A guide: Quality content is health-tech’s new "growth hack"

Health-tech companies used to turn to a tried-and-tested solution to grow: Google and Facebook. Paid marketing was the fuel to stoke the proverbial fire to demonstrate the rapid scaling that all VCs love to see on pitch decks. That all has changed with how expensive it’s become to advertise on these social media platforms, and investors are no longer willing to back companies that are highly reliant on this form of ad-based, paid acquisition.

So for companies that do target a consumer audience, how do they grow?

Well, the answer is increasingly content. For that reason, I teamed up to write this post with Derek Flanzraich, a content guru who has built and sold media properties like Greatist.com (acquired by Healthline.com) and has advised many of the fastest-growing health-tech companies like Midi and NOCD on content strategy to understand what works. As person who produces a lot of content, I have my own views which I’ve weaved in throughout the piece. Increasingly, as an investor and advisor to health-tech companies, I’ve been seeing the results of a good content strategy show up in the financials. These companies are able to grow more sustainably with their target customer base because they’ve invested in becoming an authority.

That said, not all content is created equal. Neither Derek nor I are big fans of generic AI generated content— and consumers aren’t either. Plenty has been written about the lack of engagement with AI-generated content. As it turns out, many consumers are generally sophisticated enough to determine when the content isn’t written by a human. Authenticity seems to be the key here. Where we both see content performing best is when the person with the byline has written the piece themselves. Authenticity is the name of the game these days. That’s particularly true for any content that borders on editorial, including analyses and opinion columns.

So let’s talk about content strategies that work, with a goal to create a guide for founders and their investors to put to work. These companies are all current or former clients of Derek’s, so he was able to share actionable case-studies from the field.

Getting into the mindset of a consumer, imagine every question they might have and answer it with content!

Consider a company like Midi Health that's focused on treating women going through menopause. It’s a topic that’s often not discussed or diagnosed in a traditional doctor’s office.

The potential users often have a lot of questions: What’s the difference between perimenopause and menopause? Or what foods fight hot flashes? Or how do I get rid of meno belly? Midi Health does a great job at answering women’s midlife health questions using simple, clear, relatable language. And it’s starting to pay off in the area where it matters most: Patient acquisition. 

Derek, who has worked with Midi, notes that it took fewer than 30 articles with this tone and vibe to drive almost half a million visits. Midi’s content now ranks in the top 10 for nearly 2,000 keywords. Each of these posts might have an author or several, plus a medical reviewer, which adds to its authority and builds trust with readers. 

It’s not enough to answer these questions. In Derek’s view, it’s critical that companies answer them better than anyone else on the Internet (and yes, that takes resources and patience). The days of poorly written long-tail content stuffed full of keywords is over. Actually helpful, well-researched, medically reviewed content that deserves to rank #1 are typically the ones that do.

Go a level deeper than the obvious

If you have OCD, you’ve probably heard of NOCD. The company, which provides virtual treatment for patients with OCD, already ranks for hundreds of OCD-related keywords like “OCD treatment for intrusive thoughts," "ERP therapy near me," "help for obsessive thoughts.” ERP is a type of therapy that’s considered the gold standard for treating OCD, and it’s what NOCD’s therapists offer to patients that book a virtual appointment. 

What’s interesting about NOCD, also a company Derek has worked for, is that the business is capturing people at precisely the moment they’re searching for help. That includes those that don’t know they have OCD yet. A major part of their strategy is writing best-in-class content on secondary searches like “I always think I have cancer. Am I just paranoid?” or “Why am I constantly seeking reassurance in my relationship?” That allows them to gently introduce the concept of OCD, typically with a perspective from a therapist. If the user believes they might have OCD - a condition that is well known to be underdiagnosed - NOCD is a resource they may turn to for help. 

NOCD’s authors - which also include clinicians and patients - write in a way that’s empathetic and understanding of the reader’s situation. Per Derek, the key to a content strategy that works is to understand the target audience and speak to them in a voice that’s relatable and non judgemental.

Involve the experts

Content should be comprehensive and exhaustive, yes– but it also has to be unique and differentiated. Company authors should play to their strengths - while signaling authority to Google - and involve subject matter experts/clinicians as medical reviewers (a critically important part of Google’s EEAT) and include quotes from individuals who are independent wherever possible. 

