3 Key Pillars of Online Marketing in the B2B Healthcare Industry: Outreach, SEO, and Social Media

The healthcare services and equipment market is in constant evolution, and with it, the competition is intensifying. B2B online marketing in this sector comes with its unique challenges, primarily revolving around the intricacies of targeting the right audience:

• Website traffic often comprises both B2B and B2C visitors, making it challenging to segregate B2B engagement from the broader user base.
• Social media users typically do not disclose their professional roles in their profiles, further complicating precise targeting and connecting with decision-makers.
• Moreover, the healthcare field is characterized by its narrow, conservative, and somewhat insular nature.

Taken together, these factors make B2B online marketing in the healthcare industry quite a challenge.

But here's the silver lining! We have a set of powerful tools at our disposal to assist businesses in thriving within this sector. These include Outreach, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and an active presence on social media. In partnership with BRAB, we will delve into the workings of these tools and explore the results they can provide.

1. Outreach (Connecting with Your Target Audience)

In the B2B realm of the healthcare industry, outreach is a strategy aimed at establishing connections with other companies, clinics, and healthcare professionals through proactive engagement with the target audience. This involves various methods such as emails, phone calls, and face-to-face meetings. Outreach can prove highly effective for forging partnerships, collaborative development, and enhancing market positioning.

Digital Outreach shines brightest on LinkedIn. This platform facilitates the presentation of specialists or company representatives to establish meaningful connections. Users on LinkedIn share insights into their professional lives, showcasing their expertise, job titles, affiliated companies, and more. Consequently, B2B outreach on LinkedIn is the most straightforward and precise. It stands as the most effective tool for this purpose.

As an illustration, consider our quest for case managers in prominent U.S. healthcare facilities or specialists involved in crafting algorithms for manufacturers of wearable devices like smartwatches and fitness trackers. These are highly specialized roles that can only be efficiently identified and reached through LinkedIn.

How Healthcare Outreach on LinkedIn Works:

In the realm of successful B2B sales, effective outreach means making the right connections with the right businesses and individuals, piquing their interest in your offerings at just the right moment.

 LinkedIn offers a nifty feature to accomplish just that.

Using your personal or company account to identify the specialists you're seeking and initiate contact is the first step. Your initial message accompanies the friend request. This is your chance to concisely convey your purpose for reaching out. Keep in mind that this introductory message has a character limit of 300, including spaces. So, get straight to the point, emphasizing the essentials. Don't forget to include a link to your website so that recipients can promptly learn more about your identity and offerings.

Once you're connected, you can follow up with a second message to introduce your company.

If you don't receive a response, don't get disheartened! It's a common case. Remember, you're reaching out to busy people who may not see, read, or remember to respond to your message. A gentle follow-up after some time is often necessary.

Effective outreach comes into play when you've identified your target audience and established points of contact.

In our experience, the conversion rate for accepted connections ranges from 20% to 40%. Typically, responses start trickling in after 2 to 3 reminders. Therefore, it's essential to reach out multiple times. Share presentations, case studies, distribute relevant news, and ask if the person is interested in your offerings. The art lies in maintaining a delicate balance between being proactive and not coming across as intrusive. Wait for suitable intervals between reminders, and accompany your follow-ups with something engaging and valuable (like a case study, an article, a sample of your work, intriguing industry insights, or an event invitation).

Outreach pairs exceptionally well with content marketing on LinkedIn. Once someone receives your message, they'll often view your personal profile and your company's profile. Consistent content creation is desirable, but it doesn't need to be excessive; quality is more important than quantity. Even posting 1-2 times a week can be enough as long as the content is compelling and informative.

The Key Benefits of Implementing Outreach in the Healthcare Sector:

• Expanding Your Professional Network. Outreach presents a unique opportunity to attract new partners, customers, and specialized professionals for collaboration, thereby significantly broadening your network of business connections within the healthcare field.

• Precision targeting unmatched by most B2B tools.

• Cost-Effectiveness. In comparison to other tools like Google Ads and similar options, Outreach boasts relatively lower costs. On average, the total expense for a client is 2-3 times less.

• Effective for niche segments. Consider promoting a manufacturer specializing in oncology diagnostic equipment. Within the vast healthcare field, you narrow down to the segment of oncology and even further to the subsegment of oncology diagnostics. Outreach empowers you to zero in on your exact target.

However, it's worth noting that Outreach involves reaching out to a broad spectrum of potential contacts. Not everyone will be receptive, as some might already be engaged with other companies, have a general lack of interest, or not understand the value in your offerings. However, there's a chance that among those you've contacted, you'll come across decision-makers within their respective companies, enabling you to address their specific needs.

