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Why Trade Publishers and the Industry Need to Join Hands to Revive Sales in Healthcare

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The healthcare industry has seen big shifts in recent years. Legal, compliance, and regulatory changes have impacted how healthcare suppliers operate. Technological advancements are changing the face of healthcare procedures, but possibly the greatest impact on the healthcare industry is the advancement of the internet.

Now, people have access to infinite information. They can do their own medical research and are less dependent on medical salespeople. As a result, healthcare sales are on a downward trend. Industry professionals, like hospital suppliers and those in medical distribution, need to rethink their marketing strategy and find new ways to reconnect with their audience and reach them with meaningful information. 

The answer may lie in trade publications. It’s time for trade publishers and the industry to work together to revive sales in healthcare.

Why Trade Publications are an Invaluable Marketing Tool

Trade publications are a reliable source of information, and people trust their authority and reputation. These magazines provide education, expert knowledge, and thought leadership to keep readers informed and knowledgeable while helping to solve business challenges. From industry announcements and press releases to case study findings and opinion columns, trade publications offer multiple benefits to their readers.

With the vast accessibility of the internet, many people prefer to read their information online. Trade publications have been able to remain current by adapting to meet consumer’s needs and deliver the same useful resources through digital distribution. 

Some readers will dispute that paper publications are a dying breed and continue to prefer hard copy formats. In any case, trade publications are an invaluable marketing tool in many ways.

To connect with your audience, you need to understand them. Identify the challenges they face, find out what answers they’re seeking, and see where their interests lie. An effective way to gain this knowledge is to read the same materials they’re reading. See what they’re learning about and use that information to create effective marketing campaigns that address their concerns and pique their interests.

More than content distribution, trade publications facilitate engagement among the healthcare community. They provide online forums, content libraries, virtual networking opportunities, and downloadable resources. Industry workers who become involved with these things themselves can build a relationship with their audience while gaining a deeper understanding of their needs and wants. All of this can help generate leads and increase sales growth. 

4 Reasons Why Trade Publishers and the Industry Should Join Forces

Trade publications are especially beneficial to the industry because they raise awareness, boost name recognition, increase visibility, and help to gain credibility. Not only should industry leaders read these publications, but they should also consider contributing articles, editorials, and purchasing ad space in them. Here are 4 reasons why trade publishers and the industry should join forces to revive sales in healthcare.

1. Lead Generation 

Trade publishers are distributing their materials to a highly targeted audience. By contributing to these publications, you’re getting your company name in front of new viewers you haven’t yet reached. With the information you’ve gained from following what readers are discussing in forums, you can develop authoritative content that answers their questions meets their needs.

Not only will you broaden your reach, but you may also have readers contact you on other platforms to connect and discuss your thoughts further. This kind of engagement enables you to develop a relationship with your new-found audience and helps with lead generation.

2. Position Yourself as an Industry Expert

By nature, trade publications are reputable sources delivering trustworthy information. When industry professionals develop content that appears in these publications, readers perceive them to be equally trustworthy. The more meaningful and useful content you get published, the more you position yourself as an industry expert. As people begin to associate you with valuable, knowledgeable information, they’ll begin to look to you for answers and insight.

Company decision-makers read these articles. As they see your name more and more as a trusted resource, they’ll be inclined to contact you directly for possible business opportunities.

Additionally, your trade association may take notice of your content and consider you for in-person opportunities. Serving as a discussion panelist, a forum monitor, or even a keynote presenter would get you in front of more people for even further brand awareness. All of this leads to potential sales opportunities.

3. Stand Apart from the Competition 

Trade publishers are always looking for content to fill their pages. Through articles and advertising, they provide several opportunities to set yourself apart from your competition. After all, if you’re not appearing in these magazines as a contributor, chances are that your competition is. Even if you don’t have research findings or editorial content to contribute, consider taking out an ad. 

Publications provide opportunities for heightened visibility. Do what you can to get your name in front of readers and attract prospects before they turn to your industry competitors. By standing apart from your competition, you increase the chance of gaining new customers and boosting sales.

