How to effectively market in healthcare and life sciences
Getting the right message and content in front of the right audience can be hard for everyone in marketing. For B2B marketing professionals in the Life Sciences and Healthcare (e.g. healthcare, biotech, and medical device) space, crafting a message that also complies with strict regulations and guidelines adds significant complexity. So how do healthcare marketers get the most effective message across to their audience while also remaining in compliance?
Source: http://mhealthwatch.com/
Breaking free from traditional practices
Across most industries, marketers are categorized by the audience in which they market to: businesses (B2B) or consumers (B2C). Those definitions aren’t very relevant for healthcare and life science marketers because they sell to both businesses and consumers at the same time.
The concept of selling to a combined business and consumer, dubbed B2-Human by the Head of Marketing Operations at GE Healthcare, is that there is a highly emotional buyer purchasing on behalf of an organization. B2B buyers simply don’t usually use products in such a direct, visceral, human capacity like a medical professional might with a patient. The human to human consumption is the key element, requiring that this type of marketing get much more personal.
Using personalized stories to appeal to your audience
We interviewed a marketing manager from a leading medical device company for this post. She explained that connecting with their target audience by telling a story is the key to success for driving engagement and ultimately increasing sales. Our source mentioned that she recently highlighted a specific positive patient experience story to market to physicians and appeal to their need for increased patient satisfaction. The sales team immediately began including this story as a centerpiece of their prospect materials, and reported right away that story made a huge difference in their sales process.
Leveraging a third-party to verify publicly blinded customer stories allows the marketing manager’s company to stay within the strict boundaries of regulations and guidelines set out by HIPAA and the FDA. By focusing on individual stories, as opposed to product claims, the marketing manager has been able to take new campaigns to market and create sales collateral significantly faster while avoiding the lag that comes with legal review.
Check out how TechValidate customers in Health Care space access the human story here and use it in their marketing here.