Outcomes and Opportunities with Outreach

Implementing an effective Outreach strategy can lead to several desirable outcomes, including increased sales volumes, elevated brand recognition, and an expanded presence in sales markets.

2. SEO: Fundamentals and How It Operates

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) empowers medical companies to secure prime positions in search results, capturing the attention of their target audience. Let's delve into the intricate workings of SEO and explore its impact on B2B healthcare enterprises.

It's widely known that SEO includes a set of strategies aimed at enhancing a website's performance and improving its position in the results of search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others. While it's naturally less effective within narrow niches, SEO, as a whole, strikes a delicate balance between the quality of web traffic and its value.

Here at BRAB, our SEO process entails a comprehensive approach, addressing technical, content, and external factors that collectively contribute to improved website visibility. This involves:

• Keyword Selection and Optimization. For healthcare B2B companies, this often revolves around strategic phrases such as "buy an MRI machine" or "healthcare supplies provider."
• Content Optimization. Ensuring that the website's content aligns with user queries and incorporates the selected keywords effectively.
• Technical Optimization. Improving site loading speed, mobile responsiveness, URL structure, title tags, and other technical aspects that influence both user experience and search engine performance.

Central to SEO is the creation of engaging and informative content. For instance, a healthcare laboratory might publish scientific articles, schedules of doctor seminars, or collaboration proposals for clinics. Distributors, on the other hand, might focus on news updates, product reviews, usage guides, and more.

Securing high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites further enhances your site's credibility in the eyes of search engines. While some of these backlinks might be unrelated to your healthcare business, SEO boasts a relatively modest cost and eventually funnels your intended audience to you.

The ultimate aim of SEO is, of course, the elevation of your search engine rankings. It serves as an invaluable source of web traffic, especially within niche industries where alternative avenues for results tend to be scarce.

Upon conducting an SEO audit, we guide our clients in establishing priorities that maximize their company's profitability within this domain.

3. Social Media Presence

When it comes to B2B online marketing in the healthcare industry, social media isn't typically the top priority since, to be honest, it doesn't directly impact sales. However, it's a cost-effective tool that can seamlessly complement your Outreach and SEO strategies.

Maintaining B2B profiles on social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, or Twitter allows you to cultivate a professional community, share insights and knowledge, and engage with both customers and partners. It can be a valuable platform for positioning your brand effectively.

The content you share in the B2B healthcare sector on social networks should revolve around the specific issues and demands of your audience.

Consider your partners — clinics, distributors, pharmaceutical companies, or laboratories — what solutions are they seeking? Tailor your content to provide answers.

For B2B healthcare content on social media, think about options such as case studies, participation in conferences, customer testimonials, reviews of healthcare equipment, and more. These types of posts can resonate with your audience and help bolster your presence in the industry.

BRAB's Approach to Social Media Content:

• Crafting a Content Strategy. Creating valuable content stands as the cornerstone of successful online marketing. In the healthcare sphere, this might include scientific research, practical advice for professionals, reviews of cutting-edge technologies and methodologies.

• Engaging with the Audience. We actively respond to comments, reviews, and feedback, while also working to attract new subscribers. 

• Showcasing Expertise. Social media offers a platform for enterprises to demonstrate their expertise in any given field. Consistent posts that convey in-depth knowledge and insight into specific topics foster trust and help establish an authoritative status.

•  Collaborating with influencers. In the realm of healthcare, numerous healthcare specialists and clients are actively present on social networks. Partnering with influencers in healthcare can significantly elevate brand and product awareness.

• Making video content. Creating videos, be it expert interviews, product demonstrations, or even webinars, proves to be an effective means of capturing attention and fostering engagement with the audience.

Expected outcomes

• Better brand recognition. Regular, captivating posts contribute to increased brand awareness among professionals and customers.

• Expanding network connections. Engaging on social platforms opens doors to making new relationships with potential partners, clients, and industry experts.

• Boosted conversion rates. Relevant content and active social media presence can positively influence conversion rates on product or service pages.

• Enhanced interaction and feedback. Social networks facilitate easy communication with customers, enabling us to answer their inquiries, gather feedback, and offer advice. Strengthening these relationships ultimately leads to product and service improvements.

• Expanding the network of contacts. LinkedIn, in particular, proves invaluable for expanding business contacts within the healthcare field. It's a hub where you can connect with partners, employees, and customers.

• Analytics and measurement. Today's social media platforms provide robust tools for analyzing the effectiveness of our strategy and measuring our progress toward achieving goals.

In online marketing for the B2B segment in healthcare, tools like outreach, SEO, and social media serve as potent assets for attracting new customers and fostering business growth. Each tool boasts its own unique characteristics and advantages, but at BRAB, we excel in seamlessly integrating them to maximize your healthcare company's promotional success.