Health Technology, Digital Healthcare
Article | August 21, 2023
In today's uber-fast-paced world, the human race, in general, has gotten highly comfortable running on all cylinders in the rat race of life, especially people in India. Our country is a land where opportunities are aplenty, and competition is ever-present, which makes every day life so tedious and constant that taking a breather is something that people can rarely afford. This has led to increasing cases of anxiety, depression, high blood pressure and insomnia. These cases rose to such high numbers that it gave way to one of India’s most prominent industry sectors: The Wellness Industry.
Though the industry captured global attention between 2015 and 2017, a study conducted by McKinsey & Company found that the wellness industry is currently valued at $1.5 trillion globally. This sudden boom can be attributed to the realisation that it is more important to remain healthy than getting healthy. Furthermore, the report, produced after analysing 7500 consumers in six countries (including India), has offered keen insights into consumer behaviour. When it comes to wellness consumers, their trends can be grouped into six categories:
Health: People are now investing in many remote medical devices that can constantly monitor their state of well-being. With the increase in popularity in digital wearables, telemedicine, and remote patient monitoring services, this trend is bound to increase.
Fitness: People are exercising more. Whether it’s jogging, going to the gym, investing in a pedometer, FitBit, etc., there has been a steady increase in people exercising more.
Nutrition: Dieting has always been a significant part of being healthy. An increase in dietary food, supplements, nutrition coaches can be observed in recent years.
Aesthetics: With a major chunk of India’s youth population getting invested in their social media, notably the pictures that they post, aesthetic well-being has seen a sharp increase. This includes investments in specific Athleisure clothing apparel (Nike, Addidas, Puma), skincare products (collagen supplements, face masks), and plastic surgery.
Sleep: Burning the midnight oil is counterproductive. There has been a steady increase in consumers willing to invest in sleep medications, specialised mobile applications that track their sleep and the state of their sleep, ASMR generating devices, White noise devices, and other products that can enable a consumer to maintain a healthy sleep cycle.
Mindfulness: Introspection, understanding the body and its processes to the molecular level, and figuring out ways to implement clarity of thought and methods for improving focus have been huge draws for the wellness industry. Furthermore, with central government’s schemes like AYUSH and the introduction of International Day of Yoga by the United Nations, this particular trend has seen enormous growth.
Impact of these trends on the future of Indian wellness industry
Organic Products: According to APEDA, India has become one of the largest producers of organic products. A growing number are actively investing monthly in organically grown produce, meat that is organically processed, oil that is wood-pressed or cold-pressed, cosmetics made from organic materials, and clothes made from pure cotton instead of manufactured materials. People becoming more conscious of what they put in their bodies has led to a steady increase in organic shops across India.
Exercise, Dieting & Nutritional Supplements: From using simple Calcium supplements and energy drinks to adhering to a strict diet regimen, today’s consumers are genuinely worried about falling sick. This has led to an increase in purchasing supplements. Another trend can be observed where an increasing number of consumers have started buying vitamin, Zinc, and iron tablets, to shore up immunity. Furthermore, Indians have begun consuming gluten-free cereal, cold-pressed juices, Kale products, Avocados, and other food products recommended to be healthier alternatives. Indians have also become BMI-conscious, and an increasing number of them have started to invest in gyms, yoga/cardio classes, exercise-wear, sports wearables, and other products that can enable a person to work out more effectively.
Constant Increasing Demand for Oxygen: Even before the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, getting access to 99% breathable oxygen has pure oxygen was a necessity considering the rising concerns of pollution in Indian cities. As per the ‘World Air Quality Report, 2020’ prepared by Swiss organisation, IQAir, 22 of the world’s 30 most polluted cities are in India, with Delhi being ranked as the most polluted capital city globally.
Moreover, people who indulge in extreme physical workouts exercise, or suffer from high-altitude sickness, need oxygen handy to maintain their wellbeing. In India, prominent wellness companies like UCS Wellness Pvt Ltd have made significant strides to ensure that every individual has access to oxygen through their innovative specially outfitted 18-litre aluminium-bottled oxygen cans of 18 litres under their brand gO2therapy. With the pollution rate showing no signs of slowing down, and the steady increase in demand for oxygen, it would be no surprise to find every household medical kit fitted with a portable oxygen cylinder.
