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How to Optimize Healthcare Marketing Copy for Conversions

December 9, 2021 By John Pritchard

Conversion marketing is the practice of optimizing content to get visitors on your site to “convert” into customers or take another desired action. In our modern, connected world, this is a crucial step to drawing in new customers and seeing your business improve.

In the medical industry, healthcare marketing copy needs to be carefully crafted to draw in the right audience.

This guide will take you through a few steps you can take to encourage your prospective customers to take action.

Key Takeaways

Healthcare marketing copy should use clear CTAs that direct customers to act.
Medical suppliers need strong, streamlined websites that will work as a foundation for optimized copy.
Businesses need to see their conversion funnel from the customer’s perspective.

5 Steps to Optimize Healthcare Marketing Copy and Increase Conversions

You need your marketing copy to be streamlined and customer focused. Whether your customers are interacting with your website, social media accounts, or even paper marketing materials, you want your copy to be user-friendly and optimized.

These 5 steps will take you through the basics of optimizing your marketing copy.

1. Understand the Basics of Conversion Marketing

Conversion marketing is a large topic. Unbounce features over 100 words in its Conversion Marketing Glossary. We are going to touch on a few of the most important terms.

Call to Action (CTA): This is crucial to conversion. This is where you ask your audience to do something, whether that is contacting you, entering their email, or making a purchase.
Conversion Funnel: This term refers to the path a customer takes from their first interaction with your brand until they react to your CTA. Many marketing experts talk about shortening the funnel or making it more streamlined.
Conversion Rate: This is the percentage of people who enter the conversion funnel and end up converting at the end. For example, if 100 people read a blog post and 15 people fill out your CTA contact form at the end, your conversion rate is 15%.
Decision Fatigue: Decision fatigue is the negative psychological reaction to having too many choices. If you give your prospects too many options, it can backfire. Have one goal with one call to action for each piece of marketing copy.

2. Prompt Conversions with Words and Design

If you want your healthcare marketing copy to be effective, you need to convince your prospective customers to respond to your CTA. One of the most important techniques for increasing conversions is using action words. These are simple words that tell your customers exactly what you want them to do:

Contact us.
Subscribe to our newsletter.
Schedule an appointment.
Follow us on social media.

Along with clear action words,you need to have a simplified design in your marketing copy. Your materials should be clean and uncluttered. This makes it easier for your potential customers to navigate your site. Another tip is to create a large, prominent CTA button with a simple message. You want to avoid causing decision fatigue with too many requests in a small space.

Look at this CTA that HubSpot uses at the top of its site. This CTA is “sticky” and follows you as you scroll down the page.

3. Build a Conversion Infrastructure

You can have the best marketing copy in the world, but if you don’t have a good place to put it, it won’t do anything for you. To see increases in conversions rates, you must have an optimized infrastructure that is designed for your customers.

The foundation of your marketing infrastructure is your website. You need an optimized design that will encourage visitors to click through multiple pages and learn more about what your company has to offer. Break down cluttered pages into standalone pages that focus on a single topic and include a prominent CTA on each page.

Another way to convert customers is through social media. You can share engaging content on various channels to reach potential customers and start conversions that lead back to your website.

4. Test Your Marketing

You have set up a beautiful new website, and crafted optimized content, but you are still not getting the conversions you want. When you hit roadblocks like this, you need to test your marketing strategies. Some of the most common conversion variables to test include the CTA buttons, images, and the copy.

Conversion marketing testing is usually one of the following types:

A/B Testing: In A/B testing, two versions of the same content are compared against each other. Half of your audience sees the original version, while the other half sees an alternative. After a specific amount of time or a certain number of visitors, you compare the conversion rates. These tests are usually done by changing one variable, such as the position of a CTA or the CTA wording.

Multivariate Testing: With a multivariate test, you change multiple elements at the same time – change the color of the CTA, the position, and the phrasing. Again, part of your audience will see the new version, while the rest will see the original. Multivariate tests can yield good results, but they do require more traffic.

