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How Can Medical Manufacturers Use Inbound Marketing?

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Marketing is all about engaging your target audience. To do that, you have to establish contact and start a conversation. You might think that the best way to achieve that goal is to target them with marketing materials proactively.

However, flooding people with unwanted information will likely annoy them – and may even leave them distrustful of your brand. The majority of consumers already report that they don’t trust brands or their advertising.

As a marketer, distrust is the last thing you want to inspire in your target audience. This is especially true in the medical manufacturing field. You are responsible for healthcare products that literally change – or even save – lives. So, how do you reach consumers without inundating them with unwanted messaging?

Inbound marketing is the answer. This methodology brings customers to you by offering them valuable content tailor-made to their interests.

Find out how to implement inbound marketing for healthcare manufacturers below.

Inbound Marketing 101

Outbound marketing techniques like phone calls, email spam, and media buys are more likely to annoy than convince consumers. In contrast, inbound marketing attracts consumers organically. How? Content.

Blogs, websites, e-books, podcasts, long-form articles, and white papers can provide valuable information. By creating educational, informative content that meets your target audience’s needs, you can spark their interest — and then drive them to your website, your primary sales platform.

Effective content also helps to demonstrate authority on a subject and to establish trust. Authority marketing is a must in the medical manufacturing field. Healthcare provider networks, physicians, and patients need to trust your company and its products.

Implementing Inbound Marketing for Healthcare Manufacturers

Inbound marketing shares the same end goal of any marketing tactic: to generate leads and convert them to customers – and, ideally, loyal followers. The difference lies in the first step, as inbound marketing subtly attracts consumers instead of aggressively pursuing them.

Here is a step-by-step guide to inbound marketing for healthcare manufacturers.

Know Your Customer

If you’re going to create content your consumers find valuable, you have to know what they want. Understand their pain points, challenges, and motivations. Developing a customer journey map can help you make your content sell even if you’ve never met the end customer.

For example, in the current climate, understanding how the COVID-19 pandemic impacts healthcare providers and networks can help you generate relevant and timely content.

Create Niche-Specific Content

Odds are you work in a highly specific field, whether it’s cardiovascular stents, stethoscopes, or ultrasound machines. Many medical manufacturing professionals will stay in the same sector for years or even decades.

Leverage your knowledge. Content marketing in healthcare should be focused on your area of expertise, allowing you to create genuinely informative blogs, white papers, e-books, and more.

Perfect Your Website

The content you put into the world to attract your target audience should always link back to your leading sales portal – your website. Include a call-to-action with links to your platform, ideally after the content. Promoting upfront can deter consumers.

When consumers get to your website, they should be greeted with a streamlined, user-friendly platform. Create a robust portal that will drive healthcare sales. It should feature straightforward navigation and content that is crisp, clear, and informative.

Finally, make sure to develop a mobile-friendly version of your website. Many people now prioritize smartphones over desktop computers for internet access, and Google ranks mobile-friendly websites higher in search engine results.

Automate Your Marketing Processes

Inbound marketing is all about delivering an improved consumer experience. This comes in part from great content and in part from efficient processes. Use marketing automation tools to streamline operations.

Say a consumer visits your website, for example. They download a free white paper on a topic of interest to them – say, cardiovascular stents – in exchange for providing their email address. A marketing automation system will capture, sort, and store that email. It can further be programmed to tailor future mailings according to the individual’s expressed interest (in this case, cardiology).

What does this accomplish? The consumer gets more meaningful content more quickly. Meanwhile, your marketing team saves time and effort, which they can then dedicate to other measures – like creating more great content.

Tap into the Power of Inbound Marketing Today

Share Moving Media is a full-service media company specializing in medical marketing and distribution. From podcasts to e-books, blogs, and more, we can help you create and place valuable authority content to drive your inbound marketing efforts.

Subscribe to our newsletter for more healthcare marketing tools, tips, and tricks. Ready to revamp your inbound marketing? Contact us.

The Changing Face of Content Marketing

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Content marketing in healthcare has changed quite a bit as the world rapidly adjusts to upcoming technologies and all that it has to offer. While digital journals in healthcare aren’t exactly a new concept, they are quickly becoming the expectation when it comes to publishing relevant information in the world of healthcare.  

Digital health is quickly becoming the new norm, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. This term refers to the practice of using various technologies to provide data access to everyone in the healthcare industry – patients included. The end goal of digital health is to foster an equal patient-doctor relationship. 

With digital health on the uprise, does that mean that print media in the industry is on the way out?

