Effect of Language use in Healthcare Content Marketing on Consumer Behaviour among Facebook Users

Abstract

Driven by globalisation, content marketing (CM) has become one of the most strategic marketing approaches used to educate customers by providing valuable information through creative, educative, and persuasive language. This, in turn, influences consumer behaviour. However, it has been observed that content marketers in healthcare, particularly on Facebook, do not appropriately utilise language in producing educative content that can help achieve marketing objectives. Despite the institutional approval required from medical practitioners, some individuals may decide what products/services to use and how to use them to resolve health challenges or improve their health by reading content other than seeing a medical practitioner. This paper sought to investigate the language use of healthcare CM on Facebook and its impact on consumer behaviour. The study employed the Language Expectancy Theory (LET) to interpret and make conclusions based on the evidence provided in the written content on linguistic features and persuasive techniques. The descriptive research design was used to explain the persuasive use of language in influencing the audience. Document analysis was done based on excerpts of written content purposively selected from 11 healthcare Facebook pages. Four textual content items were further drawn from each, making 44 content items. Simple random sampling was then conducted to pick 23 content items considered in this paper. Data analysis involved a qualitative categorisation of the various themes of language use and feedback from Facebook users. The study found that language use impacted educating and influencing people to take action. After reading the content, feedback was received in the form of questions about pricing, selling points, and questions asking for further clarification. There were also comments in the form of appreciation, and customers raised complaints. The study concludes that linguistic features and persuasive techniques might have contributed to enhancing the content marketing messages. As a result, there was positive and negative feedback, which is very important in marketing. The study recommends that marketers should use linguistic and persuasive strategies when communicating with their customers and that they should make use of the feedback that they receive from their customers to improve on the use of language.