5. Work Through Conversion from a Customer’s Perspective

To ensure you are reaching the right audience, you need to see your marketing copy from a customer’s perspective. For example, Dr. Smith works for a major hospital. She is part of the purchasing committee and is working on sourcing a new piece of equipment that your company sells. Imagine yourself in her position and try to see your website from her perspective.

Is there a clean, streamlined landing page?
Are the menus simple to navigate?
Is there a prominent search box?
Where is the CTA placed?

As you work through these questions, try to find and smooth out any potential pain points in your conversion funnel.

This video from SEMrush covers some of these tips along with a few more your company can try.

Optimize Your Healthcare Marketing Copy with Share Moving Media

With optimized marketing copy in the healthcare industry, you should see increased traffic to your site and improved conversions rates. If your company is struggling to get there on your own, Share Moving Media can help.We specialize in helping medical suppliers attract new customers with compelling and relevant content.

If you are ready for a boost in your healthcare marketing copy, Share Moving Media is here to serve you. Contact us today to get started.

How to Build Lasting Manufacturer and Distributor Relationships in Healthcare

December 7, 2021 By Scott Adams

An effective supply chain management system relies on a healthy manufacturer and distributor relationship in healthcare. Manufacturers and distributors are the first two parts of the supply chain before products reach the customer.

Investing in a relationship with your distributers benefits both parties because you can support each other. Ultimately, you will see a greater return in profits and experience fewer frustrations from supply chain disconnects.

Are you ready to learn how to develop this relationship? Then let’s get started.

Key Takeaways

Effective communication is foundational for building a lasting relationship with your distributors.
A relationship is built on both communicating and listening to the other party’s needs.
You may often find your challenges align with your distributors’ challenges and mutually beneficial compromises are possible.

Use Effective Communication

Communication is foundational to building a manufacturer and distributor relationship. 97% of workers say communication impacts their daily tasks. For companies with over 100 employees, miscommunication costs them about $420,000 annually.

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All the other strategies we will explore for building a manufacturer-distributor relationship will be pointless without first establishing efficient supply chain communication channels. These channels are the ways you contact your medical distributors, and they respond to you.

Some ways to foster open and efficient communication is through:

Collaboration software
Regular emails
Company chat platforms like Slack
Meetings either live or through video software like Zoom
Direct phone numbers to contact management

You should use these communication channels regularly to keep both sides of the supply chain on the same page. When you reach out to one another, you need to remember to spend as much time listening to the other party as communicating your wants and needs.

In addition, keep your information in any shared systems up to date, such as your product data. In this way, your distributors know what products are available and the latest information about the supplies you offer.

Automation makes communication easier by sending alerts and regular emails to your distributors so they all know the latest product updates.

Support Each Other’s Needs

Manufacturers and distributors can come in conflict because you are often not exclusive to each other. However, you should still find ways to support one another to give the additional party flexibility to work with their other connections. For example, you may use multiple distributors, and your distributors sell products from several manufacturers.

For example, a sales tactic you would prefer might not work well with your distributor, who has multiple different types of medical equipment to sell. Both sides should learn to compromise so you can mutually benefit.

One way to foster a supportive environment is to take time to understand each distributor’s situation properly. This means that manufacturing should regularly visit the distributors at their physical stores to see how best to work with each distributor. These visits also allow each party to talk face to face about their needs and what the other person could do to support them better.

Understand Each Other’s Challenges

During your meetings with distributors, take time to know their challenges and share your marketing challenges. While both parties will have roadblocks that make their job more complex, you don’t need to compete with each other.

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Sometimes you might find your challenges are similar, in which case you can work together to solve them in a mutually beneficial manner. For example, manufacturers struggle to keep their branding consistent. Since you often work with several different distributors, you may find that each distributor is promoting your products differently. Unfortunately, customers may lose trust in your company when you don’t have unified branding because they won’t know which message to believe.

However, you can resolve this challenge by providing all the marketing materials for your distributors. Doing this ensures a unified brand appearance while relieving some of the pressure on your distributors because they don’t have to create the materials themselves.

Other times, your challenges may contradict each other. For example, manufacturers focus on selling specific products and promoting new devices. In contrast, distributors want to raise their profit margins. Therefore, distributors concentrate on making sales rather than selling a particular product.