Is Print Media Dead in the Water?

Is print media dead in the world of healthcare? Absolutely not – but it has its time and place. In the healthcare field, medical professionals must be able to find information in a moment’s notice, and nothing makes that easier than digital journals. They are also an excellent resource for medical teams to share with their patients when they need answers to their questions.

Here’s the thing – print media is still a relevant option when it comes to healthcare marketing tools. In fact, a study by MarketingProfs showed that print ads were not only easier to digest by the public, but that consumers trusted print ads 34% more than search engine ads – something worth noting when considering digital advertising in healthcare.  

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However, when it comes to creating and sharing relevant information amongst professionals and patients alike, digital media is the way to go. It is the most natural solution as far as digital health is concerned. Digital journals in healthcare give instant access to doctors, marketers, patients, and the general public when it comes to sharing relevant updates in the world of healthcare. 

Not only that, but it’s the perfect solution for medical facilities that are turning their focus to sanitary marketing. Again, sanitary marketing isn’t a new concept; however, in light of the current pandemic, it’s never made more sense. The concept, in a nutshell, is the safe delivery of marketing communications and the sharing of information in a way that informs without manipulating. 

Since more people are now restricted from in-house visits with their physicians and rely heavily on telehealth, it makes sense to have digital journals available. This allows healthcare professionals to share the materials with those who ask for more information or better references. It also helps medical facilities move away from unsanitary marketing practices that leave consumers with more questions than answers. 

Why Digital Journals in Healthcare Make Sense

Now, when we talk about digital journals in healthcare, we are talking about the genre as a whole. When most people think medical journals, they often think of the big wigs, including:

  • The Lancet
  • New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM)
  • Journal of American Medical Association

These journals have a heavy focus on studies of various practices and theories. What they can lack, however, is the simplicity in language that is required for the general public. The good news is that there are dozens of other reputable digital journals available for the public, including:

The goals of these digital journals are to keep the public informed of the goings-on in the healthcare industry – an industry that can get extremely complicated, very quickly. They break down the complicated jargon and turn the content into something that is not only easily sharable but much easier for the average reader to understand. 

Using Digital Journals to Foster Relationships Between Professionals and the Public

Now, the general public is very unlikely to head to Google and start searching for digital journals to help them with a medical problem. Instead, they’ll likely talk with their doctor and ask them for more information. The medical team will then provide them with relevant sources to help guide them on their search.

While digital journals can be very technical in nature, they are still an excellent source of content when optimized correctly. Remember, the goal of these journals is to foster positive relationships between medical teams and their audience. So, that means these journals need to be answering essential questions that patients are likely to ask and use both a language and tone that are easily understandable to those who will be reading them. 

Translating the complicated jargon used throughout the healthcare industry can be challenging for some, which is why it’s crucial to have the right team on your side to help you break it all down into something that can be shared with your audience. 

Share Moving Media Can Help

Here at Share Moving Media, we understand that creating the right content for your audience can be somewhat challenging. Our team of trained professionals has the knowledge to help you create amazing content to help your business reach its goals. 

Curious how we can help you create outstanding content? Then contact us today to learn more!

Online Directory Listing: Is it Still Relevant in 2021?

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As a medical supplier, you want to stay on top of the latest marketing techniques – and not waste your valuable marketing dollars on media formats that are no longer relevant.

Online directory listings were essentially created to serve as the internet’s response to the phone book. There is no question that the telephone book is irrelevant these days. However, you might also be wondering whether the digital version of the phonebook is still relevant. It is a fair concern.

After all, online directories were created in the days before Google existed. If you wanted to find a website, you had to input it directly. If you did not know the exact address, the solution was to search an online directory. As web directories expanded, they made money by boosting specific results for a fee or selling ad space.

Given that search engines now make it easy to find websites online even with only a partial address or business name, you might assume that online directories in healthcare are defunct. While you should not necessarily invest big bucks in directory listings now, you also shouldn’t ignore them completely. Failing to maintain listings can cause issues for your business – as you will see below.

Why Online Directories in Healthcare Still Matter

This e-guide explains why online directories in healthcare still require your attention in 2021.

Improve Search Engine Optimization

If you have a website, you have undoubtedly informed yourself about the importance of good search engine optimization, or SEO. This makes it easy for people to find you as a medical supplier via Google, Bing, and other search engines.

While search engines might be part of the reason online directories are less significant these days, they still take online directories into account. Inputting your business into reputable directories (more on how to tell what is and is not reputable below), you generate backlinks to your website. Backlinks help increase SEO rank.

