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Four Strategies for Referral Marketing in Healthcare That Will Earn You More High-Value Customers

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As a medical supplier, you rely on doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare facilities to keep your business growing.

One of the best ways to increase exposure and trust in your products is through referral marketing in the healthcare industry. Word of mouth recommendations backed by medical results can be an effective tool in your overall marketing strategy.

We are going to talk about the importance of referral marketing and share four key strategies that you can use to boost referrals in the future.

Quick Takeaways

  • Referrals generate more high-quality leads than other types of marketing.
  • Referrals have some of the highest lead conversion rates.
  • Medical suppliers can use referral marketing along with other types of marketing to meet their business growth goals.
  • Getting to know your customers is a key step in the referral process.

Why Referral Marketing in Healthcare is Important

Marketing in the healthcare industry can be a bit trickier than in other industries. This is mainly due to healthcare regulations, such as HIPPA and the federal anti-kickback statute (AKS). However, as a medical supplier, you still need to develop a marketing referral strategy. Social Media Today has some great statistics to show this:

High Quality Leads 

You are a business-to-business (B2B) company. 78% of B2B marketers say that referrals bring them higher quality leads.

More Leads

In addition to creating better leads, referrals also generate a higher volume of leads, according to 60% of marketers.

Lower Costs

Referral programs are a great asset. Once you have set up a successful program, it should essentially run itself. 54% of marketers in the survey said that referral marketing comes with a lower cost-per-lead compared to other types of marketing.

Popular In the Industry

Referral marketing is a popular choice across many industries, including healthcare. Referral programs work and they can quickly add new customers to your business.

Great Source of Leads

Marketers rate referrals as the second-best source of high quality leads, with trade events coming in first.

Leads Turn into Sales

According to Harvard Business Review, consumers are four times as likely to purchase a product when it is recommended by a friend. In addition, 84% of B2B sales start with a referral.

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Referral Programs Lead to Success

According to Copper Chronicles, companies with referral programs have better sales success.

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When a friend, family member, or colleague recommends a business or product to you, it automatically comes with built-in trust. When a business rewards that referral or recommendation, customers are more likely to share their experiences with others.

Determine Your Marketing Goals

To help make your healthcare referral marketing work better for you, you should follow these steps.

1. Identify Your Goals 

Obviously, your main goal is to increase the number of customers you have. However, you also want to get new, loyal customers who will share their experiences with other healthcare providers.

2. Use Various Methods to Reach Your Goals 

Instead of focusing all of your time and money on one marketing area, consider multiple marketing avenues that could draw in more customers. These may include:

  • Mass mailing campaigns: You could send out mailers to local hospitals and physician’s offices in the area you want to target.
  • Monthly newsletters: Create a monthly e-newsletter that you send out to your customers and anyone on your email list. You can highlight new products and share details on the benefits of your referral program.
  • Local events: Participate in as many events as you can that will connect you with hospital staff, doctors, and other healthcare professionals. This could include educational events, conferences, and hospital events.
  • Advertising: Buy advertising spots in healthcare publications, on medical websites, and even social media sites.

3. Compare Results 

With multiple marketing paths, you can compare the results you get from each method. Be sure to stick with your chosen methods for at least six months. Ask your new customers how they heard about your company and your products. If you find that some methods worked better than others, you can adjust your marketing strategy to focus on those areas.

Four Healthcare Referral Strategies to Help Grow Your Customer Base

Much of the healthcare industry is driven by referrals and recommendations – not simply doctors referring patients to specialists, but hospitals and healthcare organizations recommending medial suppliers and products.

If your business is ready to expand your referral network, here are a few strategies to get you started.

1. Find Your Main Sources of Referrals 

If you sort through all your sources of referrals, you will likely find a small number of key organizations and individuals that drive most of your referral business. By focusing on these primary sources, you can prioritize your marketing resources and give these sources the attention they deserve. You want to ensure that they remain your primary referral source, and not someone else’s.

2. Learn What Makes Your Sources Happy 

Talk to your referring organizations and ask them what they like the most about your business and products. Really listen to their answers and find ways to make them and their referrals happy.

3. Ask for Referrals Right Away 

While this may seem pushy, asking for referrals early in the process is more likely to lead to success. During the initial purchase stage is when customers are most excited about your products. You can ask questions like, “Who do you know that would benefit from our services?”