Transitioning to Digital Platforms: With the increase in popularity of Telemedicine and Remote-patient monitoring, healthcare and the wellness industry are gaining an aggressive online presence. There are many online exercises/online videos, fitness apps, meditation apps, motivational apps, power coaches, and so much more. Indians find it easier to use these online tools combined with a digital wearable to keep their well-being in the best of conditions.
Investing in Social Media Influencers: With the increase in online dependence, the voice of social media influencers is soon to be gospel when it comes to maintaining a fit body and healthy mind. Much like how mainstream celebrities endorse various products, the wellness industry has seen great rewards in deploying online influencers to support their products. Typical examples can include a famous workout specialist advertises particular apparel, gadget, energy drink, or brand of Whey Protein distributors as part of their video.
Alternatives to Allopathy: In the Indian market, the wellness industry has seen a shift in paradigm where an increasing number of consumers opt for Siddha, or Ayurveda substitutes, instead of conventional medicine. This is seen more in the age group of 40+. This particular age group has patients with a long history of high BP, high cholesterol, and other ailments that require continuous monitoring and medication. They feel that the healthier choice is in traditional medicine or treatments like Panchakarma, Ayurveda, or Siddha. Conventional medication provides them with little to no side effects, which is the primary reason for its increasing popularity.
India is expected to become a wellness hub in the global community following a 12% growth per annum. The Make in India initiative is expected to bring in more investments and opportunities in this sector. The Ministry of AYUSH, with a separate department for Yoga, has been exempted from service tax. A budget of around ?3,400 crores has also been earmarked to be spent over the next five years to help set up and strengthen Ayush Wellness Centers under the National Ayush Mission. This has sparked an increase in startups and businesses focusing on the wellness sector.
Meanwhile, the global pandemic is also giving rise to a new consumer behaviour called wellness rebound where they are becoming more health-conscious and striving towards regaining their health soon after recovering from an illness. Considering the aftermath of the pandemic, the aggressive implementation of technology, and the constant consumer market in India, it can be inferred that the wellness industry will evolve and expand further with little to no backslide.
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Healthtech Security
Article | November 29, 2023
It is no doubt that the disappointment of a failed launch or campaign is one that is costly, especially in the healthcare industry. However, becoming acquainted with the possible flaws in your marketing strategy is the first way to remedy the situation and achieve your business goals.
With the new rise of post-pandemic integration of businesses into online systems, consumers have become more selective than ever when it comes to the brands they are willing to buy from and support. Healthcare businesses are re-orienting into greater awareness about their online presence and visibility.
No Marketing Strategy
The first mistake one could make is having no marketing strategy to begin with. Some healthcare businesses think that they can DIY their online content marketing strategy. I’m here to tell you that could not be farther from the truth. Putting strategy on the back burner is the equivalent of flushing money down the drain.
Having a custom marketing strategy that takes your readers through a journey on your website ending in your desired conversion is essential for success online. The same content strategy is one that needs to be implemented effectively across all your social media platforms, and used to hit your target audience at multiple touch points.
No Target Consumer
Generalising information and attempting to create content for everyone is the second most common mistake. A lack of targeted action is bound to decrease the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. One of the most essential parts of establishing a content strategy that increases your revenue, is specifying your target group. For a brand that sells health enhancing supplements, this could be 50-70 year old African American men and women who want to live longer and healthier.
The next step after identifying your target consumer, is to create an avatar profile that includes all details about your customer’s age, gender, marital status, income, residence, their daily struggles and needs and many more. Personalising the service and products you provide, and tailoring them in this way is going to get you more engagement and clicks, which will convert into red hot leads.
Inconsistent Branding
The third most common marketing mistake you may be making is lack of consistency with branding. This one is important because your reputation as a health business is vital to your success in the industry. Logos are meant to have stories behind them that constitute the mission that brought about the creation of your brand.
