The medical device market is enormous and only continuing to grow. Experts predict that the industry will exceed $671 billion by 2027. With this much money on the line, captivating your target audience and moving your product is a necessity.
In today’s competitive market, medical device companies are obligated to develop substantial digital marketing strategies to stay top of mind for prospective customers. With countless competitors in the field and dozens of potential avenues to market your medical device, this task can seem daunting. However, we’ve compiled this list of proven strategies to get you started in the right direction.
Develop Specific Buyer Personas Early
Buyer personas are fictionalized representations of your ideal customer. They’re developed through a combination of industry research, educated hypotheses, and creativity. We recommend focusing on 3 or 4 personas, giving you enough of an audience without being too cumbersome. Creating these personas early in your medical device marketing plan is crucial, as they serve as the foundation for almost every other strategy.
Personas are important because they focus your messaging. If you’re trying to communicate with everyone, you’re effectively communicating with no one. Marketing initiatives need to be tailored to specific kinds of people to give them the best chance at being heard and acted upon.
For example, the pain points and desires of a hospital executive are likely different from those of a physician. They both, of course, want the best for patients, but the former might place an emphasis on affordability while the latter values ease of use. If your device can accomplish both, that’s great, but you need to choose who to target with what message.
Build Your Website with Search Engine Optimization in Mind
Almost 90% of customers research products online before making a purchase, making it vital that your website shows up when people google your medical devices. Properly maintaining your website and publishing content that focuses on search engine optimization is one of the best ways to make sure you get in front of your target audience.
Blog posts are a great way to provide potential customers with valuable information while boosting your SEO. Write articles that are relevant to your industry and address the questions and concerns of your customers. This improves the likelihood that your website shows up on a search engine results page when someone is looking for information about your products.
A key component of SEO is staying consistent. Google and other search engines are constantly updating and tweaking their algorithms, which means you have to stay up-to-date in order to remain relevant. Develop content strategies based on your buyer personas and stick with them, publishing content and updating your website regularly.
Don’t Overlook Social Media
You might be tempted to think that social media is a waste of time for a medical device ocmpany. However, maintaining a social media presence is crucial for staying top of mind with potential customers. Many users turn to social media profiles to research specific companies. You don’t want to be caught with nothing for them to find.
Utilize platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to publish your content and promote your brand. Updates to your devices, new product launches, recently written blogs, and promotional content are all well-suited for social media.
Social media also offers an excellent opportunity to directly engage with members of your buyer personas. Answer their questions and respond to their comments so that they feel listened to and understood by your brand.
Much like SEO, consistency is key when it comes to social media. Long absences on platforms communicate to customers that you’re not very engaged. So develop a content marketing plan and carry it through, making sure to take time to evaluate your results and adjust accordingly.
Establish Credibility with Case Studies
Case studies provide your company with an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the value and effectiveness of your medical devices. You should structure the case study so that it clearly shows how your product solved a problem for a customer.
This type of narrative establishes social proof for other potential buyers. Social proof is one of the most powerful marketing tools available to your company. Reviews and testimonials, both of which can easily be incorporated into a case study, are extremely effective at converting leads. In fact, “97% of B2B customers cited testimonials and peer recommendations as the most reliable type of content.”
Case studies offer you a chance to work closely with a happy buyer and tell their story. Someone reading the case study will be incentivized to imagine their own success after buying your device, making them more likely to say yes to you compared to someone else.
To understand why case studies are effective, put yourself in a potential customer’s shoes. If you’re debating between two similar products, and one only has claims backed by the seller and the other has a satisfied customer willing to vouch for the device, the choice is pretty clear.
One consideration when it comes to case studies is that they typically take more time to develop than other medical device marketing strategies. The process can include reaching out to previous clients, interviewing them, analyzing the data of their success, interpreting the data in context, and then communicating their story in a write-up, infographic, or video.
The plus side, however, is that case studies are versatile content that can be incorporated into many outlets. Feature them on your website, promote them on social media, and include them in email outreach to make sure that you get the best return on your investment.
Use Email Marketing to Follow Up with Prospective Customers
Email outreach should absolutely be a part of any effective medical equipment marketing plan. The beauty of email is that 99% of people check their email every day. You have a captive audience available via a platform that is ripe for automation.
Targeted email marketing is a great way to move customers further along their buyer’s journey. Depending on where they are (maybe they’ve just learned about you or perhaps they’ve purchased something from you in the past) you can tailor the content they receive to incentivize them to keep moving forward. A little nudge at the right moment can go a long way.
Anyone that has provided you with their email address has already demonstrated interest in your brand or product. This puts you at an advantage over competitors that they have yet to engage with. Remain top of mind and deliver relevant, interesting content by staying in their inbox.
Get Your Marketing Campaign Started Today
The bottom line is that effective digital marketing is all about communicating the right message, to the right person, at the right time. If your medical device company has its own marketing team, they can’t go wrong incorporating the strategies outlined above.
If you’re excited to get started but don’t have the time or expertise to do so, Sting Marketing has your back! Our team of experts can develop and execute a marketing strategy that suits your needs and your budget, empowering you to focus on what you’re great at while we take care of what we’re great at.
If you’re ready to get started with a medical device marketing agency that has decades of experience and data-driven results, contact us today. Fill out our consultation form here, or call us directly at (888) 858-7776. We look forward to hearing from you!