4. Hold an Exit Interview 

If a customer is finished using your services or products, schedule an exit interview with them. Ask them specific questions about what you did well or things you could have improved on. This is also a good time to ask for additional referrals with a question like, “Would you recommend our business?” If they say yes, ask for more information.

Improve Your Healthcare Referral Marketing Strategy to See Your Business Grow

Referral marketing in healthcare is an important part of any medical supplier’s marketing strategy. Focusing on your top customers and learning what makes them happy is the key to success.

Share Moving Media is here to help healthcare suppliers like you grow your business and reach new customers.

Contact us today, and we can help your healthcare business streamline your referral process.

Blogging, LinkedIn, and Email: Winning Healthcare Sales Tactics

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If you’ve been searching for the ultimate marketing combination for maximum return on investment, look no further. Three of the top healthcare sales tactics today are blogging consistently, investing in email marketing, and taking advantage of all the tools that B2B mastermind LinkedIn has to offer.

Are you ready to jump in and learn what you need to know to attract ideal customers, gain qualified leads, and boost sales? Then read on.

Key Takeaways:

  • Healthcare businesses should speak directly to their target consumers, providing solutions to pressing problems and pain points.
  • While your business could incorporate numerous content marketing strategies, blogging, LinkedIn, and email are three absolute must-haves.
  • Businesses that prioritize blogging see 13x the ROI of organizations that don’t.
  • Email marketing scores businesses an average ROI of $42 for every $1 spent.
  • LinkedIn’s audience has twice the buying power of the average web audience, and four out of five members drive business decisions.

The Importance of Content Marketing for Healthcare Industries

Content marketing for healthcare should communicate complex topics and ideas clearly. Healthcare businesses should speak directly to their target consumers, providing solutions to pressing problems and pain points. Effective content marketing should also empower your business to generate new leads and boost your bottom line.

To achieve your content marketing potential, you must have a deep understanding of your target audience (and their target audience) so you can meet them where they are. By providing answers and addressing concerns, you can become a trusted resource and authority in your field. 

Suppose you’re a medical supplier. In that case, you can target healthcare decision-makers and buyers by explaining how your products work, why they’re the best, and how they can help patients and ensure profitability.

By following the right strategies, you can build authentic relationships with people and win loyal, returning customers over time.

Top Healthcare Sales Tactics to Use Online

While you have numerous content marketing options to generate leads and make sales in your business, these three tactics should top your list.

1. Blogging

According to HubSpot, blogging is the third most common content marketing strategy for businesses. Businesses that prioritize blogging see 13x the ROI of companies that don’t.

If your business hasn’t started blogging yet or hasn’t invested enough time and effort to do it effectively, you could be missing out on tremendous profit potential. To get started blogging (or improve your current efforts), begin mapping out the buyer’s journey. In healthcare industries, it typically follows this pattern:

  • Awareness stage
  • Evaluation stage
  • Decision stage
  • Loyalty/post-purchase stage

You’ll want to create content that addresses prospects at each stage of the buyer’s journey. That way, you’ll move leads down the sales funnel, regardless of where they jump in.

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Follow these steps, and you’ll be well on your way toward attracting quality leads to your website and capturing their attention through content creation.

  • Choose keywords and categories to attract ideal consumers.
  • Blog about topics your audience craves, covering them in engaging ways.
  • Choose popular formats that are easy to digest, like listicles, how-to guides, and answers to frequently asked questions.
  • Create a blogging schedule you can stick to. Consistency is key!
  • Make blog posts visually compelling by adding graphics and photos.
  • Optimize every post for maximum visibility on search engines.
  • Share and promote your posts.

2. Email Marketing

Email marketing is another no-brainer, with an ROI of $42 for every $1 spent. How do medical suppliers and other healthcare businesses take full advantage of everything email has to offer, you ask? Here are some tips.

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Nurturing Leads

Email is one of the best ways to engage with leads and nurture them over time. If someone signs up for your email list, they’re already showing interest in your business. Sending personalized, customized content to your buyer personas can help you build solid relationships and provide value.