4. Drive Company Efforts

Trade publications provide a means to highlight your team’s achievements and industry successes. Not only does that strengthen readers’ perception of your organization and drive traffic to your team—it gives a morale boost to the people in your company and solidifies the trust of your stakeholders. When people are proud of the work they’re doing and believe in the company they work for, they have more drive to continue to succeed.

Publicizing your company’s leadership is good for business development and provides materials that are helpful for sales efforts. When you can present prospects with featured industry articles touting your company’s strengths, you build credibility with your client base and earn their trust for purchase power.

Share Moving Media Can Help You Join Hands

Healthcare professionals that want to revive sales in the industry should partner with trade publishers to develop quality content that’s visible, targeted, and generates leads. Share Moving Media is a full-service content company that helps healthcare professionals increase market-share through articles, blog posts, and publications. We understand the importance of developing meaningful content and providing training and educational opportunities to help businesses grow. 

To learn more about how we can help you revive healthcare sales, contact us today.

Healthcare Industry Branding: 5 Surefire Ways to Get Your Industry Association Talking About Your Brand

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There are currently 784,626 healthcare companies in business nationwide. From hospital purchasing to hospital distributors, that’s a lot of competition throughout the healthcare supply chain. To increase visibility in a saturated market, healthcare suppliers need to find ways to set themselves apart from the competition.

Joining industry associations is an effective way to gain a foothold in the healthcare industry. Developing professional relationships with other healthcare providers can help drive traffic through referrals, create a support system for brainstorming and problem-solving, and help with sales growth.

Becoming an association member isn’t enough to make a significant impact on your business. You need to encourage industry associations to spread the word about your brand. Promotion from an established and respected association can raise awareness about your business, expand your overall reach, and generate revenue for your healthcare business.

How Industry Associations Help Business

From the Health Industry Distributors Association to the Medical Device Manufacturers Association, there are numerous organizations for healthcare providers to join. Becoming a member of a trusted industry association brings numerous benefits. There are three main ways in which an association can enrich your business.

1. Networking with Peers and Colleagues 

Associations consist of professionals who share similar concerns, obstacles, and opportunities. Whether you meet in person or connect online, you’re able to join conversations with a large pool of like-minded healthcare suppliers, end-users, and purchasers. You can break down barriers and learn from others’ experiences, gain insight into how you could be improving your own processes, and share your expertise to help others. 

2. Standardization of Best Practices

By sharing knowledge and experiences with other healthcare professionals, you’re able to develop a series of best practices. From curating important information and separating it from trendy buzzwords to researching industry benchmarks, associations help determine a level of expectation for practices and procedures. As expectations evolve, associations assist with developing and communicating standards to help streamline conversations and practices industry-wide.

3. Individual and Professional Development

Career development is a leading reason people join industry associations. Associations provide educational resources for their members. From training and seminars to bringing in guest speakers who are experts in their field, associations develop knowledge and expertise for healthcare professionals. Mentorship opportunities guide professionals in decision-making and problem-solving. Individual chapters provide leadership roles, which help build management skills and develop a trusted reputation.

5 Ways to Gain Brand Awareness Within Your Industry Association 

With so much to gain from an industry association, businesses need to leverage their membership in these five ways to develop brand recognition and revenue.

1. Contribute to the Conversation 

A major perk to industry associations is having access to a huge audience with shared interests yet different experiences. When you see forums or discussion threads, whether online or in person, join the conversation. Add your own experience and insight to provide helpful resources for others in your industry. By providing relevant, detailed answers to questions, you present a new perspective to the conversation and set yourself apart as an industry leader.

The more people see your name and your company involved in these discussions, the more you’ll build a trusted network of followers who look to you for advice and input. Eventually, members will think of your name when they have questions, need to problem-solve, and ultimately need your services.

2. Generate Insightful Data 

Draw attention to your business with researched facts and figures. Through polls and surveys, you can ask important questions that others in the industry may also have. Analyze the results and share those studies and their findings with the members of your association. 

This helps to educate them on industry-wide topics, which strengthens the industry as a whole. It shows that you take the initiative to seek out answers. You’re willing to share the information with your fellow members as a means to help their personal and professional development.

