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5 Ways Healthcare Marketers Need to Adjust to the Post-COVID Reality

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COVID-19 has changed many aspects of our modern world, from how we work to how we shop – and even how we greet other people. In 2020, the elbow bump has unofficially become the new version of shaking hands.

Healthcare marketers are facing unique challenges in light of these changes. How can you market medical supplies when you don’t see your clients face-to-face? How can you present new product developments when medical conferences are canceled? Most importantly, how can you make sure that your medical supplies are penetrating the market and reaching the patients who need them?

Although the way healthcare marketers do business is changing, the healthcare marketplace itself is thriving. Global healthcare spending is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 5% through 2023.

The world isn’t going to return to its pre-COVID state anytime soon, if ever. Now is the time to adapt your healthcare marketing strategy to the new post-COVID reality.

This guide provides five tips for successful healthcare marketing post-COVID.

What Will the Post-COVID Reality Look Like?

The COVID-19 crisis has made it clear that you can’t anticipate every scenario, be it in business or beyond. Just one year ago, nobody predicted a global pandemic putting the world on pause.

There is no surefire way to know what the “post-COVID” world will look like. That said, a few trends are already evident in the healthcare market:

  • Digital is gaining ground: Healthcare is no longer shying away from digital technologies. Telemedicine has become increasingly valuable as people are worried about COVID-19 infection, for example. As healthcare becomes more open to digital tools, healthcare decision-makers, from doctors to hospital administrators, will become more tech-savvy.
  • Remote is the new norm: Companies across the United States have put in place work-at-home measures. In July 2020, Google announced that its employees would work from home until summer 2021. The move towards remote is also evident in healthcare. Med students (future doctors) are learning remotely, for example, while medical conferences are taking place online.
  • Spending shift: In light of the two points above, healthcare providers are shifting their spending. Hospitals may put more money towards video conferencing tools in the future, for example.

5 Tips for Successful Healthcare Marketing Post-Covid

The above trends will have a lasting impact on the way that the healthcare industry functions. Understanding the implications as a healthcare marketer will give you a competitive advantage. Here are some healthcare marketing tips and tricks for the “new normal.”

1. Build Virtual Relationships

Tap into the new remote environment and use it to build virtual relationships. Find online conferences and events that are relevant to your distribution field to attend. You may be able to identify new leads from the program’s list of panelists and participants, for example.

You can also build virtual relationships via social media. One option is contacting people via LinkedIn. A direct message can lead to a video call – and even a potential sale.

2. Boost Your Touchpoints

In marketing, touchpoints refer to an effective action spurred by some form of human contact, physical interaction, or communication. Your customer’s experience is a collective group of touchpoints.

With marketing becoming more digital, you have a greater variety of touchpoints to use than ever before. There are blogs, online magazine articles, social media, digital events, and more. Since in-person opportunities are limited, focus on boosting touchpoints through these media.

3. Embrace Social Media

Social media is one of the most valuable healthcare marketing tools you have at your disposal. You can use it to establish your brand as an authority in the industry, connect with others in your field, and foster those virtual relationships mentioned above.

Some healthcare marketers remain wary of social media because of the highly regulated state of their industry. Before you dive in, consult HIPAA’s social media guidance to ensure you don’t go astray.

4. Enhance Your Digital Presence

Social media isn’t the only digital platform you have at your disposal as a healthcare marketer. Take a look at other aspects of your digital presence – such as your corporate website. If you don’t have a company blog, now is a great time to incorporate one into your web presence.

Why do blogs matter? They establish your healthcare company’s knowledge and offer a platform for engagement with others (via comments). They can also reiterate your authority status, paving the way for further opportunities – like thought leader articles in healthcare magazines.

5. Prioritize Analytics

One of the best parts of digital and social marketing tools is that you can easily measure their success. For example, you can see how many people engaged with a social media post, visited your website, or read a blog. You can even see how much time people spend on your website.

Take the time to analyze your marketing efforts in the post-COVID-19 world and see where you are succeeding – and where you could use improvement. Analytics gives you the knowledge you need to tweak your marketing strategy and perfect it.

Learn More About Content Marketing for Healthcare Distributors

Share Moving Media offers comprehensive marketing solutions for healthcare distributors. We are a full-service media company, creating blogs, e-books, webinars, and more. As you adapt your healthcare marketing post-COVID, we can help you grow your brand and boost your market share.

Sign up for our newsletter for the latest healthcare marketing trends. Want help adapting your healthcare marketing strategy to the post-COVID reality? Contact us today!