Tracking KPIs

Choosing the right key performance indicators (KPIs) to track is essential. At the very least, make sure you measure email open rate, click-through rate, unsubscribe rate, and bounces for every email you send. You’ll understand exactly how your emails are performing and can make adjustments over time to improve results.

Creating Engaging Campaigns

Every campaign should have an end goal in mind, a target audience, and a strategy. Keep your emails concise, clean, and easy to follow. For example, maybe you have an in-depth guide you want contacts to download and read, to become more educated on a specific product you offer.

In every email, include engaging content and a clear call to action. Subject lines and preview text should always be catchy and persuade contacts to open. Personalize your emails with individual customer names. Also consider conducting A/B tests to discover what types of emails perform best.

3. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is an excellent B2B platform for creating genuine connections, engaging with potential customers, and converting leads into clients. It’s also a leading social platform for decision-makers. LinkedIn’s audience has twice the buying power of the average web audience, and four out of five members drive business decisions.

Here are a few of the marketing tools you can utilize as a healthcare business on LinkedIn.

  • Paid advertising: Build brand awareness, generate leads, and drive qualified traffic to your website with sponsored content and messages.
  • Organic outreach: Publish quality content for free to get in front of potential customers organically. You can also reach out to prospects through direct messaging.
  • Build custom audiences: Create customized contact lists to target specific groups of people, such as key decision-makers or directors.
  • Retargeting: You can remarket to different audiences using LinkedIn’s matched audience feature. Reach people who have already engaged with your company at least once.
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Need Help Implementing These Healthcare Sales Tactics?

Share Moving Media is a leading content production and publishing company. We work specifically with manufacturers and distributors in the medical field, helping them grow their audiences and win new customers through content marketing. If that includes you, please reach out! We’d love to help you crush the competition and smash your top business goals.

Contact us to learn more or get started.

Digital Marketing in Healthcare E-Guide: Using Facebook to Target GPOs

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Whether you’re targeting hospitals or distributors, our Digital Marketing in Healthcare E-Guide can help you harness the power of Facebook to:

We will also go over some marketing mistakes we see manufacturers of healthcare products make all too often – and advise you what to do instead.  

And if you’re having second thoughts about whether it’s a good idea to spend what could be a sizeable chunk of your marketing budget on a Facebook campaign, consider this: Facebook is still the world’s most popular social network. As such, it really ought to play a big part in your broader online marketing strategy.

Quick Takeaways

  • Facebook is the world’s most popular social media network. If you don’t develop a Facebook marketing campaign, you may miss out on many business opportunities. 
  • That said, generating leads through Facebook is only half the work. You should then nurture them by engaging with them and addressing their unique needs. 
  • When it comes to Facebook marketing in medical device sales, what you don’t do may be just as important as what you do. Avoiding common mistakes could be critical for the success of your marketing strategy.

Share Moving Media’s Digital Marketing in Healthcare E-Guide: How to Use Facebook Marketing in Medical Device Sales 

Without further ado, let’s take a look at our tried-and-tested tips on Facebook marketing in medical device sales.

1. Set Measurable Goals and Draw Up a Plan

Social media content may come across as informal and spontaneous – and sometimes, it is. However, if you want to maximize the ROI on your Facebook marketing strategy, you shouldn’t approach it like throwing wet spaghetti at a wall in the hope that some might stick.

Don’t leave things to chance. Define your goals, make an action plan, and stick to it. To quantify your goals, use metrics such as:

  • Click-through rate
  • Number of prospects converted to leads
  • Number of leads converted to paying customers

It’s also a good idea to create a content calendar to ensure you publish consistently. You should aim to post frequently and at the optimal time of day, based on the number of views and click-throughs. Share Moving Media can help you set up and manage a content calendar across all platforms.

2. Get to Know Your Audience 

If you haven’t already created your ideal buyer’s persona, do so before progressing any further with your Facebook marketing. The goal is to reach the right customers – namely, GPOs – with the right message. You won’t be able to do that if you don’t hone in on your target group, or if you publish irrelevant content that doesn’t address their pain points.

That said, you may want to connect with patients themselves, too. While they may not be your target demographic, many patients these days are familiar with healthcare brands and products and may leave reviews and ratings on Facebook. This, in turn, could influence the purchasing decisions of your direct customers: GPOs.

