B2B Healthcare Marketing Strategies That Actually Drive Results

Today’s changing healthcare landscape is driven by tight regulations and privacy laws, adding complexity to B2B healthcare marketing not seen in other industries. Focusing on the right strategies and healthcare marketing trends will save you resources and enable you to meet the strict user privacy laws that govern the industry.

If you are a healthcare business marketing to other businesses, navigating the long and complex customer buying cycles is probably your biggest pain point. So, what’s the solution?

It’s to focus on strategies that work and scrap the rest. Concentrating resources on tactics with a tangible ROI streamlines marketing costs and allows you to shift your focus to operations.

Understand Your Healthcare B2B Audience

Success in all areas of marketing is found when you deeply understand your audience, from their deepest desires to their greatest pain points. However, unlike B2C marketing, B2B healthcare marketing is more complex since it comprises multiple stakeholders with different concerns and decision-making capacities. 

This means that your messaging must take a more strategic approach considering each stakeholder’s unique priorities. Understanding these dynamics will help you invest time and resources into strategies that nurture all stakeholders instead of trying to fit a one-size-fits-all messaging that falls flat. 

Who’s Involved in Healthcare Decision-Making?

Knowing who is involved in healthcare decision-making will help you understand the customer journey and how to market to healthcare organizations effectively. 

The following are the key decision-makers in the healthcare space and how they make purchasing decisions:

• Physicians: These stakeholders are in charge of purchasing many healthcare solutions. They look for products that will make them work more quickly and efficiently.
• Procurement Teams: These teams are responsible for sourcing vendors and negotiating contracts. They’re primarily focused on pricing models and compliance with purchasing policies.
• C-Suite Executives: CEOs and other senior executives always look at the big picture of how a solution fits into their overall goals. Most of all, they want to see measurable ROI, scalability, and improvements in operations.
• Compliance and Legal Officers: These decision-makers scrutinize solutions according to their privacy features and legal safeguards. To meet their criteria, all solutions must comply with regulations like HIPAA, GDPR, and FDA protocols. 

Embrace Account-Based B2B Healthcare Marketing

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) targets specific stakeholders with unique messaging that speaks directly to their needs. For example, in industries like healthcare, where trust and compliance are key factors driving sales, ABM uses knowledge of key stakeholders and the industry to zero in on high-value accounts and deliver a highly personalized message. 

By cutting through the long and complex sales cycles and targeting the right stakeholders, healthcare companies have a higher chance of closing a deal. When it comes to B2B healthcare marketing, Account-Based Marketing outperforms other marketing methods in terms of return on investment. Let’s look at how!

Why ABM Works in Healthcare?

• According to the ABM Leadership Alliance and ITSMA, 87% of B2B marketers report that ABM outperforms other marketing strategies in terms of ROI.
• Since healthcare deals are often 6-figure investments for hospitals and other stakeholders, ABM’s ability to align across stakeholders and speak to them with targeted messaging can close deals faster and with fewer marketing resources.
• ABM allows B2B healthcare businesses to target accounts by organization type, job title, and geographical location, significantly improving lead quality and conversion rates.
• ABM’s nurturing approach can optimize and streamline the usual long sales cycles in healthcare (often 6 – 18 months).

ABM for Multi-Stakeholder Healthcare Accounts

Purchasing decisions in healthcare usually involve anywhere from 4 to 7 internal stakeholders. 

This is why tailoring content to each is vital. Here’s how we recommend you approach each constituent: 

Job Title

To target potential buyers by job title, always focus on what they can gain through the partnership and create positioning that answers their biggest problems. 

For example, if you want to target CMIOs and CIOs, focus on integration and data security. On the other hand, procurement heads would best be targeted with a focus on budget and compliance. 

Finally, clinical leadership is best approached with messaging highlighting workflow efficiency and patient outcomes. 

Organization Type

The same precision messaging goes for targeting organizations. Hospitals and healthcare systems need to hear that partnering with your business can help them with scalability and regulatory compliance. 

Similarly, private practices prioritize affordability and quick ROI. Lastly, outpatient centers prioritize reduced clinical burden.

Geographic Location

Since regulations are state-specific, research them and customize your marketing with their compliance protocols in mind. Likewise, be mindful of local health initiatives that may make your pitch more appealing. 

Overall, each state has different rates of chronic disease and Medicare coverage, so the more research you conduct on your target geography, the better the outcomes of your campaigns.

Build Trust Through Educational & Ethical Content

In B2B healthcare marketing, valuable content that builds trust through educational and data-driven tactics is a sure way to nurture normally risk-averse leads. 

Every stakeholder in the healthcare industry requires clear, evidence-based information before considering possible solutions to their clinical or operational needs. 

Thought leadership in the form of in-depth articles, case studies, and white papers goes a long way to position B2B healthcare companies as authoritative and credible. Creating transparency around compliance standards and quality assurance lowers resistance to buying and speaks to why your solution would make their jobs much easier.

To nurture some of the most hesitant and hard-to-convince buyers out of all industries, this is our trust-building advice for utilizing content marketing at each stage of the buyer’s journey:

• Use blogs and infographics to attract awareness.
• Offer case studies, demos, and webinars during the consideration phase.
• And finally, showcase compliance documentation at the ready-to-buy stage.

Use microlearning videos and peer-reviewed snippets to stay on top of current healthcare marketing trends! These short videos are becoming popular and well-received by busy professionals hungry for quick insights. 

Predictive AI for Smarter Targeting

Using AI predictive analytics can help healthcare businesses scale personalization by analyzing engagement patterns and buyer behavior. This helps them understand who is most likely to convert and when.

Popular tools like Salesforce Einstein, Marketo Predictive, and ChatGPT API integrations streamline the marketing process by helping marketers tailor messaging by persona and create content that aligns with each buyer journey stage.

Even so, do keep in mind that all B2B healthcare marketing, especially that which analyses user data, should pass the compliance criteria checklist before sharing it with the public.

Multi-Channel Marketing for B2B Buyers

Healthcare B2B decision-makers are on diverse digital platforms. To reach them effectively, marketers must embrace a multi-channel campaign approach. 

Here are our picks for the best marketing channels for your healthcare marketing:

Key Marketing Channels to Prioritize

• LinkedIn – This is the top social media channel for health professionals since it is a hub for executives and clinical leaders who consume thought leadership and network on the platform. Sponsored posts, InMail campaigns, and retargeted ads perform very well here.
• Medscape – This platform is the go-to source for physicians and clinicians. Sponsored articles, ads, and even continued educational promotions can nurture highly engaged medical professionals in an environment they trust.
• Email – When done right through personalization, email is still one of the most effective marketing tools with some of the highest conversion rates. It is a trusted tool for nurturing leads and maintaining contact with potential buyers during long sales cycles.
• Industry Podcasts—Niche healthcare podcasts are gaining traction with busy healthcare executives and offer sponsorship opportunities. This healthcare marketing trend enables marketers to guest on these shows by delivering high-value content that helps the audience with practical solutions.
• Association Websites (e.g. HealthIT.gov) – Healthcare professionals frequent association websites for vetted information about the sector. Sponsored content and webinars are a great way to provide value through credibility offered by affiliating with these authoritative websites. 

B2B Healthcare Marketing Services

At CloudMellow Marketing, we understand the complex journey B2B healthcare companies go through to partner with healthcare stakeholders successfully. How? Because we’ve worked with many of them to deliver impressive ROI through our customized campaigns. 

If you’re curious how we can do the same for you in today’s changing healthcare landscape, contact our expert B2B healthcare marketing team, and we’ll outline a strategy that positions you for success!