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The Benefits of Outsourcing Content Marketing: Why Your Company Needs an Expert

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Having a solid marketing strategy is key to successfully promoting and selling products. All companies in the medical supply chain industry should be spending time and effort on marketing to increase brand awareness and customer following.

Marketing strategies have continued to rapidly develop, as technological advancements, changing consumer preferences, legal changes, and more has recently greatly impacted the industry, according to Forbes. Options are extensive when companies are deciding how to best promote their products. Companies today are, in fact, allocating more and more of their annual budgets toward marketing campaigns. According to Forbes and a Taradel marketing survey, 94% of small businesses have plans to boost their marketing spending in 2024.

While marketing is a critical component to a business’ success, there is no doubt that content creation can be time consuming and requires expertise to properly master. That’s where outsourcing content marketing comes in— your company doesn’t have to produce its marketing content all by itself. By outsourcing marketing, your team can focus its time on what it does best.

The goal of your company should be to make a profit, maximize sales, and make lasting, trustworthy connections with customers, not to get sidetracked by marketing. Read on to learn more about how your business can outsourcing marketing:

What is marketing outsourcing?

Marketing outsourcing is delegating a company’s marketing tasks to external professionals. Outsourced marketing professionals will assist a company in creating campaigns, content, marketing strategy, determining a target audience, and more. Outsourcing allows companies to focus on its day-to-day operations while hired professionals take charge of marketing responsibilities.

According to a study from Sagefrog, a marketing agency, 59% of companies decide to outsource marketing. The primary reason is that outsourcing is more cost effective, and because marketing professionals can assist companies in implementing new, innovative strategies.

What are the benefits of outsourcing?

  1. Trusted experts

External marketing professionals/agencies are well-versed in the nuances of the industry. They thoroughly understand industry trends and how to best utilize new technologies. They can also come up with more successful tactics and navigate any potential changes or challenges. External marketing professionals, with extensive experience, are much better equipped to give your brand a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Outsourcing, therefore, allows employees to spend time and resources elsewhere while professionals take care of marketing efforts.

  1. New perspective

Outsourcing offers a company a new marketing perspective. Businesses that conduct their own marketing campaigns often fall into routines and run the risk of reusing lackluster campaigns. Marketing agencies are experienced with what it takes to create successful campaign tactics, and can bring new ideas, innovative strategies, and a fresh perspective to the table to better promote your company.

  1. Cost reduction

Outsourcing can produce results similar to hiring in-house, but it may be more cost effective for your company to outsource its marketing. Outsourcing allows a company to reduce training costs and save time by not hiring new employees. Your business can instead allocate resources where they are most needed, saving time and money in the long run.

If your company in the medical supply industry could benefit from outsourcing its marketing efforts, look no further than Share Moving Media. With over 30 years of experience in the medical supply chain industry, our team of experienced staff have extensive knowledge of industry trends, changes and challenges, terminology, strategies that work best, and more. We can assist you with marketing responsibilities, from determining a successful campaign strategy to helping your team with content creation. Contact Scott Adams today to set up a brief meeting to discuss the benefits of outsourcing your company’s marketing.

Podcasting 101

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Podcasts are a popular form of media, especially as a way for listeners to gain audio information while multitasking — such as driving in the car, exercising, cooking, etc.

Podcasts are also an advantageous marketing tool. Businesses in the medical supply chain industry can leverage podcasting as a marketing tool in a variety of ways to increase market share.

Podcasts are a media form consisting of digitally recorded audio, often with a series of episodes that relate back to a specific theme. Businesses in the supply chain industry, for example, may produce a podcast with episode titles such as “How to Improve Healthcare Sales” and “Healthcare Industry Trends in 2023,” which would be brought to life through detailed audio information shared with the audience on each of the topics.

Podcasts are a powerful marketing tool, allowing advertisers to share content with wide audiences. Podcasts are relatively simple to create, and the creator can record and edit any digitally recorded content to share with audiences themselves. Once created, podcasts can be published on a company’s website, audiences can subscribe to the podcasts (and be informed right when new episodes are released), promoted on social media, and more. Podcasts allow a company to broaden its reach through new forms of media.

Read on for steps on how to start a business podcast:

  1. Identify a podcast theme

What does your brand want to communicate to its customers? Select a podcast title based on the goals of your brand’s marketing efforts, and tailor each episode to that theme. Determine the “why” behind the podcast, the audience, and how you will make each episode stand out, then create a podcast name based off those details.

  1. Record, edit, and publish podcast

The next step in podcasting is to record the information to be consumed by already existing customers and new audiences. Structuring podcasts in an educational, interview, or conversational format is a good way to start when conveying business information over a podcast. Once recorded, edit the podcast, and publish it to an easily accessible site so customers can continue to access it.