Ensure a Consistent Online Presence

Accuracy is critical when it comes to online directories in healthcare. Incorrect or inconsistent listings can give your medical supply business an unprofessional appearance. They can also make it difficult for potential customers to find you via the directory – which is the original goal.

Inconsistent listings can also hurt your online presence by damaging SEO. Remember that just because you have not created an online listing for your medical supply company does not mean someone else has not. You may have listings you do not know about. It is essential to ensure the information they contain is the same across all platforms.

Search engines like Google can view discrepancies between business listings as a red flag, thinking they are fake or scams. This can make Google question the authenticity and legitimacy of your website, detracting from your SEO success.

Check Your Reviews

Online directories allow you to expand your online footprint in one other valuable way – they can serve as a means of gathering testimonials from satisfied clients. Client reviews can help serve as a natural, helpful, and trusted means of word-of-mouth marketing. Plus, they do not cost you a thing financially.

That said, all reviews are not necessarily good. Again, remember that some directory entries may exist that you are not aware of – because someone else created a listing for you. You do not want this to happen with a disgruntled customer.

While you cannot delete a bad review, which would be unethical, you can respond to it. Consumers react positively to a positive, thoughtful response from a business to a negative review. Your response shows that you are still engaged and listening to what your client wants. It is far better than simply letting negativity go unanswered.

How to Make the Most of Online Directories as a Medical Supplier

You cannot afford to ignore online directories in healthcare, even in 2021. Regular directory maintenance will help protect your medical supply business’ online presence. Check your directory listings across major platforms regularly to ensure they are up to date.

Major generalist directories include BOTW, AboutUs, and Spoke.com. There are also local directories, like Google My Business, Bing Places, Yahoo, Yelp, and the Yellow Pages. Some guides can help boost your business reputability – like the Better Business Bureau and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Other directories specifically target medical suppliers, like MedSuppliers, Medical Device Directory, and the Medical Device Qualified Supplier Directory (Qmed). When deciding which medical supplier directories to work with, do your due diligence.

First, do your research to determine what directories are trustworthy and active. A reputable directory should:

  • Review submissions: Be wary of any platforms that approve listings automatically. These are likely to contain scams and spam links. A reputable directory will use editors to review applications and ensure credibility.
  • Be user-friendly: The appearance of an online directory can be an indicator of its trustworthiness. A disorganized page with many pop-up ads is not user-friendly – and is unlikely to do you much good.
  • Cater to the end-user: A reputable directory will target the end-user, knowing that the end-user relies on the guide as a trusted source of information. A well-maintained, clearly designed, and comprehensive directory listing provides actual value to users with well-sourced content.

You want to present yourself as a trustworthy, reliable supplier to potential customers who may find you online. You do not want your name associated with the scam- or spam-filled directories.

Boost Your Digital Marketing in Healthcare with Share Moving Media

Online directories in healthcare are just one of the many tools you can use to boost your business profile and expand your market reach as a medical supplier.  Share Moving Media helps healthcare distributors stand out from the crowd and increase visibility with comprehensive content marketing services.

We are a full-service media agency working across multiple media formats, including print publications, online webinars, blogs, podcasts, and more. We work exclusively with healthcare suppliers, giving us unique insights into the marketplace. With our marketing and healthcare knowledge combined, we can support your success. Get more tips from the Share Moving Media blog.

Want to collaborate? Contact us.

7 Revenue-Focused Tips for Hospital Supply Chain Management

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Hospital supply chain management is complex due to challenges like limited inventory visibility, a lack of audit trail for supplies, and limited control over procurement. These issues can result in waste, costing healthcare organizations valuable money. Research suggests that United States hospitals could save up to $25.7 billion annually with improved handling of products and operations.

As a medical supplier or healthcare distributor, understanding the supply chain hurdles your clients face is critical if you are going to cater to their needs. These hospital supply chain management tips provide essential insights and give you the tools you need to enhance collaboration with your clients.

7 Hospital Supply Chain Management Tips

Supply chain hurdles do not just impact healthcare workers. They can also prove problematic for patients, increasing the risk of supply gaps or shortages — a critical issue when it comes to potentially life-saving equipment, tools, and medications. Implementing the below hospital supply chain management tips is thus a question of cutting costs and improving patient care.

1. Use Technology to Improve Overall Inventory Management

Technology improves inventory management to help cut costs. Management can enhance pipeline visibility to track medical device product usage in a hospital or healthcare facility using cutting-edge QR codes. Radiofrequency identification, RFID, tags are another option. RFID tags are used to track everything from vehicles to pets.

