Quality Content Marketing: 4 Powerful Tips for the Medical Device Industry

Every year, more medical devices hit the market, and an aging population means that the demand for medical devices will be skyrocketing as well. But while there are more and more potential customers (great!), there are also more products competing for their attention and business (not so great). You need to make sure the right audience finds your products and recognizes the value that these products can add to their brand — and their patients’ lives.

Communicating the value of your products is a major marketing challenge for medical device makers. To meet that challenge, you need compelling copy and a top-notch content marketing strategy. You’ll want to determine who your audience is: Are they patients or medical professionals? Next, think about what content will catch their attention and drive them to action. Finally, decide the best formats to deliver that content. 

Here are four tips to help you create the kind of content your clients want — and need — to read.

Target and Tailor Your Content

The target audience for medical device makers is no longer just medical professionals. According to Google, one in twenty Google searches are health-related. The rise of the internet has put a wealth of information at everyone’s fingertips, and people are searching online for medical information, either as preparation to talk to their doctors or researching different treatment options. And even though you want to reach both groups, the content suited to each will be quite different, and you should tailor that content to each.

Targeting

Many medical marketers are creating content for specific marketplaces and finding that approach hugely effective. Brands like Invacare — a company that manufactures a wide range of medical products, such as portable oxygen systems, and also designs continuing care facilities — sell to both markets and need content for each. End users, for example, are interested in information on conditions, such as COPD, for which they might need such products.For them, Invacare offers the Do More With Oxygen blog. Professional audiences, on the other hand, may be more interested in technological innovations in long-term institutional care, case studies, and best practices for environmental rollouts.

Tailoring

Your executives, researchers, and website or sales team can offer insights on what is of interest to consumers. What questions come in from website visitors? What issues are buyers discussing with the sales team? Target those topics in your content plan. Don’t forget to take advantage of social media to find out what your potential audiences are interested in. By following hashtags on Twitter or observing discussion groups on Facebook, you may discover that people are searching for specific symptoms or discussing a certain medical news headline. 

By using content marketing to show that your brand understands — and has solutions for — the problems faced by your consumers, you can address a significant pain point for many medical companies: the trouble they often encounter in communicating their value story. 

Choose Your Platform and Format

By using the right combination of digital formats — articles, white papers, e-books, blog posts, and social media — you can reach and influence each unique segment of target audience.

Lead the way

High-quality, relevant content positions you as a thought leader in your industry, and when people see you as an expert, they’re more likely to trust your advice. White papers, e-books, and bylined articles are the content formats best suited to establishing your brand as an industry thought leader. As always with content marketing, these B2B communication pieces should avoid language that is sales-oriented or overly self-promotional. Focus on broad topics, industry innovations, best practices, and other topics of interest to the B2B market.

What are the differences in these formats? Bylined articles appear in industry magazine or journals and usually run between 800 and 1,200 words long. You will often see the terms "white paper" and "e-book" used interchangeably. It’s true they have similarities, but white papers are typically between 10 and 40 pages and include technical content, while e-books tend to run between 6 and 12 pages and often incorporate more visual elements. Both are commonly used in the B2B market, but e-books are becoming increasingly common in B2C marketing.

Like e-books and white papers, well-scripted product videos and educational podcasts are also effective lead generators, because they are often seen as being of especially high value. Granting a download in exchange for an email address means that the website visitor gets valuable information and you get the contact information for someone you know is an interested party.

Share the news

Every day brings dozens and dozens of medical- and health-related headlines. By producing timely topical blog posts and social media updates on trending news and emerging stories, you demonstrate awareness of key issues in the medical tech industry and help customers stay informed as well.

Blog posts are quick to consume, usually run about 400 to 650 words and can cover a wide range of topics. They are generally written in a more informal manner than articles or white papers, presenting information in scannable, bite-sized chunks that keep readers coming back for more. Social media updates are even faster, connecting people with brands and encouraging both sides of those relationships to sharing compelling content. The frequency and speed of social media updates make it perfect for keeping your brand in the consumer’s mind.

Thanks to the ease of sharing via social media, whatever material you develop gives your readers the opportunity to enhance their own position as an industry leader by reposting your high-value content and links. And every time someone clicks on, likes, favorites, or shares one of your posts, their friends and colleagues see it, and your audience grows exponentially.

As a manufacturer of medical devices, you know the importance of compliance and quality control. Consumers and doctors expect your products to perform at the highest level, and they’re going to expect the same level of quality from all of the content you produce. Your content has to be accurate yet engaging, and it must be clear but compelling.

You’re already an expert in manufacturing and sales, so you don’t need to be an expert in writing and content marketing, too. When you work with a great content vendor, you’ll benefit from the expertise of professional writers with a medical background, talented editors with an eye for detail, and project managers dedicated to delivering timely content just the way you want it — all in one place. Prose Media can be that content vendor. Sign up today for free, no-obligation access to our platform. We would love to see what you have in mind.