  1. Market your podcast

The final step is proper marketing. Podcasts create an opportunity for a business to have valuable, shareable content. Post the podcast on company social media accounts, send out the podcast in an informational email, post it to the company website, all with the goal of increase its circulation as a marketing strategy.

Below are a few examples of healthcare industry-related podcasts produced by Share Moving Media, Repertoire Magazine, and The Journal of Healthcare Contracting on topics including:

Increase Your Lab Sales in 2023

Sustainability in Medical Manufacturing

Marketing Minute Podcast: Omni Channel Marketing in Healthcare

Creating marketing content during the busy day-to-day business world within the supply chain industry can be a challenge. If your business could benefit from help creating marketing content such as podcasts, written content, blogs, webinars, etc., contact Scott Adams at sadams@sharemovingmedia.com to set up a time to meet to discuss improving your company’s marketing tactics.

How commercial healthcare providers are helping change the healthcare marketing industry

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With increased consumerism in healthcare, these new participants are changing how healthcare organizations market themselves 

The healthcare industry is witnessing a continued push towards consumerism. Stakeholders are turning to retail, tech and other sectors for innovation to help solve familiar healthcare problems. Enter commercial healthcare providers (CHPs). They can be defined as retail, payor, senior and tech-based providers changing the landscape of consumer healthcare as people seek convenience and quality in their healthcare experience.

In recent years, retailers have delivered products in a more convenient way, changing consumer behavior. An omnichannel approach has blurred the lines. Consumers can easily research a product and maybe even test it before purchasing it. As this approach has become more comfortable for consumers, they are pursuing it in other areas like healthcare.

Some familiar names in retail like Walmart, Walgreens, CVS and Amazon can be considered retail-based commercial healthcare providers today. Those and other retail-based commercial healthcare providers are acquiring and investing in tech-based startups and senior-focused providers in response to the shift in dynamics – both consumer-centric preferences and an aging population.

Payors like UnitedHealth Group and its Optum division are considered payor-based commercial healthcare providers. They are also investing in tech-based startups and senior-focused providers. Redefining the space is a change to fee-for-value reimbursement models, physician shortages, consumerism and digital disruption.

But how are commercial healthcare providers successfully marketing themselves and their services to the changing landscape? And what can other healthcare stakeholders learn from their entries into the marketplace?

Organizations must constantly expand their footprint in today’s healthcare environment. But there are plenty of barriers to growth like increased consumer expectations of healthcare, greater patient exposure to price, and expanding choices for healthcare consumers. Consumer interest must be stimulated to remain competitive in this healthcare marketplace.

Optum says that to drive sustainable growth, healthcare leaders need to better understand the consumers and patients they currently serve. Every healthcare leader should ask these four data-centric marketing questions:

  1. What customers do we need to reach in order to be successful?
  2. What do we know about our current customers?
  3. How do we ensure our current customers continue to choose us?
  4. How do we attract more of the right customers?

There is more consumer data, patient data and real-time marketing data to generate strategic and actionable insights than ever before. Healthcare organizations must act more like consumer-driven brands in today’s consumer-centric marketplace. Deploying precision marketing makes marketing more effective and more cost-efficient.

Optum helped AdventHealth develop a six-month marketing campaign that led 134,000 patients to the Central Florida health system, instead of its competitor. They discussed it during a healthcare marketing webinar.

They supervised a precision marketing campaign designed to speak directly to the people likely to use their services. But AdventHealth needed digital tools and help from marketing partners to achieve their results. Optum mined digital data to prioritize 850,000 people, dividing them into 11 specific cohorts. Some included young singles without a primary care physician, married couples with kids, very sick people with more than two or three diseases requiring complex care, and people of all ages suffering from unexplained stomach and abdominal pains.

Unique messaging was designed for each group, considering clinical needs, gender, language and culture. People received the messaging through their preferred media channels at the times they were likely to see it.

It led 134,000 patients to AdventHealth rather than the competitor’s emergency departments and the investment yielded a $474 return for every marketing dollar spent, according to AdventHealth.

A focused approach to marketing by reaching out directly to likely customers and engaging them through personalized messaging can provide better results with less wasted effort.

Share Moving Media is experienced with the creation of marketing campaigns that increase SEO searches for companies within the medical distribution industry. We can assist your brand in creating content that is simple, shareable, and that appeals to emotion to effectively promote your company. Visit www.sharemovingmedia.com to learn more.

Growth in Ads

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The pandemic impacted many aspects of daily business, including the marketing and advertising industry. During the pandemic, the advertising industry experienced rapid growth, and now that the world is moving forward, and continues to be higher than average.

According to a forecast by Brian Wieser and published on AdWeek.com, the advertising industry in the United States is projected to grow 5% in 2023. Total ad revenue will grow 2.0% to $363 billion in 2023. In 2024, there is an expected surge of 8.1% projected ad revenue growth.