But it’s not just logos, every piece of content on your website needs to be created with your strategic business objectives and aims in mind. You need to question if your brand promise aligns fully with your values and the level of service you are providing to your consumer. How is your brand contributing to their lives in unique ways? Is your brand easily recognisable to your target consumers?
Ignoring Credibility
It comes as a surprise that most health brands often neglect this strong aspect of marketing their business. If your services are not fully supported with a backbone of credible subject matter experts who are well known in their communities, your brand will not be recognised as an authority in your field, adding to the growing mistrust that consumers already feel.
One way you can improve this is to reach out to the influencers your target consumer already follows and knows, and involve them as part of your outreach. This will increase brand awareness and lead to more sales and more trust.
Another factor to never underestimate, is the power of positive reviews. Consumers trust each other more than they trust you, so enabling them to have conversations involving your service or products, including the ability to give a rating, is the optimum for increasing engagement, building trust and brand loyalty.
Lack of Healthcare Specific Approach
This is where you can assess your website to see if the content there is appealing to your patients or customers. Is it accessible and simple to understand for the average person, or is it full of medical jargon and complicated, dense information?
Many businesses forget that the core purpose of the healthcare industry as a whole, is still ‘care’. So are you caring and catering to your consumers by providing not just any information, but the information that they are specifically looking for? Are you answering their questions and tending to their concerns in a way that they understand and comprehend? Are you enabling them and empowering them to make informed decisions about their health?
These are all aspects that help build a long-lasting relationship with your customer in which they consistently turn to your services and products, because you have made your marketing strategy centered around them. You have made it easy for them to get the help they need.
By regularly providing content that is useful and full of value, search engines will begin to automatically direct more traffic to your website.
Lack of Relevant Metrics
Regularly assessing and improving on the efficiency of your marketing initiatives, is what will propel your business into new heights.
In the words of H. James Harrington, “measurement is the first step that leads to control and eventually to improvement”. You need to identify the metrics that directly correlate with your business objectives, and start actively examining them against your marketing campaign aims.
This will enable you to identify what messaging works on your consumers, leading to better outcomes for your campaigns.
The Bottom Line
Tweaking just one detail in your marketing strategy could be the key to multiplied revenue for your business. This is why it is important to work with experts in order to make sure you are aligned with your highest potential, enabling you to invest your time into the other aspects of your business that need it.If you would like to continue the conversation about how health content marketing could help your brand, feel free to reach out to me.
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Healthtech Security
Article | August 31, 2023
Since ChatGPT’s launch in November 2022, artificial intelligence (AI) tools have become disruptive to nearly every industry. While there's been controversy about whether AI would benefit the healthcare industry, it has proven to be just as capable in healthcare as in other sectors.
In the medical field, there is reason to believe AI tools may be an even more reliable and useful resource than other sectors. Medical students have been panicking over AI's threat to their career prospects. But as these systems mature, the experts increasingly believe that AI may serve as a counterpart to human medical expertise rather than a threat.
How AI Tools Are Expected to Aid Medical Professionals?
Again and again, as the debate over modern AI tools rages on, we encounter the analogy of the calculator. No one feels threatened by calculators, not even professional mathematicians. Instead of throwing up their hands, math experts embrace the power of these now archaic computerized devices. If the experts are correct, this may be similar to the future of the alliance between AI and humans.
According to the designers and programmers who understand how these systems work as well as how information technology tends to progress, AI can be expected to help the medical profession in the following ways:
Cosmetic Surgery Consultations
One of the farthest-reaching applications we see develop is in consultations for plastic surgery and similar applications. Perhaps one of the easiest aspects to understand is hair-loss consultations. In our practice, we use a device known as HairMetrix, which uses an AI-driven analytical system to help determine what is causing a patient to lose their hair and which treatment options would be the most effective.
Because it is AI-driven, it is fully based on visual scans and is completely non-invasive. Just like this, AI can be used in an abundance of other ways to minimize the use of exploratory surgery and improve healthcare outcomes.
