Over half the world’s population is on social media, giving healthcare workers a powerful platform for reaching B2B customers and patients. Social media and the healthcare industry aren’t a new combination. Many medical businesses took to the platform during COVID-19 to educate patients in the middle of medical uncertainty.

Even though the height of the pandemic is over, healthcare companies are keeping up with their social media strategies because they see the value in this creative and personal platform.

Learn the role of social media in healthcare and five ways it’s changing healthcare marketing.

Key Takeaways:

• Social media reaches 59% of the world’s population and 72% of US adults.
• Facebook and YouTube are the top social media channels.
• Use social media to build personal connections through creative interactions.

How Does Social Media Apply to Healthcare?

In July 2022, 59% of the world’s population was on social media. The average time users spent on social platforms was 2 hours and 29 minutes. In America alone, 72% of adults use at least one social media platform.

The sheer number of social media users should be enough to convince healthcare companies to start using the platform to reach their audience. However, there are other reasons to consider it, such as the platform’s purpose.

Here are some of the most common ways consumers use their social accounts:

• Connecting with others
• Reading news
• Sharing information
• Entertaining themselves

While many social media channels started as places for individuals to connect, today, consumers use them to learn, shop and discover. What makes healthcare social media such a valuable channel for discovery is the access businesses have to information.

When social media users and businesses create accounts, they share demographic and firmographic data. Social media uses this data to personalize each user’s experience by offering relevant insights based on that data.

For example, a consumer that visits healthcare businesses on social media is more likely to see healthcare-related topics on their feed.

Which Social Media Platform Is Best for Healthcare?

You don’t need to market on every social media channel to be effective. Instead, consider these top channels for your healthcare strategy.

Facebook is the most popular social media platform, with 2.94 billion users. In the US, 69% of adults say they use Facebook. It’s a versatile channel for connecting with potential customers and educating your audience.

YouTube is the second most visited site, just under Google and before Facebook. Even though YouTube has 1.7 billion users, it sees 14.3 billion visitors monthly. On YouTube, you can reach your audience with creative long-form video content.

Instagram reaches an audience of 1.3 billion users. Through video stories and images, businesses can share quick snippets of information with an audience of patients and companies.

TikTok deserves an honorable mention because it has a higher engagement rate per post than Instagram or YouTube. In 2022, TikTok reached one billion monthly active users, including several notable healthcare TikTok personalities. Use the platform to educate and connect through short-form video content.

LinkedIn is the top social media channel for B2B marketers. LinkedIn has 55 million business accounts and users who are key decision-makers from leading businesses. Use the platform to share your thought leadership content and educational articles for a targeted B2B audience.

5 Ways Social Media Is Changing Healthcare

Here are five ways those social media channels are transforming healthcare marketing today with new social media marketing opportunities.

1. Building Personal Relationships

Social media is a chance to turn business partnerships into relationships. You’ll also see greater brand loyalty when there are relationships between you and your customers.

Through social media, you can communicate with your customers and patients using comments and social chat. You can also interact with posts from related businesses to build brand awareness.

Cardinal Health shows another way to invest in building relationships. It regularly highlights its employees and customers. These personal stories and pictures put a face to the brand, focusing its business on people and solutions rather than medical supplies and sales.

2. Motivating Actions

Healthcare companies are at the frontlines of medical battles as communities strive to diagnose early, find treatment, and raise awareness of diseases. Social media can be your battleground to fight for a healthier future and motivate change one patient at a time.

Johnson & Johnson uses its social platforms to raise awareness of common and rare diseases and help people seek treatment early.

3. Reaching a Larger Audience

Social media advertising grew to $137 billion, overtaking paid search at $135 billion. Through social media’s more advanced algorithm, businesses can target a niche audience and reach more of their market. When more of your intended audience sees your ads, you’ll also see greater returns from your advertising investment.

One of the most popular forms of social media advertising is retargeting. 77% of B2B and B2C marketers use retargeting on Facebook and Instagram. Retargeting ads connect with leads and website visitors interested in your brand but didn’t convert yet.

4. Connecting Directly with Patients

Patients are growing increasingly interested in their healthcare. Healthcare manufacturing businesses are seeing a rise in patients researching them directly instead of only connecting through healthcare facilities.

Social media allows traditional B2B healthcare companies to connect directly with end-user patients. Through this channel, healthcare companies can educate patients and provide resources so patients can make more informed healthcare decisions.

For example, patients know what new treatments or equipment are available on the market and can ask their primary care providers about these care options.

5. Creatively Educating Your Audience

Webinars, blog posts, and email marketing are all highly effective at reaching your audience with educational content. However, marketers can see more results by diversifying their approach with more creative content.

Social media is a creative outlet that allows healthcare marketers to break away from the norm. For example, Doctor Mike on YouTube addresses trending health topics from a trained medical perspective. He takes TV shows, news stories, and social media claims and dives into what’s accurate and misleading in pop culture.