Whether you post this data on online channels or submit it to an association publication, insightful data can gain you publicity from press coverage to social media posts. All of this raises awareness about your brand and helps to build a loyal following.

3. Join Forces with Other Members 

Associations encourage collaboration among their members. Consider collaborating with another company within the association. By working together, you position yourself as a team player. You also double your audience by appealing to your followers as well as those of the other company. 

Whether you combine your expertise to conduct industry studies or work together to write an educational article, collaboration tends to attract more attention from association membership and leaders. When people see two reputable companies discussing something of interest, they’re more likely to tune in. Position yourself as a thought leader by joining forces with an association partner.

4. Stay Front of Mind 

Create meaningful content and consistently share it with your association. Develop social media posts that deliver useful information and are easy for others to share. Encourage members to leave comments and join discussions to build engagement among viewership. Not only will your fellow members begin talking about your business. Association management is sure to see your involvement and will be more inclined to promote your brand to others in the industry.

5. Volunteer 

Although many associations survive on dues, most still run on volunteerism. One surefire way to get noticed is to help out wherever you can. From offering to coordinate industry-wide or local chapter events to serving on a discussion panel, by donating your time to the greater good, you can become a household name among association leadership. Fellow members will also get to know you and your business. 

The more involved you are in the association, the more opportunities you have to gain visibility, build trust, and create buzz about your business.

Let Share Moving Media Help Increase Brand Awareness

There are numerous benefits to joining an industry association. If you’re ready to take membership to the next level, hire an expert to help you create content that can help gain the attention of your industry association. 

Contact Share Moving Media today to create a strategy that will build brand awareness among your industry association.

7 Strategies for Picking the Right Healthcare Marketing Influencers

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When you think of influencers, medical supplies isn’t typically the first industry that comes to mind. But picking the right influencers to enhance your healthcare marketing strategy might just be the smartest thing you do this year. 

Just put yourself in the mind of your buyers and decision-makers. For starters, they’re busy.

A recent survey found that 76% of B2B medical supply buyers rate ease of finding information as their top priority. 

Meanwhile, 50% of all medical supply buyers are Millennials and 57% of all buying teams have already made a purchase decision before they ever reach out to your sales team.

The point is, you need a strategy to get your content and info in front of your buyers’ faces before they even think to ask for it. That’s why influencers in healthcare marketing are so critical today. 

Picking the right ones, however, is another battle. Here’s how to narrow your search.

How to Nail Down the Best Healthcare Marketing Influencers for Your Niche

Think long term as you pick influencers for healthcare marketing. Remember, they’ll be uniquely representing your company and products. 

You’ll have better ROI and avoid costly faux pas if you spend time researching and strategizing now.

1. Bigger Isn’t Always Better with Influencers in Healthcare Marketing

The follower count means nothing if the influencer isn’t relevant enough to your niche. 

For example, people like the Kardashians are considered mega-influencers but you’d never want them promoting your content to their millions of followers because it wouldn’t deliver results. 

It can backfire too – like when Kim Kardashian promoted a morning sickness medication on Instagram without following pharmaceutical disclosure regulations. 

Even within healthcare, massive influencers tend to have broader audiences and a huge chunk might be consumers. 

Pay little attention to the follower count. Instead, start with a healthcare influencer’s engagement like comments, shares, and clicks. 

2. Analyze the Audience of Potential Influencers in Healthcare Marketing

Engagement must come first. All your target accounts and audience segments might follow someone, but if they aren’t engaging with the influencer’s page then what’s the point?

That’s why your next step is to analyze their audience insights. 

Tools like BuzzSumo can help you work backward. By setting up social listening alerts for keywords and topics, you can see who shares what and whether their audience engages with them. 

Agencies can also help you hedge your bets across internal influencers at offices and hospitals with strategic magazines and journals.

3. Vet Each Healthcare Influencer’s Healthcare Experience

The point of partnering with influencers in healthcare marketing is to build trust in your medical supplies and products.  

Influencers don’t work for your company. They do, however, still represent your company and products. You can’t remove the risk completely, but you can mitigate it with background research.

