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The Sum is Greater Than the Parts: Co-Marketing Strategies in Healthcare

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Co-marketing in healthcare can help your brand expand its audience and win new, brand-loyal followers who are likely to convert into paying customers.

Healthcare distributors that partner with other brands in their field also can take advantage of new resources, expertise, and ideas. All of this adds up to more creative, impactful, and far-reaching marketing campaigns.

Benefits of Co-Marketing

A well-executed co-marketing effort will be greater than the sum of its parts in the truest sense of the saying: A collaborative campaign between two brands is often more compelling than a single-brand campaign, as each partner adds unique assets to the equation.

If you need proof of the value of co-marketing, look at some of the world’s biggest brands:

  • GoPro and Red Bull co-branded for the Stratos campaign.
  • Pottery Barn and Sherwin-Williams joined forces for the “Color Your Room” campaign.
  • BMW and Louis Vuitton teamed up for “The Art of Travel” campaign.

These companies have the funds and expertise to run entirely effective marketing campaigns solo. So why team up? They recognize the immense value of co-marketing.

Here are some of the benefits:

Save Money

Marketing campaigns cost money. Some initiatives, like email marketing or organic search engine optimization marketing, can be reasonably cost-efficient. However, other initiatives like paid search marketing and pay-per-click advertising can require five-figure budgets.  

When you co-market in conjunction with another brand, you tend to split the costs of the campaign. This allows both sides to save, resulting in a greater return on investment.

Reach a Wider Audience of Brand-Loyal Consumers

If you’ve been in the healthcare business for some time, you probably already have a built-in audience – loyal consumers and followers form a network of connections that you’ve nurtured for years. Finding new leads to convert is often a challenge, however, especially in the competitive healthcare market.

When you co-market with another brand, you gain automatic exposure to their built-in following of customers. Of course, they gain exposure to your built-in following, too – quid pro quo.

Not only do you gain automatic exposure, that exposure is also more likely to result in conversions. Why? The people who follow your co-marketing partner presumably already trust that brand. They are thus even more likely to trust your company. You’re no longer a stranger. You’re a friend of a friend.

Target the Right Customers at the Right Time

Partnering with other brands also opens up unique opportunities to reach customers at a point in the sales funnel when they are more likely to convert.

The most obvious example can be seen when you book a vacation. As soon as you buy a flight, you get offers for hotels and car rentals. These brands are demonstrating co-marketing common sense. They are creating a one-stop shop to maximize your spending when you’re already in a buying session.

How might this scenario look in the healthcare setting?

Say you work for a medical devices company selling blood glucose monitors for diabetics. You partner with healthcare providers in the diabetes space, promoting a campaign that raises awareness about symptoms of diabetes and the importance of diagnosing and managing the illness.

The campaign will drive potential diabetics to seek testing from HCPs, bringing them business. Those diagnosed with diabetes will then already have your brand name in mind and know where to turn when they need blood glucose monitors to manage their illness.

Tips for Co-Marketing in Healthcare

Ready to implement co-marketing in healthcare? Follow these steps.

Choose the Right Partner

The value of co-marketing partnerships depends mainly on who you partner with. Choosing well-respected and well-recognized brands can enhance your brand identity. Conversely, aligning yourself with brands that have a bad reputation can harm your image. Reputation management is critical.

You also want your partnership to make sense. As a healthcare distributor, it won’t look good to partner with a tobacco brand. Now, that’s a pretty egregious example – but you get the point. Your partnership needs to be logical. You shouldn’t just pick a partner because they have a big name. The aim is to align services and products that support each other.

Set Shared Goals and Develop Your Strategy Accordingly

Both partners need to benefit from your co-marketing campaign. Define individual goals and share them to make sure your agendas are aligned. You can then develop mutual goals. With your aspirations set, you can craft your time-specific marketing strategy, including key milestones, deliverables, and metrics you will use to track progress.

Create a Co-Marketing Agreement

If you’ve determined that your mutual goals are aligned, go ahead and hammer out a formal co-marketing agreement. This will help to avoid miscommunication as your collaboration progresses.