Effective communication can help you find a compromise where your distributor won’t lose money from old supplies they haven’t sold yet while still promoting your new products.

Provide Necessary Materials

You can avoid miscommunication in healthcare distribution by ensuring your distributors receive all the necessary materials for understanding and using your supplies. Creating materials to send over with products also saves your manufacturing team time as you will have fewer phone calls from distributors asking for clarification.

For example, you can create training videos and booklets on your products. This training material will tell your distributors what your product is, how to use it, and how to market the product. In addition, you can provide videos that your distributors can show healthcare workers when demonstrating medical devices.

In the end, your customers will be more satisfied with their experience because they received accurate information and thorough training straight from the manufacturer.

Other marketing materials you can pass along to your distributors include:

Signs for their shops
Product brochures
PDF ads for their websites
Product descriptions for their ecommerce shops
Product images for their promotions.

Create a Lasting Partnership

Always remember that you and your distributors are on the same team. Ultimately, you both want the same results: to sell your products. While you may feel strongly about certain expectations, you should not push your agenda to the point of compromising your partnership with your distributors.

Not every interaction has to relate to work. Sometimes the best way to invest in a healthy relationship is by investing in your distributors personally. You can send gifts to your distributors, invite them to events, and take time to thank them for their work as a way to show you appreciate their support in your partnership.

Investing in Your Manufacturer and Distributor Relationship in Healthcare

Efficient communication with your distributors begins with quality content that gives a clear and concise message. Share Moving Media helps you develop a stronger relationship with your distributors through better communication like training videos, RepConnect, articles, and advertising campaigns. If you want to reach 95% of the distribution rep community, Repertoire Magazine and Share Moving Media can help!

Contact us for more information on how we can help you connect with your distributors.

How to Create an Online Medical Supplies Product Catalog

November 10, 2021 By Scott Adams

The online medical supplies industry is increasing rapidly as more and more people continue making purchases electronically. From 2015 to 2020, the sector grew at an annualized rate of 17%.

A medical supplies catalog is another marketing piece you can share with potential buyers to encourage them to purchase. A product catalog should include all the details a prospect needs to make an informed buying decision. Essential features include product descriptions, images, pricing, colors, customer reviews, and much more.

Throughout this article, we’ll explain why you should consider offering a catalog that includes the medical supplies you provide and how to create one from scratch.

Quick Takeaways:

The online medical supplies industry is growing rapidly as more and more people continue making purchases electronically.
Having an online product catalog allows you to look up technical information quickly, generate more sales, and keep inventory updated in real-time. It also helps enhance the user experience.
To design your new catalog, start by conducting research and identifying your supply system. Next, choose which elements you want to include, choose software, and design your catalog.

The Benefits of Having a Medical Supplies Catalog for Clients

Having a medical supplies catalog on hand is not only helpful for marketing and sales purposes. Yes, it’s an excellent piece of collateral for sales reps to use to communicate with customers. But it’s also beneficial for internal warehouse managers, operators, and partners. Everyone can refer to it as a manual or guide to making purchases, selling, taking inventory, performing demos, and sharing it as needed.

Here’s a rundown of several other benefits your business can experience by producing a detailed product catalog online.

Always have complex or technical information on hand.
Keep inventory updated in real-time.
Generate sales by having all product and service information readily available.
Share information quickly and easily online.
Generate sales from anywhere at any time.
Improve the user experience.
Promote your brand with a well-designed product catalog.

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How to Design an Online Medical Supplies Catalog in 9 Steps

So you’re ready to start selling medical supplies to your clients online. Here’s how to develop an online product catalog that stands out and converts.

1. Conduct Preliminary Research

Before you begin, ensure you are updated with the licensing and regulations the FDA has set for medical device distributors.

2. Identify Your Supply System

Compile a list of your current vendors (or shortlist vendors if you’re setting up a new system). Factor in resources and manufacturing capacity for each vendor. That way, you can strategically work toward your sales goals.

