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Scraping the Barrel: How to Revive Sales in Healthcare with Brand Relationships

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You can revive sales in the healthcare industry with a focus on brand relationships. As a medical supplier, your customers are most likely other businesses, such as hospitals and clinics. By nurturing the relationships you have with your current customers, you can encourage more brand loyalty and hopefully see your sales start to revive.

This guide will take you through a few key principles in building strong relationships between brands and customers.

Key Takeaways

  • Customers want businesses to focus on their needs.
  • Businesses can improve sales by building relationships with key opinion leaders.
  • Having a trustworthy brand reputation is one of the most important factors for a company when a customer is making a sales decision.
  • Sales staff should get to know customers personally to build stronger relationships.

The Importance of Relationship Selling

As a medical supplier, you need repeat business for your company to succeed. The best way to earn loyal customers and improved sales is by building solid relationships with your customers. Your customers – whether they are hospitals, medical directors, or others involved in the decision-making process – want to have someone they can rely on when a need arises.

Anyone can use the powers of the internet to find information. However, with a personal relationship with your customers, you can offer them something that they cannot get online – a human connection.

Here are some valuable B2B statistics:

  • 65% of B2B buyers found value in talking with a salesperson about their needs.
  • B2B buyers, on average, are 57% of the way towards making a purchasing decision before engaging with sales.
  • A typical business with 100 to 500 employees has an average of seven people involved in purchasing decisions.
  • 68% of B2B customers are lost because of perceived indifference as opposed to making mistakes.

These statistics show how important building solid and trustworthy relationships can be when working with customers.

Relationship selling is particularly important for medical suppliers as many health-related items are expensive, complex, and require a lot of commitment. Caring about your current and potential customers and taking an interest in their needs can have a major impact on improving sales outcomes.

Focus on Key Opinion Leaders

The best customers to focus on when building relationships are the key opinion leaders (KOL). These are people within a company that can make influential decisions or at least have a major effect on key decisions. In a hospital setting, this could include:

  • Medical directors
  • Hospital executives
  • Researchers
  • Patient advocacy group leaders

Once you know who the KOLs are, you need to find out what their goals are. The simplest way to do this is by asking. You can then explain to them how your products can meet their needs, improve their patient outcomes, or even beat out their competitors.

This YouTube video touches on many of these points.

Improve Your Branding

According to a 2019 LoSasso study, 70% of businesses buyers say a company’s reputation is the most influential factor when deciding who to purchase from. This means that if your company is struggling to present the best brand message, it could be hurting your sales.

The Northwestern Kellogg School of Management says B2B companies should focus on three aspects when building their brand: functional, economic, and emotional.

Incorporating these factors into your brand message will make it easier to build customer relationships. When a customer knows you are trustworthy, reliable, and focused on their needs, they will likely share that information with other potential customers.

This chart shows what factors most strongly influence the buying decisions of B2B customers.

7 Tips to Help Revive Sales in Healthcare with Brand Relationships

Successful brand-customer relationships can lead to loyal customers and frequent sales. Happy customers are more likely to share their experiences with your company among their network of business associates. 

Here are 7 tips to help you build those budding relationships.

1. Listen to Your Customers 

If your company is focused too much on pushing out product messaging and not enough on listening to what your customers need, this has the potential to squash sales leads. When meeting with customers or even communicating with them online, keep asking questions and listen to what they have to say.

2. Find Common Interests 

Your customers are people. They have hobbies and interests. Use your social media skills to discover things you have in common with your customers. By talking about these common interests, you can make a more meaningful connection. You might even realize you enjoy spending time with your customers. This leads well into the next tip.

3. Have Genuine Conversations

Customers do not like sitting through sales pitches, especially if it is not something they were looking for. Keep your initial interactions casual and have meaningful conversations. As your relationship grows, the sales will come organically. Make sure you are being sincere, as they can tell when you’re not and your clients won’t trust you.

