find yourself wondering if there’s one medium that’s better than the rest.

Alas, no, because the simple truth is, it’s not the medium, it’s the message. When it comes to engaging with online consumers, great content is what gets people’s attention and keeps them coming back for more.

That’s among the findings of a new study that looked at the various methods successful marketers use to communicate with consumers. Conducted by Brandpoint and the Content Marketing Institute, it also indirectly provides insights on how consumers find the companies they want to do business with.

The majority of people who go online to shop are not searching for a specific company, says Lisa Bergerson, marketing manager for Brandpoint. Instead, they Google the problem that they have. Google rewards websites that have fresh content and delivers them to consumers.

So what makes for the kind of content Google is looking for? According to Brandpoint’s 2012 Digital Content Marketing Survey, the top three responses were engaging and creative storytelling (cited by 44% of respondents), crafted custom content (39%) and professional-level writing (34%).

And what platforms provided the best results? As the graph below shows, the top three were social (cited by 53% of respondents), email (38%) and blogging (37%).

 It’s not about ads going out and coming back in; it’s about providing free, useful information, says Bergerson. People don’t want to hear that you’ve done Botox for 10 years; they want to read about the procedure so they know what to expect. That’s what consumers like to read and that’s what they come back to.