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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!

Can Content Marketing Help You Squeeze ROI Out of Your R&D Process?

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Research and development, R&D, is the key to advancement in the healthcare industry. From pharmaceutical companies to med-tech suppliers, healthcare companies must continuously innovate to find new treatments to improve the patient experience. And all that innovation? It costs.

Getting a return on R&D investment is more challenging than ever. R&D leaders face numerous challenges, such as the increased complexity of global regulatory requirements. Unfortunately, this has led to dwindling investment, particularly in the med-tech field.

Companies that want to increase their market share shouldn’t be cutting back on R&D investment. They should be focusing on securing a greater return on investment (ROI). Content marketing is one avenue to do this.

This guide explains how content marketing assists R&D in healthcare and provides five golden rules for using content marketing to squeeze more ROI out of your innovation.

What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing uses relevant content to attract a clearly defined target consumer audience with the ultimate aim of driving profitable consumer action. The term “content” encompasses digital media, like websites, blogs, infographics, and traditional media, like healthcare conference speeches and print magazine articles. Content marketing gives you a huge toolbox of ways to reach consumers.

How to Create Content Marketing That Assists R&D in Healthcare

The med-tech industry is expected to grow at a rate of 5.6% annually in the years to come, reaching $595 billion by 2024. Now is not the time to cut back on R&D investment. It’s time to harness content marketing to increase your ROI.

Here’s how to use content marketing to reach your target audience, boost consumer engagement, and ultimately increase ROI.

1. Create Content with Value

To create content that converts into sales, you need to know who you’re selling to. Healthcare buying behaviors have changed. Physicians themselves are less influential as many now work for hospitals, group practices, or medical centers, instead of independently.

These larger organizations are the economic buyers, mainly focused on cutting costs – especially in cutting-edge segments like implantable heart defibrillators and knee implants. As a healthcare supplier, it’s up to you to understand such decision-makers’ hurdles (like tumbling product costs coupled with increased regulatory burden).

Create buyer personas to get in the mind of your target audience. You can then craft content that speaks to the points they care about. This allows you to ensure that your content adds value – the secret to success in any marketing endeavor.

2. Diversify Content Platforms

One of content marketing’s most valuable traits is its versatility. Content can consist of blogs, webpages, thought-leader articles, infographics, e-books, print books, white papers, videos, podcasts, and more. The list goes on.

Content marketing can be easily adapted to diverse purposes and target audiences. It can also be integrated with other marketing techniques. For example, you can use social media to drive consumers to a webpage or blog.

3. Create a Content Calendar

Content marketing isn’t made to be stagnant. Update your marketing materials regularly. For example, if a new iteration of an ultrasound machine you are selling is coming out, plan a publishing strategy for your blog to highlight this development.

A content calendar is an excellent way to track all of your content marketing efforts. Advanced planning allows you to roll out campaigns highlighting new R&D developments and whet the consumers’ appetites. If you know your company has a cutting-edge product that will enter the market in 2021, you should start planning content to flag this innovation in 2020.

4. Repurpose Content for Maximum Efficiency

Just because you plan, it doesn’t mean that your content marketing plan is set in stone. Again, content marketing is versatile. Finding ways to repurpose content across diverse platforms reduces costs while improving reach. For instance, a series of blogs can be adapted to a white paper or even an ebook, while talking points from a conference presentation can be used for a blog.

5. Analyze and Optimize Content’s Impact

Rely on healthcare marketing tools to create, track, and analyze content. Defining key performance indicators (KPIs) in advance will help you measure success and pivot as needed. For instance, if you publish a thought-leader article in a healthcare online magazine, you should be able to get feedback on how many clicks this drove to your website – and how many of those visitors became buyers.

Optimizing content doesn’t have to be complicated. Sometimes it’s as simple as changing the wording of a headline or swapping out images. Even the format of a concluding call-to-action (CTA) can influence whether a consumer decides to click or not. Timing is also a factor: Sending out an email newsletter at 2:00 a.m. when your target audience is sleeping isn’t a great idea.

Learn More About Content Marketing for Healthcare

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. With this diverse array of healthcare marketing tools, we help your brand grow.

Subscribe to our newsletter and discover more ways to ensure your content marketing assists R&D in healthcare. Want personalized content strategy guidance? Contact us to get started.

