How to use modern marketing tools to promote MedTech products and services?
The COVID-19 pandemic is changing the world as we know it and impacting many industries in a negative way. But for many MedTech startups, social distancing measures seem to be a blessing in disguise.
The pandemic forced a fast-track adoption of digital-first healthcare solutions such as telemedicine, video consultations, remote health monitoring, AI-powered apps for online diagnosis and mental health care, and many more. As a result, some telemedicine apps see even a 60% growth in their user base… week-to-week!
In fact, these technologies can become an important part of ‘the new normal’ when the critical situation in healthcare eases, but a high level of prevention will still be required. However, not all startups that are transforming healthcare are good at communicating it, and even the best solutions need publicity. Healthtech software development is a rapidly evolving field, with new solutions constantly emerging to address the diverse needs of healthcare providers and patients.
That’s why we decided to analyze and gather some interesting examples of healthcare campaign to inspire the future industry innovators.
Examples come from first-class MedTech startups and include a wide range of marketing tools and strategies: social media, PPC, video marketing, bulk email sender software and immersive experiences in digital advertising, carried out both by in-house teams and in collaboration with digital marketing agencies.
We also asked agencies’ representatives to share some insights on how to approach your healthcare marketing campaigns, so read on!
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The award-winning solution to raise awareness of the dangers of flavoured tobacco
Agency: Beyond
Client: The California Tobacco Control Program (CTCP)
Among the best healthcare marketing campaigns we want to introduce you to is the one from creative agency called Beyond. Have you noticed how popular flavoured vape products have become in recent years?
The flavourful e-cigarettes in eye-catching, colorful packages are in particular tempting for kids, but many of them are not aware that these products are still high in nicotine, although the harsh tobacco taste might be masked by a fun fruity flavour.
The use of e-cigarettes can cause severe lung damage and even deaths, so the Californian Tobacco Control Program decided to take things into their hands and turned out to the Beyond agency for help. They wanted to address parents and educate them about the risks of flavoured tobacco and vaping among kids.
The outcome was an informative, resources-rich website packed with statistics, knowledge, and advice for concerned parents. The site inspires action with a clear CTA: in just three clicks, users can send an email to their city’s mayor and make a difference.
Elvie: Revolutionising FemTech marketing
Elvie is a London-based FemTech startup that created an innovative product that revolutionizes Kegel exercises and makes pelvic floor training less boring.
The small device is connected with an intuitive mobile app for tracking progress, visualizing pelvic floor movements, and motivating women to don’t give up their exercises.
The product launch was successful and caused quite a buzz in social media and the press, but after the initial excitement wore off, sales started to decline.
The company was struggling to obtain a positive ROI from their performance campaigns, its main channel for driving sales, and the conversion wasn’t satisfactory.
The startup sought help from the UK agency Favoured which carried out a multi-channel performance marketing strategy with a great focus on testing and optimisation in order to find the best formula to scale e-commerce sales.
The conversion rate on the website was greatly improved and the creatives, ads, and copy were optimised to ensure the best results and decrease the CPA.
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Don’t drive high: launching a public awareness campaign
Agency: Cossette & Apptension
Client: Uber
When the use of cannabis was legalized in Canada, Tweed, Uber and MADD Canada launched a healthcare marketing campaign under the name “Don’t drive high” to remind about the potential dangers of drug-impaired driving.
The central hub of the campaign was a website that, in a humorous way, aimed to propose 101 different activities to do instead of driving high: one of them was an immersive bubble-blowing web game.
Web visitors were also offered a discount to use in the Uber app to avoid driving under the influence of drugs: therefore, Uber drives became yet another thing to do instead of driving high!
The campaign was developed by Marketing & Communications Agency Cossette that took care of the creative side of the project, and Apptension, which acted as a technical partner responsible for web design, UX, and technical implementation. Learn more about the “Don’t drive high” healthcare campaign here.
In fact, this marketing campaign was one of the many we’ve done in collaboration with marketing agencies: we also helped to promote a Universal Pictures movie with an AR app and created a microsite to accompany the global launch of an Academy-award winning movie. And of course, healthtech apps are no mystery to us!