3. Incorporate the Right Elements for Your Online Catalog

Before developing your catalog, choose the elements you want to include based on your business, goals, and resources. Here are several pieces to consider:

Product names
Product descriptions
Certifications
Customer reviews
Product dimensions
Product features
Product guarantees or warranties
High-quality images
Return policy
Safety information
Year and version of each product
Terms and conditions
Front cover
Table of contents
Introduction
Closing summary
Back cover
Calls to action
Branding

4. Choose the Right System or Template

After you’ve decided on the elements you want to include, you can choose a system and template that supports your plan. Look for a system that’s secure and powerful enough to support your catalog while giving your customers the best online experience you can muster.

You’ll also want to choose a tool that’s easy to navigate. While the back end of your catalog may be complex, the front end shouldn’t be. Many ecommerce product catalog tools exist. Choose the best one for your business needs and catalog complexity.

5. Choose an Automated Configuring Process

Look for software that includes product configuration technology. That way, you can track items for planning and inventory automatically. Standard configurations include prices, part numbers, and a spec doc.

6. Professionally Design It and Add Branding

If you want people to associate your online catalog with your business instantly, incorporate branding elements. These should include your logo, brand fonts, colors, and graphics that reflect your company’s styles and personality.

Hire a professional designer to lay out the pages, incorporate branding, and create a cohesive design for best results. Pages should appear balanced, photography should be pristine, and the catalog as a whole should attract your target audience. Every page and element should work toward a common goal: to encourage users to buy.

7. Tell a Story and Build Trust

To make your catalog engaging for browsers, you can incorporate messages that resonate with readers and storytelling. This will help people get to know your brand and connect with prospects on a deeper level. You can include client stories, testimonials, and case studies that resonate with potential buyers.

8. Include Filter Functionality

Finding a specific item can be tricky and time-consuming if you have a massive catalog with hundreds or thousands of products. Giving people the option to locate a particular product or add a filter to narrow down results will enhance the user experience. You can do this by tagging and categorizing products.

9. Incorporate Key Conversion Components

Incorporating key conversion elements is crucial to getting more sales. Adding calls to action (CTAs) strategically, offering prices upfront, and making the buying process as simple as possible are all ways to increase conversions and move people through the sales funnel.

You can also aim to upsell and cross-sell by suggesting related products throughout your catalog. Offering alternatives to what a user is considering is another way to get people to continue shopping to find the best product to meet their needs.

Ready to Enhance Your Online Marketing Results?

Share Moving Media is a premier publishing and content marketing company. We love partnering with manufacturers and distributors in the healthcare space. If you want to expand your market share, grow meaningful relationships with potential buyers, and improve your brand image, we want to help. We can also help you create an epic online medical supplies catalog that converts.

Reach out to get started!

Top Marketing Challenges for Medical Suppliers

November 9, 2021 By John Pritchard

Today, we’re addressing some of the top marketing challenges for medical suppliers based on a recent survey that touched on content creation, marketing spend, essential resources, and success metrics.

Marketers today have so many options for growth strategies that it can be challenging to know where to begin. And the healthcare supply industry is no exception. Sometimes we can struggle to identify the best methods for reaching our audience effectively. Other times we face bandwidth or budget limitations that can cut us off at the knees.

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As a distributor or manufacturer in the healthcare space, your target audience may include IDN supply chain leaders, GPOs, and distribution representatives, among others. Keep reading to learn some expert tips on meeting your clients where they are and providing what they need when they need it.

Quick Takeaways:

Content marketers commonly struggle with content creation, finding subject matter experts, keeping an editorial calendar, and the content approval process.
To achieve your sales goals, you should start blogging, utilize email marketing, and take advantage of LinkedIn.
If you want to boost engagement online and win new clients, start sharing educational case studies, personalize communication and marketing, and engage on digital channels consistently.
Having enough bandwidth on your marketing team and setting clear expectations are critical factors for success.

Top 5 Marketing Challenges for Healthcare Manufacturers and Distributors

Below, we’ve identified the top marketing challenges in our recent survey, which was conducted primarily by healthcare product manufacturers.

1. Creating Content

When it comes to content creation, we found that marketers struggle most with the actual creation process. They also have difficulty finding subject matter experts, keeping an editorial calendar, and with the approval process.

