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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. Say your company is a leader in the hearing aid sector, for instance. Get active on social media on World Hearing Day (March 3) using the relevant hashtag.

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!

How COVID-19 Has Turned Healthcare Sales Practices on Their Head

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The healthcare industry is in the global spotlight due to COVID-19. Analysts expect the healthcare market to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8.6% from 2020 to 2027, reaching $520.6 million. For those in healthcare sales, business is set to boom.

However, COVID-19 has wholly upended the healthcare sales cycle. Face-to-face interactions have decreased. Conferences and other large-scale industry events have been canceled. As medical providers and facilities come under financial strain dealing with a widespread pandemic, buyers are reassessing how to best invest their money.

It’s a moment of massive upheaval. You can either adapt and leverage the current changes to your advantage — or stay stagnant and let the sales opportunities pass you by.

This blog examines changes in healthcare sales in COVID times and provides practical pointers on how to increase your market shares in the evolving landscape.

How are Healthcare Sales Changing in COVID Times?

The sales sector has changed in every area. A survey of B2B sales businesses spanning 11 countries identified trends in three key areas:

  • Change in spending: In general, companies are decreasing expenditures. However, specific sectors, including healthcare, are seeing a rise in spending.
  • Emphasis on digital: Across the board, B2B companies anticipate more digital interactions. Traditional sales interactions, like face-to-face meetings and mingling at conferences, are expected to decrease in importance.
  • Increased remote work: As of April 2020, nearly 90 percent of sales had moved to video conferencing, phone, or website models. Compared to previous skepticism, confidence in such models has increased.

These trends become even more pronounced in the medical field. For instance, physicians report that patients are increasingly embracing telemedicine over in-person appointments due to fear of COVID-19 infection.

As a result, healthcare organizations may consider redistributing budgets to invest in improved video conferencing capabilities. Healthcare practitioners will be required to become more tech-savvy in this field. As a sales professional, it’s essential to understand such changes in supply and demand in healthcare.

4 Tips for Effective Healthcare Sales in COVID Times

Understanding the changes in the sales industry is only half the battle. You have to take this knowledge and adapt accordingly. Here’s how.

1. Identify Your Audience’s New Burdens

Whether you sell ultrasound diagnostics equipment to integrated delivery networks (IDNs) or patient data management software to group purchasing networks, your target audience has undoubtedly experienced changes since COVID-19 began.

Educate yourself on the new burdens your target audience faces. For instance, healthcare practitioners have had to change treatment protocols, while organizations grapple with supply chain disruptions. Surveys are a great way to identify barriers — and then determine how you can help address them.

Knowledge of your audience’s needs also allows you to adapt your sales pitch and messages accordingly.

2. Master Virtual Communication Tools

When touching base with existing clients or having a first-time meeting with a new client, odds are the exchange will be virtual. Be prepared to adapt to your customer’s needs. Acquaint yourself with the most popular virtual communication platforms, including Zoom, WebEx, and Google Hangouts.

This way, you can always quickly adapt to your client’s preferences. With COVID-19 draining healthcare resources — including time — you don’t want to demand more of your clients by asking them to download or learn new video conferencing technology.

3. Take Advantage of Digital Events

Conferences used to be a prime spot for building relationships in the healthcare sales space. While some events are continuing with new COVID-19 safety measures, others are moving online (an excellent opportunity for digital advertising in healthcare). Do your research on what events are ongoing.

There is also a new opportunity in the digital space. You don’t have to attend enormous conferences. Hosting a webinar or a virtual round table discussion on a niche topic in your field is a great way to reach your target audience and establish yourself as an authoritative knowledge source.

4. Monitor Your Success and Be Prepared to Pivot

If COVID-19 has taught us anything, it’s the importance of adapting. Major companies have gone from housing employees in offices to having them work from home. Fitness buffs have taken their workouts from the gym to the living room. Schoolteachers have found ways to engage kids via remote learning.

If you want to succeed in healthcare sales in COVID times, you need to be ready to make changes. To enact positive changes, you need information on what works and what doesn’t. You get this by gathering granular data about your methodology.

For example, if you host a webinar, how many people tune in? How many are existing clients versus new leads? How many of them convert to sales when you follow up with those leads via one-on-one video conferences? With such meta-analysis, you can adapt your sales strategies and improve outcomes.