Improved Diagnostics
Artificial intelligence is already helping medical providers deliver diagnoses more quickly. These tools can identify anomalies that might otherwise take human hours or even weeks to identify. This has improved the rate of cancer detection, among other things, which will predictably improve survival rates.
Developing New Pharmaceuticals
The development of new medicines is notoriously slow. Not only is testing a painstaking process, but even seeking FDA approval can take years. AI is expected to help the development of pharmaceuticals through simulation on the molecular level, allowing researchers to see how the active mechanisms in a drug will work in the body.
Improved Administrative Efficiency
In the medical field, administrative tasks are notoriously slow. It is believed that generative AI will be able to automate many administrative functions and innumerable office chores. It could streamline sorting patient files, accelerate the interpretation of data, and much more.
Patient Access
In an area where information technology is already improving patients' lives, access to medical advice is still a bottleneck in the system. AI tools have the potential to slowly bridge the gap in health disparities. Combined with the power to diagnose, this could dramatically increase the capability of online patient portals.
Of course, this list of anticipated AI capabilities is far from exhaustive. Researchers and medical professionals have high hopes for these tools, and some are already proving to be more than mere speculation.
In a world where AI is reshaping industries at an unprecedented pace, the healthcare sector stands poised to benefit significantly from this technological revolution. From streamlining administrative tasks to revolutionizing diagnostics, the potential of AI in medicine is vast and diverse. As we witness AI-enabled tools like HairMetrix, enhancing the cosmetic surgery consultations and AI algorithms expediting diagnostic accuracy, it's clear that we are only at the beginning of a healthcare transformation that is set to improve patient care, increase survival rates, and revolutionize medical practices.
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Article | February 4, 2021
It is not an easy task to engage decision-makers in hospitals, insurance providers, health systems, and private practices. These high-powered directors, managers, and executives are busier than ever. This makes the process of health tech marketing difficult. Apart from overwhelming job responsibilities, these healthcare professionals are also inundated with ads, emails, and phone calls. So rather than sending them messages randomly, it is important to help your prospects when they are free from their daily disruptions and have time.
Inbound marketing, a new form of marketing, lays out various effective healthcare marketing techniques, tricks, or tactics. These health tech marketing techniques or methodologies are helpful in the three stages of your health tech client journey:
Awareness Stage: This is the stage where they do not know they have a problem, but you make them aware of the fact that they have a problem.
Consideration Stage: In this stage, they are aware that they have a problem and consider finding a solution from you or your competitor.
Decision Stage: This is the final stage, where prospects make a decision.
Here are some effective health tech marketing techniques to engage new health tech marketing prospects online all through these stages.
Offer Entertaining and Informative Blog Content
Content is king. Roper Public Affairs, in their research report, say that around 80% of B2B decision-makers prefer to gather information from articles and blogs over ads. According to the research done by HubSpot, companies that publish blogs frequently get 4.5x more leads. Engage your health tech prospects with regular content that can address their interests and the problems they face.
However, it is a mistake to focus only on your health tech company’s benefits, features, or sales pitches in your blogs. This may make your prospects think you are just after their money. One of the best health tech marketing techniques to engage your prospects online is to provide answers to the challenges they face.
You can even ask and encourage your clients to contribute success stories or guest posts. These posts will have more value and the chances of them being shared are high. It is also better to create a strategy to make sure the health tech marketing content you make is valuable and relevant to your potential clients.
Encourage Social Media Feedback and Blog Comments
Providing great and prospect oriented health tech marketing content is just the beginning. You can solicit reactions from your audience. Asking questions at the end of blogs and social media health tech messages is a great way to collect reactions from the audience. It is good to thank them for responding when they leave a comment. Also, give them a comprehensive answer.
This will help build your credibility and make the clients come back. Sometimes, you may get spam comments, which are not connected to your post. Weed them out to make all comments relevant to the post. This health tech marketing technique will make your potential clients stay engaged in what you post online.