The growth of the ad industry has steadily increased in the past decade due to access to cheap capital that provided “vast sums” of money for companies to use toward advertising pursuits, according to analyst Brian Wieser, media and advertising analyst/consultant.

So, how has the industry changed? And what do those changes mean for the medical supply chain industry? Read on to learn more:

Why did the ad industry expand during the pandemic?

Advertising during the pandemic was unpredictable. During COVID-19 lockdowns, many advertisers took the time to pause and reevaluate their marketing strategies to develop more engaging and creative ads. Now that the world is beginning to normalize post-pandemic, there have been many changes and differences in the primary ways that companies advertise, such as an increase in digital advertisements such as with content on social media, website, podcast, etc.

How popular is digital advertising?

Digital platforms such as social media, YouTube, commerce/retail media, and companies like Apple account for 64% of all advertising. This influence is expected to grow 11% this year in 2023, according to Wieser. Retail media is also on track to grow by 20% in 2023, led by companies such as Amazon.

What does the increase mean for the supply chain industry?

The supply chain industry can greatly benefit from taking advantage of digital advertising in their marketing efforts. Advertising content published on platforms such as online and social media can promote a brand to a wide audience and gain invaluable exposure. For companies in the medical supply chain industry, digital advertising is also beneficial because it can provide a platform to promote a company to hospitals or industry execs.

The advertising industry is expanding and increasing, and that dominance is only expected to grow in the coming years. If your brand could benefit from assistance with creating content for a strong and successful marketing campaign, contact John Pritchard with Share Moving Media at jpritchard@sharemovingmedia.com. SMM has over 30 years of experience advertising within the medical supply chain industry and can help your brand take advantage of the rise of digital advertising through content creation. Contact us today to set up a preliminary meeting session to learn more.

How to Create Shareable Content

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Social media marketing is all about creating shareable content – those viral posts are veritable gold in the hills for social media marketers, and it’s not always easy to find that gold. The goal of using your social media to connect with your audience is to leverage the power of each platform to get your followers to engage with your posts. When your followers are sharing the content you create, knowledge of your brand will organically, naturally grow its online presence. It’s a big job, but it’s critical to succeeding in a digital world.

Finding the right ingredients for content that is inherently shareable can be elusive and challenging for organizations who are trying to engage with their audience through strategically engineered content. Strategy is the key word here – when you are intentionally creating content with the audience in mind, this becomes much easier to do well.

Here are three key ideas to keep in mind when you are creating shareable content.

It needs to be relevant

With all of the background noise in the world right now, there’s never been a better time to strive for relevancy. Our attention is constantly getting pulled in a dozen different directions, so when we find something that is relevant to our experience or circumstances, it resonates much more. This is especially in regard to creating shareable content. When your audience sees something that is relevant to them, they are much more likely to share it with their own colleagues and peers, effectively getting more eyers on it.

Shareable content has to be relevant. It has to have some sort of deeper meaning or be timely to the person who is engaging with the content. Without relevance, why will it matter to your audience? If you aren’t sure what’s relevant to your audience, do a poll to see what kind of content they would be interested in seeing. Approach your content and social media strategy as sharing news related to your organization and your industry with your audience.

It needs to get an emotional response

The quest for meaning and value is a huge component of the human experience – part of what makes viral content so powerful is the emotional response it elicits from the people engaging with it. If you want your content to have any resonance with your audience, it’s important to craft it with what your audience cares about.

Stories are the most powerful tool for eliciting an emotional response. When you tell stories that speak to the emotional triggers of your audience, you can better create content that will drive results for your organization. Whether you are using a personal story, a customer testimonial, or even a case study, leveraging a narrative into your content will help to connect to your audience on an emotional level.

It needs to be valuable

The need for valuable content cannot be overstated – if it’s not creating value for the end-user, why would they bother to spend time consuming the content? If you’re looking to create shareable content, anything that’s overly promotional or an advertisement will likely not be shared by your audience. Instead, lean more towards educational content like blogs, infographics, and white papers that are designed to provide relevant information to your audience.

Consider the “80-20 Rule”: 80% of the content that you post on social media should be educational and value-based, while 20% should directly promote and advertise your organization. The reality is that you’ll never connect to your audience by only sharing ads. If you limit the amount of promotional content that your audience sees, they may be more willing to act when they do see one.

Creating shareable content can be a powerful way to increase customer engagement and brand awareness. Share Moving Media has over 30 years of experience adapting business’ marketing campaigns to succeed in the healthcare supply chain industry. If your business could benefit from the creation of online content such as blogs, podcasts, webinars, marketing material, and more to set your business apart in the medical supply industry, contact Scott Adams at sadams@sharemovingmedia.com to set up a time to meet.