How to Use Video Marketing to Boost Healthcare Sales

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Digital marketing provides marketing teams with endless options to boost healthcare sales, especially given the fact that more patients are heading online to search for answers to various health-related needs. Approximately 70,000 health-related Google searches happen every minute! So, with so much competition online, how can you stand apart from the crowd? One excellent method is to start utilizing video marketing for healthcare sales. 

Video Marketing: What You Need to Know

Recent studies state that 92% of marketers believe that video is an important aspect of their overall marketing strategy. 

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Source: Wyzowl

Video has a profound effect on consumers. This is because people process videos and other visuals at a much faster rate than they do text. The human brain processes visuals (videos, infographics, images, etc.) approximately 60,000 times faster than text and grabs the attention of viewers five times faster than still images do.

Visual content is not only easier to process, consumers continuously state that they prefer videos instead of still images because it delivers to them the information that they need much quicker than it does via text and infographics. 

Since it can have such an impact on your audience, video marketing is well worth the time and monetary investment. So, how do you implement video marketing into your current strategy? By getting to know the basics first. 

What is Video Marketing?

Video marketing is just what it sounds like – creating video content to help share information with your targeted audience. Video content comes in almost as many forms (if not more) than traditional written content. Some of the most popular videos used in marketing include:

  • How-to/Educational Videos
  • Video Ads
  • Explainer Videos
  • Product Videos
  • Testimonial Videos

Videos can be animated, they can be traditionally filmed, and they can even be live broadcasted on social media and shared over and over again, making it an excellent source of evergreen content for your brand. 

Current Video Marketing Statistics Worth Knowing

While it’s true that traditional content can be simpler to put together than video content, it’s definitely worth the time and investment. Need further proof? The numbers don’t lie:

  • 85% of internet users in the U.S. watch video content monthly across multiple devices.
  • 57% of marketers say they now use live video in their marketing strategy. 
  • 41% of B2B marketers are curious about adding video marketing to their sales strategies in 2020.
  • 48% of consumers want to watch videos that reflect what they are interested in – whether it be educational, entertainment, or on products. 
  • Both global online video viewing and ad spend on videos are predicted to increase in 2021
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Source: MarketingCharts

How to Use Video Marketing in Healthcare Sales

Now, when it comes to using video marketing in healthcare sales strategies, there are countless directions your team can take. Whether you are looking to bring in new patients to a given office/hospital location or are trying to sell various treatment options to patients, video marketing can play a significant role in encouraging them to take action. 

Not quite sure how video marketing can help in your healthcare sales strategy? Here are a few examples to help give you some ideas to play around with.

Physician Profile Videos

If you’re a healthcare organization looking to bring in new patients, one of the best video marketing methods to incorporate into your digital marketing strategy is to include physician profile videos. These videos introduce each doctor and give patients an idea of who they may or may not be working with. 

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Source: Edward-Elmhurst Health

Welcome Videos 

Having doctor profiles are an excellent way for new potential patients to get to know your staff. In that same light, including welcome videos on your website is an excellent way to introduce your organization, your mission and share your values with those who are trying to decide if your organization is the right fit for their needs. 

Video Testimonials

Research shows that 90% of patients use online reviews and testimonials to evaluate doctors and care facilities. So, what better way to improve your online reputation than by sharing patient testimonials? 

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Source: Loyola Medicine

Reading about a pediatric cancer survivor’s journey is powerful in itself. However, watching a video of the patient and/or their family sharing their story holds a much higher emotional power over those who are looking into the testimonials of a healthcare organization. 

Educational Videos on Various Procedures and/or Health Conditions

Investing in educational videos to help you explain various health conditions or medical procedures is another excellent way to incorporate video marketing into your healthcare sales strategy. These videos are a great way to not only educate your patients but help ease any of their anxieties revolving around a recent diagnosis or an upcoming procedure. 

Product Information Videos

Finally, product information videos are an excellent tool for those in healthcare manufacturing and distribution. Much like the educational videos for procedures and health conditions, product information videos give consumers an idea of what a product is, what it does, why it’s beneficial, and so much more. 

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Source: AliMed

Amp Up Your Marketing Strategy with Share Moving Media

At Share Moving Media, we are a full-service media company that understands how important your content is to your healthcare marketing strategy. That’s why we help healthcare brands create stunning webinars, blogs, and articles, and we’ll be happy to help you develop your video marketing strategy for your healthcare sales team.

Ready to get started? Then contact us today to learn more!

