B2B healthcare marketing is in a constant state of flux – a positive one nonetheless.
As a B2B healthcare marketer, being well prepared for the future can help in sustaining your business over an extended period.
There is no doubt that the knowledge of what is going to trend will help you stay ahead of your marketing competitors, at most times.
By sharing with you certain glimpse of what the future has in store, you will be better equipped to plan and execute marketing strategies with surgical precision.
Let us break this up into six segments to gain a better understanding of what’s in store for B2B healthcare marketing:
spending 33% of their marketing budgets on building their databases?
We have all come a long way from the way things used to be – in every possible sense, to be honest.
Be it, the way you shop for groceries, buy concert tickets, communicate with anyone on this planet; there is no shortage of gizmos or apps to help you do almost anything these days.
The landscape of healthcare marketing is no different.
It is in a continual state of progression and though slow-to-start, has now begun to show signs of positive growth, by leaps and bounds.
And the crevice that has existed between B2B and B2C healthcare industries is beginning to fill-up.
Through this article, we will explore the future trends of healthcare marketing and touch-upon simple yet prominent points to give you a more accurate indication of what lies in store.
Bonus tip:
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A common misconception most professionals make is that the random implementation of technology improves your productivity. On the contrary, it is the challenges you face that determine the trends you choose.
Targeting technology in solving specific challenges is the right approach. Effectuation takes center-stage as always.
Here is a simple example of how a company first identifies the problem, then, it employs customized technology to solve those problems
CloudMoyo is a company that offers cloud-based predictive analytics services. They helped to solve the problem of a Pharma CRO (Clinical Research Organization) company. It is a lesson for B2B marketers leveraging technology.
Challenges for the Pharma CRO (Clinical Research Organization)
The CRO faced similar challenges as every firm in data-driven insights face. They wanted a better way to harness their sales data into insights. They had one instance where one customer detail appeared in 11 instances throughout various systems.
How they solved it?
CloudMoyo utilized predictive analytical models, Power BI, Operating and management interface. They created an analytics solution that could perform data mining and visualization. It helped to solve the challenges mentioned above.
What the Pharma CRO achieved?
Lesson: Identify the problem and customize your needs by deploying requisite technology. Determine your approach or strategy to apply necessary technology before you start your campaign.Click to tweet
Mobile technologies, video, and Omnichannel Marketing are the three most prominent tech trends.Most healthcare marketers have started to employ these trends as part of their planning and strategies. Mobile usage has seen a favorable upward trend. The significance of video marketing in healthcare is witnessing an unbiased preference over other mediums, unlike any other time in its history.
Healthcare companies now have also started to implement omnichannel marketing strategies vigorously.
Here are a few statistics to back-up the results these trends are yielding returns:
Businesses using Omnichannel marketing achieve 91 percent more customer retention rates in a year. – Aspect Software report, 2019
Now that we have touched-upon what’s currently trending, let’s look at what the future has in store for us healthcare marketers.
Let’s peer into that crystal ball, shall we?
Like b2c healthcare marketing, B2B healthcare marketing is beginning to steer itself in a new direction.
Earlier, B2B healthcare marketing units functioned like the tentacles of a deranged octopus; terrifyingly haphazard before you ask. Now, it is more streamlined towards a centralized healthcare platform. The future would revolve around a customer-centered healthcare platform system.
Let’s look at a few trends expected to leave their mark on healthcare marketing:
Predictive analytics
The customers’ buying cycle is evolving at a rapid pace. And the role of a marketer is ever-expanding.
Predictive analytics helps keep you a step ahead in the B2B healthcare marketing world. It has three use cases according to Forrester research and they are predictive scoring, identification models, and automated segmentation.
Predictive analytics uses machine learning to help you measure customer behavior (from acquisition to closing deals). They learn patterns from customer touchpoints to identify common characteristics of accounts.
Predictive analytics are the best companions for hyper-personalized selling and marketing.
Immersive technologies
Immersive technology artificially creates a reality with virtual content. In the future, you won’t build your website design and content in a detached environment.
With immersive technologies, you would get into the customers’ shoes and develop content.
B2B Healthcare is experimenting with A.R and V.R (Augmented and Virtual reality). It helps you in mapping a customer’s journey. Based on customer interactions at different touchpoints, it would suggest valuable customer insights.
Immersive technologies convey information that marketers would require, at different points in a customer journey.
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is a much-used term today in technology circles. AI helps you in analyzing your customers’ behavior online at a quicker pace. Based on a customer’s actions online, it would make predictions of what would be of potential interest to your customers.
AI also makes business-related conversations a mechanized affair Experts have stated that marketers must research how to use AI effectively. They need not waste time in understanding the technology behind it.Click to tweet
AI is inapplicable for poor quality or lesser data. It would take over all the manual B2B actions. It would make your tasks simple in forecasting, studying customer channels, analyzing offers, and content.
IOT (Internet of Things)
The State of IoT studies has confirmed the fact that healthcare would be the top-earning industry in IoT by 2020. IoT is genuinely a boon for healthcare marketers. Its integration with wearable devices in b2c healthcare has already taken place, and the resulting benefits are many.
IoT helps marketers in communicating effectively with a target audience. It also provides enhanced feedback to improve your user experience.
Data fluency, security, privacy, would be the top challenges in IOT implementation. Others include customer resistance, lack of common standards, regulation, and so on.
Automation
The urgency to implement automation is to help transition a buyer through the sales funnel more seamlessly. Automation helps you to collect customer interaction data at customer touchpoints. This data will help you understand customer behavior and influence decision making.
Behavior-based workflows and automated social media reach will improve your sales. It requires a marketing automation system and CRM to respond immediately to your customer needs.
Automation is extending to various B2B functions. Healthcare marketers are steadily working to integrate omnichannel interactions and automation capabilities.
Bonus tip:
Ahoy, B2B healthcare marketers!
Is the task of strategizing for your campaigns becoming a burden? Learn more about how to budget for B2B healthcare marketing campaigns
Looking at the journey we have been on thus far, and at all the pit-stops we wish to make in the near future; there seems to be no shortage of developments that will soon play crucial roles in the industry.
Omnichannel marketing has already begun to show the resulting impact on the effective implementation of AI, IoT, predictive analytics, automation, and Immersive technologies have had so far.
They are all still in their infancy stages and will only evolve further. The campaigns that you run in the future, once you have invested in these technologies will bear fruitful results.
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What is the next big thing to hit B2B healthcare marketing?
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Author
With a keen interest to learn new things, Ray has recently joined the ReachStream bandwagon as a content writer. He is a soccer enthusiast who has time and again showcased his skills as an excellent strategist.
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