Ask yourself, would your end-users and buyers trust this person? Experience in their field is key.

Vet their work history and education on LinkedIn just as you would when hiring someone for a job. You might be surprised how easy it is to falsify work history at massive companies. 

4. Consider the Influencer’s Experience Working with Brands Too

Kim K had plenty of experience working with brands but no experience working in pharmaceuticals. 

Don’t laugh. You could run into the opposite problem with healthcare influencers: plenty of medical experience but none in modern marketing.

For example, overly promotional content from influencers doesn’t build trust or deliver results.

Experienced influencers in healthcare marketing understand the subtleties of sparking interest in your product without looking tacky or desperate. 

5. Look at Audience Personas to Build a Comprehensive Influencer Strategy

Ideally, you should already have detailed audience personas mapped out:

  • Doctors
  • Nurses
  • Medical assistants
  • Other professional end-users
  • Medical students
  • Patients 

Remember to include each professional persona’s firmographics, like their hospital size, job role, market share, pain points, and specialties. For patients, include basic demographics along with other qualities as they relate to your product, like health conditions, insurance provider, health concerns, and pain points.

Use these detailed personas to target each one via the right influencers in healthcare marketing.

Building an influencer strategy through these personas ensures your content will reach all the most important touchpoints.

6. Study How Each Influencer Writes and Interacts with Their Followers

Successful influencers need charisma to keep their followers engaged. It gets complicated because different audiences want different personalities from influencers.

Analyze the tone of an influencer’s posts – are their followers receptive? 

What do their followers say in the comments and how does the influencer respond? 

Carefully considering the influencer’s tone and comments first tells you if they’re committed to keeping their audience engaged. Second, it also helps you decide if they fit your brand’s values and culture.

7. Make Sure Your Goals Align with Your Potential Healthcare Influencers

Look at your healthcare influencer shortlist. 

Have any of them effectively retired from medicine to work as professional influencers? 

Do they seem committed to integrity and sharing their knowledge, or are they only interested in the cash-advertisement exchange?

You could certainly ask your influencers in healthcare marketing these questions during an interview call. However, you can also glean plenty of insight just by analyzing their online presence and background too.

Don’t Force Influencers into Your Healthcare Marketing Strategy

Landing relationships with healthcare influencers who have large followings might sound tempting but massive reach alone won’t build you a sustainable strategy. 

You’ll enjoy the best results for your medical supply manufacturing or distributing company if you take time researching the potential influencers in healthcare marketing and picking the right fit. 

Your prospective buyers and your company’s reputation should always come first. After you’ve built a shortlist with those factors considered, you can finetune potential influencers based on your goals and content. 

Just remember, the influencer’s audience analytics demand just as much vetting as the influencer’s background. 

Share Moving Media has helped countless manufacturers and distributors reach thousands of the right decision-makers through targeted publications like Repertoire, The Journal of Healthcare Manufacturing, and Efficiency in Group Practice. Contact us now to talk!

3 Critical Metrics You Must Measure for Long-Term Brand Loyalty

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Customer loyalty is one element of success for any business. Once you’ve won a client’s trust, they will return to you repeatedly without new sales and marketing efforts on your part. If they love your product or service, they may even recommend it to others, serving as a free brand ambassador for your business. Brand loyalty in healthcare manufacturing is especially critical due to the competitive nature of the industry.

The healthcare marketplace is challenging. You’ve undoubtedly experienced the struggle at some point – having difficulty getting new leads or, even worse, thinking you’ve locked in a new lead, only to have it snatched away by a competitor.

In this business, long-term brand loyalty is worth working for.

But how can you know if you’re succeeding in maintaining that high level of trust that will keep a customer by your side for months, years, or even decades?

You can use a few metrics to check if your brand is resonating with consumers and winning them over.

Understanding the Value of Brand Loyalty

We aren’t alone in our emphasis on the importance of brand loyalty. In the year ahead, retention marketing is expected to be one of the biggest marketing trends. Instead of exclusively trying to attract new customers, professional marketers are refocusing on keeping existing customers happy.

Why the shift?