Creating quality content that speaks directly to your target audience requires strategy. It’s essential to build a collection of content that reaches prospects at every stage of the buyer’s journey. To create authentic content that does its job, you need content creators and strategists that understand your industry, digital marketing, and core values.

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You can either hire and train an in-house content creator (or multiple, depending on the size of your business) or outsource your content needs to an experienced agency.

2. Achieving Sales Targets

Achieving sales targets was the top metric for proving market success for survey participants. So we’ve compiled a short list of winning strategies to help you boost sales in your business.

Start blogging: By prioritizing blogging, you can see up to 13x the ROI of companies that don’t.
Utilize email marketing: You can nurture leads, track KPIs, and create engaging campaigns to see an ROI of $42 for every buck you spend.
Take advantage of LinkedIn: As a top B2B social media platform, LinkedIn is a brilliant place to create connections, convert leads, and engage customers. You can reach your target audience through paid advertising and organic outreach.

3. Getting Clicks, Impressions, and Downloads

Your audience is busy. No doubt about that. So how can you reach and engage with them genuinely and naturally – without feeling salesy or pushy?

Your audience needs what you have to offer. Doctors’ offices and hospitals can’t function without supplies and equipment. You don’t need to sell them on that point. However, you do need to stand out from all the other medical suppliers vying for their attention.

To boost engagement and get more clicks, impressions, downloads, leads, and sales, follow these tips:

Share interesting case studies containing educational content for your clients or their patients.
Personalize messages and use storytelling to boost engagement.
Create buyer personas for your target consumers to better understand who they are, where they spend time, and how to engage them effectively.
Reach your audience by engaging consistently on social media channels and running online promotions.
Be the go-to source of information for research about your offerings and questions your audience is asking.

4. Having the Bandwidth for All Necessary Marketing Roles

Lack of sufficient bandwidth can be a big hurdle in marketing. Without the talent and workforce to successfully execute strategies and reach your goals and objectives, your initiatives will fail. Many marketers these days are either stretched too thin or required to wear too many hats.

To set your team up for success, you need to set realistic expectations that you can meet using your current resources. You may need to reevaluate your team dynamic. Or it may be time to hire more marketing experts or outsource specific roles to a full-service marketing team.

Here are some other quick tips to consider:

Ensure your marketing and sales goals align.
Focus on marketing tactics that have proven successful, and let go of others that are draining your team’s time and energy.
Break down massive, intimidating campaigns into small actionable steps.
Learn new tools and technology to make processes more manageable and efficient.
Continue learning and growing together as a team.

5. Having Clear Expectations

Setting clear expectations is another prominent challenge marketers across all industries face. To get all team members on the same page so everyone can move forward in the same direction at the same speed, follow these pointers:

Define and clearly articulate your expectations. Ensure everyone understands them or asks clarifying questions if they don’t.
Where have you not set expectations that you need to? You may need to identify problem areas and make some changes.
Make sure you explain the “why” behind your expectations. This will help you build trust with your team by confiding in them. It can also hold everyone more accountable.
Document your expectations and share them with your team. If anyone has reservations, they can share them. Once everyone is on board, they can sign the document and revisit it as needed.

Tactical Marketing for Medical Suppliers

Share Moving Media is a leading publishing and content production company that proudly partners with manufacturers and distributors in the medical field. We would love to help you grow your audience, crush the competition, and win new customers for your business.

Contact us today to learn more.

Creating a Healthcare Vendor USP in 8 Steps

November 8, 2021 By Scott Adams

A unique selling proposition (USP) will help you differentiate yourself from other businesses in your industry. As a healthcare vendor, a strong USP can help you stand apart from competitors. Leveraging your USP through branding, marketing, and sales is foundational to your success.

In today’s article, we’ll cover the basics of USPs, why setting your business apart is essential, and how to craft a USP your clients can’t resist.

Quick Takeaways:

Your unique selling proposition is what makes your company different from every other business.
Without a USP, potential customers could see you as bland, untrustworthy, or outdated.
To craft your USP, you must know what makes your business unique, understand your target audience, and address a prevalent problem.
Collect customer feedback, brainstorm ideas with your team, combine and cut down essential points, and then test and solidify your USP.
You can use your finalized USP for marketing, advertising, and communicating about your business – both internally and externally.

