Making your medical device marketing strategy succeed requires balance and consistency. Here, we’ve gathered 4 things to help make it happen.
Getting your medical device out and performing can be challenging. Everything must be ready way before your device is supposed to launch, at which point any necessary FDA approvals must be in place. On top of that, you need to get your device to stand out from the rest – while being compliant to regulations.
This is a balancing act to say the least. Luckily, a great marketing strategy can make said balancing a breeze and have your product deliver on the goals you’ve set. So, how can you make your marketing strategy do all that?
A great medical device marketing strategy
To help make your strategy a success, we’ve gathered some tips and put together a short step-by-step. Hopefully, it can help you balance like a champion and get your product out in the most successful way possible.
1. Figure out who your customer is
To get your device out successfully, you need to know who will buy it. In other words, you need to define your audience to be able to reach them effectively.
You might already have a ton of information to go on, here. For example, you may know that you’re going to sell your device to a public hospital, or a private institution. You might know who you’re addressing there, and what they actually need. If not, it’s time to go into research mode and find out everything you can, which will set the basis for your marketing.
You may also want to expand upon your audience, and see if there are any other stakeholders whom you’ll have to address. For example, your device might be bought by a specialist, but others might be touched by the purchasing decision as well. Such as administrators, procurement departments and nurses.
By understanding these extended stakeholders, and figuring out what’s important to them, you’ll have a lot to go on and can create a messaging and marketing strategy that addresses all stakeholders’ needs and concerns.
2. Find the pain points and create your messaging
Now that you know who you’re selling to, it’s time to figure out what will make them buy. What exact pain point is your device addressing – and how? Along with the previous point, this will let you create your messaging and mold it to fit your target audience.
To do that, you’ll need to frame it in a way that will resonate with your audience. It needs to be clear and show exactly what your device is, what they can accomplish with it and why they should buy. It’s important to note here that it really is the healthcare professional you’re addressing, and so you’ll need to speak their language.
3. Meet your customer where they are
With your new messaging in your coat pocket, it’s time to set a strategy for the marketing material you’ll create. Here, it’s important to remember that the material should be made and crafted to fit the customer where they are – buying a medical device is a long journey, and they will need the right material to go with each step of it. This, in turn, means that said material should be created to:
- Captivate your audience: This is the initial step when you’ll make your customers aware of your device, and have them be interested in what you have to say. As digital is becoming a standard, the type of content you’ll use here may be blog posts, press releases, captivating videos and visually striking microsites. These may be distributed through social media and a combination of SEM/SEO.
- Get them to consider you: This is the second step. Once you have your customer’s attention, you’ll be driving them further in their buying journey and getting them to consider your device. For this step, your material will revolve more and more about your product, and give customers the information they need to see if your device is right for them. This means that you may be using clinical results and create comprehensive guides and blog posts that speak for your product. These might be distributed through email marketing and nurturing flows, targeted social media ads and retargeting.
- Drive the deal home: Once they’re ready to decide, it’s time for the third step. At this point they’re all but ready to sign, and your task is to make them sign and buy your device. To make it happen, you can create case studies as well as material that dives into the ROI of it all, compares your device to others and shows the nitty gritty. This is the material that your sales teams could use to get your customer to sign.
Once you know what material you need to make for each step, it’s time to create and sort it. Finding a tool that can let you sort and structure your material – and make it instantly available for your marketing and sales teams – can here be a game changer. Especially as getting the right material at the right time can make your customer move further in the buying journey – instead of leaving it.
4. Nurture trust and stay compliant
There is probably not another industry where trust and compliancy is more important. For your customers to ultimately buy your medical device, they need to get the right information and trust that it’s accurate.
To nurture this trust your material needs to be consistently on message and accurate. This can be a lot easier with the right digital tool, but however you choose to handle the challenge the important thing is this:
You need the material and information that goes out to be correct and compliant – all the time.
Boosting your medical device marketing strategy
We hope that the above points can help make your marketing strategy deliver, but wanted to leave you with one last thing. If you are to successfully market your medical device, you need to:
- Cut through the noise and captivate your audience
- Keep a consistent message in every interaction
- Share visually-striking material that fits the audience
- Follow up and ensure compliancy at each step of the way
Do you want to see how SP_CE can support your marketing strategy and let you control your message? Check our our Medtech showroom or contact us to see what SP_CE can do for you.