It’s a simple numbers game: With effective retention efforts, you can enjoy steady sales without paying big bucks for lead generation. This allows for a lower cost-per-sale investment overall.

Ideas for Boosting Brand Loyalty in Healthcare Manufacturing

There are a few ways you can nurture brand loyalty in healthcare manufacturing.

You can try personalized cross-selling and up-selling, for example. Check your database of existing clients. What products are they ordering, and what products could they benefit from? Giving customized recommendations for useful items your customers can actually use shows you’re paying attention to their needs.

Think of it like the “Customers Also Bought” function on retail e-commerce websites like Amazon. If you buy a flashlight, do you also need to buy batteries? If you buy leather boots, do you need a leather protectant spray? Those little suggestions are surprisingly useful sometimes.

Another tactic is to boost brand engagement with useful content. For healthcare manufacturers, this could come in the form of information-packed blogs, webinars, or social media content that’s relevant to your target audience.

Notice, we said information-packed – not promotional! Say you sell cardiac stents, for example. Instead of writing a blog that pushes your product, write a blog about the latest stent research or live-tweet an event, like the World Congress on Cardiac Surgery and Medical Devices.

Why do these techniques work?

They show that you care about your consumer and your consumer’s wants and needs.

According to Harvard Business Review, successful modern brands don’t focus on buyers but on users. That means instead of aggressively pushing products – consumers are too savvy for that now – they aim to make the consumer’s life easier. Isn’t that what we all want?

3 Metrics for Measuring Brand Loyalty

So, now you’ve got some idea of how to harness brand loyalty in healthcare manufacturing. But how can you be sure your efforts are working? 

Let these three metrics be your guide.

1. Content Engagement

We talked about using content to engage with customers and nurture their loyalty above. To see if your content strategy is working, you have to check your engagement levels. The precise metric will vary depending on the content format.

For social media, engagement can be measured using figures like clicks, likes, and shares.

Also, don’t forget the comments! A Facebook post with 500 likes but zero comments is arguably less valuable than a post with 300 likes but 100 comments.

Why? Comments show a more active interest. They require more than the click of a button. Comments can spark debates and discussions, allowing your brand to reply directly to consumers. This creates a more personalized engagement situation.

For podcasts, engagement might be measured by the number of listens, downloads, and likes. For webinars, it’s all about how many people tuned in. Email, however, is about the number of opens and clicks your content gets. Metrics need to be tailored to the given format.

2. Repurchasing Figures

Your customers can tell you whether they’re loyal to your brand or not – and they can do it without saying a word. Periodically revisit your sales data and check client behavior over set periods (e.g., monthly, quarterly, annually).

Specifically, look for repurchasing levels. This allows you to calculate the overall retention rate (proportion of returning customers versus new customers).

Analyzing repurchasing metrics may also allow you to regenerate leads. For example, if a customer who was a regular has suddenly dropped off, follow up. Did something happen that turned them off? Targeting issues will ultimately allow you to improve brand loyalty in healthcare manufacturing.

Also, keep an eye out for multiple product purchases. This is a great sign. It often means a customer was happy enough about their product purchase – and their experience with you as a provider – and thus expanded their order.

Conversely, follow up on orders that have decreased.

3. Reported Customer Satisfaction

Last but not least, if you want the harsh truths as to how engaged and loyal your customers are, go to the source: ask them directly.

Inviting your customers to provide feedback shows them you care about their opinion. It also gives them the chance to tell you where they’d like to see improvement – and gives you the opportunity to make changes accordingly.

Survey tools like SurveyMonkey are a great way to solicit feedback.

Keep your survey questions pointed and specific. Don’t just ask, “Are you happy with your experience?” Ask about their satisfaction with particular parts of the customer process, like placing an order, paying, or follow-up customer care.

Get Support for Your Brand Messaging in Healthcare

Share Moving Media is a full-service media company that supports healthcare suppliers in building trust among their consumers and increasing their market share.

We help our clients leverage top-quality content to boost brand loyalty in healthcare manufacturing. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, The Marketing Minute, for more best practices.

Want help with your healthcare marketing? Contact us.