A Six-Step Guide to Getting New Products Featured in Health Trade Journals

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Medical manufacturers know that a big part of their healthcare marketing strategy involves getting their products seen by practitioners in various fields, and one of the best ways to do that is to get their product featured in health trade journals. 

One of the best healthcare marketing tips and tricks out there is to put your products where your audience’s eyes are. So, which publications are practitioners paying attention to?

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Source: The Script

Why Industry Journal Exposure is Good for Digital Advertising in Healthcare

While many of these publications have a printed version available, most of them have transitioned to a digital platform. This helps them get more eyes on their content, which means more eyes on your products. Sure, while it can be beneficial to have your products featured in smaller, niche publications, the results of being published in a larger publication are 10 to 100x greater. 

Another good reason to consider attempting to get your product featured in a health trade journal is that you gain instant authority in your field. How? Once you’ve been approved and published in a major health trade journal, readers know that you are a source worth investing in because you made it through the rigorous vetting processes to be featured in the first place. 

That authority and credibility go a long way, not only with prospective clients but with other publications as well. If you’re credible enough to be published in a major health trade journal, then other healthcare publications are going to be more willing to work with you in the future. 

6 Steps to Getting Your Product Featured in Health Trade Journals 

There are countless benefits to getting your product featured in a health trade journal. However, getting to that step takes a bit of work. To reap the benefits of being featured in a healthcare journal, you’ll want to follow this six-step guideline to get your product featured in the first place.

1. Make a List of Relevant Journals 

In marketing, one of the golden rules is that you cannot market to everyone. Well, that same rule applies to pitching your products to health trade journals. If your product is geared towards older men in their 60s, you wouldn’t want to pitch it to a popular yoga magazine whose target audience is women in their mid to late 20s.

That said, you’ll want to make a list of 10-20 publications that you’d like to be featured in. These can, and should, include major health trade journals, popular online blogs, etc. 

2. Research Publication Requirements

Once you’ve taken the time to find the right publications that would best suit your product, you’ll want to research them. You need to figure out:

  • Who their target audience is 
  • What their audience is looking for when reading the particular publication
  • The type of content they’re most likely to publish

No two publications are exactly alike, so you’ll want to make sure you are taking detailed notes and take time to review the content itself to help you later on when crafting your pitch. 

3. Identify Specific Individuals to Pitch To

During your research, you’ll also want to look into the best individuals to contact and pitch to. There are quite a few publications that allow for self-submissions, and others that require a rigorous vetting process. Others will only accept pitches from the craftiest of researchers who can find and pitch to the right person — say a chief editor or head of marketing. 

Once you’ve identified the best individual to reach out to, you’ll want to take some time to check out their online presence. Have they previously published work themselves? If so, you’ll want to study their work to get an idea of what kind of content may spark their interest. 

Finally, make sure you make a note of the best ways to reach them. At the very least, you’ll want to find their email addresses. 

4. Create Share-Worthy Content to Pitch

Now, when it comes to creating your pitch, you want to take adequate time to craft various pieces of content to pitch, including:

  • Educational blog post
  • A brief on how your product works, who it’s for, etc. 
  • An educational video
  • Testimonials from current customers 

5. Send Your Pitch

Once you’ve created your content, it’s time to pitch it! The best way to pitch an idea is via email. Why? Because it’s not only the preferred channel for receiving pitches by most journalists but because the average business professional checks their email approximately every 37 minutes. 

Now, research shows that there is an ideal time to send pitches, and that’s on Tuesdays or Wednesdays between 8-9 am, and then around 3 pm. Just remember to keep time zones in mind when you send it!

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Source: Publicize

6. Always Follow Up

You know how crowded an email inbox can get. Just imagine how much more crowded these individual’s inboxes must be. Show them you are serious and want to be noticed by following up on your initial email at least once, if not twice, to make sure they’ve received and seen your message. 

Increase Your Market Share with the Help of Share Moving Media

Here at Share Moving Media, we are a full-service media and content company. Our goal is to help you get noticed by creating and helping you to distribute high-quality content. 

Curious how we can help you increase your market share? Then contact us today to learn more!

4 Key Insights for Manufacturers from Content Marketing Institute’s 2020 Report

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In a competitive healthcare manufacturing landscape, B2B companies are beginning to invest resources and budget into building substantial content marketing strategies. With 78% of CMOs believing that content is the future of marketing, a vast majority of businesses have embraced content marketing over traditional marketing tactics. 

Quality content is an effective way to grow audience engagement, boost brand awareness, and drive sales. Not only that, but it also helps you build trust and loyalty with your audience to improve conversions over time. 