Leveraging social media and organic reach to drive traffic and new users
Company: HealthUnlocked
HealthUnlocked is the world’s largest social network for health where users can participate in communities of patients with similar health conditions, share their experiences, and learn from others.
Helpful, educational content is a huge part of HealthUnlocked’s successful healthcare marketing strategy. They post insightful articles on their blog and social media, reaching patients looking for information and advice.
Moreover, their Advent Calendar campaign is an amazing example of how the power of social media and organic reach can drive not only traffic but target audience to the website.
The idea was simple: move the traditional advent calendar online and reveal every day a new informational content about a different health condition.
The true strength behind this campaign was its partners that contributed to content creation: the NHS and national as well as global health associations like Global Colon Cancer Association, Leukaemia Care, and Pain Concern, among others.
The partners shared the publications on their social media channels, therefore increasing the healthcare industry audiences reached by HealthUnlocked’s content and as a result, bringing new visitors and users to the platform.
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Acquiring new platform users
Agency: The Media Image
Client: Doctify
Finding and making doctor’s appointments was never easier! On the Doctify platform, you can browse thousands of doctors by specialty, dentists, and clinics near you to book visits in just a few clicks.
Online video consultations are also available. In the early stage of platform rollout, one of the main challenges was to acquire new users: both patients and doctors.
Targeting these two groups required a very different approach and strategy. The acquisition campaign was implemented by The Media Image agency, which decided to drive potential specialists sign-ups on Facebook because of the extensive targeting options (by profession, interest, and industry criteria).
On the other hand, Google Ads turned out to be the most effective channel to target users that were looking for doctors in their area.
When onboarding Doctify.co.uk as a client, we needed to come up with a two-pronged audience approach; appealing to both medical specialists and prospective patients. For the former, we took advantage of Facebook’s powerful audience segmentation options, whereas with the patients, we found paid search to be the most useful channel.
Rowan Kleij, Head Of Search at The Media Image
Accelerating community growth with social ads
Company: MedShr
Clinical case discussion is an important part of lifelong learning in healthcare professions, it also helps to solve complex problems. MedShr moved this process online by creating a platform for verified medical professionals where they can discuss medical cases, share their knowledge, and contribute to the improvement of medical care worldwide.
Nevertheless, the key to MedShr’s product is a robust and active community, therefore, the startup had to find a way to grow its user base, when the target audience from the healthcare industry was very specific: doctors, other professionals, or medical students.
MedShr opted for the Facebook mobile app ads that allowed for targeting audiences with surgical precision, thus displaying their ads only to professionals from given specialties or regions.
This way, the platform grew its user base rapidly (now an impressive 1,000,000 members and counting), and became a leading online network for healthcare professionals all over the world.
Reaching large audiences with viral videos
Agency: OST Marketing
Client: IESO Digital Health
Ieso Digital Services is a startup that revolutionizes access to mental health therapy and is the leading UK provider of online therapy service. Besides, IESO educates users on the importance of mental health care, cognitive behavioural therapy, and offers advice on mental wellbeing.
The startup teamed up with OST Marketing, a Cambridge-based marketing agency to prepare a video healthcare campaign with the objective of raising awareness of mental health issues and shoring the availability of free online therapy for the target audience.
A few formats of informative and engaging videos were launched on World Mental Health Day and were promoted on social media through relevant hashtags related to this event, as well as by social advertising.
Therefore, the campaign leveraged a trending topic and saw the benefits that viral videos so often bring: a highly increasing number of views and people reached.
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The key to success social media marketing in the healthtech sector, and others, is to provide genuine value. If you can also catch a wave of topical interest, as we did with Ieso, you can reach large audiences very quickly.
Luke Brynley-Jones, OST Marketing Founder, Social Media Consultant
Healthcare marketing strategies. Summary
As you can see for yourself, marketing healthcare campaign can take many forms. You have a variety of tools and strategies at your disposal, so waste no time and try what works best for you! And if you're among healthcare companies that need a technological partner to implement more complex solutions for healthcare industry, we’ll be more than happy to assist you - contact us!
