- May 22, 2019
Infographic Content:
Here in the B2B space, potential customers of healthcare marketers are not the patients but medical organizations, decision-makers, and healthcare professionals. This makes marketing more challenging as convincing industry leaders for purchase isn’t a cake walk. Marketers need to build credibility, build trust and be able to mold the mind of even the toughest healthcare decision-maker.
With the increasing popularity of online marketing channels and tools, the healthcare industry is currently undergoing a transformative phase. B2B marketers are now embracing digital marketing practices like marketing automation, social media marketing, email marketing, SEO and content marketing.
Insightful Statistics
- 2 out of 3 doctors use social media for professional work – EMR Thoughts.
- 81% of hospital administrators search for a healthcare vendor online and are most likely to contact them directly – Google Think Insights.
- Most of the healthcare buyers use mobile to read reviews, testimonials, and search for medical vendors and products. – Google Think Insights
- 43% of B2B sales take place within six months of the first contact. – Colony Health.
Challenges of B2B Healthcare Marketing
- Risk-averse nature of healthcare buyers slows down the purchase journey.
- Lengthy and time-consuming decision-making process for purchase approval.
- Healthcare companies have different budget cycles which limit the purchase time to a fixed period.
- The pressure and fear of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
- The dependency of healthcare companies on group purchasing organization (GPO) for negotiating and making the final purchase.
- The pace of change in healthcare is slow which turns efforts useless.
Trends to Look Out for in 2019
- Video marketing to gain more popularity as a marketing strategy.
- Use of educational or informative content to increase.
- Marketers to invest more in digital advertising.
- Demand for expert online data analysts to grow.
- Optimizing healthcare websites for mobile devices.
- Increase in multichannel healthcare marketing initiatives.
Best B2B Healthcare Marketing Strategies to Follow
- Use of LinkedIn and other social media channels to network and connect.
- Conducting analytical study and research for a better understanding of buyer persona.
- Micro-targeting with focus on a specific group of customers.
- Creating and publishing content that is relevant and useful.
- Developing mobile-friendly healthcare websites and interactive apps.
- Building a powerful social media marketing plan.
- Practicing location-based SEO and geo tagging while campaigning.
- Leveraging artificial intelligence techniques and advanced analytics.
