Marketing to healthcare professionals is extremely competitive, requiring agencies and freelancers to bring their A-game and deploy smart strategies that helps them stand out from the crowd.
According to Reuters, U.S. healthcare spending will reach nearly $6 trillion by 2027. Within that market, doctors and other healthcare professionals have a ton of spending power. They make critical decisions every day about healthcare products and services, from the medical devices and tools they use in their practice to the medications they prescribe to their patients.
Read on to learn proven strategies for medical marketing from professionals with experience creating highly-targeted, memorable healthcare marketing campaigns that convert.
How is marketing in health care unique from other industries?
Most physicians and medical professionals have extremely busy schedules. They spend most of their time focused on providing quality patient care—as they should. When they do make time to review the literature on the latest drug or medical device, they only have a short window to make a decision. Marketers need to be prepared to deliver an effective message in that short amount of time when marketing to healthcare professionals.
Many healthcare companies also operate as part of a bigger, more complex organization. So there’s not just one doctor or office manager making decisions for the entire practice. There may be an entire committee of decision-makers reviewing options before making any purchases or even before agreeing to meet with a sales rep.
In such a competitive industry, healthcare professionals are constantly inundated with emails, phone calls, and direct mail from companies trying to sell them something or get them to buy their product or drug.
Successfully marketing to healthcare professionals requires marketers to find creative ways to break through the noise and get the attention of doctors and other healthcare decision-makers.
What is the best way to market to doctors?
Whether you’re sending an email, direct mailer, or visiting their office, you only have a few minutes (or even just seconds) to capture a doctor’s attention. A lengthy report or informational healthcare marketing video is probably not going to be read or watched all the way through.
Even if you’re marketing a revolutionary product that could greatly improve patient outcomes or a miracle drug that could eliminate the symptoms of a common disease, it won’t matter if that message isn’t effectively delivered to the doctor. When marketing to healthcare professionals, you must get right to the point with your message, and provide solid proof of what your product can deliver.
To increase the chances of your message getting through when marketing to healthcare professionals, follow these best practices:
- Make it quick. Assume the doctor you’re trying to reach is checking his email in the five minutes he has to spare between appointments and boil your message down to the most vital information.
- Avoid fluff or hospital marketing jargon. Doctors are highly intelligent and don’t like to feel pandered to. Keep your language straightforward and professional.
- No typos. Doctors and people on their team won’t find your company credible or trustworthy if they see careless mistakes in your marketing materials.
- Include facts and hard data. Don’t make claims you can’t back up with real data. If the doctor doesn’t see through an unreliable claim right away, they will eventually, and your credibility will take a hit.
What digital marketing strategies work best for doctors?
When marketing to healthcare professionals like physicians and nurses, look for ways to make your marketing materials stand out on digital channels. Assume their inbox is full of similar promotional emails and requests to meet, and that they will only respond to those that have something unique to say or that can solve a current problem for them.
Also, take the time to make every message unique. Even though marketing automation and boilerplate messaging can save time for busy marketers if healthcare professionals always see the same thing from your company they may start to tune you out. It’s worth the extra few minutes to customize messages to make them more personal and relevant to the decision-maker you’re reaching out to.
FAQs: Marketing to healthcare professionals
Over our many years in the industry, we hear a lot of questions about marketing to healthcare professionals and how to do it effectively. Read on for a few of those frequently asked questions.
How does healthcare marketing affect healthcare?
The products and services used and recommended by healthcare practices all over the country almost always got there through healthcare marketing. Marketers play an important role in spreading the message about new and innovative healthcare solutions and getting the eyes of doctors and other decision-makers on them.
From drug makers to bandage manufacturers, every company relies on marketing to healthcare professionals to get their products or services out in the market.
What factors contributed to the emergence of marketing in healthcare?
The desire to expand public health and deliver profits has always been the main contributing factor to the growth of marketing in healthcare.
According to Course Researchers, healthcare marketing in America dates back to as early as 1910 but has undergone a series of evolutions since the 1970s. In 1977, the American Hospital Association developed the first healthcare marketing strategy to promote hospital services.
How do you build trust and engagement with healthcare professionals?
An important thing to remember when marketing to healthcare professionals is that while they do extraordinary jobs, they are also just regular people. When marketing to physicians and other medical professionals, you don’t always need to focus solely on your products or services.
Share helpful content and nurture your relationship with them. By proving that you can be a valuable partner who has something to offer, you may find it a little easier to get their attention when you want to sell them something down the road.
Connect with healthcare professionals like never before
When marketing to healthcare professionals, consider working with a digital marketing agency with experience working with healthcare practices and hospitals across the country.
An experienced agency partner can help you build a results-driven strategy and make meaningful connections with doctors and other healthcare professionals in your market.
Trust the healthcare marketing experts at TBH Creative
TBH Creative specializes in creating effective healthcare websites and marketing campaigns, and we understand the unique challenges of marketing to healthcare professionals. In 2021, we were awarded six Aster Awards—five gold and one silver—for our excellence in healthcare web design and healthcare marketing.
