Is Medtech Marketing Asleep?
There’s a shift already underway in medtech and healthcare marketing and it’s going to be even bigger. If you’re not sure about that, just look at the numbers. A 2022 survey by McKinsey & Company says it all:
As many as 70% of consumers now demand more control over their healthcare choices.
A big part of that behavioral landslide came out of the remote data access and app-based convenience of the pandemic, but it’s not going back in the bottle. Consumers want the same level of accessibility, engagement and personalization in healthcare services and medtech products that they’ve become recalibrated to expect in almost every other sector. Unfortunately, as this dynamic advances, driving DTC health services and technologies, many clinical, healthcare and medtech marketers aren’t fully prepared for the pace and scale of the evolution upon us. If you’re a marketer already seeing a marked upswing in consumer demand and involvement, or your organization is deciding how to cope with changes in expectations, here are some of the factors to think about and steps needed to adopt change quickly.
Learn From Consumer Goods and Marketers
If there’s one thing CPG marketers do well, it’s understanding consumers and the role their products or services play in daily life. Medtech marketers can borrow from this playbook by addressing patients’ needs and motivations more directly. Could success, then, be more about involving patients as partners in their healthcare journey rather than simply the buyers or recipients of technology to treat a problem?
Strategies to do this include:
1. Meet Consumers Where They Are: Like consumer brands, medtech companies need to think about information and service access. Adopt more of an omnichannel approach and be on the platforms and in the channels where consumers are already looking and engaging. Once there present the information on technologies and solutions in easily accessible formats that don’t require in-depth knowledge or an enormous lift from a consumer to understand.
2. Educate, Don’t Just Sell: To make consumers patients – and then loyalists – requires buy-in. This comes down to more than selling the benefits of a medtech product or solution. Build educational content into campaigns in the same way CPG marketers explain quick features and benefits or “how to” of new devices. And make that content easy to consume: short form video from consumer-friendly experts can work well and break down barriers to adoption.
3. Embrace Empathy and Patient-Centric Language: Provider and medical professional communications is essential but in the fast growing DTC market, simplicity is the new marketing directive. Easily-understandable and empathetic language that speaks to consumer concerns and positions the product as part of a solution in their lives can be successful.
A Case in Point: Inspire Medical Systems
Inspire Medical Systems is an effective example of what can be achieved by embracing a more progressive approach to marketing within medtech and healthcare landscapes. Their flagship product, Inspire Sleep, the first FDA neurostimulation device to treat obstructive sleep apnea, is both a new path to treatment for sleep apnea patients, and a different way of speaking to consumers and potential patients. Inspire brought in a team of marketers from a broad spectrum of CPG and other industries to create a more consumer-centric campaign designed to help patients struggling with sleep apnea to find a treatment more suited to their needs.
The approach is working. A focus on real patient stories that emphasize ease of use and build community connections through social media with consumers has made the innovative technology more approachable for patients. And smart online optimization combined with content designed to educate with consumer-friendly simplicity has brought big rewards for Inspire. Website visitors total more than 10 Million people, generating in excess of 100,000 qualified leads, and as many as 20,000 new patient appointments.
Tips for Medtech Companies to Accelerate DTC Marketing
As Medtech marketers evolve their approach to DTC market demands, they should consider these three strategies:
1. Fully Embrace and Invest in Digital-First Marketing:
More than 80% of people turn to online information sources before they even make a doctor’s appointment. So a robust and strategic digital-first marketing strategy is essential. That means a balanced approach to both the placement of paid ads and provision of consumer-friendly content to engage more effectively as consumers begin their learning and decision processes.
2. Create Consumer-Focused Storytelling:
Connect effectively with consumers but also in ways that deliver empathy, demonstrate understanding and show the efficacy of treatments, tools and technologies to help solve their problems.
3. Always Make Data Driven Decisions:
Ensure you have access to the data and metrics that show how consumers are engaging with your digital content and presence in real time. Constantly re-evaluating reach, engagement and click through to action will help allocate resources more effectively.
A Wake-Up Call?
We’re not quite at the stage of a final wake up call for medtech marketers that fail to embrace DTC, digital-first methods and strategies, but we’re close. When 85% of adult consumers own a smart phone and consumers spend close to five hours a day online, the tipping point to be seen is fast approaching.