The Definitive Guide to Building Buyer Personas of IDN Supply Chain Leaders

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The healthcare market is enormous – and it’s only going to get bigger. Global healthcare spending is anticipated to increase at a compound annual growth rate of five percent from 2019 to 2023.

Medical suppliers who want to increase their share in an expanding market should act now. The right marketing campaign is the key to success. What’s the “right” campaign? It depends on your target audience.

Suppose you’re a supplier trying to sell medical masks to private physicians’ offices. In that case, your healthcare marketing techniques will be (should be!) different than if you’re a supplier selling diagnostic ultrasound equipment to integrated delivery networks (IDNs).

Buyer personas are integral to guiding your approach. A buyer persona allows you to define your target audience and better understand their buying behaviors, so you can craft your marketing accordingly.

This guide takes you through a simple three-step process to craft buyer personas for healthcare.

Why Buyer Personas Matter

The purpose of a buyer persona is to understand how your customer thinks and acts. With this information, you can better understand the decision-making process that governs what, when, where, and how they buy.

What a Buyer Persona Is

A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of who is using your product or service. This imaginary profile covers details like demographics (sex, age, race, income, marital status, educational level), purpose (such as career goals), and motivation.

What a Buyer Persona Isn’t

A buyer persona is not a guess. It’s fact-based, created with detailed market research.

3-Step Checklist to Creating Buyer Personas for Healthcare

The healthcare supply market is exceptionally competitive. A well-crafted buyer persona allows you to stand out with concise, impactful messaging that attracts the buyer’s attention – and keeps it throughout the medical equipment sales funnel.

Here’s how to create buyer personas for healthcare.

1. Conduct Quantitative Analysis

Suppose your product isn’t exclusive to a single market segment (for instance, you target both individual physicians and IDNs). In that case, the first step is to break down your broader market into smaller segments.

Create a list of existing clients and group them according to details like location, contract value, and engagement (as evidenced by the frequency of orders, for instance). With this demographic and revenue information, start looking for trends.

For instance, you might find a correlation between location and an uptick in spending – indicating a gap in the market that you can step in to fill. If a competitor had an area sales rep changeover, it’s a prime opportunity.

2. Complete Qualitative Research

One of the biggest mistakes companies make when crafting buyer personas is ignoring psychographics in favor of demographics. This is where qualitative analysis comes into play. To better understand your target segments, both at the individual and organizational levels, get more intimate.

Reach out to trusted clients to arrange a chat. Healthcare professionals are busy, so keep it short. Emphasize that you’re trying to collect feedback to see how you can better serve them. 

During the interview, get a brief description of the business, the individual’s role within the organization, and their main goals and key performance indicators (KPIs). Are they looking to cut costs? Have they been tasked with researching new tech? Is efficiency a factor?

Also, refer to your offering, asking what they use it for and, of course, what improvement they’d like to see in your product or service. Remember, retention is half the battle in healthcare sales.

3. Create and Socialize the Persona

You can now create your semi-fictional buyer persona based on the evidence you’ve collected. Say you sell heart stents, for example. A quantitative analysis reveals that private hospitals in the Midwest are your most significant revenue source. Your qualitative research shows that it’s the heads of cardiology departments who are the relevant decision-makers.

So, make your buyer persona the head of cardiology in a hospital setting. Let’s call her Rachel Harding. Dr. Harding will be further along in her career, at least 40 years of age, and highly educated. She must balance providing the best patient care with budget limitations set by higher-ups. 

As head of her department, Dr. Harding must stay on top of the latest developments. She does this by reading certain healthcare publications, like Wiley’s Clinical Cardiology, and attending essential conferences, like the American Society of Echocardiography Annual Conference. 

Finally, Dr. Harding is busy. She’s overseeing an entire department. Maybe she also has a family at home. Her time is precious. Your healthcare marketing strategy must take this into account.

Now you have an idea of where and how to reach a professional like Dr. Harding best. Thus, the buyer persona makes it easier to sell to your end customer without ever meeting them in person.

Find Out More About Making Buyer Personas Work for You

Share Moving Media helps healthcare suppliers reach diverse buyers through targeted content. Our publications, educational services, and associations cater to distributors, providers, and manufacturers. With our industry knowledge and comprehensive content offering, we help you increase market share.

Sign up for our newsletter for more healthcare marketing tips and tricks. Want to work with us? Then contact us today!