In a modern world, your healthcare customers expect you to develop valuable content that answers their questions.

Even if you run a small marketing team, content marketing can work for you. If you’re involved in any type of content marketing, reading through the Content Marketing Institute’s 2020 B2B report is essential to understand how you can get started. Let’s take a look at a few content marketing insights for healthcare manufacturers that you can start implementing today.

Why are Content Marketing Insights Important for Healthcare Manufacturers? 

Marketing moves fast. In an ever-changing landscape, you need to stay ahead of the game. 

91% of B2B marketers are committed to using content in their marketing strategy. With more healthcare companies developing content, it’s more important than ever to stay on top of current trends to remain competitive. Content marketing insights for healthcare manufacturers help you understand how to reach customers at every stage of the funnel and carry a consistent message. 

Staying updated on marketing insights allows you to:

  • Understand how your customers research and purchase products
  • Keep abreast of new changes in healthcare consumer behaviors and priorities
  • Stay relevant to your target audience, marketplace, and competitors
  • Forecast and budget better so you’re not wasting any resources

4 Content Marketing Insights for Healthcare Manufacturers

The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) is dedicated to providing resources to professionals who are looking to propel their company forward with content. As a leading global content marketing training and educational organization, they teach brands how to engage, attract, and retain customers through storytelling.

Healthcare manufacturers can take advantage of CMI’s 2020 report to learn more about developing impactful content. Here are the key insights from the report:

1. Top-of-the-Funnel Content Increases Engagement

Most B2B marketers focus on content that targets top-of-funnel engagement and goals. While 86% of respondents use content marketing to build brand awareness, there has been a notable increase in those that use it to build loyalty (9% increase) and generate sales (8% increase). 

For healthcare manufacturers, top-of-the-funnel content includes:

  • Infographics
  • Blogs
  • Videos
  • Ebooks or whitepapers

Top-of-the-funnel content doesn’t attempt to sell your target audience products, but instead focuses on developing educational materials that solve pain points.

2. High-Performing Content Formats Drive Results

While marketers are focusing on top-of-the-funnel content, it’s essential to understand what formats perform best throughout the entire customer journey. High-performing content at every stage includes:

  • Awareness: Blog posts/articles (31%), social media content like tweets and stories (25%), and in-person events (8%)
  • Interest: In-person events (19%), webinars/online events (16%), and ebooks/guides (13%)
  • Consideration: Email newsletters (31%), blog posts/short articles (13%), and in-person events/case studies (9%)
  • Purchase: In-person events (25%), case studies (23%), and webinars/online events (11%)

Regardless of the B2B company size, half of the marketers create content for their targeted audiences who are in the early stage of the lead flow. To successfully engage with your customers, your content needs to speak to every stage of their customer journey so you can provide relevant and personalized information to drive conversions. 

3. Paid Distribution Channels Remain Essential

While content marketing fundamentals focus on building an organic presence, 84% of B2B marketers use paid distribution channels to promote their content marketing strategy. In the same group, 72% of professionals report that LinkedIn is the top paid and organic social media platform that generates the best results. Additional paid content distribution channels include:

  • Sponsorships (66%)
  • Search engine marketing (61%)
  • Display ads (46%)
  • Sponsored email content (32%)
  • Native advertising (31%)
  • Other (14%)

Additionally, marketers report using social media (91%), brand’s website (89%), and email (87%) as the preferred free distribution channels to earn higher customer engagement. 

4. Marketers Continue to Measure Performance and ROI

When it comes to measuring content performance, 65% of marketers utilize key performance indicators (KPIs) and 43% measure content marketing ROI. Marketers track ROI with the following metrics:

  • Email: Opens, clicks, and downloads (90%)
  • Website traffic: Pageviews and backlinks (88%)
  • Website engagement: Time spent, bounce rate, form completion (86%)
  • Social media: Shares, followers, likes, and views (83%)
  • Conversions: Traffic to subscribers and sales (78%)

From the 43% of marketers who measure ROI, 59% of them rate their ability to demonstrate ROI as very good or excellent.

Develop an Impactful Content Marketing Strategy

As health manufacturers compete for conversions and internet rankings, it’s essential to utilize CMI’s insights to develop a comprehensive content marketing strategy. With the right strategy in place, you can build brand awareness, delight your customers, and boost your bottom line for years to come.

Ready to develop quality and valuable content? Get started today with Share Moving Media. 