Cloud-based solutions are another expected game-changer for the healthcare supply chain management market. A hospital is a data-driven organization, collecting masses of patient data, from personal details to medical history, current symptoms, and insurance information. Cloud-based solutions help integrate information coming in from diverse locations.

2. Manage Medical Devices to Point-of-Use

Once QR or RFID codes are in place to track inventory, hospitals will gain comprehensive oversight of how, when, where, and why medical devices and products are used. This opens the door to mapping products throughout the entire supply chain through to the point of use. Managers will have apparent oversight of what devices are already in circulation versus where supplies are lacking.

Hospitals can also correlate data regarding medical device use with general organizational data (patient populations, staffing, seasonal health trends, etc.). They can then see what factors may be impacting device use and use this data to ensure optimal usage, sparing extraneous costs.

3. Examine Utilization Rates to Avoid Waste

The use of QR codes and RFID tags opens up the door to real-time locating systems. These tracking systems can be used to find equipment accurately and quickly in the present and further to inform supply chain analytics in the future. RTLS implementation allows healthcare systems to not only streamline equipment utilization but also improve patient flow.

For example, supply chain teams regularly issue extraneous purchase orders for moveable medical equipment, MME, due to poor visibility. Often, MME is sitting idle and readily available – but forgotten or lost in the shuffle. This is especially true of the larger hospital organization. Utilization data can be leveraged to avoid needless equipment rentals and purchases.

4. Promote Clinical Engagement

Healthcare professionals are on the front lines of patient care in any organization, be it a private clinic or a public hospital. These experts are often a fantastic resource for identifying points of waste in the supply chain. They can also provide insights into how to standardize product usage best and prioritize products. Gathering feedback from clinicians further helps to establish trust within the supply chain.

In addition to asking healthcare professionals for their input, it is also essential to provide them with the education they need to use resources optimally. Adequate training can help encourage good habits and discourage bad ones – such as unnecessary hoarding of supplies. A physician leadership program is one helpful way to raise awareness and provide actionable advice at the ground level.

5. Reconfigure to Need-Based Ordering

Poor inventory management can result in excess or expired stock. This is a financial drain on hospitals and poses a potential risk to patients (in the worst-case scenario that an expired item is used). Instead of simply filling supply rooms, hospital management must shift to a need-based ordering system.

The technologies described above, like QR codes and RTLS systems, can help in this regard. For example, advanced inventory management systems will automatically send a digital alert when the amount of a select product falls below a certain level, ensuring there is enough lead time to order fresh supplies. Such systems can even be configured to automate ordering from suppliers.

6. Understand Costs to Ensure Effective Pricing

Healthcare providers who fully understand costs can ensure effective pricing. For example, a cost-accounting system can be used to break down the cost of each service based on supplies and human resources used.

Many hospitals lack the requisite accounting methods to determine details like Medicare cost allocation or cost-to-charge ratio accurately. However, this data is integral to a smoothly running pricing system. Knowing the cost-to-charge relationship at the level of patient care will promote better investment in tools overall, creating more value for both the hospital and the patient.

7. Reexamine Suppliers Relationships

Supplier relationships are never set in stone – at least, they should not be. Suppliers and hospitals alike should revisit vendor contracts regularly. As hospital managers gather data about supply chain management using the tools and processes described above, they may find that they must adapt their ordering. For example, consolidating contracts and suppliers can be one way to save.

Stay Up to Date on the Latest Healthcare Supply Challenges

Share Moving Media helps healthcare distributors like yourself keep track of the latest news in the healthcare market, providing the competitive edge needed to increase market share. We can further help you connect with your target audience with our comprehensive healthcare marketing and content services.

We are a full-service media agency, producing everything from traditional print publications to podcasts, webinars, and more. We cater specifically to suppliers and distributors in the healthcare and medical fields. Visit the Share Moving Media blog for more actionable content.

Contact us to learn how we can boost your business.

Social Media for Healthcare Providers: A “Clinically Proven” Strategy

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Social media has changed the face of digital marketing. It is a platform where people share educational articles, engaging videos, and interact in real-time through chat features, likes, and comments. For around 71% of Americans, it’s also a source of news information. Healthcare providers who want to connect with their customers, build deep relationships, and drive business should develop a social media strategy that delivers valuable information on multiple platforms.