What is a Unique Selling Proposition?

Your USP, also called a value proposition, is what makes your company different from every other business. If you’re in a competitive market, setting yourself apart is vital. If you don’t, you could get buried beneath all the other businesses vying for your clients’ attention.

In a nutshell, your USP should instantly tell people:

What makes your brand, product, or service unique
How you can solve a relevant problem
The main benefits of your brand, product, or service

It should also focus on what your clients value most while assertively articulating your position. It’s where what your business does best overlaps with what your customers want most.

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How to Create a USP as a Healthcare Vendor

Without a value proposition, potential customers could see you as bland, untrustworthy, or outdated. Follow these eight steps to build a USP that helps you stand out, get noticed, and win and retain loyal customers.

1. Answer “What Makes You Different?”

What is it that makes your company truly unique? You may know instantly. Or you may have to do some brainstorming and research to determine the element(s) that makes you different from others in your space. Studying your competitors’ USPs can help.

Your USP could have to do with your customer service, technology, how or why your business started, or a specific niche you serve as a healthcare vendor. Maybe your service is faster, your products are of the highest quality in your industry, or your company is highly innovative. Whatever your differentiator is, make sure it resonates with your target market.

2. Study Your Audience

Continue your research by learning more about your target audience and current customers. Who are they? Hint: you’re not here to serve everyone. Narrow down on a specific niche of customers you can serve best.

Get inside their heads to learn what they want, the challenges they face, and how you can solve their problem. Why should they choose you over a competitor? Make sure you know who you’re targeting with your USP so you can be specific and authentic.

3. Solve a Relevant Problem

What problem is your business solving? Again, look through your customers’ eyes to understand the challenges they face and how you can step in and make their lives easier. As Simon Sinek says, “They don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it.” People don’t simply desire your product or service. They want you to solve a pressing problem. Explain how you can meet an immediate need through your USP.

4. Get Client Feedback

Another resource for discovering your USP is your current customer base. You can speak directly with your sales and customer service teams for quotes and customer feedback. You’ll learn about what your business is doing well and what you may need to work on. Chances are, more than one client has brought up the same reason your business stands out to them.

You could also send out surveys, review call transcripts and customer feedback forms, and look at reviews. More than likely, you’ll find some gold nuggets to support your USP.

5. Brainstorm What Makes Your Company Irresistible

Get your marketing team together for a brainstorming session. All hands on deck! This is where you can take all of the research you’ve collected so far and put it together. Throw as many ideas up on the whiteboard as you can. You’ll likely go through several versions of your USP before nailing it.

At this point, there’s no wrong answer. You’re just getting everyone’s ideas out in the open so you can analyze everything at once. In the next step, you’ll organize the information into a clear, concise summary.

6. Write Your Elevator Pitch

Pull the best elements of your brainstorm into a clear-cut elevator pitch. Remember to address each of the following questions:

Who do you serve?
How can you solve a problem?
What makes you unique?
Why should someone choose you over every other competitor?

Once you combine your best information into a cohesive, 1-3-sentence blurb, work it and rework it until it’s what you want. Often, the shorter, the better. Short USPs can be easier to remember, catchy, and easily identifiable.

7. Review and Test Your USP

Next, it’s time to test your USP by bringing in other team members, managers, departments, and stakeholders. Gather constructive feedback, and then make edits to finalize your USP. Don’t rush the process. Your USP will represent your business and influence your future marketing and sales campaigns, so it’s essential to get it right.

8. Communicate Your USP

If you’ve made it this far, congratulations! Forming a strong USP is no walk in the park. It takes focus, intent, lots of research, and patience. Your organization can now use your powerful USP to communicate effectively, target potential customers, and reiterate what makes you different – while keeping everyone on the same page. You can use it for healthcare marketing, advertising, and messaging.

Content Marketing for Healthcare Vendors

Share Moving Media is a leading content and publishing company for healthcare manufacturers and distributors. If you’re looking to increase market share, profitability, and mind share, we’d love to partner with you.

Contact us to learn more.