Four Marketing Techniques For Your Healthtech Startup In 2020

The healthcare technology market is maturing, with more people than ever interested in taking control of their health. However, it’s clear that there are numerous challenges when it comes to raising consumer awareness of health, especially as the market is primarily B2B rather than B2C. This is why when it comes to building relationships with patients and consumers (let’s call them patient-consumers), it’s vital to use effective marketing techniques. After all, patient-consumers have many valid concerns about privacy, regulation and data security so you will need to gain their trust if you want to build your brand.

Remember that retention rates are just as important — if not more important than acquisition rates, especially when it comes to delivering long-term profitability. To achieve a high retention rate, you will need to consistently target your audience and understand where they are online and the best channels to use to build trust.

Here are four marketing techniques (and the challenges that come along with them) that your healthtech startup can use in 2020 and beyond…

Content marketing: the challenge of targeting the right audience

There are a lot of stakeholders to consider in the healthcare industry. This is why you need to build an ideal customer persona so that you can showcase your content to them on their online journey. Turn complicated ideas into imaginative narratives, engage audiences with compelling content every step of the way and deliver your messaging at the right moments — timing is everything.

Whether you’re supporting physicians using a platform of curated content to vastly improve patient experiences and outcomes, or directly addressing consumer privacy concerns in the wearables market, getting your brand in front of the right audience at the right time is essential if you want to be ahead of the game in 2020.

Tips on how to get your content right:

• Design a customer roadmap to learn more about key touchpoints in the patient-consumer journey
• Conduct keyword research and discover long-tail keywords to ensure your content gets found by your audience
• Make content condition-specific
• Offer optimistic solutions to problems where possible
• Display sponsored content where your customers are online

Multichannel touchpoints: the challenge of understanding where your ideal customer hangs out online

So let’s say your customer roadmap is ready. If you’ve conducted a full analysis, you’ll be aware of the multichannel touchpoints you can use to target your online audience and increase your acquisition, engagement and retention rates. Whatever your product or service, the more touchpoint options you provide your web or mobile visitors, the better their experience will be.

From chatbots to social media, it’s about knowing where your audience hangs out, reducing the friction online by displaying appropriate content and inspiring contact using call to actions, and encouraging contact through all available channels.

Video marketing: the challenge of getting the balance right

Health is a serious matter. This is why healthtech startups need to ensure that their image is as professional and as non-intimidating as possible. For example, if your product facilitates the physician-to-patient relationship in some way — let’s say it’s an online doctor app, trust will need to be built and it’s difficult to do this if patient-consumers don’t actually see anyone.

This is where video comes in. Video is a great way of reassuring patient-consumers that you are a trustworthy brand with approachable, friendly doctors. There’s very little that can rival video when it comes to engagement. YouTube has some four billion searches per month and video ads gain more engagement than text ads on social media ads. Remember that the big challenge here is to get the balance right between professional and approachable, so be prepared to run focus groups and experiment with different styles of video.

Video marketing tips:

• Use long-tail keyword strategy so people can find answers to crucial health questions
• If the keyword competition is low, your videos can show up on Google page one as well as on YouTube
• Add the correct call-to-actions to the descriptions and remember that you can advertise your business and social media sites there too
• One option is to create a ten second ad that plays before YouTube videos
• You could also create a channel to promote your company’s content and reach out to like-minded partners to share your videos

Videos will also add a human touch to your brand in an industry which can be overly clinical and dry. If you find that crucial balance between being professional, yet approachable, you’re on to a winning strategy.

Online reputation: the challenge of building trust

There’s been a lot of negative press over the last couple of years around data security, which is why you must ensure your online reputation is as solid as possible. This means having a transparent data security policy, making sure your customer service is impeccable and that you provide helpful, medically verified content for your target audience.

Because so many people use the internet to learn more about health conditions and in many cases attempt to self-diagnose, you’ll want to make sure that your content is providing medical information that doesn’t panic or mislead anyone.

Tips on how to ensure your online reputation is rock solid:

• Sign up to Trustpilot or other similar review sites. Don’t be scared about asking your customers for a review. Everyone will forgive one or two bad reviews — just make sure the overall score is high (98 percent plus)
• Your site should displays your staff/founding member images and biographies, providing social proof that your business is authentic and trustworthy
• Social media engagement — healthcare can be quite conservative, but don’t be afraid to put your brand out there. You can showcase your content, answer questions and share relevant news. Remember that not having an online social media presence can seem stranger than having one — even if you do receive some criticism.

So there you go, four marketing techniques you can use for your healthtech startup in 2020. It’s often the small things that make all the difference, such as knowing your patient-consumer inside and out, tailoring your content, adding the human touch using video marketing, etc. Do all of the above and you’ll be set to serve your audience well and build your reputation in 2020 and beyond.