You know content marketing can improve your recruitment results, but as a physician recruiter what kind of content should you be putting online?

Your brand is just another name for the perception you create about you and your organization. So, to start with content, think about this: how do you want your candidates to think about you and your company?

By producing content that is honest and helpful (instead of just sales materials), you can begin to garner trust from your readership. Trust is the bedrock to any good recruitment relationship, and content can allow physicians to get to know you before they are ready for a career move.

We’ve talked about content marketing before, but here are some additional tips on how to get started with your plan and who to go to if you need some additional support resources when creating content.

Begin with a few ideas and a calendar. Great content takes planning, so brainstorm some ideas, look at healthcare-related events or holidays that might interest or affect your candidates, and write down what you come up with. You can flush the details out later, but doing some online research to find great articles, quotes, and other information is a good place to start. Adding a link to a pertinent article or attributing a quote to someone can be valuable – and a content marketing best practice. You can then schedule your articles around topics that fit into calendar dates.

Make a list of industry topics. What are your candidates interested in reading? Better yet, what are you especially knowledgeable about? Consider the kinds of articles that would interest both of you and come up with a list of likely topics. You can then research those topics to help bolster your ideas (and writing). You could create credibility by offering “tips” or a “how-to.” 

Try collaborating. It could be a coworker, a vendor, or your company’s marketing team. You want to show you’re an expert, but you’re not an expert in everything so don’t fake it. Rely on the expertise of people around you, and don’t be shy about showing off your expertise.

Find a great stock photo or two to make sure your content is visually appealing. You should also break longer text up to make it easier to read by adding new paragraphs or incorporating bullet points.

Be consistent. Are you going to create content once a week or once a month? Make the decision and stick to it. Quality and consistency beats quantity every time.

Reuse, repurpose, and repost your content. If you start writing articles, think about how they can be adopted to fit other formats. You could take a blog article and create a slide presentation, for instance. Reusing content you’ve already created is a great time saver – and it’s still very valuable to candidates who may not have seen it the first time around.  

Keep it Simple. Don’t make writing content harder than it needs to be. We recommend keeping it basic and remembering these 5 guidelines:

1. Write an introduction that will grab the attention of people reading it.
2. Create a quick outline of what you’re writing about.
3. Write your text without stopping to check or delete as you go. Just write what you’re thinking and get it down. You can edit later.
4. Review what you’ve written and then edit. Keep it structured and use bullet points when you can to make it easier to read.
5. Ask someone to proofread! Colleagues are usually willing, but if you need extra help try an online source like Wordy for free or inexpensive proofreading and editing.

If writing isn’t your best skill, don’t panic. There are a lot of online tools and resources to help calm your fears. Here are three:

1. Grammarly is a free online tool that helps you compose bold, clear, and mistake-free writing. It works seamlessly with MS Word and Outlook and instantly finds and corrects grammar mistakes – and helps improves your writing. It even detects plagiarism!
2. Hemingway Editor is an app (available on desktop, too) that helps make your writing bold and clear. It’s geared towards more long-form writing and provides robust editing tips that will help you learn how to make your writing sing.
3. If you tend to go down “rabbit holes” while you’re researching ideas and writing, try the Pomodoro TomatoTimer – a nifty tool that can help boost your productivity by helping you stay on task.

Content marketing plays a huge role in how clinicians recognize and think of your brand. Are you doing enough of it? We invite you to watch the recording of our webinar, How Content Marketing Can Lead to Hiring Success. Simply click the button to watch now!