4. Ask for Feedback

With already established customers, it is a good idea to get frequent feedback from them. You can do this through a phone call, an email, or even send them a survey. Look for areas where you can make improvements to improve their satisfaction with your products.

5. Give Them Something

Everyone likes free stuff. Be prepared to share something of value with them as you continue to build your relationship. Here are some simple ideas:

  • Pen with company information
  • A solution to one of their problems
  • A link to a blog you think they would like
  • A network connection that would benefit them
  • A desktop calendar
  • A bag of their favorite coffee or tea

Your customers will see you for the generous person that you are and will hopefully return the favor with sales.

6. Respond Quickly

When a client contacts you, be sure to respond to them as quickly as you can. This shows them that they are a priority to you. You need to respond to leads and requests for additional information within 5 minutes. This is because 78% of customers will buy from the first company that responds to their inquiries.

7. Make Things Easier for Them

You don’t want your sales-client relationship to feel like work, especially for the customer. Do whatever you can to make their sales experience easy. Try to make your business fit into their schedule and always be available to them if they have any questions or concerns. With an easy relationship, your customers will hopefully love working with you.

Share Moving Media Can Help You Improve Your Brand Image So You Can Grow Your Relationships

If you are ready to start improving your brand relationships with your customers, Share Moving Media can help. We can help you create the right marketing package that can help your brand stand out from the competition. Once more customers recognize your brand, you can begin building those strong relationships that the healthcare industry relies on.

Are you ready to revive your sales by cultivating new relationships? Contact us today to get started.

How Qualified Web Traffic Improves Sales in Healthcare

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As a medical supplier, you can spend anywhere from $2,000-$20,000 a month on content marketing.

Content marketing is creating online content that leads to sales. However, it’s pointless without a return on investment (ROI). That means you want to be making more money from sales than you are putting into marketing.

Here is the basic strategy of content marketing, known as the sales funnel:

  • Attract web traffic
  • Turn the traffic into leads
  • Convert the leads into sales

However, qualified web traffic, or visitors who are likely to turn a sale, takes out the middle step – giving you a straight line from your web traffic to sales. This means less work for you and more sales for your team.

Here is how web traffic improves sales in healthcare and a few ways you can generate qualified web traffic.

Key Takeaways

  • Qualified traffic is more likely to lead to sales than regular traffic.
  • You can increase your qualified traffic through content optimization.
  • Qualified traffic leads to a greater conversion rate.

The Benefit of Website Traffic for Medical Suppliers

Your website traffic is the people visiting your site. Your goal is to make a sale from that traffic. You can generate this traffic by creating content that ranks well in searches, shows up through paid ads, or shares on social media.

The problem is – not everyone who visits your site ends with a sale.

You could spend thousands of dollars to gain traffic, but if none of that traffic includes healthcare companies, the traffic is pointless. It would be equal to owning a pet store, but only non-pet owners visit your store.

Web traffic isn’t enough for generating sales. But, by customizing your content and marketing techniques, you can rank higher for people who may make a purchase instead of ranking highly in general searches.

These potential leads are called qualified web traffic.

How You Can Gain Qualified Web Traffic to Your Medical Website

Here are five ways to customize your content and gain qualified web traffic that double your sales.

Create Lead-Specific Content

Your content is at the top of your marketing funnel. It’s what attracts leads to your website. If you want only to attract qualified traffic versus all traffic, gear your content towards your audience.

You can target your content by addressing a specific audience (like this article addresses medical suppliers), using relevant market research, and covering healthcare trends. This strategy appeals to the interests of your target audience and positions you as an expert in their field.

Optimize Your Content for Healthcare Professionals

When you optimize your web content, you can target a specific audience. For example, if you want healthcare professionals to find your website in their searches, create headlines and content using standard healthcare search terms.

Regular SEO research tells you common searches. You may gain a large amount of traffic by using standard search terms. But, by taking the extra time to know what healthcare professionals specifically want and need, you can narrow your search focus to qualified leads.

