| By Pilar Araya, Founding Partner B12

We live in the era of the three-second attention span. Today, capturing someone’s interest is as valuable as a transaction: attention is the new currency. For those of us working in marketing and communications, mastering the art of holding it is essential. This is what we call Hook Marketing.

Every day, millions of videos are published on social media. The supply of content vastly outweighs the demand — so much so that there’s even a term for it: content shock.

In healthcare, the phenomenon is particularly evident. More and more health professionals are creating their own content (sometimes with the support of communications agencies, sometimes on their own). Add to this the proliferation of so-called “experts” without medical training who share advice online, and the result is an extremely competitive, saturated content market — much of it mediocre. Worse still, most of it fails to generate results.

That’s why, if you want your content marketing strategy to succeed, you need to create Blockbuster Content: high-value, memorable, almost “epic” pieces that attract and build an audience. It might sound obvious, but in practice very few healthcare professionals actually do it.

From my position as Director of B12, an agency dedicated exclusively to healthcare communications, I see it every day: amateurs giving unsound health advice and doctors desperate to be seen at any cost, regardless of the quality of what they share.

But in a world where there is far too much content and far too little time to consume it, audiences inevitably filter what they choose to watch, read or listen to. It’s in that filtering process where Blockbuster Content makes the difference and stands out.

Remember: your content is your brand. When you invest in quality pieces, you increase the chances that potential patients will remember you, trust you and choose you. Good content also attracts followers — once a community grows, others are more likely to join.

The Blockbuster model prioritises quality over quantity. If you’re going to invest time in creating content, make it count: bring unique ideas, express them clearly and use your own style. That’s how you position yourself as a leader in your niche and stand out in the three-second era.