Bonus points to companies that can weave in patient/customer testimonials, too. It might seem challenging to compete with Healthline, Everyday Health, WebMD, you name it. But those sites cover a lot of conditions. Companies that target a specific condition or patient population should be able to speak better to the customers they serve and services/products they provide– and this is a very strong signal to Google. 

Derek’s specific tips here include for founders and marketing leaders: 

Make sure that the content plays nice with AI-driven search tools like Google AIO and ChatGPT by focusing on article structure and brand voice

We may not think AI-generated content is up to snuff, but we still use gen AI to search. The way people search for information is fundamentally changing, and content marketing must adjust to stay in the game.

So, not only do you want to answer your patients’ curious questions in blog posts, but you want to make sure those answers show up in AI search queries. The best way to do this is to write for Gen AI search in terms of article structure (clear summary at the top, bullet point takeaways at the bottom, lots of lists) and in terms of article voice (conversational tone, break down dense concepts in the way a friend would, lots of “if/then” statements, etc.)

Invest in unique graphics, visuals, and other media.

First, skip the stock photography. People know better– and so does Google (it favors unindexed images).

Instead, double down on making your content interesting and engaging through infographic-style visuals, quote call outs, and more. 

For example, Oshi Health takes complicated GI-related topics and breaks them down in easy-to-grok visuals like this from its article on IBS and how to treat it:

In another example, it shares a graphic that can be used as a food diary for ulcerative colitis:

Oh– also if you want to get creative and scrappy, create a branded template or other on-brand visual accents to make stock photography your own.

Example here from Midi, which also embeds its TikTok, Instagram and YouTube content inside its articles.

3. Create clear conversion pathways to drive readers into leads or new customers/patients.

Organic content can help increase brand awareness, educate, and drive existing member/customer engagement and retention for sure. But marketing investments are justified by their success at converting customers. And content works for that, too!

Invest in conversion rate optimization (CRO) in the form of buttons, modules, quizzes (among the most effective ways to drive readers down the funnel), and pop-ups that help people take the next step. Even if they’re not ready to sign up/purchase today, capture that latent demand so they don’t read it and leave.

Don’t just publish — distribute like a media company

One of the most common mistakes health-tech companies make is believing that “if we publish it, they will come.” But even great content can languish in obscurity if it’s not distributed effectively. In Derek’s career, he’s found that successful brands treat distribution with the same seriousness as creation.

What does that look like? For starters, repurposing is key. A single blog post might become a LinkedIn carousel, a tweet thread, an email newsletter blurb, and a segment for a YouTube short or podcast. Some companies even turn blog content into scripts for their founders or medical advisors to talk about in front of a camera. Chrissy is still very much learning this lesson, but it absolutely works! People are busy and bombarded with content, so the chances that they actually clicked the link after an initial share are slim to none.

You can also build distribution into your operating model. Companies like Oshi and Midi often collaborate with clinicians to share content directly with patients or via provider newsletters. Some run paid campaigns on top-performing blog posts (yes, even content can benefit from ad amplification), and others work with influencers and community moderators to seed links where people are actively asking related questions.

Owned channels, like a well-segmented email list or an educational onboarding sequence, remain underrated. Content is most powerful when it hits the right person at the right time—distribution is what gets it there.

Effort → Reward

The era of easy growth through paid social is behind us - a topic that we’ve been covering in Second Opinion.

Today’s most successful consumer health-tech companies are investing in content—not just as a brand play, but as a revenue-driving, patient-acquisition engine. The bar is high: content must be helpful, human-generated, distributed well, and strategically tied to conversion. But when done right, it creates compounding returns.

As Derek and I have both seen in our collective experiences, both in media, entrepreneurship and investing, building trust through content isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a must-have. The companies that invest now will have a defensible moat, a loyal audience, and a sustainable path to growth.

Parting Thoughts

First, for anyone in the audience who wants to work on content creation for their own businesses, I wanted to mention that Derek is happy to connect with anyone who is trying to dig into an organic content strategy, and you can reach out to him at Healthyish Content.

Secondly, as I write this, I’m on the plane headed back from a health-tech conference - SAIL, where we talked a lot about the potential for AI in healthcare. What I appreciated was the more sanguine appreciation and recognition for the problems with the status quo. It’s not working by every metric that matters — cost is increasing, outcomes are not improving and we aren’t any healthier. So that prompted a tweet that got a ton of reaction, and really restored some of my faith! Here’s a few of my favorite responses to the question of what has improved in the past decade in health care. Enjoy!