Online Reputation Management in Healthcare: What It is and Why Your Company Needs It

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It’s no secret the internet has changed the way companies do business. In 2019, 1.92 billion people shopped online. 

While ecommerce has put many bricks and mortar retail stores out of business, it’s been a great help to the healthcare industry. The internet and ecommerce have reduced the strain on healthcare practitioners as non-emergency patients can seek solutions online. Additionally, selling and distributing healthcare products to suppliers and medical institutions have never been easier. 

For online sales, a company’s true success lies in its online reputation management (ORM). To generate leads and boost revenue, healthcare companies need to understand ORM in healthcare and apply it to their digital marketing strategy.

What is ORM?

When prospective customers search your company on the internet, your online reputation is the perception they gain about you from the information they find. ORM is a combination of strategic SEO, public relations, and marketing tactics to protect your company’s online image while promoting your business and services. 

Several factors impact your online reputation. Whether you realize it or not, people are talking about your company online. From social media mentions and public review comments to the content you post online, the amount of positive and negative visibility your business maintains determines your online reputation.  

Cycles of ORM in Healthcare 

People rely heavily on the information they find on the internet. 90% of online consumers depend on reviews for their purchase decisions. Your company’s online reputation is primarily under the control of your digital audience, since it’s their feedback and input that others will see when researching your company. 

ORM can follow one of two cycles:

  • Vicious: Your website has outdated content or consumers leave poor reviews about your company. Prospective customers find this through search engines and click on it. That information is promoted, and social media perpetuates the negative feedback. Follow-up commentary or online gossip further spreads the information, and the cycle continues, damaging your online reputation.
  • Virtuous cycle: Current, meaningful website content earns you high search engine rankings. Prospects click on your website for meaningful information. Search engines see you as a valuable resource and continue to promote your website. Social media magnifies engaging content, and positive reviews create more traffic to continue the cycle. Business soars.

Through these cycles, it’s easy to see the impact of your company’s online content, and how important it is to manage your business’s online reputation.

Why Your Healthcare Company Needs ORM

ORM is important for healthcare companies. People purchasing for the healthcare supply chain need to know they can depend on the products they buy from your company. That means they need to feel they can trust you. 

ORM enables companies to do this in several ways.

Online Reputation Has a Long Shelf Life

If someone leaves a negative review about your company, it can have a lasting impact on your business. This is especially true in the healthcare industry. Healthcare is an extremely lucrative market riddled with competition. To stand out from other manufacturers, brand management is essential. ORM can help solidify your position as a dependable company providing reliable products.

Mitigate False Information

Healthcare is a social hot topic, so people are highly sensitive to misinformation. If a product doesn’t do what it claims or has unreported negative effects, the results can be detrimental to the end user. ORM ensures you’re posting the most current, accurate information possible. 

As a manufacturer, customers look to you to be an expert in your industry. They need to trust that you’re providing safe, effective products that they can verify to their clients. This is to protect their reputation, and they surely won’t do business with a company that could jeopardize it.

ORM Empowers You to Impact Your Online Reputation

With ORM, you’ll realize you have some power over how people view your business online. After all, the most effective ORM in healthcare is prevention. Be proactive in maintaining your online reputation to ensure your business is held in high regard among current and prospective customers.

The healthcare industry is ever-changing. ORM provides the opportunity to make sure your website content reflects recent healthcare trends. It drives you to check that your product listings include useful descriptions, accurate imagery, and current pricing. 

ORM also inspires you to assess your website links, ensuring they lead to existing articles and resources. It challenges you to think about load time and the function of your checkout process. ORM also entices you to optimize your website for mobile users, since 82% of online shoppers purchase from their mobile device.

Ultimately, ORM helps you to provide an enjoyable user experience. Enhanced UX, in turn, yields positive feedback, thus boosting your online reputation.

Entrust Your ORM in Healthcare to Share Moving Media

To solidify your online reputation in the healthcare industry, use ORM to maintain current and reliable information on your website and monitor online mentions and comments about your business. ORM takes time and effort. Contact Share Moving Media today for help developing an ORM strategy for your healthcare company.