3. Consider Carefully What Types of Content to Post

As a general rule, any marketing content you post on Facebook should be informative, helpful, up-to-date, and focused on improving patient care. Beyond that, you should consider what formats to use – and when to use them. Examples include:

  • Company updates
  • Information about new products
  • Answers to frequently asked questions
  • Links to your blog articles
  • Links to landing pages with promotions and special offers
  • Market surveys or questions to start a conversation
  • Case studies, success stories, practical tips, statistics, and other educational content

Don’t forget to throw in some photos, infographics, and short videos for good measure. 

In any case, any content you publish on Facebook should be consistent with the rest of your marketing and your brand image.

4. Look Into Paid Facebook Ads

Don’t overlook the opportunity to use paid Facebook ads. One of the platform’s biggest advantages is its targetability. Your market may be a relatively small niche within the healthcare supply chain, but paid ads can ensure that you zero in on the GPOs you want to reach.

5. Direct People to Your Website

The ultimate goal of your Facebook presence is to generate leads and increase sales. To do that, use irresistible offers and relevant calls to action (CTAs) to bring your followers to specific landing pages within your website.

Don’t forget that the process works the other way around, too: always encourage website visitors to join you on Facebook to learn more and get in touch.

Mistakes to Avoid When Developing Your Facebook Marketing in Medical Device Sales 

Some healthcare product manufacturers shoot themselves in the foot when they make these common but preventable mistakes.

1. Failing to Engage with Your Followers

Engaging with your audience is crucial to building trust and brand loyalty, and getting to know your customers better. This includes:

2. Not Following Up on Leads

Generating leads through Facebook is only half the job. What you should be doing next is nurturing them. Usually, this involves providing them with a personalized and timely engagement process that addresses their specific needs.

3. Using Inappropriate CTAs or Hashtags

Irrelevant or improper CTAs and hashtags do more harm than good. A wrong hashtag can cause you to target the wrong audience, and a confusing CTA may result in your customers not doing what you want them to do.

4. Not Optimizing for Mobile

98.8% of users access social media using a mobile device. That means one thing: if you fail to create mobile-friendly content – including ads – you will not reach as many people as you otherwise could.

Facebook Marketing in Medical Device Sales: The Bottom Line

We hope that you found our Digital Marketing in Healthcare E-Guide informative. However, there’s a lot more that goes into building a successful Facebook marketing strategy. 

Share Moving Media is a full service media organization designed specifically for healthcare suppliers. We write blogs, produce podcasts and webinars, host live events, publish magazines, white papers, case studies, articles, and produce video and online training modules. We do all of this in context to the audience you want to reach.

To learn more tips on how you can use Facebook marketing to take your business to the next level, contact our team. We’d be more than happy to help! 

How to Know if Your Website is Ready for a Digital Marketing Campaign

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You may be curious about healthcare website optimization, and how to build a brand for your healthcare organization. It is simpler than you think. 

The healthcare tech industry is expected to reach $280 billion by the end of 2021. That is a CAGR of 15.9%. So, it is essential that you develop a digital marketing campaign that ranks highly on search engines. However, if you are not familiar with how search engine optimization (SEO) works, you may not be prepared to manage this feat. 

If you are interested in discovering ways to prepare your website for an effective digital marketing campaign, take a few moments to read over this digital marketing in healthcare e-guide and to learn more contact Scott Adams at sadams@sharemovingmedia.com.

Digital Marketing in Healthcare E-guide: Understanding Healthcare Website Optimization

As a healthcare organization, you probably have a website but primarily rely on word-of-mouth to connect with customers. However, the outbreak of the recent global pandemic has made this approach ineffective and limiting for your business.

The companies best equipped to adapt to today’s changing circumstances use local marketing strategies and digital marketing tactics. These initiatives include social media campaigns and SEO optimization efforts.

5 Ways to Get Your Website Ready for Your Digital Marketing Campaign

The internet is a powerful tool and an inexpensive marketing solution for small business owners. These five ways to get your website ready for digital marketing will help you start moving in the right direction:

1. Rank Higher in Search Engine Queries

According to marketing experts, 75% of people will not go past the second page of search results when searching online. Therefore, your website must appear on the first page – which is a lot easier said than done.

