The coronavirus pandemic challenged most businesses. In particular, healthcare professionals needed to handle growing client loads while minimizing in-person contact. Many providers turned to digital technology to improve efficiency while maintaining social distancing. Some examples of this technology include increased availability of online appointments, Zoom staff meetings, and sophisticated electronic records.
Because of social distancing and other pandemic restrictions, MedTech companies noticed a sharp decline in the number of in-person sales appointments they could set with their customers and prospects. Like their healthcare customers, these medical technology companies responded by relying more on digital technology for outreach.
The pandemic proved extremely disruptive to many businesses. However, marketers uncovered a silver lining. They found investments in online channels improved their returns. As medical providers increasingly adapted their digital toolkits, they also grew more receptive to online outreach from vendors. Thus, the trend towards using digital marketing to reach healthcare professionals continued after most businesses and governments lifted social distancing restrictions.
Why Are MedTech Companies Connecting With Customers Digitally?
According to McKinsey research, 65% of MedTech companies limited digital marketing expenses to less than 20% of their budgets five years ago. Surveys from the past couple of years show that most of these businesses have rapidly increased their budget allocations. For instance, about half of the survey respondents spent at least half of their marketing budgets on digital outreach in the past year.
Why do these companies spend more on digital marketing to connect with healthcare professionals? They discovered that these measures not only helped them survive the pandemic, they improved efficiency, revenue, and profit. Over 90% of the survey respondents said increased investments in online marketing had improved their returns by at least 10%, and about half reported increased returns of over 20%.
Which Digital Strategies Have Produced the Best Results for MedTech Companies?
MedTech marketers who want to reach healthcare professionals should know that their competitors have also allocated more resources to online marketing. Thus, businesses that fall behind risk losing their market share.
In particular, specific channels have provided the most significant returns. No MedTech business should randomly invest in various media, hoping it will offer them a boost. Instead, they should carefully select the channels that their customers are most likely to frequent.
The following examples highlight areas these MedTech businesses have found productive for connecting with healthcare customers.
Omnichannel Marketing Campaigns
MedTech companies haven’t entirely abandoned one-on-one visits from sales reps. Instead, they focus on coordinating multiple channels to offer busy medical professionals the best solution for the time and place. For instance, one sizeable MedTech firm focused on improving its search engine marketing and landing pages, thus increasing its lead capture by a factor of five within four months.
Omnichannel marketing doesn’t just mean using multiple channels to advertise. An omnichannel approach includes a coordinated strategy that tracks prospects through various touchpoints. Marketers must ensure every piece works together to support a coordinated strategy to offer the right message at the best time and support business goals.
Analytics
Medtech companies have started to see the value of offering a portfolio of solutions to their market instead of just one. They’ve employed sophisticated tracking and analytics to provide the “next-best action” to customers. In other words, information about past purchases helps marketers determine additional offers that will complement the last one. This tactic compares to the “also-bought” posts that large e-commerce sites, like Amazon, post to encourage multiple purchases.
In addition, thriving online marketers keep track of vital metrics about prospects at every touchpoint, from clicking a search result and visiting a landing page to filling out a lead form, setting an appointment with a sales rep, making a purchase, and asking for post-sales assistance. This data lets marketers keep testing and turning their campaigns for maximum performance.
Lead Generation
Online lead forms on a well-designed landing page offer MedTech businesses the perfect medium to capture information about qualified prospects. Better search positions combined with email automation allow medical marketers to cast a wide net while tailoring their messaging to each potential customer for each stage of the buyer’s journey. Inbound marketing campaigns bring customers to the company instead of needing to send sales reps out knocking on doors or making cold calls.
Online Product Launches
Pandemic meeting restrictions encouraged many tech companies to hold their product launches online via webinars, videos, and online conferences. Having a chance to see, hear, and interact with company reps helps build trust.
Online launches can also reach many more qualified prospects than in-person presentations. For example, marketers can also produce and edit videos from live launches to use as marketing assets for SEO, websites, email, and social media. That way, busy medical professionals can enjoy the same experience with the brand even if they can’t make the live broadcast.
SEO
Successful digital medtech marketers carefully consider how potential customers search for solutions online.
For instance, the buyer’s journey often begins without the potential customer’s awareness that the brand or product even exists, only that they have a problem that they need to solve. At that point, SEO should target search terms related to the problem, not the specific solution. Later down the marketing path, SEO can focus on competitive differentiation and more details about the company and product.
Companies should focus on up-to-date best practices for SEO. For example:
- Content-rich, authoritative, fast, well-structured, mobile-friendly sites perform the best in today’s competitive market.
- Ranking well in search engines requires attention to content, technical SEO, and the searcher’s intent.
Media Releases
Targeted media releases to industry journals can enhance brand awareness and credibility. Attention from authoritative publications can also help boost search ranks. Besides press releases, MedTech firms can contact publications to offer a topical opinion piece or an interview.
These publications already have an audience of healthcare professionals, which should include the product’s target market. In addition, a link or citation from a trusted source will enhance SEO efforts.
Company Websites
A company website offers plenty of benefits over a printed brochure. The firm can maintain a dynamic site capable of releasing updated information, collecting prospect information, and building a community.
Naturally, MedTech firms will want to optimize their site to rank well in search and perform on various devices, like smartphones and laptops. Most importantly, website developers should focus on producing professionally-designed resources that their target audience will find informative and credible.
Improve Your Medtech Company’s Digital Outreach to Health Professionals
The pandemic encouraged the healthcare industry to embrace digital technology. Long after the crisis passed, medical professionals remained reliant on online tools to serve patients better and run their businesses more efficiently.
In turn, MedTech firms found healthcare professionals increasingly receptive to marketing messaging from various online channels. Finding the right combination of online media and integrating them into a cohesive strategy offers a significant challenge to many companies. Optimizing websites and landing pages to perform well in emerging and competitive niches may present the first obstacle to success.
Our SEO experts at Lemonpulse understand online marketing and the particular challenges of medtech companies that need to connect with healthcare providers. Contact us today to discuss your business goals, and we’ll explain how we will help you meet and exceed them!
