6 Ways Content Can Humanize Academic Medical Centers

Itโs a common plight: Marketers struggle to humanize academic medical centers. Consumers know youโre the place to go when theyโre facing a serious, scary diagnosis. But for their everyday primary care or preventive health and screening needs? Not so much.
Academic medical centersโwith all of their valuable research, life-changing innovation and highly credentialed teams of doctorsโsometimes struggle to soften their image for the everyday consumer.
Here are six ways content can humanize academic medical centers and reach consumers throughout their patient journey.
1. Use compelling patient stories to highlight the human element of innovation.
Storytelling through the eyes of a patient is an effective way to humanize the high-level research and innovation that an academic medical center provides. When creating a patient storyโwhether via text, video or photosโinclude interesting and relatable details about the patientโs life. These might include a unique hobby or talent the patient has returned to thanks to a procedure or interesting details about their family or job.
2. Always bring innovation back to patient impact.
Look at your innovation through the eyes of your consumers. Rather than simply highlighting your academic medical centerโs latest breakthrough research or innovation, focus on how it will impact patientsโ lives.
3. Reconsider calls to action for high-level specialty care.
The natural call to action for a breast cancer patient story, for example, would be the cancer services page on your website. But consider insteadโor in additionโa more thoughtfully considered call to action to encourage women to schedule their annual mammogram. Youโll likely reach more women with that preventive call to action and give a good reminder that youโre not just there for the scary procedures, but the everyday care as well.
4. Humanize providers through video and audio content.
Find your superstar doctorsโnot just those who bring the credentials and training, but the charisma. Feature these doctors in unscripted, conversational videos and podcasts to give your academic medical center a friendly face in addition to its respected name.
5. Target all areas of the funnel with a content web approach.
Plan content with multiple entry points and multiple extensionsโa โweb of contentโ approach that can speak to all areas of the funnel with one central effort. For example, from one central effort to create a patient story (bottom-of-funnel content), also plan several extension pieces including a screening checklist (top-of-funnel content) and doctor Q&A (mid-funnel content).
6. Create a consumer content brand that is patient focused.
Establish a holistic consumer content brand that governs all channels and is patient focused, rather than hospital focused. This puts your audience first by eliminating confusion, humanizes your brand, differentiates you from competitors and supports your organizational goals and objectives.