Get Help Enhancing Your Sales in COVID Times

Share Moving Media can help you find new ways to succeed in healthcare sales in COVID times. We help our clients increase their market share through our full-service media offering, including targeted publications, educational services, events, and more. Sign up for our newsletter for the latest healthcare sales and marketing news. Want help revamping your healthcare sales processes? Contact us today!

Manufacturer’s Quandary, Buyer’s Puzzle: Do Buyers Believe Brands?

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Buyers buy brands.

Look for the top marketing tips for any industry and you will find advice on the importance of building a strong, recognizable brand. A 2017 study in the UK found that 71% of consumers consider the brand when making a purchase decision.

But what happens when buyers no longer trust brands?

When it comes to healthcare branding, this trust is especially important because buyers are often committing their health and wellbeing into your hands when they choose your products and services.

An annual brand trust survey conducted in 2019 states that trust in brands is waning. In fact, 41% of respondents said that they do not trust brands to be truthful and accurate, and that 1 in 3 people did not even trust all of the brands they bought from.

Knowing this, your challenge is to figure out how to build the kind of trust that many brands have failed to instill in buyers.

The Importance of Maintaining Trust in Healthcare Branding

Branding, whether in healthcare or any other industry, is about creating trust and familiarity with consumers. If a brand is done well – as in the case of Uber, Airbnb, or even Kleenex – it has the potential to become synonymous with certain services, lifestyles, or products. Think about this: How many people use “rideshare” or “facial tissue” in day-to-day conversations?

Building trust with consumers could make you a household name. But building trust is not a quick or easy process. 

Reasons that buyers trust brands include:

  • Quality products and services
  • Good reviews from customers
  • Fair prices
  • Positive interactions with customers
  • Acknowledgment and action concerning problems or complaints
  • Exceptional workplace culture and treatment of employees

Maintaining all of those things is crucial, but in a world of transparency and openness in brand marketing, any wrong step could set you back.

Take the example of Ellen DeGeneres. She built an entire brand around her name – a brand that was all about joy, positivity, and kindness towards others. When workplace harassment complaints came out, she lost trust with her consumers because they saw that the values that she promoted were not being upheld within her own work environment.

Regaining broken trust is even harder than building it. 45% of consumers say they would never be able to trust a brand again after a scandal like that. 

A buyer’s belief in your brand is hard to come by, but surprisingly easy to lose. 

How Buyers Form Beliefs About Healthcare Brands

Since buyers often do not trust branding itself to be truthful, they will spend a lot of time doing their own research and formulating their own opinions before engaging with a healthcare brand.

Although this is not always the case, B2B buyers have been known to get as far as 90% of the way through their decision-making process before speaking directly with a sales rep. With the increasing availability of resources and reviews for products and services online, buyers feel less and less the need to go to the brands themselves to get relevant information.

Rather than trusting the brand to give them helpful and honest facts, buyers look to these sources instead:

1. Customer Reviews and Shared Experiences 

Buyers do not want to trust marketing gimmicks to tell them which products and services are going to be worth their while. Most prefer the alternative of first-hand customer experience. More than 90% of customers online rely on reviews, and many people place an equal value on personal recommendations that come from people they know and trust.

2. Industry-Related Publications

The appeal to authority is a strong factor in decision making (this is why doctors and lawyers are never chosen to serve on juries). However, when those authorities are peers and experts in the field of healthcare, their opinions and feedback on a brand’s products or services can be extremely useful in choosing the best purchase to make.

3. Influencers 

Although the use of influencers is a relatively new marketing approach, 63% of consumers would trust an influencer’s opinion of a product over the brand’s statements. This is in spite of the fact that influencers get paid to promote products. The most trusted influencers, however, are the ones who build platforms on relatability and not celebrity. Buyers see them as peers, as people who are just like them and therefore can offer them a valuable and honest opinion.

How to Make Your Healthcare Branding Relevant and Trustworthy

In all of these things, the common thread seems to be a human voice that is relatable and that offers genuine, relevant insights.

If you want to build buyer trust for your healthcare brand, then you need to engage with customers earlier in the decision-making process through relevant and valuable content.

That could look like product reviews on your webpages or partnerships with social media influencers. It also means providing the kind of content that your customers are looking for in the earlier stages of their search. If you can give them relevant and valuable information on solutions to meet their present need, then you will have a greater chance of getting them to engage with your brand sooner.

Ready to create some relevant content that will help buyers to believe your brand? Contact us to find out how. 

