The global healthcare cloud computing industry is expected to reach $61.84 billion by 2025. It is a quickly growing industry with a calculated growth rate of around 18.7% year-over-year growth. A large portion of this industry includes software-as-a-service (SaaS), which has seen rapid adoption throughout the healthcare industry as more companies begin to leverage data, artificial intelligence, telemedicine, and other healthcare innovations to provide better services to their patients.
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However, this has also created a need in the industry for stronger SaaS business marketing strategies to help businesses grow as the industry evolves, which has spurred the question for many companies—exactly what is SaaS Marketing and how can it help my company?
While SaaS business marketing is different from every other type of marketing, it's critical to understand that marketing strategies for SaaS healthcare businesses require their own unique approach to be successful.
Generic marketing strategies that may work for other types of SaaS companies do not necessarily apply within the healthcare industry with the same level of success. It requires careful consideration of common obstacles within the industry and a SaaS business marketing plan that is specifically tailored to meet the needs of the target audience. This is particularly true for B2B businesses as their software services are usually solving a very niche problem for a select number of potential customers.
Before we tackle the unique challenges for SaaS healthcare business marketing, let's review a few definitions that will be useful within the context of this article.
B2B marketing, or business-to-business marketing, is a marketing tactic that focuses on helping one business sell its services or product to another business as the customer. The purchasing business may use the service or product as a solution for themselves, or they may be seeking to re-sell the product to their own customers. Usually, the strategies in B2B marketing for SaaS healthcare businesses revolve around content marketing strategies.
SaaS marketing is unique to other types of digital marketing because the fundamental product is not tangible, and there is a very different type of sales cycle. However, it's important to note that there are some best practices for SaaS marketing in the healthcare industry, which include strategies such as content marketing, email marketing, SEO, social media, and client marketing.
Simply put, a SaaS marketing strategy is the process of understanding the target audience and developing a strategic marketing plan to attract them to a company's service or product. Successful SaaS business marketing understands the unique challenges for software-as-a-service companies and is driven by strong domain knowledge of the particular needs within a target market such as the healthcare industry.
SaaS adoption in the healthcare industry is growing at an approximate rate of 20% every year.
This growth is being driven by significant trends in the healthcare industry that are shaping the way healthcare businesses interact with each other and with patients. Big data, artificial intelligence, automation, remote work culture, and other advancements in technology are creating massive opportunities for SaaS companies to provide unique solutions within the healthcare industry.
A few examples of important healthcare industry trends in 2021 that are spurring innovation from SaaS companies include:
While these trends present strong opportunities for SaaS solutions within the healthcare industry, it also highlights the importance of marketing for SaaS healthcare businesses due to a swell of competition, a general lack of customer education, and overall challenges to very specific niche targeting within the sector.
SaaS marketing strategies can help companies enter the market with success, but there are a few common obstacles to marketing a SaaS product that needs to be overcome in the healthcare industry. This is one reason that it's particularly important to work with a marketing agency that has strong industry knowledge and proven success with marketing SaaS healthcare businesses.
1. Problem - Intangible Products: One challenge with SaaS marketing in the healthcare industry is that the actual product can be perceived as intangible. SaaS solutions are often built upon ingrained problems within the industry. Adoption or change can be slow, particularly with larger institutions or businesses.
Solution - Improve Customer Education: SaaS marketing needs to fully express the value of your service, educate customers about the benefits of the solution, and guide them against practical advice on how to implement it in their workflows and standard operating procedures.
2. Problem - Short Sales Cycle: Another significant challenge to SaaS marketing is that a very short sales cycle persists in the majority of cases. After capturing attention, if prospective customers do not see an immediate problem-solution benefit, they are unlikely ever to convert.
Solution - Evidence and Simplicity: SaaS marketing can solve this challenge by providing compelling evidence to prospects and helping reduce complex ideas into a simplified offer, which lays out a path for an easy decision-making process.
While there are many other unique challenges to marketing a SaaS company within the healthcare industry, as well as business-specific obstacles that may need to be overcome, the best way to implement a SaaS marketing strategy is to work with a partner who has strong domain knowledge and expertise in both the healthcare industry and SaaS business marketing.
If you are interested in learning more about SaaS marketing, please schedule a time with us here to discuss how we can help your company.