Your agreement should cover goals, timelines, topics, promotional plans, and reporting initiatives. If you are creating co-branded content, where will each party share it? How often do they need to share it? What evidence do they need to provide to the other party that they’ve shared it? Finally, make sure to define ownership of content and assets that result from your collaboration.

Tap into Each Party’s Strengths and Weaknesses

Co-marketing campaigns are created collaboratively. Working with an external brand to craft compelling healthcare marketing strategies and content can reinvigorate your in-house marketing. Such collaboration allows you to tap into novel resources and expertise and develop new ideas.

Before you start creating your campaign, take stock of each party’s strengths and weaknesses. Maybe your healthcare marketing team is hitting it out of the park in social media marketing but falling short on blogging. If your partner has a high-traffic blog, that’s great. Once you know each side’s strengths and weaknesses, you can better divide up tasks for maximum effectiveness.

Craft Compelling Co-Marketing Content

Finally, you can get to the fun part of co-marketing in healthcare: creating actual campaigns. You and your partner should craft new content together. Brainstorm collaboratively and select the ideas you like best to carry forward. Mapping the customer journey can help ensure alignment of concepts and goals as you develop joint content marketing in healthcare.

Boost Your Co-Marketing Impact with Share Moving Media

Trust Share Moving Media to support your co-marketing in healthcare. We are a full-service media company, crafting everything from ebooks to white papers and podcasts. We can help you and your marketing partners prepare compelling content that engages and converts audiences to increase healthcare sales.

Contact us for help with your healthcare marketing.

Marketing Minute Survey

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Here at Share Moving Media, our internal marketing team is conducting a survey to gather information regarding today’s market strategy.

We want to know what’s critical and what’s not when determining what goes into your marketing campaign. Please take this quick 2-minute survey to give us insight on what is important to you!!

All responses are held confidential and ONLY respondents will get the results! Participate to learn what is important and top of mind for your peers! 

Take the Quick Survey Now!

Make Your Organization Leaner with Agile Marketing in Healthcare

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Lean organizations are focused on one thing: creating greater customer value while minimizing waste. This type of business model is a natural fit for the healthcare industry, which prioritizes getting patients the best care possible, as quickly as possible, at the lowest cost possible. As a healthcare distributor, it’s worth doing your homework into the lean approach to see how it can enhance your business operations. Agile marketing in healthcare is one way to make your organization leaner.

What Is a Lean Organization?

“Lean” refers to a type of organizational structure. It’s all about using as few resources as possible to achieve the best outcomes for customers.

In a lean model, every member of the organization will find ways to improve daily processes. When small tasks performed by individuals become more efficient, the organization as a whole becomes more streamlined. The end result is the ultimate lean goal stated in the introduction: more value for customers, less waste for companies. Everybody benefits.

Can this business model really make that much of a difference? You’d be surprised. Some big names in the business world subscribe to the lean methodology, including Toyota and Intel. 

A lean organization benefits your employees, customers, and company alike. Here’s how:

  • Employees: Lean can boost employee accountability and engagement within your organization, as the onus is put on individuals to find ways to improve processes.
  • Customers: Since Lean is ultimately all about improving customer value, it forces the company to get into the customer’s shoes. This means placing value on customer opinions, soliciting feedback, and acting on it. By catering to customers, the company can better meet their needs.
  • Company: Lean promotes growth by paring the business down to the essentials, using readily available resources without over-extending beyond existing means. Plus, more engaged employees mean improved performance, while happier customers whose needs are being met drive sales – ultimately boosting profitability.

Agile Marketing 101

How can agile marketing in healthcare contribute to a lean organization? First, let’s define agile marketing.

A Quick History of the Agile Mindset

The agile approach was initially developed as an approach for software delivery in 2001. It’s characterized by its iterative process, which is what gives agile its defining trait – flexibility.

In the past, developer teams conceptualized a product and then concentrate their efforts to deliver that final product as they had envisioned it. In contrast, the agile approach requires development teams to assess value at every development stage – not just once they’ve crossed the finish line.

What sets the agile approach apart (and made it so groundbreaking when it appeared) is the flexibility it insists upon. Agile development requires a continual feedback loop. The software development team doesn’t just define a product and deliver that end product to the market. They continually seek feedback throughout the development process, tweaking things as they go along.

