5 Steps To Build A Medical Device Marketing Plan

Any product ever made relied on marketing strategies to get known and reach its target markets. Traditionally, it was through large billboards, television and newspaper ads, radio announcements, and event partners.

But since the birth of the internet and the rise of social media, devising a marketing strategy has become pretty cost-effective and straightforward. But it’s not without challenges. The business landscape has become cutthroat, and competing for customers’ attention is more complicated.

This is even more challenging for medical devices. Even if the market has rapidly increased in recent years, the challenge of marketing medical devices is ever-present.

What Are Medical Devices?

Medical devices are tools utilized by medical professionals in diagnosing, treating, and preventing medical conditions. Most of these devices are employed in the hospital setting, but some are used at home. Some devices, like the ones from KNF USA, are used in the laboratory and during surgical procedures. Some examples of medical devices are scanners, X-ray machines, blood glucose monitors, pacemakers, surgical instruments, and even PPE.

To succeed in the highly competitive market for medical devices, you need to build an effective marketing plan. This post will outline five essential steps to build a medical device marketing plan. By following these steps, you can reach the right people and maximize your medical device’s potential, so read on.

1. Conduct Market Research

Conducting market research is the first and most detailed step in your marketing plan. This is critical so your product can reach your target audience. Say, for example, your product is a glucose monitoring system. You must do these steps in conducting your research:

• Define your target market – This would be people with diabetes who need to monitor their blood sugar levels regularly.
• Identify competitors – Identify the companies that manufacture the same product as yours.
• Determine the market size and potential – Consult reports for the product’s market size and the compound annual growth rate it’s expected to grow at.
• Gather customer insights – You can conduct surveys, interviews, or focus groups with people with diabetes to determine their needs and preferences. You also must seek the advice and input of experts like endocrinologists and diabetes educators to help you with your research.
• Test the product – You can create a prototype to be distributed to your target audience and gather feedback on its usability, effectiveness, and appeal.
• Analyze and refine – Analyze the critical insights from your research and make improvements as needed.

Market research is an ongoing process. Even if you already have a viable product, continuously improving can ensure you can edge out your competition.

2. Identify Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Your USP will set you apart and magnetize your target market. To identify your USP, you must highlight the unique benefit of your product. In the case of a glucose monitoring system, you can emphasize its advanced sensing technology to help patients manage their condition effectively. By doing this, you’re highlighting the product’s accuracy and reliability.

3. Define Your Marketing Objectives

Your marketing objectives will be highly dependent on your organization’s needs. Do you need to increase product awareness? Maybe generate more leads? Is this a new product you need to launch? Do you want to expand to other markets?

It would help if you first defined these to make a SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-sensitive) goal. For example, suppose you want to generate more leads for your glucose-monitoring device. In that case, you may attend trade shows and conferences, partner with healthcare providers, and leverage your online presence.

4. Develop Your Marketing Strategy

Once you have identified your marketing objectives, you can decide on tactics to achieve them. Apart from the previous example of generating leads mentioned, you may also implement the following:

• Content marketing – Writing blog posts, publishing eBooks and white papers, and hosting webinars
• Social media marketing – Leveraging your social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn
• Email marketing – Regularly sending a newsletter, product updates, and offers to contacts on your email list
• Search engine marketing – SEO, keyword research, website optimization, and pay-per-click advertising
• Events and conferences – Networking with peers and industry experts

By crafting a definitive strategy, you know you’re reaching your target market and not wasting time and effort on channels where your presence will not be acknowledged.

5. Measure And Analyze Your Results

You need to analyze your results and tweak them accordingly. What’s excellent with today’s digital technology is that you can immediately know if your campaign is effective. Even in as short as one week, you can check using built-in tools on social platforms if your campaign is gaining traction. Using A/B testing, you can pause or discard the campaign to make way for a new one. This way, you’re using your marketing budget effectively.

Conclusion

A medical device serves a noble purpose, and by crafting an effective marketing strategy, you can ensure that people who need it will benefit from its use. Following the steps this post discussed, you can ensure your medical device achieves its goal of helping lives and achieve your sales goals simultaneously.