Incorporate Social Media into Your Healthcare Marketing Strategy

Share Moving Media offers the latest insights and trends in healthcare marketing. Use our leading news and resources to build a creative and highly effective social media strategy that perfectly complements your healthcare marketing campaigns.

Contact us to learn more about our healthcare marketing solutions.

The healthcare distribution market is booming, and experts project it to reach over $1.048 billion by 2024. With that need also comes openings for more medical supply distributors.

If you are interested in joining an incredible team of medical manufacturers and distributors, then consider working with them in healthcare contracting as a medical sales representative.

Key Takeaways

• Working with medical supply distributors is a meaningful and fast-paced career.
• You can either sell products from manufacturers to distributors or directly to healthcare facilities.
• Medical distribution is an ideal job for those with degrees in healthcare.
• A successful healthcare sales rep invests hours in training.
• Medical sales reps can earn six-digit incomes with enough work.

There are 2 Types of Medical Suppliers

As a healthcare sales representative, you will often hear three terms: medical suppliers, manufacturers, and distributors.

A medical supplier is a broad term for both manufacturers and distributors. These are businesses and organizations which create and sell all medical supplies. For example, suppliers can provide anything from tongue compressors to the machines used in surgery. So when you see an item at a healthcare facility, it most likely came from a medical supplier.

Healthcare Manufacturers

A healthcare manufacturer is the one who creates the medical equipment and products. Often manufacturers will sell their products directly to hospitals and healthcare facilities through their healthcare sales representatives.

If you are looking to work with a manufacturer, you must be familiar with B2C sales.

Some of the top healthcare manufacturers are:

• Olympus
• J&J
• Stryker
• Medtronic
• Boston Scientific
• Jockey Scrubs

Healthcare Distributors

Other times, manufacturers will not sell their products directly to hospitals. Instead, they sell them to distributors, who then sell them to the customer. If you are working in this type of model, you will need knowledge of B2B sales.

Some of the top healthcare distributors are:

• McKesson
• AmerisourceBergen
• Henry Schein
• Cardinal Health
• Medline Industries

Prerequisite Education and Knowledge

The medical supply distributor career field is broad, which means there are different educational requirements for healthcare sales reps.

Of the 137,653 medical sales representatives in the U.S., 82% have a bachelor’s degree, while 7% have a master’s degree. Meanwhile, some suppliers don’t require any prior higher education.

However, you are considered a product expert and need the appropriate training and education. Those with advanced medical training and experience have a higher chance of getting positions selling medical devices. With these devices also comes the responsibility to help hospitals learn how to use them, which could mean joining a surgery.

On the other hand, other sales representatives may focus on distributing scrubs or paper products, which wouldn’t require as much expert knowledge. Either way, if you are working in the medical field, you need to be on top of the latest healthcare rules and regulations – which is why healthcare sales reps often make a higher income than other industry sales jobs.

You can give yourself a competitive advantage when looking for a sales job in healthcare by completing healthcare sales training.

What Working with Medical Supply Distributors Looks Like

Day in the Life of a Medical Device Representative by Medical Sales

Every medical supply distributor’s job will look different depending on the products you sell, where you work, and who your leads are.

One nurse shared her experience and said her days include:

• Calling leads
• Dropping off equipment
• Following up with customers
• Attending surgeries
• Offering pre-and post-purchase support
• And so much more.

The Greatest Challenges in the Industry

Because of the nature of healthcare sales, it comes with its fair share of challenges. One of the most challenging parts of the job is keeping on top of the latest healthcare regulations and knowledge. You need to know accurate and updated information so you can answer any questions your leads have.

Another challenge is the fast-paced and unpredictable schedule of reps. You will find yourself nearly always on the go, traveling from facility to facility for hospital distribution sales. As a result, each day will offer new challenges and different schedules.

The Biggest Benefits of the Industry

Even with those challenges, the industry offers more significant benefits. For example, the fast-paced environment may intimidate some while it excites others who thrive in that type of workplace. You will also get to be part of an industry that continues to grow and present new opportunities for advancement.

Another benefit is the high salary. If you devote time and effort to your job, you can make over six-digit incomes every year. Additional training helps give you the tools for success. For example, you can learn the latest sales strategies to sell medical supplies.

The best benefit of working with medical supply distributions is the impact and relationships you build. Each day you meet heroes working on the frontlines of hospitals and medical facilities. You will also have a chance to impact the lives of others by giving those medical workers the tools they need to succeed and save lives.

No amount of compensation or benefits equals the lasting impact of changing someone else’s life.

Share Moving Media Works With the Best Medical Supply Distributors

Are you looking to start a meaningful and fast-paced career that will change people’s lives?

At Share Moving Media, we have the opportunity to work with some of the best device and medical supply distributors. These healthcare suppliers create and distribute everything from medical-grade gloves to life-saving diagnostic devices.

Whether you are a medical supplier looking to train your current team or want to join a manufacturing company, contact our staff at Share Moving Media to help you reach your healthcare business goals.