This results in more innovative development and, ultimately, a more user-friendly product. Agile development has proven extremely successful in the software industry and is still used to this day.

Agile Marketing Defined

So, what’s all that got to do with marketing?

Let’s get back to that defining trait mentioned above – flexibility. This is likewise a defining characteristic of agile marketing campaigns.

Marketers have recognized that they can’t just create campaigns and shove them down consumers’ throats. By consistently soliciting feedback from their target audience, marketers – including in the healthcare industry – can craft campaigns that truly resonate with that audience.

Agile marketing is about more than just collecting feedback, however. As a tactical marketing technique, agile requires teams to:

  1. Collectively identify high-value projects and then focus collectively on those projects.
  2. Measure the impact of those projects.
  3. Tweak their efforts to incrementally yet continuously improve the results of the project.

This marketing model supports a lean organizational structure because it improves value for the customer (creating marketing campaigns that engage clients) while reducing wasted time and resources for the company through constant feedback, measurement, and tweaking.

Tips for More Agile Marketing in Healthcare

Implementing agile marketing in healthcare is easier than you might think. These tips can get you started.

Implement Sprints

Agile marketing teams rely on sprints to drive cooperative and efficient collaboration. A sprint is a short, predefined period in which teams jointly focus on a single task. For example, you might ask your team to implement a new pay-per-click ad campaign within X days or weeks.

Hold Daily Stand-Up Meetings

Agile’s flexibility means projects are always evolving. It’s thus smart to check in with your team’s progress regularly. A short, 15-minute (maximum) stand-up meeting every day is a great way to do this. Team members should bring up issues and bottlenecks (e.g., that PPC campaign isn’t performing as hoped) so they can be addressed quickly. The entire team can then collaborate on the solution.

Use a Board to Track Progress

Another key trait of agile is that it relies on visual progress tracking. You can go old school and use a whiteboard and sticky note to track progress. Alternatively, you can use a digital Kanban board. This is also a great way to enforce accountability. You can update the board together as a team during stand-ups to see who is doing what.

Measure, Measure, Measure

As mentioned, feedback is critical to agile success. Now, that doesn’t mean that marketers have to continually ask their target audience, “Hey, what did you think of that campaign?” or something similar. Modern marketing tech and tools make it easy to get feedback.

For example, the success of social media influencer marketing can be measured by metrics like shares, comments, and likes. The success of an email marketing campaign can be measured by opens and clicks.

Ramp Up Your Healthcare Marketing

Share Moving Media can help you tap into the power of agile marketing in healthcare. A full-service media company, we help our clients create content and campaigns that deliver real value to their target audiences. Our goal is to help you increase healthcare sales.

Subscribe to our newsletter to learn about the latest healthcare marketing tools, tips, and tricks.

Contact us to collaborate.

Why Trade Publishers and the Industry Need to Join Hands to Revive Sales in Healthcare

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The healthcare industry has seen big shifts in recent years. Legal, compliance, and regulatory changes have impacted how healthcare suppliers operate. Technological advancements are changing the face of healthcare procedures, but possibly the greatest impact on the healthcare industry is the advancement of the internet.

Now, people have access to infinite information. They can do their own medical research and are less dependent on medical salespeople. As a result, healthcare sales are on a downward trend. Industry professionals, like hospital suppliers and those in medical distribution, need to rethink their marketing strategy and find new ways to reconnect with their audience and reach them with meaningful information. 

The answer may lie in trade publications. It’s time for trade publishers and the industry to work together to revive sales in healthcare.

Why Trade Publications are an Invaluable Marketing Tool

Trade publications are a reliable source of information, and people trust their authority and reputation. These magazines provide education, expert knowledge, and thought leadership to keep readers informed and knowledgeable while helping to solve business challenges. From industry announcements and press releases to case study findings and opinion columns, trade publications offer multiple benefits to their readers.

With the vast accessibility of the internet, many people prefer to read their information online. Trade publications have been able to remain current by adapting to meet consumer’s needs and deliver the same useful resources through digital distribution. 

Some readers will dispute that paper publications are a dying breed and continue to prefer hard copy formats. In any case, trade publications are an invaluable marketing tool in many ways.