How GPOs Can Help Failing Hospitals by Optimizing Cash Flow

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Group purchasing organizations, or GPOs, have become the champions of healthcare providers when it comes to purchasing supplies and optimizing cash flow.

GPOs are formed by groups of individual hospitals, sometimes under the same ownership or located in the same geographic area, working together to obtain the products and services they need. There are over 600 GPOs in the United States, representing almost all of the hospitals, clinics, and healthcare providers in the nation.

These GPOs serve as negotiators – a contracting agent between suppliers and healthcare providers – working to find the best deals for their members. In this way, GPOs save time and optimize cash flow for for hospitals.

4 Ways GPOs Can Save Hospital Cash Flow

According to studies, GPOs reduce the cost of supplies for hospitals by 10-18%. These tremendous savings are achieved by the collective power of the hospitals and other healthcare providers coming together to negotiate contracts with suppliers.

Group purchasing organizations save individual hospitals from having to go through numerous conversations and negotiations to get what they want. Instead, they source out the best deals on behalf of their members (hospitals and healthcare providers).

Independently, a hospital’s supply chain leader will spend a lot of time and money sourcing out and purchasing the equipment needed to keep the hospital running and the patients properly cared for. The variety of supplies required would result in numerous small purchases and deliveries from a variety of vendors and manufacturers. These costs add up quite quickly and hinder the hospital from investing money into other areas of their operation.

Here are four ways that joining a GPO would optimize that same hospital’s cash flow:

1. Bargaining Power

By handling cases in bulk, GPOs give hospitals more bargaining power because they can negotiate deals for larger purchases. Operating on behalf of an entire group of hospitals and healthcare providers, GPOs offer suppliers much larger contracts than any individual organization could. The industry competition created by these big contracts also gives the GPOs a better chance of getting a good deal from suppliers looking to undercut the opposition. This is a particular benefit for small hospitals that can join forces with the “giants” of the industry, like national GPOs or larger hospitals.

2. Flexible Options

Almost all of the hospitals across the United States are members of at least one GPO and use those services to secure supply contracts. However, many still purchase more than ¼ of their supplies outside of GPOs. While group purchasing organizations can generally get hospitals better prices for supplies than they can find on their own, that is not always the case. Hospitals are not required to stick solely to the suppliers that were sourced out by their GPO, allowing them to find the best options to meet their individual needs.

3. Better Access

Thanks to the bargaining power of GPOs, hospitals have better access to innovative and specialized equipment. Some group purchasing organizations have policies in place to identify new technologies and products, and to get them into the hands of healthcare providers as soon as possible. Being member owned, GPOs also have a strong incentive to get their people the best tools and technologies available.

4. Improved Service

GPOs help hospitals get access to the unique supplies that they need to be able to operate effectively and efficiently. By saving hospitals money, ensuring that they have the supplies they need, and securing them access to innovative products and technologies, GPOs allow their members to provide better service and potentially lower costs. This in turn improves the patient/customer experience, and making sure that patients are satisfied with their care is what matters most.

GPOs: The Helpers to Hospitals Everywhere

Using the power of synergy, GPOs have become trusted partners, helping to save hospitals by optimizing cash flow. Thanks to group purchasing organizations, hospitals are no longer left to fend for themselves, devoting extensive resources to acquiring the products and services that they need to keep operating. GPOs give hospitals greater bargaining power, offer them more options and better access to get the equipment that they need, and allow them to provide the best possible care.

GPOs do not deserve all of the glory, though. The distributors and manufacturers also play a part in saving hospitals money and getting them the life-saving equipment that they need by teaming up with the GPO to find a deal that works for everyone.

A Manufacturer’s Part in the GPO Cash Flow Rescue Mission

Healthcare manufacturers are in the unique position of contending for the chance to work with GPOs to most effectively meet the needs of their members. 

The competition is not small. Getting the chance to play a role in a GPO cash flow rescue mission requires more than a willingness to negotiate. It calls for a deep understanding of these GPOs – who they are, what they stand for, and what they need. It demands a trustworthy brand.

Do you want to know how to build a trustworthy brand as a manufacturer? Subscribe to SMM’s Marketing Minute for all the latest healthcare marketing advice.

Content Marketing 101 for Healthcare Distributors

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Healthcare distributors are an integral part of the U.S. healthcare ecosystem, helping deliver medicines and devices to the market. Distributors create efficiency, providing some $33 to $53 billion in savings every year.