The healthcare industry experienced a massive upheaval during the COVID-19 pandemic – hospitals were overwhelmed with patients, there were global product shortages, and all unnecessary interactions were put on hold.

In response to these sudden shifts, medical suppliers have had to adapt to years’ worth of digital growth in the space of a few months. Instead of being able to meet with customers face-to-face like they were used to, many sales representatives were thrust into digital meeting spaces. This caused many people to lose some customer engagement in healthcare.

As the industry begins to reshape the definition of customer engagement, you can use your expertise to your advantage and deliver quality communication and optimized content, whether that is virtually, in person, or a combination of both.

This guide will bring you through some steps you can take to jumpstart your customer interactions.

Key Takeaways

• Create a customized experience for your customers by getting to know their needs and expectations.
• Use genuine emotions and customized content to give customers a personalized, engaging buying experience.
• Follow the customer’s lead when it comes to planning meetings, whether virtual or in-person.

Why Is Customer Engagement in Healthcare Important?

As a medical supplier, the products you sell are designed to improve a person’s health. You believe in your products, and you need your customers to believe in them too. If you or your customers are not engaged during the sales process, sales are going to suffer, and patients may miss out on valuable products that could improve health outcomes.

In our modern, digital world, it is important to use whatever technology options you have available to you. Use tech options like virtual reality, augmented reality, and 3D visuals to demonstrate products in a virtual environment. This will keep healthcare decisions makers engaged and help them visualize how your medical supplies will work in their clinical settings.

Engaged customers will feel more of an emotional connection with your company. This will lead to better sales, more referrals, and improved loyalty.

6 Strategies You Can Use to Improve Customer Engagement

Customer engagement is one of the most important factors in selling medical supplies and equipment. Use these strategies to improve customer engagement in the digital healthcare environment.

1. Get to Know Your Customers

Your customers are real people. They have unique interests, family relationships, and learning styles. When you learn about these people, you may discover things you have in common, or at least things you can relate to. 

To help you keep track of all your customers, create customer personas for each person. These are individualized sheets or digital files where you record specific information on each customer, such as the following:

• Demographic information
• Job title and level
• Pain points and how you can solve them
• Values and goals
• Hobbies 
• Learning style (visual, written, etc.)

Use this information to refresh yourself before each interaction. Update these personas when you learn new information.

2. Connect with Genuine Emotions 

Healthcare is an emotional industry. Patients can experience every emotion imaginable while interacting with healthcare professionals. To match this level of emotion as a medical supplier, you need to keep patients’ needs at the forefront of all interactions. This can help you connect honestly with your customers.

The following video touches on five genuine emotions that business representatives can use to engage with their customers:

• Kindness
• Surprise
• Sincerity
• Creativity
• Empathy

When customers feel appreciated and understood, they are more likely to reward you and your business with more sales.

3. Meet Your Customers on Their Terms 

If your customers prefer face-to-face communication, try to make that happen. Others may still want to meet virtually. According to a 2021 report from Veeva, many healthcare professionals have found they prefer virtual meetings with representatives. In fact, the average duration of meetings has increased 133%, when you compare face-to-face meetings with remote meetings.

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Remote meetings can be a versatile tool that you can use to meet with healthcare professionals who have tight schedules. Since it eliminates any travel time, you may have more freedom to plan for longer meeting times.

No matter what the preferences of your customers, you will likely end up using a hybrid approach. The key is finding the ideal balance between remote and in-person interactions.

4. Follow the Customer Path 

To understand your customers, you need to see the medical supplies sales cycle from their perspective. Put yourself through the sales funnel and try to identify any bottlenecks where customers can get stuck or drop out of the cycle.

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You can also speak to your customers directly and ask them what they expect from the sales experience with you.

To broaden your customer base and increase engagement, you should consider using an omnichannel approach. This allows customers to learn about your company and products using their preferred channel, whether that is your business website, a blog, or even social media.

5. Create Customized Content 

With multiple channels for your customers to connect with you, your business needs customized content for each channel. While this content can have the same overarching theme, different channels require different approaches, especially for social media. You want to deliver content that is relevant and engaging to your customers. This will ensure a more personalized experience.

Rely on the personal preferences of your customers when choosing which content to share with them. Compare analytics from your customer tracking systems to determine the best approach to take with certain types of customers.

6. Thank Your Customers

No matter the outcome of your customer interactions, you should thank them for giving you some of their time. Whether you send them an email, a handwritten note, or some other form of appreciation, it can go a long way toward improving your customer engagement. Even if you didn’t close a sale, your act of kindness may encourage them to think of you the next time they are looking to buy.

Improve Your Customer Engagement with Share Moving Media

By focusing on your customer’s needs and connecting with them on an emotional level, you can improve your customer engagement. Share Moving Media is a great resource to help you reach more customers where they are.

We are experts in creating custom content for medical suppliers with a variety of publications and other marketing channels.We can help you expand your market share and stay engaged with your customer base.

Contact us today to get started.