B2B marketing is undergoing a shift across industries. Look at companies like Salesforce or HubSpot for examples of great B2B consumer experiences. And who can forget Workday’s excellent Super Bowl LVII commercial celebrating the corporate rock stars? These organizations realize that there is still a ”C” hiding in B2B and are deploying some of the same B2C tactics to drive awareness, conversions, and long-term loyalty. In other words, they are treating B2B consumers like humans, not businesses.
Many organizations in the medical device space aren’t keeping pace. And the industry has a lot of room to inject some B2C excitement with their audiences. Whether organizations have clinical teams, pharmacists, suppliers, or a mix of other stakeholders in their sites, these B2C marketing strategies are working their way into their B2B world.
B2B audiences are just like B2C audiences, but they aren’t always treated that way
B2B audiences know what great digital customer experiences look like. After all, they are consumers in their daily lives, and it’s not lost on them that their consumer experiences at work are not always up to par with what they experience in their personal worlds. Med device consumers may experience a lack of personalization, interactivity, or even understanding of their unique persona. In short, they are expected to do more work to get their information they need to find a product, learn about its features, order the product, and get service.
Once they’ve chosen a product (or treatment or service), they are often on the hook to transfer the knowledge they have worked so hard to gain. Educating clinical staff members, sales staff members, procurement, the patient and other stakeholders is a key post-sale step that opens the door to building long-term trust, loyalty, and engagement.
B2B medical device marketing is an omnichannel event
B2B medical device consumers are seeking the same seamless experience they receive with the Amazons, Fords, and Sephoras of the world. In fact, you’ll find these audiences on many of the same channels as they use in their personal lives — they may just be using them differently. They may focus their social media time on LinkedIn; glance at their emails via phone; and rely on detailed documentation, forums and peer-to-peer discussions to help them become aware and to learn about products.
Patients are also an important channel for B2B medical device sales. The pace of innovation is so swift that it’s impossible to stay up to **** on every new advance hitting the market. Patients take the time to research solutions and bring them to their providers, so it’s important not to forget where the end user fits into omnichannel plans.
Clinical teams want to get up close and personal with your device
The COVID-19 pandemic made it much harder to get sales reps into clinical settings, and that trend persists in post-pandemic life. Creating virtual showcases for a product is essential, and putting the consumer in the driver’s seat is a surefire way to help audience explore a product without holding it in their hands.
While marketing messages and slick imagery may catch a stakeholder’s eye, most B2B audiences will want to dig much deeper into the details, outcomes, specifications and case studies. The information is important, but they don’t necessarily want to sacrifice a great experience for that information (and they shouldn’t have to). Think about how that information can be integrated into an experience with the device and how interactive elements can create a path through the product and related information.
B2C approaches engage channel sales too
Many B2B medical device organizations are no stranger to channel sales environments, and when we think about B2B2C processes, that middle ”B” is key. Transferring enthusiasm, training, sales tools and strategies, and decision-making support is crucial. Dynamic, interactive training drives motivation and engagement, differentiates products/companies, and supports improved understanding, decision-making, and retention.
Take a look at how Casper educates their consumers on the product, how to use it, and how it’s different from its competitors. That same interactivity, detail, and experience can be translated to sales staff members, amping up their skills to pass along a great experience to their customers.
Once you prove value, they are powerful advocates
Regardless of the stakeholder, we know that consumers will recommend products they believe in and have great experiences with. That advocacy is important for B2B medical device sales cycles, where numerous stakeholders are all evaluating the product with their own unique criteria and use cases. Having content that blends a healthy mix of emotion, data, and proof points to clinical, financial, operations and other functions will give advocates a leg up as they work to sell internally.
Externally, peer-to-peer transfer is just as powerful, and arming the market with great experiences to share with their colleagues is a recipe for conversion.