Reach Out Through Social Channels

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Social media is a powerful tool for gaining traffic. While 87% of marketers claim social media increases their brand exposure, nearly 80% say it also increases their traffic.

Use your social media strategically by sharing and tagging content that relates to the medical field. Then, instead of all social media users seeing your posts, you are targeting niche channels. That means those most likely to see and click on links to your medical supply website will be healthcare professionals.

Link to Relevant Articles

Whenever you create web content, use links to gain exposure both in searches and within other sites. For example, healthcare providers will learn to associate your brand with healthcare supplies by linking to other relevant medical websites.

Nearly 74% of websites will receive a reciprocal link. So with that in mind, when you link to those popular websites, you are leading qualified traffic back to your site through those reciprocal links.

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Initiate Contact with Potential Leads

If you want qualified traffic, don’t wait for them to come to you. Instead, find the traffic you want and invite it to your website. You locate these potential leads through:

  • Market research
  • Email lists
  • Online feedback and comments
  • In-person connections

How is Qualified Traffic Measured?

Your website’s success is more than the number of traffic you receive. It is also measured by:

  • Length of time spent on your website
  • New versus returning visitors
  • Your conversion rates

You don’t just want dozens of visitors to click then bounce from your website. You need to generate content that retains visitors to your website and encourages them to browse your products.

You also want those visitors to end with a sale.

For example, if 100 people visit your website a day, that’s a good level of web traffic. But, if only one healthcare professional makes a sale, your ROI is unsuccessful.

On the other hand, if 10 out of 20 visitors ended in a sale, you would have a positive ROI. This ratio is your conversion rate. In the first scenario, your conversion rate is 1%, while your conversion rate is 50% in the second scenario.

If you want to increase your conversion rate, focus on retaining customers instead of attracting new traffic. Your chance of selling to a previous customer is 60%-70%, whereas selling to a new customer is just 5%-20%.

Using Qualified Web Traffic to Improve Sales in Healthcare

Here are four ways you can encourage your qualified traffic to make a sale:

  • Offer an incentive along with a purchase
  • Add a call-to-action at the end of each content piece
  • Gather contact information to follow up with potential customers
  • Make your website easy to navigate and make purchases

Share Moving Media has a staff of editors and writers to help create “content in context” for the audience you want to reach. Over the past year, Repertoire’s site traffic has jumped from 80,000 clicks to 307,000 clicks. Let us help you grow your traffic and sales!

5 Key Elements of a Patient-Centric Clinically Integrated Supply Chain

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Hospitals will soon have to examine their supply chain management with a renewed focus. A clinically integrated supply chain will help medical suppliers and manufacturers assist clinicians with providing better healthcare all around. 

A recent study found that hospitals could save more than $25 billion annually by eliminating unnecessary costs in the healthcare supply chains within each hospital. This system ultimately improves care for patients and keeps them safe from harmful drugs or devices.

These medical supplies include clinical inventories such as catheters, stents, and syringes in operating rooms or other procedural areas. Some medical providers rarely take advantage of modern supply chain techniques that can reduce excess and shortages.

Hospitals achieve greater visibility and cost reduction from clinical supplies while also improving safety. Hospitals can take necessary steps to advance a supply chain that is clinically integrated, patient-oriented, and safe for all involved.

Key Takeaways:

  • What fields are impacted by integrated health care supply chains.
  • How to have a patient-centric clinical supply chain
  • Why you should implement a transformation in healthcare with better supply chain management.

The Intricate Network of the Healthcare Supply Chain

Supply management in the medical field is unique and comprises several supply chains, each with specific challenges, such as the high demand for medical supplies from patients that are often at risk to themselves or others due to their condition. 

These clinically integrated supply chains impact the following areas of patient care:

  • Medical/surgical
  • Pharmacy
  • Surgical Trays
  • Prosthetics
  • Medical supplies

For the ultimate benefits, healthcare must eventually administer these matters holistically by working together in a more streamlined and efficient way using the proficiency of inventory directors.