Host Google Hangouts or Webinars
People love being visually engaged. So, webinars or Google Hangouts are powerful tools that allow real-time interaction with your customers. This helps you to establish a personal connection with your potential clients through video or audio. Various visual aspects, including slides, graphics, and live videos, make it easier for you to share your content with customers.
Being an interactive health tech marketing technique, at the end of webinar sessions or Google hangout, you can have a Q and A session to clarify any questions from the clients. Compared to merely writing blog posts and articles, this, as a two-way dialogue, and will help you a lot in building a strong relationship with your clients.
Create a Group or Community
One of the best health tech marketing techniques to engage new customers is to interact in online forums and communities. Your buyers can get added to your members-only group automatically and then these members can socialize with each other and discuss healthcare technology.
These forums can be used to share content that is not available to the public. To the members, you can also offer various discounts and special pricing. Your customers, being part of such a group, will feel special and increase the possibility of a repeat purchase.
Co-Create with Existing Customers
If you are planning to write an e-book, improve your website, or launch a new product, involve your existing customers by getting suggestions from them. For fostering loyalty, depending on the situation, it is very effective to make your customers involved in major decision-making processes. They will feel proud that they participated, at the end of the process.
This health tech marketing technique may even allow you to hold a contest to select an idea from your customers for your next design and offer rewards for the one which is selected. Rewards can be a special mention on your website, a discount, or a freebie.
Celebrate Together!
Another great health-tech marketing technique to build stronger relationships with your customers is to celebrate milestones with them. Any achievement, small or big, can be a milestone. Even, achieving an award for attaining a certain number of followers can be a milestone. Sharing such moments of success with your customers and social media followers may make them feel like they are part of your business and success.
It is also a good idea to give them a discount offer. Also, recognizing the success of your clients and featuring them will establish a good relationship with customers.
Monitor Social Media
The best place to engage your clients in conversations about your products and industry is social media. Selecting a topic that is trending in your industry may be a hot cake for you to have the conversation on your social media platforms. Tracking trending topics related to your industry will always give you an insight for your next blog post and social media posts.
By sharing, liking, and providing answers you can also take part in conversations. This will make you an authority and customers will feel good about your credibility. As a health tech marketing technique, monitoring social media will make you gain the trust of the customers and build your brand gradually but successfully.
Build a List of Leads and Nurture them
Email marketing, as a health tech marketing technique, is a very effective strategy to nurture B2B customer relationships. According to HubSpot, for business communication, 86% of people prefer emails. You will be in the minds of potential customers through your value-packed and attractive emails. They will remember you when they identify a requirement.
Through your emails, you can update and educate your potential customers about relevant topics and trends related to the health tech industry. A newsletter in a week will be fair enough to keep them engaged and updated about your brand and industry.
Summing up
The key to generating more qualified leads and increasing your brand recognition is engaging new prospects tough new and innovative health tech marketing techniques. This will make your sales team’s job easier; they can convert these leads into customers. The above-listed health tech marketing techniques to engage with your prospects can be effectively used with your well-crafted Inbound marketing strategy.
Doing all of these alone can be very challenging. We, at Media7, partner with healthcare technology companies and healthcare tech marketers to offer support, strategy, and extending help to implement these activities. Through the collaboration, we help health tech companies to attract more visitors to their websites, generate leads, convert, and make them your happy customers. For more details of our services, visit our website: https://media7.com/
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a health tech marketing strategy?
Health tech marketing strategy is a part of an inbound marketing process for marketing healthcare tech products. It uses resources that can trace various opportunities through lead generation and branding, and overcome threats of healthcare businesses, which is highly competitive.
What is the best health tech marketing technique?
The best health tech marketing technique is to generate leads through various content forms. Health tech Content marketing helps create awareness about the product and attract clients to it. Different forms of content can include blogs, articles, press releases, newsletters, and much more.
Where to start when creating your healthcare marketing strategy
The best way to start when creating your healthcare marketing strategy is to set your goals. This is because the success of your healthcare marketing strategy depends upon the goal you set for yourself when you start the business and the marketing for it.
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