Healthcare professionals (HCPs) are busy people, consistently researching new advancements and devices in their industry to better serve their patients. Because they’re so busy, it’s important to deliver a concise and compelling message to gain their attention. A successful HCP marketing strategy is rooted in understanding your ideal audience and personalizing your message in a way that speaks to them.
Steps to A Successful HCP Marketing Strategy
Below are 4 steps to creating a marketing strategy that speaks to the needs of your HCP audience and positions your brand as a thought leader.
-
Identify Ideal Audience & Understand Intent
-
Develop Buyer Personas
-
Keep Well-Maintained Contact Lists
-
Create Specific & Relevant Content
Identify Ideal Audience & Understand Intent
One of the first steps in HCP marketing strategy development is to identify your ideal audience. For example, if you were marketing a medical device, you’d most likely target the types of practitioners (cardiologists, etc.) who would most likely prescribe said devices to their patients.
Don’t discount other key decision makers, such as administrative staff that are responsible for purchasing equipment, or even other practice staff – after all, it’s been found that practice staff have more influence over doctors than anyone else and can be a good resource when they’re familiar with and trust your brand.
Market research can help determine who your ideal customers are, where they regularly frequent, and what they’re looking at in terms of medical device solutions. This will help drive your strategy, enabling you to produce and deliver relevant content in the most effective manner.
Develop Buyer Personas
If you’ve finished the research phase of your HCP marketing strategy, you’re done with the most time-consuming part. With the information you gained previously, it’s now time to organize that information and develop your buyer personas. A buyer persona is a fictitious representation of your ideal client or audience. Through developing a buyer persona, you can better develop targeted content that speaks to your target audience’s goals and pain points.
Next, you can decide how many buyer personas you want to define. If you’re new to the game, it’s easier to begin creating personas for the main segments you sell to most. New personas can always be added and adjusted as needed as you gather more data and learn more about your ideal audience.
Now it’s time to create a name and a story for your buyer persona. Ask yourself questions, such as:
-
How old is your persona?
-
What job titles do they hold?
-
Where do they live?
-
What is a typical day at work for them like?
Asking questions like the examples above can help shed light on your buyer persona’s goals and motivations.
Keep Well-Maintained Contact Lists
An extensive contact list might be appealing, though it’s much more beneficial to have a high-quality list. Keep track of metrics such as click-through-rates and opens. Clean your lists of incorrect or unresponsive contacts every so often.
By regularly updating and maintaining your lists, your campaigns will ultimately yield more success, while saving you time and money.
Create Specific and Relevant Content
Producing quality content is essential for gaining and maintaining HCP engagement. Of equal importance is producing content that’s both personalized and informative.
Most healthcare professionals enjoy staying up-to-date on the newest medical solutions to expand their knowledge, so creating personalized and relevant content is key to establishing your brand as a thought leader. This establishes authority and builds trust with prospective customers.
Content doesn’t have to be limited to blogs – it can also include targeted educational materials such as ebooks, infographics, whitepapers, or other downloadable content. Demonstrating your understanding of your target audience’s lives and pain points makes it more likely that they’ll purchase your device or pharmaceutical product over your competitor’s.
How Effective Is Your Strategy?
With the proper research, you can begin developing targeted buyer personas and craft meaningful and engaging content that will capture the attention of your HCP audience.
If you’d like to learn more about HCP marketing strategies, check out our blog.