A Patient-Centric Clinically Integrated Supply Chain

By having an integrated supply chain, hospitals and clinics can offer patient-centric care. A healthcare system will fail to improve patient safety if they do not invest in its supply chain. 

Patients receive better treatments when physicians procure supplies by moving from a contracts approach to a formulary model approach. Here’s how:

1. Focus on Clinical Outcomes

Providers can shift the focus of their supply chain from maintaining stock to strategies that impact outcomes. The formulary model for authorized suppliers, such as pharmacy benefit managers and prescription drug plan providers, enables them to become deliberate collaborators. 

Therefore, products become grouped into functionally comparable categories. Within these groups of classification items, evaluations on efficacy, safety, patient outcomes, and cost-effectiveness determine which to authorize for use based on the particular treatment needs at hand.

2. Incorporate Procedural Transformation  

With evolving technology, providers have a chance to rethink how they maintain inventory by incorporating procedural transformation. This new approach will be more sustainable and less expensive.

There are three phases in supply chain transformation:

  • Foundational
  • Optimization
  • Transformational

At the foundational level, there is a priority on departmental materials management. 

However, at an optimization level of hospital-wide supply chain strategies, efficiency and collaboration between departments will be increased to introduce new approaches that balance cost controls with patient outcome improvements. These phases represent vast opportunities for introducing new demand planning methods. These phases also reduce waste and excess throughout all levels of medicine.

The transformational phase can only happen when you acknowledge how complicated this problem has become. Therefore, it requires commitment from all hospitals involved.

3. Connect Clinical Systems to Manufacturer Data

In most industries, a company relies on enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain systems to manage inventories with complete histories of obtaining, receiving, status changes in movement, and utilization. 

The trouble in healthcare is that an item may be procured by ERP then expensed into clinical departments. There it becomes impossible for any system to trace its history or provide pertinent information about inventory levels.

Physicians find innovative ways to protect patient records while obtaining vital device data by connecting clinical systems to manufacturer data. Clinically integrated supply chains provide the means to do that for medical professionals.  

4. Adapt Techniques for Inventory Forecasting

Demand planning is a complex process that uses statistics, historical data, and experience to predict how much inventory you need. Forecasting methods have been used for many years across numerous industries to maximize efficiency by carrying the proper amount of stock at any given time.

These demand-planning tools are essential for any modern organization and provide statistical models that help make calculations more accurate. An automated collaboration capability enables you to get the best possible forecast and safety stock recommendations, providing organizations with the ability to ensure that supply is in line with demand to reduce excess inventories, primarily when used across many facilities. 

5. Facilitate Patient Safety, Traceability, and Recall Efficiency  

When looking at factors like price transparency or population aging, it becomes clear how essential supply management is. Also, it is essential for hospitals and health care providers to identify what devices are in use if there is a recall. 

A recall in more than 18,000 medical devices occurred over the past five years. In case of a device recall, most healthcare facilities will often struggle with identifying which patients may be affected by faulty equipment.

The fundamental goal continues to have a patient-centric supply chain, starting with ensuring the safety of human life. You can create a complete history for a medical device to facilitate patient safety by linking all inventory transactions to that item and its unique identifier (UDI.)

Clinical Supply Chain Management for Healthcare Transformation 

Hospitals are facing pressure to control costs and improve the safety of their patients, meaning that hospitals need an overhaul in their supply chain business model as soon as possible. 

They must give increased attention to their supply chain strategies, as the need for safety is paramount in today’s health care system. 

Are you looking for better ways to make your healthcare supply chain more patient-centric? Contact us today to see how Share Moving Media can help. 

How a Website for Sales and Marketing Helps Medical Suppliers

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Do you feel like dozens of other competing online businesses are burying you?

As a medical supplier, building your online presence is your foundation for success. However, success is not guaranteed when there are almost 2 billion other live websites attracting traffic.

Reevaluate your marketing strategies so healthcare providers notice your website for sales and marketing of medical supplies.

