If you are a marketer who has been tasked with getting your brand’s offer in front of doctors, you know that task can be a real pain. Well keep reading this blog post because we are about to write you a prescription to relieve that pain.
Here are some of the secrets our agency has learned over the years. These are what have allowed us to help our healthcare clients successfully sell thousands of doctors a variety of products including paid newsletter subscriptions, workshop registrations, on-site consultations and ad agency services.
Secret #1: Focus on Lead Generation
Two things can be said about doctors:
1) Often their handwriting is illegible.
2) They are notoriously hard to reach.
For some reason, many doctors refuse to take advantage of technologies like email and voice mail. Oh, and most are protected by aggressive receptionists! This makes it entirely hard to reach them with your offer and can lead to acquisition costs getting quickly out of hand, to the point of unprofitability.
That’s why it’s important that healthcare marketers follow a few rules, namely: always test new ideas, track results, roll out winners and cut losers, and continuously refine your efforts.
To generate leads, get creative and test a variety of media including trade publications, direct mail, SEO, trade shows, e-newsletters, to name only some channels.
Once the results of these efforts roll in, you’ll want to evaluate the costs and benefits of each medium based on the ROI.
Secret #2: Your Offer is Paramount
Okay, perhaps it’s no real secret that the most important thing in marketing success is always the offer. It’s hard enough to get doctors to give you the time of day. But if you want them to actually respond, you’ve got to make sure your offer is compelling and show them value. Your offer must give them a strong incentive to act NOW.
To generate a lead, your offer should give either a discount or something free, like a free white paper or seminar. Before you spend a cent on running ads, be sure you have taken the time to develop a strong offer.
Secret #3: You’ve Got to Have a USP
Having a unique selling proposition really should just be common sense. I mean, who doesn’t want to stand apart from the competition. And yet, when we look around the industry, we are shocked at how few marketers have developed a USP that grabs attention and market share.
For instance, we have seen so many medical software companies say the same old thing in their advertising, “It’s fast, paperless, etc.”
Doctors tend to be skeptical people. This healthy skepticism works for them because it’s ultimately what drives them to find answers for their patients. But this skepticism means they’ve seen and heard it all before, so you had better put something new and fresh in front of them. If you don’t deliver a unique benefit in the first 60 seconds, you’ve lost them.
Secret #4: Add Real Value to Their Lives
This is one of the biggest secrets. Many healthcare marketers focus solely on “selling” when what they should be focusing on is adding real value to their prospects’ lives. Doctors love to learn. In fact, most never stop learning. But they are also busy people and can easily feel overwhelmed in trying to stay current on latest trends and scientific findings.
By providing useful and relevant education, you’ll not only get their attention, you’ll also earn almost instant credibility.
Secret #5: Doctors are People, Too
Many healthcare marketers are intimidated by doctors. Many people in general, I guess you could say, are intimidated by doctors. While doctors are very intelligent, capable and accomplished professionals, they are still just human beings like the rest of us.
No matter what channels you decide to go with, communicate with doctors like they are real people. This will help you stand apart from the other marketers and endear you to your audience.
If you take these 5 secrets to heart and adjust your marketing accordingly, you should see your lead generation improve significantly.
Do you need any help with your healthcare marketing? Get in touch with us. Mediaspace Solutions is focused on improving customer acquisition, increasing script lift, building hospital service awareness, new product launches, and new pharmaceutical indication announcements.
