INTRODUCTION
Marketing medical devices has evolved since the days of business lunches and in-office visits. Many practices, especially hospital-based practices, no longer allow sales representatives in the office, and physicians’ schedules have become more hectic than ever.
In fact, a 2016 Survey of America’s Physicians conducted by Merrit Hawkins and the Physicians Foundation found that 80 percent of doctors reported being either overextended or at capacity in their practice, with no time to see additional patients.
This can make it challenging to promote your medical device to today’s physician. Following are some tactics your company should use to help draw attention to your product.
Establish buyer personas. It is important to identify to whom you’re selling before making a connection. For instance, private practice doctors may have different motivations, challenges, concerns and frustrations than physicians who practice in hospitals or clinics.
Creating buyer personas, or representations of your ideal customers, will help your company identify those factors, tailor messaging and establish a more personal approach for each of your target audiences.
Communicate via email. A 2017 HealthLink Dimensions survey revealed that 66 percent of doctors prefer email communication for industry news, product updates and research opportunities. This comes as no surprise as email allows for some flexibility in a physician’s fast-paced profession.
Use your buyer personas to help segment and personalize emails. The subject line, content and images should speak directly to each recipient, emphasizing solutions to his or her specific problems.
While it may be tempting to purchase or rent an email list as a quick way to grow your database, you’ll get a better ROI through collecting email addresses organically by creating easy-to-find sign-up forms or pop-up forms on your website, and/or by offering a lead generating incentive such as a free white paper that requires an email address to obtain. Encouraging current subscribers to share and forward emails to their peers is another way to grow your list.
Use content marketing. According to Demand Metric, content marketing generates three times as many leads as traditional marketing and costs 62 percent less. Your marketing team will need to create a variety of content such as infographics, white papers, slide decks, videos and informative articles to help keep your medical device top of mind.
Involve your subject matter experts (SMEs), such as your technical or medical advisers, whenever possible. Case studies and test studies are one of the best forms of education marketing materials for physicians. In today’s world of value-based care, make sure to highlight positive patient outcomes or the specific solutions your device can provide, such as average reduction in pain score or percent reduction in expense per episode of care.
Connect on social media. Master of Health Administration found that 88 percent of physicians use the internet and social media to research pharmaceutical, biotech and medical devices. Create and maintain a presence on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube in an effort to reach these individuals.
Share product updates, company news and scientific findings in conjunction with hashtags such as #MedTech, #MedicalDevice and #MedDevice to make your content easier to find. Your company’s CEO, sales staff and SMEs can further promote your brand by joining relevant LinkedIn groups or participating in industry-related TweetChats.
Physician-oriented platforms such as SERMO and Doximity have become increasingly popular in recent years; however, both are exclusive to healthcare providers and may not be used to market your medical device.
Up your public relations efforts. Pitch your medical device to medical journals and trade publications targeted toward physicians, such as the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), New England Journal of Medicine and American Family Physician.
Involve your CEO or SMEs in your PR efforts by promoting their expertise, especially as it relates to a national health topic. Review health stories, such as those found in Google News, to see what’s trending.
Attend conferences. Conventions and conferences can be a great opportunity for your sales staff to connect with providers. Display product data and set up demos to give medical professionals the opportunity to interact with your medical device. They will want to see how your device works first-hand before considering it for their practice.
The MedTech Impact Expo and Conference and HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition are both national opportunities for your company to exhibit your product. The next MedTech Impact Expo is scheduled for December 2018, and the next HIMSS Annual Conference will take place in February 2019.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Revelation PR, Advertising & Social Media offers health tech companies and startups services related to media relations, email marketing, investor relations, tradeshow marketing, content marketing and social media management. Please contact Brian Lee, brian [at] experiencerevelation.com or 608-622-7767.
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