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It’s an exciting time for medical and healthcare technology. According to the HIMSS Future of Healthcare Report, 80% of healthcare providers plan to increase investment in technology over the next five years. New software tools and services are developed every day to facilitate the broader goal of the entire sector: keeping people healthy by providing top-notch service through innovative digital solutions.
Even if your company has a groundbreaking B2B SaaS tool that has a proven positive impact on a segment of the industry, the best products don’t sell themselves. Healthcare technology is one of the most complex and dynamic sectors of digital marketing because of its highly regulated and layered structure. You’ll need a marketing plan that’s strategic to stand out in the crowd.
There are different ways to overcome this challenge, and one is working with a SaaS marketing agency specializing in healthcare technology.
Rebecca Graves, Co-founder and Chief Digital Strategist at The Spot On Agency, brings over a decade of experience in the healthcare SaaS space and shares her perspective here. “Health systems are so inundated with different technologies that you must give them a clear reason to change,” Graves says.
That’s what a healthcare SaaS marketing agency can provide. Let’s examine three key advantages an agency brings to help you leverage that competitive advantage.
Even if you have an internal team devoted to studying your specific segment of the healthcare audience, you’re still operating from a limited perspective. A SaaS marketing agency can take lessons learned from clients with related audiences and apply them to your marketing efforts. “None of our clients compete with each other, but they’re often going after the same audience or same market,” explains Graves. “The more we work with our clients, the more we are able to leverage that collective knowledge. Everyone benefits.”
Because SaaS marketing agencies work with many different clients in the same sector, they have a more well-rounded understanding of how the industry’s separate parts work together. For instance, agencies understand the many kinds of healthcare buyers that may be on one buying team. An agency with healthcare SaaS experience has spent time learning how to craft nuanced messaging to address each buyer’s particular concerns. Whoever that person is on the team that you are targeting, knowing what they're trying to achieve in both their current position and in their career overall is key. “We always like to consider what keeps them up at night,” Graves says.
When you work with the right agency, they won’t expend your B2B SaaS marketing budget until you’ve discussed and agreed upon the right strategy. Many companies make the mistake of neglecting this part of their marketing efforts, believing they can just “wing it” toward their goal of adding as many users as possible. In the complex world of B2B healthcare software, this approach simply doesn’t cut it.
“Whenever we bring someone on, we establish a baseline from the very beginning,” says Graves. “We first ask: Do you have a brand strategy? Do you have messaging? People often come in with heavy sales or traffic goals, but if they don’t have the foundation, they are setting themselves up for failure.”
Strategy doesn’t just define the kind of content you create or the channels you use for distribution. It also entails how you define success. The ultimate marketing goal is to add substantial revenue to your business with a healthy return on investment (ROI) rate. Our skilled marketing strategists will take all these elements – your audience, your business goals, and your indicators of success – and apply them to your unique brand strategy and the value proposition of your offering.
“Our brand strategist conducts interviews with our healthcare SaaS clients. She comes back with, ‘Here’s your story, here’s what you do, here’s what you represent, and here’s the message around it,” Graves says. Many times, it’s the first time the company has even thought about its brand story in such detail and it’s a true “lightbulb moment.”
From there, it’s possible to build everything else – your marketing pieces, sales materials, and a website with on-point messaging. Once the messaging is right, you can get the web traffic you want. “One thing we don't do is drive traffic for traffic’s sake. We know you’d rather have 1,000 relevant visits than 100,000 people just coming to your site and bouncing away,” Graves says. In addition, a SaaS content marketing agency knows how to track metrics that can drive adjustments to your strategy. “It's ever-evolving. You continue to iterate on everything as you go, and get better and better, but it never stops,” Graves adds.
Many companies feel that working with an agency or using an internal resource is a binary choice: you either handle your B2B SaaS marketing budget in-house or spend it on a SaaS marketing agency.
In reality, organizations that have the most success as clients view their agency partners as an extended part of their own team. The agency acts not as a replacement but as an accelerator – filling in the gaps where internal resources may fall short. “The agency’s goal is not to replace your team, but to be an extension of it. In other words, handling the things that your team may or may not be able to handle on their own,” says Graves.
The best agencies understand how to combine their strengths with their clients’ biggest areas of need to form a seamless partnership that benefits both parties. In addition, an agency can deliver a depth of expertise that you could not find in an in-house team or consultant. “While we have the healthcare software industry and marketing expertise, you have deep knowledge of your specific product or service. Those two things combined make a powerful team,” Graves says.
Though we’ve mentioned three of the most important benefits of working with a SaaS marketing agency, it doesn’t mean we believe every organization should be working with one. Some companies may not be prepared to offer an agency partner the guidance and insights required to equip them for success, while others may not have a firm direction guiding messaging about their product or service.
But if you’ve tried unsuccessfully to get through to healthcare buyers on your own, or you just want expert guidance from a seasoned team of healthcare marketers that can help identify potential obstacles before they get in your way, schedule a time to chat with us to discuss how we can help your company.