Key Takeaways:

  • Medical suppliers should use a website to gain more customers
  • Websites are easy to build but hard to use successfully
  • Including quality content and SEO helps your website gain visibility
  • Social media use, product ads, and customer engagement are effective marketing strategies

Why You Need a Website for Your Healthcare Manufacturing Business

Nearly 90% of households have a personal computer – which contributes to the growth of the internet. Online content is accessible by almost anyone and for any reason, from contacting friends to online shopping.

Healthcare providers are no exception. At least 51% of consumers prefer to conduct online research before purchasing products. To expand your healthcare market, start developing your online presence through a marketing and sales website.

5 Strategies to Use with Your Website for Sales and Marketing

Here are five website marketing strategies for growing your online visibility as a medical supplier.

1. Publish Regular Content Through a Blog

A blog is a page of your website with regularly updated content. Here are a few types of content you could publish on your medical blog.

  • Business updates
  • New products
  • Educational articles
  • Testimonials from your clients

This content helps build trust among your clients and boosts the rankings of your website.

A blog’s extensive library of content gives more information for Google to pull from when people search online. It is also a sign that your website is still active and relevant – boosting your brand’s reliability. 

A blog offers another form of engagement with your clients. While you provide medical supplies for a cost, information on a blog is free. Many customers and clients will come to your website just for that free advice and information but stay because of your quality products.

2. Integrate Social Media with Your Website

If your marketing website for a business is not attracting traffic, consider building more roads to your site. You generate these roads through clicks on ads and links. Social media is a gold mine of leads. 

Some of the top social media sites are Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Do not restrict your marketing strategies to your website. Share your content on those social sites. You will have regular content to share on your social sites if you take the advice from the first tip and create a blog.

Social media also gives another way to interact with potential clients. Nearly 88% of businesses use social media. By creating a profile on social sites, you can network with healthcare providers on those platforms and boost your brand awareness.

3. Use SEO Strategies to Increase Your Search Rankings

Ranking well on Google is essential to get noticed. If your website has that coveted first spot, over 25% of people will click on your website. Each of the following places then receives fewer clicks.

Gaining a high position requires a strong SEO strategy. SEO uses keywords, link building, and content marketing to optimize web pages for searches. The words you use and links you add tell Google what your content is about and why you are a reliable source. Websites that have the most relevant and dependable content receive the highest rankings in search results.

Websites that use SEO when creating blog posts and web pages drive more traffic than those using paid ads and other means for attracting visitors to their sites.

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4. Sell and Promote Medical Products Online

One in four people shop online. Online shopping is more convenient and often cheaper. As a distributor, you save on the costs of store space and employees, while shoppers save on gas when they shop online.

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Use your social media accounts and online network to post your products around the web through paid ads. Then online healthcare shoppers see what you offer. Your products will drive customers to your website, increasing your traffic and sales.

5. Develop a Personal Connection with Customers

Trust is essential for medical providers who purchase equipment. They need to know your products are reliable and meet the necessary safety requirements of the medical field.

You build trust through forming personal connections and demonstrating a history of positive feedback.

Online interactions can lead to a personal connection with customers. For example, if people mention your business on social media or in blog posts, take time to respond to them and let them know you are listening and want to connect.

Generating positive feedback is also key as most consumers rely on the recommendations of other consumers when deciding which products to buy.

 Over 92% of businesses say they are more likely to purchase from another business with positive reviews.

Getting Started with Your Next Website Marketing Strategy

Creating a website for sales and marketing is relatively easy – attracting traffic is not. So, if your website is not helping your business, find outside help. Hiring marketing agencies to optimize your content and engage with your customers makes a difference!

With the right website optimization techniques, some businesses start seeing a jump in web traffic and sales within 24 hours.

For an SEO consultation, contact Scott Adams and redeem this $10,000 value for free!

Social Media for Medical Manufacturers: The Top Tricks You’d Never Expect to Work

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Social media was once seen as a space reserved for teenagers to discuss frivolities like celebrity gossip. After all, Facebook – an early pioneer in the social media scene – began as a campus social experiment. Those days are long gone.

