Digital marketing for medtech companies refers to the strategic use of online and digital channels to engage with healthcare professionals (HCPs) and other stakeholders, providing them with information, support, and services in a personalised and integrated manner. This approach has been significantly accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting a fundamental shift in how medtech companies interact with their customers.
Here are the key aspects of digital marketing for medtech companies:
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Shift from Traditional to Digital Engagement:
- Historically, both pharma and medtech companies relied heavily on in-person engagement models, primarily through sales representatives.
- The pandemic, however, forced a rapid acceleration of virtual interactions, as physical meetings were often barred or HCPs were too busy.
- This has led to a marked shift in preferred channels for interaction, with physicians increasingly opting for digital and remote models for various activities. For example, 47% of physicians who preferred in-person visits from medtech representatives prior to Covid-19 now prefer virtual exchanges or less-frequent visits. Around 60% of surgeons and administrators believe restrictions on in-person sales rep access will persist, especially for new product introductions and educational trainings.
- Medtech companies have responded by doubling down on building digital and analytic capabilities to strengthen virtual interactions.
- Many doctors, previously sceptical, now acknowledge that virtual interactions can be high quality and convey the same information as in-person meetings.
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Key Digital Channels and Tools:
- Digital marketing efforts for medtech companies now include a broader set of channels beyond traditional sales reps, such as:
- Self-service portals.
- Supplier's websites and mobile apps.
- E-procurement portals at HCPs' own organisations.
- Webinars (often with key opinion leaders) and virtual trainings.
- Email interactions.
- Virtual call technologies.
- Social media content.
- Digital content that can be personalised and delivered to sales reps for hybrid interactions.
- These digital channels are now often preferred for researching information, negotiating deals, and placing orders for medical products.
- Digital marketing efforts for medtech companies now include a broader set of channels beyond traditional sales reps, such as:
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Focus on Personalisation and Data-Driven Insights:
- Personalised customer engagement is a key driver of success in biopharma, and this extends to medtech.
- Digital marketing aims to provide tailored messages to HCPs, responding to their specific preferences and behaviours. This means delivering the "right content, right channel, and right timing".
- This level of personalisation requires leveraging analytics and data. Companies need to invest in customer data and analytics foundations, including systems to pool and analyse data, and algorithms to identify behaviour patterns.
- Online and email interactions can help organisations track the types of information that HCPs and their patients are seeking.
- Advanced analytics can help medtech companies create a better experience for HCPs and improve their operations.
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Role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Generative AI (Gen AI):
- AI and Gen AI are becoming transformative technologies, particularly in the commercial space, including marketing and sales.
- Personalised content creation: Gen AI can streamline the creative and production process for marketing materials, generating first drafts, creative concepts, and campaign ideas. This can lead to a multifold increase in marketing efficiency and a reduction in content creation costs.
- Medical and legal review assistance: Gen AI tools can accelerate the content approval process by tracking reusable materials, automatically reviewing for problematic language, and suggesting compliant rephrasing.
- Customer enablement co-pilots: Gen AI can provide marketers and field reps with on-demand retrieval, summarisation, and synthesis of data, enabling more targeted conversations.
- Generating strategic insights: Gen AI's interactive search capabilities help marketers draw deeper insights from various data sources, aiding in customer journey analysis and segmentation.
- Automated lead generation and 'next best action' recommendations: AI-powered analytics engines can identify leads, recommend products, and suggest the optimal type and timing of customer contacts (e.g., drafting emails or texts for sales teams).
- Smart research assistants: Gen AI "copilot" systems can research complex customer queries and provide sales reps with relevant materials and answers.
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Integration for Omnichannel Engagement:
- Digital marketing is a core component of the broader omnichannel engagement model, which aims to provide a seamless and integrated experience across all channels (digital, remote, and in-person).
- This means that interactions should "seamlessly straddle offline and online experiences". For example, a medtech company could use a webinar series with digital content, followed by sales rep follow-ups, while an analytics team tracks the impact.
- Medtech companies are building capabilities like inside sales teams and equipping reps with virtual communication tools and digital content for hybrid interactions.
- To achieve this, companies need to integrate new capabilities into existing systems and workflows, potentially incorporating analytical insights and recommendation engines into sales reps' dashboards.
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Implementation and Challenges:
- Transitioning to effective digital marketing and omnichannel engagement requires a "radical rethink of the people, processes, and technologies" within medtech companies.
- Challenges include ensuring better coordination across channels and developing relevant and tailored digital content.
- It necessitates agile operating models, cross-functional teams, and investing in new talent such as digital marketing specialists, data engineers, and data scientists.
- Companies must build a scalable technology landscape and an analytics engine to coordinate engagement effectively.
- Successful implementation also requires strong leadership, effective change management, and careful consideration of data privacy, ethical concerns, and regulatory compliance.