To connect with your audience, you need to understand them. Identify the challenges they face, find out what answers they’re seeking, and see where their interests lie. An effective way to gain this knowledge is to read the same materials they’re reading. See what they’re learning about and use that information to create effective marketing campaigns that address their concerns and pique their interests.

More than content distribution, trade publications facilitate engagement among the healthcare community. They provide online forums, content libraries, virtual networking opportunities, and downloadable resources. Industry workers who become involved with these things themselves can build a relationship with their audience while gaining a deeper understanding of their needs and wants. All of this can help generate leads and increase sales growth. 

4 Reasons Why Trade Publishers and the Industry Should Join Forces

Trade publications are especially beneficial to the industry because they raise awareness, boost name recognition, increase visibility, and help to gain credibility. Not only should industry leaders read these publications, but they should also consider contributing articles, editorials, and purchasing ad space in them. Here are 4 reasons why trade publishers and the industry should join forces to revive sales in healthcare.

1. Lead Generation 

Trade publishers are distributing their materials to a highly targeted audience. By contributing to these publications, you’re getting your company name in front of new viewers you haven’t yet reached. With the information you’ve gained from following what readers are discussing in forums, you can develop authoritative content that answers their questions meets their needs.

Not only will you broaden your reach, but you may also have readers contact you on other platforms to connect and discuss your thoughts further. This kind of engagement enables you to develop a relationship with your new-found audience and helps with lead generation.

2. Position Yourself as an Industry Expert

By nature, trade publications are reputable sources delivering trustworthy information. When industry professionals develop content that appears in these publications, readers perceive them to be equally trustworthy. The more meaningful and useful content you get published, the more you position yourself as an industry expert. As people begin to associate you with valuable, knowledgeable information, they’ll begin to look to you for answers and insight.

Company decision-makers read these articles. As they see your name more and more as a trusted resource, they’ll be inclined to contact you directly for possible business opportunities.

Additionally, your trade association may take notice of your content and consider you for in-person opportunities. Serving as a discussion panelist, a forum monitor, or even a keynote presenter would get you in front of more people for even further brand awareness. All of this leads to potential sales opportunities.

3. Stand Apart from the Competition 

Trade publishers are always looking for content to fill their pages. Through articles and advertising, they provide several opportunities to set yourself apart from your competition. After all, if you’re not appearing in these magazines as a contributor, chances are that your competition is. Even if you don’t have research findings or editorial content to contribute, consider taking out an ad. 

Publications provide opportunities for heightened visibility. Do what you can to get your name in front of readers and attract prospects before they turn to your industry competitors. By standing apart from your competition, you increase the chance of gaining new customers and boosting sales.

4. Drive Company Efforts

Trade publications provide a means to highlight your team’s achievements and industry successes. Not only does that strengthen readers’ perception of your organization and drive traffic to your team—it gives a morale boost to the people in your company and solidifies the trust of your stakeholders. When people are proud of the work they’re doing and believe in the company they work for, they have more drive to continue to succeed.

Publicizing your company’s leadership is good for business development and provides materials that are helpful for sales efforts. When you can present prospects with featured industry articles touting your company’s strengths, you build credibility with your client base and earn their trust for purchase power.

Share Moving Media Can Help You Join Hands

Healthcare professionals that want to revive sales in the industry should partner with trade publishers to develop quality content that’s visible, targeted, and generates leads. Share Moving Media is a full-service content company that helps healthcare professionals increase market-share through articles, blog posts, and publications. We understand the importance of developing meaningful content and providing training and educational opportunities to help businesses grow. 

To learn more about how we can help you revive healthcare sales, contact us today.

Healthcare Industry Branding: 5 Surefire Ways to Get Your Industry Association Talking About Your Brand

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There are currently 784,626 healthcare companies in business nationwide. From hospital purchasing to hospital distributors, that’s a lot of competition throughout the healthcare supply chain. To increase visibility in a saturated market, healthcare suppliers need to find ways to set themselves apart from the competition.

Joining industry associations is an effective way to gain a foothold in the healthcare industry. Developing professional relationships with other healthcare providers can help drive traffic through referrals, create a support system for brainstorming and problem-solving, and help with sales growth.