People turn to social media for professional insight as well as personal recommendations. Investing your time and resources into social media for healthcare providers is a must in today’s marketplace. It helps you build trust, reach a wider audience, and share more quality information about products, services, and trends in the healthcare industry. Position yourself as an authority in your field with a clinically proven social media strategy.

How Social Media Impacts Your Business

Social media is a highly effective and powerful tool when it comes to building an audience and generating revenue. The average person has eight social media accounts. By publishing content and sharing information on these platforms, you have multiple opportunities to reach them on any given day. This helps build brand awareness and recognition.

Because the very nature of social media is to be more interactive, you can further customize your messaging. Candid conversations reveal wants and needs, and you can use that insight to publish content that solves problems and answers questions.

People love to share information. From reviews and endorsements to negative experiences and warnings, people use social media as a platform to connect and help guide people to the products and services they need. Promoting your business on social media through ads and posts helps increase referrals and gain more customers.

Social media provides numerous long-term benefits to your business. Make the most of this opportunity by developing a social media strategy that sets you up for success.

Develop an Effective Social Media Strategy for Healthcare Providers

To maximize the numerous marketing opportunities social media affords companies in the healthcare supply chain, include these platforms in your digital marketing strategy. Map out a plan for how to most effectively use social media to your benefit as you aim to reach your audience and boost sales growth.

1. Employ Social Listening 

Before you can fully meet the needs of your audience, you must first understand what those needs are. People turn to social media to share information about their lives. Engage in social listening to find out what people are saying about their wants, your organization, and your products. Not only can you learn about customer satisfaction, but you can also gain insight into trending topics that matter to your audience then use that information to develop content that provides resources for their benefit.

You can use software tools to gather this kind of data, or you can simply conduct your own research. Either way, start monitoring this information now. With these tools, you discover what’s on the mind of your consumers and leverage that into content that boosts your business and solidifies your following.

2. Engage with Industry Leaders 

Form relationships with influencers in your industry. These people could be advocates, physicians, experts, or public figures. Industry leaders usually have a large following on social media platforms. They’ve already established themselves as a trusted resource and when they speak, people listen. This is especially true in healthcare. Navigating healthcare can be challenging, so having a trusted leader to share valuable information is a huge asset to followers. 

By engaging with these leaders, you not only tap into their audience but also gain a level of credibility and legitimacy that is important in the healthcare industry. If you build a solid partnership with these influencers, you can share information on each other’s pages, co-market your businesses, and further strengthen your reputation as a leader yourself.

3. Establish Authority with Multimedia Sources 

In the healthcare industry, it’s easy for misinformation to spread. It is a confusing market, and people need reliable sources of accurate information. Social media affords companies the ability to easily share multimedia posts from reputable sources. Through video interviews, downloadable whitepapers, and slideshow presentations created by industry experts, healthcare suppliers can distribute factual information from trusted sources. 

This helps allay audience concerns and perpetuates the spread of reliable information. As users see factual articles, they’ll share them with their contacts, and the reach grows exponentially. Compelling graphics and videos are eye-catching and easier for people to digest and remember. There’s an increasing need for accurate information in healthcare. Social media grants you the opportunity to serve as a reliable resource for your target audience and beyond.

4. Educate Your Followers 

Social media is a perfect platform to spread the word about your business. Not only can you create custom messaging to teach viewers about your company, but you can pinpoint your audience with highly targeted ads that reach specific demographics and needs. Social media enables you to build your brand identity. Posting authoritative articles in your voice, style, and tone help teach people what your business is all about. 

The type of content you publish also educates people about your brand. Informational articles, for example, reveal your expertise. Similarly, engaging videos show your company’s personality, and shared sources alert your audience about your connections within the industry. Your social media strategy tells people a lot about your business.

5. Collaborate on Healthcare Policies and Issues 

One of the unique attractions to social media is its fundamental encouragement of open communication between people of different backgrounds on various issues. In healthcare, social media allows physicians, healthcare workers, manufacturers, suppliers, and consumers to discuss policies and issues that are unique to the healthcare industry. Social networks give people a voice to talk about their concerns and work together to find common solutions.

Collaboration enables regulation agencies, researchers, and healthcare suppliers to reach customer-centered decisions. This helps to solidify trust and results in optimal customer satisfaction.

Develop an Effective Social Media Strategy for Your Healthcare Business

Every healthcare professional, from medical sales and hospital purchasing to hospital distribution and manufacturing, can benefit from an effective social media strategy. Reach a wider, targeted audience, gain market share, and drive more business to your website.

Contact us today to discuss how social media marketing can benefit your healthcare business.