Google, the leading search engine, creates algorithms that determine a website’s ranking. The site’s ranking determines where a website shows up on a search engine results page (SERP) based on the relevant content within that site and the words used in the search.

2. Showcase Your Expertise

Digital media has become much less of an advertising space and much more of a platform that experts use as their podiums. The days when companies could only reach out through TV commercials or print advertisements are over.

Today’s brands need content creators who also know how digital works if they want to capture new customers’ attention spans in this constantly changing world.

The internet is full of platforms that promote your brand, but video and written content are not the only ways you can go about it. Different channels may work better for some companies over others because they offer different types of messages. Regardless of the format, your online content can have a lasting impact on potential consumers without ever explicitly asking them to purchase anything from you – and positioning yourself as an expert helps them remember your brand name when searching for products or services like yours.

3. Boost Social Media Presence

Connecting with your potential customers or clients is accomplished easily with a digital marketing campaign. You don’t have to be a social media or SEO expert to start engaging with your target audience.

You can get started by creating a free social media business page that has all the contact information for your company, as well as what you offer. You can customize it with photos and videos to show off more of who you and your healthcare organization are. It’s also easy to run sales or promotions from your Facebook or other social media page to ensure everyone knows about your latest deals.

Once people start seeing your posts, they will begin liking and sharing them. This viewer engagement means your campaigns will start showing up in local search results.  

4. Establish Personal Connections

Being in the digital marketing world can be a great way to build your connections and get acquainted with customers and nearby complementary businesses. By following, engaging with, and getting to know customers on social media, you have an easier time building relationships. You can also solicit feedback for new products or services through your account.

Do you want to know what your customers are thinking on topics related to your business? Use Facebook or Instagram and ask them. If they reply in the comments, have a chat with them. You can also use Stories on either of those platforms for quick informal polls and to get more engagement.

Another way to promote personal connections is when people post pictures related to your healthcare services, repost them on your pages. That way, people know how great your healthcare organization treats its patients. Be sure to respond even when feedback isn’t positive. These responses are essential in connecting with potential new patients.

5. Track Your Success

One of the many advantages of digital marketing is that most platforms come with analytic tools. You can use web analytics to see what terms users search for before finding your website.

If one term seems more effective than others, try incorporating it into advertising and email campaigns to generate a better response rate from potential customers. Facebook’s analytical features let you know how many people have seen an advertisement or are currently viewing it.

These tools allow advertisers and marketers alike the chance to adjust marketing campaigns until they reach their desired results.

How to Improve Your Healthcare Website Optimization

If you are looking to start marketing your small business online, there is no need to hire an expensive agency. Spending time on the social media sites that align with what your brand offers while using an authentic voice will make digital marketing a breeze. These strategies can lead to some serious rewards.

Many people don’t realize how easy technology makes this process these days. All you need is access to the internet to promote your brand through various platforms like Twitter or Facebook. You can do this without any prior experience, even if you do not work in marketing by trade. 

Are you looking to optimize your website before your next digital marketing campaign launch? Contact us here at Shared Moving Media for more information and learn how we can help. 

Why the PPE Market is Poised for Significant and Permanent Growth

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The COVID-19 pandemic continues to transform the personal protection equipment (PPE) market. The immediate impact of the outbreak is varied, with a few sectors feeling its effects more significantly than others. Healthcare is the primary industry to deal with these impacts.

In 2020, the PPE market worldwide had a market value of $77.36 billion. Experts expect the CAGR to grow 7.3% from 2020 to 2028. This significant growth results from increased demand in a market that was ill-prepared to deal with the shortages related to the pandemic. 

Post-pandemic forecasts in the PPE market indicate that there will be no slowdown of growth in this market. Due to the widespread acceptance of the need for PPE for both professional and personal protection, the current market proves these forecasts to be accurate.

PPE manufacturers will continue seeing healthy market growth rates year over year due to high demand for everything from simple face masks, to level four biohazardous environments like hospitals, sterile manufacturing facilities, and construction sites. 

The Effects of Covid-19 on the U.S. PPE Market  

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic created a beneficial impact on the PPE market as demand for masks, respirators, and gloves have increased worldwide. One of the fastest-growing regional markets is North America. 