Becoming an association member isn’t enough to make a significant impact on your business. You need to encourage industry associations to spread the word about your brand. Promotion from an established and respected association can raise awareness about your business, expand your overall reach, and generate revenue for your healthcare business.

How Industry Associations Help Business

From the Health Industry Distributors Association to the Medical Device Manufacturers Association, there are numerous organizations for healthcare providers to join. Becoming a member of a trusted industry association brings numerous benefits. There are three main ways in which an association can enrich your business.

1. Networking with Peers and Colleagues 

Associations consist of professionals who share similar concerns, obstacles, and opportunities. Whether you meet in person or connect online, you’re able to join conversations with a large pool of like-minded healthcare suppliers, end-users, and purchasers. You can break down barriers and learn from others’ experiences, gain insight into how you could be improving your own processes, and share your expertise to help others. 

2. Standardization of Best Practices

By sharing knowledge and experiences with other healthcare professionals, you’re able to develop a series of best practices. From curating important information and separating it from trendy buzzwords to researching industry benchmarks, associations help determine a level of expectation for practices and procedures. As expectations evolve, associations assist with developing and communicating standards to help streamline conversations and practices industry-wide.

3. Individual and Professional Development

Career development is a leading reason people join industry associations. Associations provide educational resources for their members. From training and seminars to bringing in guest speakers who are experts in their field, associations develop knowledge and expertise for healthcare professionals. Mentorship opportunities guide professionals in decision-making and problem-solving. Individual chapters provide leadership roles, which help build management skills and develop a trusted reputation.

5 Ways to Gain Brand Awareness Within Your Industry Association 

With so much to gain from an industry association, businesses need to leverage their membership in these five ways to develop brand recognition and revenue.

1. Contribute to the Conversation 

A major perk to industry associations is having access to a huge audience with shared interests yet different experiences. When you see forums or discussion threads, whether online or in person, join the conversation. Add your own experience and insight to provide helpful resources for others in your industry. By providing relevant, detailed answers to questions, you present a new perspective to the conversation and set yourself apart as an industry leader.

The more people see your name and your company involved in these discussions, the more you’ll build a trusted network of followers who look to you for advice and input. Eventually, members will think of your name when they have questions, need to problem-solve, and ultimately need your services.

2. Generate Insightful Data 

Draw attention to your business with researched facts and figures. Through polls and surveys, you can ask important questions that others in the industry may also have. Analyze the results and share those studies and their findings with the members of your association. 

This helps to educate them on industry-wide topics, which strengthens the industry as a whole. It shows that you take the initiative to seek out answers. You’re willing to share the information with your fellow members as a means to help their personal and professional development.

Whether you post this data on online channels or submit it to an association publication, insightful data can gain you publicity from press coverage to social media posts. All of this raises awareness about your brand and helps to build a loyal following.

3. Join Forces with Other Members 

Associations encourage collaboration among their members. Consider collaborating with another company within the association. By working together, you position yourself as a team player. You also double your audience by appealing to your followers as well as those of the other company. 

Whether you combine your expertise to conduct industry studies or work together to write an educational article, collaboration tends to attract more attention from association membership and leaders. When people see two reputable companies discussing something of interest, they’re more likely to tune in. Position yourself as a thought leader by joining forces with an association partner.

4. Stay Front of Mind 

Create meaningful content and consistently share it with your association. Develop social media posts that deliver useful information and are easy for others to share. Encourage members to leave comments and join discussions to build engagement among viewership. Not only will your fellow members begin talking about your business. Association management is sure to see your involvement and will be more inclined to promote your brand to others in the industry.

5. Volunteer 

Although many associations survive on dues, most still run on volunteerism. One surefire way to get noticed is to help out wherever you can. From offering to coordinate industry-wide or local chapter events to serving on a discussion panel, by donating your time to the greater good, you can become a household name among association leadership. Fellow members will also get to know you and your business. 

The more involved you are in the association, the more opportunities you have to gain visibility, build trust, and create buzz about your business.

Let Share Moving Media Help Increase Brand Awareness

There are numerous benefits to joining an industry association. If you’re ready to take membership to the next level, hire an expert to help you create content that can help gain the attention of your industry association. 

Contact Share Moving Media today to create a strategy that will build brand awareness among your industry association.