As a health care marketer, you already know how valuable content marketing is to acquire new customers, increase sales and achieve your business goals. 

One of the biggest obstacles to implementing a content marketing strategy however, is getting your c-suite on board.

Without buy-in and an allocated budget, it’s nearly impossible to hire content writers and designers, persuade your subject matter experts to make time for interviews and above all else, help your sales team meet their quotas.

Lack of c-suite buy-in may in fact be why only 36 percent of B2B organizations say they’re “very committed” to content marketing, according to a recent report by the Content Marketing Institute.

The key to selling your company executives on the importance of content marketing will depend largely on data, strategy and proof of ROI. Here are some tips to consider.

Pitch the “why”

In the initial meetings with your executives, think of yourself as a publicist pitching a story idea to the media. Just like a TV producer needs to know why and why now before they run a story, your executives need to understand your case for content marketing and why one-way marketing and advertising alone no longer cut it.

Use data

Do your own research and pull together surveys, white papers and special reports that point to the value of content marketing and how other health care organizations like yours are getting results.

Explain how you’ll do it


Once you have a documented content marketing strategy in place, share the tactics you plan to use to attract and retain new customers.

Make sure that each type of content you plan to create is linked to your company’s overall objectives to build brand awareness, strengthen credibility and grow revenue, for example.

Show them the competition

Health care marketing is notorious for lagging behind other industries so to make your case for content marketing even stronger, show your c-suite examples of what your competitors are doing and how they’re getting results.

Explain what success looks like

Content marketing doesn’t always have a clear-cut, immediate ROI.

Unlike a traditional marketing campaign or an ad, it’s a long-term strategy that takes time to see results and get an understanding of what success actually looks like.

In fact, according to a report by True North Custom, about 43 percent of health care executives say that measuring the effectiveness of their content was one of their most significant challenges.

Although it may take time to get total buy-in from the entire c-suite, if you can show that content marketing has increased email subscribers, attracted new customers and supported upsetting and cross-selling opportunities for example, they’ll have the proof they need to know content marketing works.