The 10 Questions to Ask Before Any Clinical Content Hire

As someone who once made the transition to tech myself, I’ve mentored many clinical folks throughout their move into mental health content over the years. In many ways, therapists are a natural fit for these roles because, in addition to their clinical expertise, they’re good at maintaining a person-centered approach and making complex information easy to understand. They know how to make people feel seen and heard by building trust through transparency and authenticity. Most marketing departments and product development teams would jump at the chance to add someone with those skills to their organization. 

Of course, in the beginning, these folks need lots of support to learn how the content they’re creating fits into the complex landscapes of content writing, content strategy, and content marketing (and no, they’re not all the same). 

At the outset, most of them will be great at the “knowing” (clinical knowledge) aspects of content development and some will be good at the “telling” (translating that clinical knowledge). But most of them will need some time to learn the art of “selling” (using content to meet a business goal) through content. This is a major mindset shift for many helping professionals.

Finding the Best Clinical Content Writers for Your Organization

Your content strategy is a critical business asset you can’t afford to overlook. So finding the right person to support content development at your organization is big deal. This investment, especially during early stages, can have a huge impact on your stability and profitability. But you don’t have to take it from me, research shows that content marketing, just one piece of the content strategy pie:

• Yields 3x more leads than other types of marketing

• Provides a 6x boost in conversion rates 

• Costs 62% less than other types of marketing

Fortunately, if your mental or behavioral health tech organization is looking for someone to help with clinical content, you won’t find a shortage of talent. There are so many excellent clinicians turned writers looking for work. But as you sift through the candidates, you might struggle to find the right fit for the job because these days the terms “content writer” and “content strategist” mean very different things to different people. And depending on the project, what you might actually need is a…

• email marketer

• product content expert

• instructional designer

• brand identity and messaging specialist

• copywriter

• naming expert

• social media strategist

• subject matter expert

• UX writer

• Chatbot or AI pro

• content designer

• microcopy whiz

• SEO auditor

Or some combination of the above plus clinical oversight.

The thing is, a senior content strategist or writer can do most of these things because it’s likely they’ve held many of these roles throughout their career. But if they don’t have a mental health background, it’s unlikely they’ll have a firm grasp on the industry-specific nuances required to do the job effectively. 

Find Yourself a Bridge: Quit Choosing Between “Knowing, Telling, and “Selling”

You can hire a conversion-driven, creative, results-focused content strategist who doesn’t have any awareness of what makes mental health content development different from say, eCommerce or general healthtech content. For example, they likely won’t come into the role knowing about the importance of person-first language, the ongoing problem of stigma as a barrier to accessing digital services, or the legacy of damaging power dynamics within psychiatric care. 

Alternatively, you could hire a former clinician, a true expert in their field, perhaps with decades of experience serving clients and/or conducting research. Possessing both appropriate criticism and deep knowledge of the DSM, they can ensure clinical accuracy at every touchpoint. But as I mentioned above, they’ll likely be largely unfamiliar with the ways that content should support business goals and product development. 

Throughout my years in business, I’ve built bridges between these two talented groups of people. But more often, I’ve been the bridge itself, bringing various aspects of these disciplines together to meet my clients’ needs. In other words, I’m able to combine the “knowing, telling, and “selling” aspects of content development for organizations that want to invest in a solid content foundation before they need a full-time hire.

5 Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Hire a Content Professional

If you find yourself in a content conundrum, unsure of whom to hire, and worried about making a costly mistake, I recommend doing some research to familiarize yourself with the various types of content professionals in our industry.

From there, start to evaluate your content needs through the lens of “knowing, telling, and selling” to determine what types of support you need at this time. Before you begin having conversations with potential collaborators, ask yourself the following 5 questions:

1. What business problems am I hoping content will solve?

2. What types of content do I need to solve these problems?

3. What does my audience respond to and where do they congregate?

4. What does my brand’s voice sound like? 

5. How will I know the project has been successful? 

Pay attention to any questions you can’t answer to gain a better understanding of what you might need a content strategist to help with. And if you struggle to answer most of those questions, it’s probably an indicator that you’re not quite ready to hire a specialist just yet. (For example, if you don’t have a clearly defined brand voice, how will your email copywriter know how to speak to your audience?)

5 Questions to Ask All Potential Content Collaborators

Once you start to gain a clearer picture of your content needs, you can begin to vet potential content collaborators by asking questions such as:

1. What type of content do you specialize in and what types of businesses do you typically work with? 

2. What metrics do you use to evaluate the effectiveness of your work? 

3. How do you approach learning a new brand voice/tone?

4. Can you walk me through some of the projects in your portfolio? 

5. What are some things I can do to keep us on track if we work together? 

Of course, these questions are just some ideas based on what I’ve found to be effective in my work with clients over the years. But no matter how you do it, it’s important to establish a baseline for effective collaboration and gauge the ROI of your potential investment. For example, you don’t want to hire a messaging strategist if you need an email copywriter and since content strategy is the “long game” you need to make sure budgets align.

There aren’t necessarily “right” answers to these questions but it’s important to know how someone approaches their work so that you can enter the working relationship on strong footing. At the same time, if someone is unable to answer your questions, it could be a sign that you might not be the best fit for one another and that’s always good to know before diving in. 

THE BOTTOM LINE

To create quality content, you need a clear understanding of your content needs and you need to hire someone to support the “knowing, telling, and selling” aspects of content development. Most often, this requires hiring different people with different backgrounds and skills. But to be most successful, you will either need someone to act as a bridge between these collaborators or find a person whose expertise spans both the clinical and strategic aspects of mental health content strategy.

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P.S. If you need help building a content bridge for your organization, let’s talk!