As a medical supplier, you are tasked with bringing the latest innovations to patients. An effective healthcare marketing strategy allows you to reach the decision-makers in the medical equipment sales funnel who bridge the gap between you and the end-user.

Whether you’re targeting private physician practices or large-scale integrated delivery networks (IDNs), content marketing can help you engage your audience, allowing you to ultimately ramp up sales.

This guide introduces the basics of content marketing for healthcare distributors and gives you five concrete ideas for implementation.

Why Use Content Marketing?

Content marketing encompasses various media, from blogs to websites, videos, infographics, and more. This diversity allows for fantastic flexibility. You can tailor marketing campaigns to different people and purposes, depending on your target audience.

Additionally, content marketing is cost-effective. You can repurpose critical messages from a blog for a YouTube video – or use stats from an infographic in a thought leader article in a magazine. A small investment will take you far, thanks to the content’s adaptability.

Recognizing such advantages, companies are increasingly relying on content marketing to increase revenue and market share. Most content marketers focus on lead generation (85%) and sales (84%).

5 Ways to Implement Content Marketing

Content isn’t just meaningless filler. It will generate revenue – if you know how to use it. Here are some tips for effective content marketing for healthcare distributors.

1. Incorporate Visuals

Technological advances have made modern societies more visually oriented. The age-old moniker that “a picture is worth a thousand words” has never rung truer. Large chunks of text alone don’t catch the eye.

Always include visuals with your content. Even a blog post or magazine article can be broken up with appealing photos or infographics.

2. Hijack the News

The media machine is 24/7. Tap into its power. Use current events to bring consumers back to your product. You can even piggyback off annual events like the Super Bowl or the holiday season to create seasonal marketing campaigns.

News about an upwards trend in heart attacks is a platform to talk about cardiovascular stents. Statistics about an increase in depression due to isolation during COVID-19 can serve to discuss mental health products.

3. Give Something Away for Free

Free content can serve as the first step in grabbing your target audience’s attention. It gives consumers a low-risk way to get to know your company or product. Do it right, and you can convert a curious content-consumer into a buyer.

How? There’s a lot of bad content out there. Make sure yours adds value. Create a well-researched white paper or e-book covering the latest updates in your niche. Whether you distribute ultrasound equipment or hearing aids, you are an expert in your field. Share your knowledge.

4. Embrace Storytelling

People get tired of numbers and statistics. Drowning your target audience in quantitative information can also come across as aggressively sales-like – a turnoff for many consumers. Storytelling is a content marketing technique focused on building trust and loyalty by fostering a more personal connection.

Use stories to back up hard facts. Get patient or physician testimonials attesting to your product’s value. Providing such examples allows potential buyers to connect with your work on a personal level. 

5. Try Interactive Media

Interactive content like clickable infographics or quizzes intrinsically demands engagement. This is an effective way to get people to stay with your content instead of just skimming past it. Some types of interactive content, like surveys, can even be used to collect more information about your target audience, allowing you to better serve their needs.

The Secret to Success: The “S” Word

Creating great content is only half the battle. A strategy is the secret to success. Content marketing in healthcare must be targeted, planned, and measured. Audience targeting allows you to increase return on investment by ensuring you put your marketing money into channels that resonate with buyers.

Planning allows you to get ahead of the market. As a healthcare distributor, you’re at the forefront of innovation. When a new medical technology or diagnostics device is set to hit the market, you’re among the first to know. Creating a content plan before the actual launch gives you the tools you need to promote the product the second it drops.

Measurement is the final piece of any effective healthcare marketing strategy. How many views did that YouTube video get? What was the click-through rate of that Google ad? How many new email subscribers did the call to action in your thought-leader article generate? Such a metrics-based analysis allows you to tweak your content marketing for more positive outcomes.

Learn More About Content Marketing for Healthcare Distributors

Share Moving Media can help you increase healthcare sales with comprehensive content marketing. A full-service media company, we create many types of content, including webinars, blog posts, e-books, graphics, and more. We work with best in class distributors to deliver market share through a variety of services across multiple channels using content marketing in print, video, webinars, education modules, and live events. With this diverse array of healthcare marketing tools, we help your brand grow. 

Sign up for our newsletter to learn more about how Share Moving Media can help you plan and create quality content in context. Ready to start creating your content strategy? Contact us today!