This market size is due to its high cost relative to other countries. However, the North American market remains competitive on quality control measures. These measures make it easy for manufacturers to get their products certified quickly after import into this country while maintaining strict standards. 

Salisbury, a Honeywell brand, is the leading producer of PPE, and 3M and Ansell are among the other top manufacturers. These big names in PPE development dominate the market. However, several small, private labels launch PPE gear at lower price points and use this to gain their market share.

Regulations within the industry require specs to remain consistent. Therefore, some smaller labels must limit their production of any PPE that does not require advanced technical knowledge and expertise.

3 Reasons the PPE Market is Poised for Significant Growth  

People often think that PPE refers to face masks. However, face coverings represent only a fraction of the PPE equipment worn throughout all the industries that use protective equipment. Protective clothing is the most used safety equipment. 

The vast array of PPE types and the many industries that require its use is the primary driver of an accelerating PPE market. Here are the top 3 reasons the PPE market continues to experience significant growth.

1. Focused Safety for Healthcare Providers   

Healthcare organizations remain the primary consumers for PPE products, and this need is expected to increase.

At the dawn of the pandemic, health care workers were severely affected by the shortage of PPE. They needed protective equipment to care for the influx of contagious patients that flooded hospitals and health care facilities, but the supply was stretched thin by increased demand in other industries that did not typically consume PPE. 

Images circulated through the media of medical staff working with makeshift PPE – reusing equipment that was meant to be disposable, and protecting themselves and their patients with anything that was at hand, including garbage bags. The shortage generated public outrage, and medical suppliers pushed to manufacture more equipment as quickly as possible.

While the shortage is not as severe now, demand continues to outpace supply. The continual need for increased PPE supplies in the health care industry is one of the primary drivers that will sustain market growth in the future. 

2. Public Interest in the PPE Market 

As local governments passed mask mandates, public interest in PPE for their own protection sparked further growth in the PPE market. Increased PPE purchasing in the public health sector contributed to the shortages experienced by the medical industry and other essential service industries that were now facing PPE mandates, such as grocery stores and restaurants.

As the world continues to battle the pandemic, public awareness of health concerns remains high and PPE consumption continues at an elevated rate. According to the CDC, 3 in 4 people have adopted the mandates as necessary for public health. Furthermore, many of those say they will consider continuing to wear masks in the future during cold and flu season. 

3. Accelerated Technological Innovations 

PPE market trends for the next three years in the United States forecast an incremental growth of $8.67 billion. Innovations in technology are some of the more significant reasons for this growth. 

It is not just the healthcare industry that should be taking notice of this growth, as innovations in PPE could provide opportunities for investors to take advantage. The development of health care products based on biomaterials should create business opportunities in the near future. 

This development would help mitigate any negative impact these items have on environmental growth, and may prove successful with leading PPE manufacturers’ mission statements to “promote sustainable energy use by reducing consumption through minimizing waste.”  

Facing PPE Challenges in the Healthcare Industry

One of the most damaging threats to hospitals is declining revenues alongside the increasing costs of PPE. Hospitals are unsure how they will continue to provide quality care while staying financially stable in a time when people need it more than ever. 

This lack of stability in the supply chain – whether demand-related or from financial hardships – often creates uncertainty for providers and patients alike.

How PPE Market Trends Will Influence the Healthcare Industry 

The healthcare industry is rapidly changing. With the PPE market on the rise, it will continue to have a significant impact on how we prepare for emergencies in the future. Crises like pandemics, natural disasters, or terrorist attacks will be driving factors in the PPE supply chain.

Because of the increased need for personal protection during these unpredictable times, healthcare businesses are choosing to work with quality health care product suppliers. These supplies come from all over the world, creating an increase in demand for all PPE manufacturers. There will also be new opportunities rising within this ever-changing industry, such as a focus on sustainable, environmentally friendly PPE production.

Hospitals are likely to spend more money on safety equipment for their staff because of the increased spotlight on healthcare workers’ health and wellness. Medical professionals who were previously not required to use PPE may now be at risk if they work with patients, directly or indirectly, without appropriate protection.  

The PPE market is about to expand in ways no one could imagine. What does that mean for those in the healthcare industry? Contact us here at Shared Moving Media to join the discussion.