Today, social media is used by people from all walks of life, and serious discussions are taking place on social media.

While using social media as a marketing tool in the medical manufacturing space was once unheard of, this is no longer the case. Medical manufacturers can use social media to engage and connect with their target audiences – and even make valuable business connections. That’s if they use it right.

There are some do’s and don’ts when using social media for medical manufacturers.

The Benefits of Using Social Media as a Medical Manufacturer

Social media lets you engage with your target audience, whether that’s healthcare practitioners (HCPs), independent hospitals, or integrated delivery networks (IDNs). You can also monitor their activity via social media. For example, HCPs may communicate if they are headed to a conference.

You can also use social media to establish your medical manufacturing expertise. Share the latest publications and study results from your field. Demonstrate your knowledge by disseminating your own white paper or video seminar. Align social media with a publishing strategy for your blog to attract readers. These are just a few ideas.

By following others in your medical manufacturing niche and sharing your insights, you achieve social media’s ultimate goal — connectivity. What starts as a public exchange online can become a private discussion via email and then a one-on-one video chat or face-to-face meeting.

Still not convinced? Here’s one more winning reason to include social media in your medical manufacturing marketing strategy: It’s cheap. Social media doesn’t cost a thing. It also doesn’t require a lot of time and energy.

3 Ways to Effectively Use Social Media for Medical Manufacturers

The key to effectively using social media for brand messaging in healthcare is value. As with any content marketing, you want to create content that is useful.

Beyond this, there are a few tricks to making the most of social media.

1. Piggyback on Events

Healthcare conferences frequently have dedicated social media channels. Although some in-person events are canceled due to COVID-19, many have moved online. This makes it even easier to join a digital conversation.

The American Society of Echocardiography has a Twitter page (@ASE360) with 13.8k followers, for example, and hosts an annual conference. If you’re in the cardiovascular ultrasound sector, this is a valuable event for making connections. Getting a retweet from ASE gets people’s eyes on you and your company.

2. Join the Hashtag Movement

Your gut instinct might be to think hashtags are too “fluffy” for healthcare. Not so. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention include hashtags in their digital media toolkit for flu season awareness.

Another great example: In March 2020, the World Health Organization, in cooperation with the video game industry, launched the campaign #PlayApartTogether to encourage social-distanced fun in the face of the growing COVID-19 pandemic.

If there is a hashtag relevant to your industry, use it to join the conversation.

3. Incorporate Visuals

Visuals make social media more personal. Videos can boost healthcare sales, for instance. Physician profiles and patient experiences are particularly captivating, giving your audience an intimate look at how your medical manufacturing products change the lives of HCPs and the people they serve.

If you’re looking for something simpler, infographics are a great option. They are a visually attractive means of providing useful information your audience will value.

A Word of Caution When Using Social Media in Medical Marketing

There are a few rules to keep in mind as you start designing a social media strategy for your medical manufacturing business. First, you have to remain HIPAA compliant and in line with medical ethics codes. Sharing patient pictures without consent would be a violation, for example.

If you are operating a social media account independently from your employer, take care to differentiate your online activity from your company’s. Including a line in your bio like “Any views and opinions are my own” is helpful.

Beware that a simple disclaimer in your social media bio won’t save your job if you mess up, however. There have been many instances of persons getting fired for sharing racially insensitive or otherwise problematic content on social media.

The point of this “disclaimer” isn’t to discourage the use of social media for medical manufacturers! Use common sense and maintain professionalism in the social media sphere. A good rule of thumb: If you wouldn’t share it with your boss, don’t share it on social media.

Make Social Media Part of Your Content Strategy for Healthcare

Share Moving Media is dedicated to helping medical manufacturers increase their market share. As a full-service media and content company, we can help you reach your target audience through articles, ebooks, podcasts, blog posts, webinars, and more.

Sign up for our newsletter to get more marketing tips and tricks for medical manufacturers. Want to use our services?  Contact us today!