Brands as Publishers: Blogging for Healthcare Brands Could Increase Your ROI 13x

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Specializing in everything from cardiology to pulmonary, healthcare facilities include multiple departments and dozens of service lines. When it comes to developing a marketing strategy for these organizations, manufacturers often choose more traditional tactics like direct mail and overlook blogging.

While blogging was once a tactic used for personal stories and pop culture, healthcare manufacturers are now also finding success with a content marketing strategy. With the right storyline and optimizations, blogging helps you reach diverse healthcare organizations and target their procedural specialties. In fact, companies that prioritize blogging are 13x more likely to see a positive ROI.

So, how exactly does blogging for healthcare brands impact ROI? Let’s take a look at how you can get started and succeed in a growing digital healthcare landscape.

Why You Should Start Blogging for Healthcare Brands

Did you know that 80% of internet users searched for a health-related topic online? With so many search queries ranging from health conditions to medical treatments, there is a large demand for trusted and reliable medical information online. As a healthcare manufacturer, you have the unique ability to provide ongoing educational materials that drive engagement from your IDN supply chain leaders and distributor reps. 

Developing your content marketing strategy takes time — you need to write quality content and optimize it for search engine results. However, when done correctly, you can expect the following benefits:

  • Helps potential healthcare facility customers find you
  • Tells your brand’s specific story and point of view
  • Showcases your authority and thought leadership
  • Nurtures existing client relationships
  • Supplements your digital marketing channels
  • Builds long-term positive ROI

A comprehensive blogging healthcare strategy not only improves your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts, but also heightens your product line to catch potential customers’ eyes. 

3 Ways Blogging for Healthcare Brands Earns ROI

Now that you understand the value of blogging for healthcare brands, it’s important to zoom in on the ROI benefit. After all, no marketing effort is a success unless it affects your bottom line. While it does take dedicated resources to develop a successful blogging strategy, it actually costs 62% less than traditional marketing. Here are a few ways healthcare blogs impact ROI.

1. Earn Valuable Subscribers

True, subscribers aren’t traditional leads. However, subscribers are the next best thing because they demonstrate interest and loyalty in your brand. In fact, a subscriber is worth more than 3.6 times the value of a normal website visitor.

A majority of website visitors will end up leaving your website without converting. However, a blog subscriber is the first step in your lead funnel and allows you to nurture their experience. Once you earn blog subscriber’s loyalty, you can optimize your content to meet their needs and focus your time on visitors who are closer to converting. 

To boost your ROI, consider adding bold call to actions in your content to encourage your subscribers to take the next step. 

2. Establish Trust-Building Content

In the healthcare industry, trust is a huge driver for business decisions. After all, your products and technology are providing life-saving and improving services for patients across the globe. Your blog’s content is an effective way to build authority and validation within your healthcare niche. 

To build trustworthy content on your blog, consider the following elements:

  • Be honest by showcasing testimonials and statistics backed by sources
  • Use your own domain and platform with original content
  • Focus on education and avoid overly promoting your products
  • Create buyer personas to connect with your target audience

By building authority, potential customers will turn to you as a credible thought leader. It will demonstrate that you not only understand your industry, but will also persuade healthcare facilities that you’re the manufacturer to partner with. 

3. Improve Your Social Media Efforts

84% of C-level B2B buyers are influenced by social media when making a purchase. While healthcare social media is competitive, it’s an essential space for healthcare manufacturers to engage in. Social media demonstrates that you’re agile in a modern landscape and provides additional proof signals. 

Blogging also allows you to enter the conversation and publish your new content to a larger audience. Once your social media followers begin seeing and enjoying your content, they will most likely become subscribers and customers. For healthcare industries, consider sharing your blog content on LinkedIn or Facebook to drive the most ROI. 

Overall, blog content enhances your online presence to drive further signups and referrals from customers who otherwise might not have heard of your brand. 

Discover Blogging for Healthcare Brands

Blogging can be impactful for your healthcare business. It not only brings you additional authority and validation, but it also has the potential to drive new customer engagement and ROI. However, you need to develop the right strategy to reap content marketing benefits. Focus on creating educational blogs that heighten your brand and display your industry knowledge.

With a blogging strategy in place, your blog can boost your bottom line in the following ways: 

  • Earning valuable subscribers who showcase their interest and intent with your brand 
  • Establishing trust signals and credibility through quality content that convinces potential customers that you’re a preferred manufacturer
  • Growing your social media presence and displaying social proof to C-suite executives 

Are you ready to begin creating blogs for your healthcare brand? Contact Share Moving Media for more information today.

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!