3 Ways to Improve Your HealthTech Core Messaging

Maybe it’s clichéd, but I’m going to say it: Today’s healthcare technology market is akin to a shark-feeding frenzy. 

Let me explain. In ecological terms, a feeding frenzy occurs when predators are overwhelmed by the amount of prey available. They behave erratically and get fiercely competitive to claim their share. There’s no doubt that healthcare technology is experiencing unprecedented demand, but it also seems like there are new, bigger, and better fish emerging on a daily basis.

With every healthcare tech company clamoring to get the attention of hospital procurement leaders and associated agents, we’re sabotaging ourselves. Sometimes, busy healthcare content marketing teams don’t really listen to our target audience. We forget that our healthcare tech is designed to improve care. And we dilute our core message with complex language that leaves potential buyers clueless about our value proposition.  

In order for your content marketing strategy to catch your audience’s attention—and ideally keep it—you need to cut through the clutter with powerful brand messaging that addresses your customer pain points.

Tried-and-tested Tips for Healthcare Technology Marketing Messaging

Tip 1: Focus on differentiators in your healthtech

What is your unique value? Is it your years of experience? Your robust data supply? Your quick and easy implementation? Or the fact that your solution uses AI and machine learning to grow smarter and more effective over time? Whatever makes you different also makes you stand out. So it’s critical to know your differentiators intimately and use them to inform your core marketing message. 

SEE ALSO: The 5 Key Components of a Core Messaging Document

For example, we have a client whose key differentiator is their quick product installation. It is much shorter and profoundly less invasive versus their competitors’. So, think about this advantage from a messaging perspective. If you are able to set up your solution across the entire maze of a hospital facility without closing down patient rooms, interrupting staff workflows, and setting up construction zones, then hospital leaders (and other stakeholders) are going to be very happy. But you need to guide your audience to see this advantage. 

A shorter setup means patients and staff can start realizing the benefits of the solution instantly. In addition, departments across the organization save countless hours on what might otherwise be spent on getting set up. Calculate those saved hours and you’ve got the foundations to start proving ROI. 

In the above example, the difference tells us which solution is the better choice. Know what makes you stand out in the market, and use it in your elevator pitch.

Tip 2: Speak to what your buyer personas care about

We’ve previously written about avoiding complex healthtech marketing messaging, but it never hurts to reiterate. It is absolutely vital for your company messaging to be distilled to its bare essence. In other words, keep it simple. 

The best way to keep healthtech messaging effective and simple is to remember that every solution is designed to do two things: 

1. Take care of patients.  
2. Support hospital staff who have a million other things to do. 

The closer you can keep your messaging to these basic realities, the better. 

Another important detail: Avoid technical explanations of technology. I know it sounds obvious, but healthtech solutions are complicated and why precisely one solution is better than another can lead to a deep dive into the weeds of some very tech-y details. Unnecessary details for your content marketing message.

Just remember the basics of product marketing and always come back to them: How does this product or service save someone time or money? How does it improve patient care? 

SEE ALSO: Build better marketing campaigns with our healthcare content marketing toolkit

Tip 3: Be transparent and trustworthy

If you work in healthtech, then you know how badly the industry has been burned by all of the “latest and greatest” technological innovations. That’s not to say there haven’t been amazing breakthroughs—what I’m getting at is the fact that a lot of tech has come with clunky, expensive, and disruptive implementations that didn’t prove worthwhile or yield measurable benefits to justify the investment. 

Of course, there will always be some solution promoting itself as the next best thing, but those in charge of procurement decisions have heard it all before. Because there’s skepticism, any relevant content that involves your healthcare solution should focus on building trust and directly addressing how your technology evolved to address pre-existing problems. 

Transparency is vital in mapping out the customer journey. You want to have answers ready for questions like: 

• What is the total cost of ownership? 
• What does the implementation process really look like? Who needs to be involved and how long does it take?
• What other integrations or infrastructure upgrades/overhauls need to be considered? 
• What are the long-term benefits? What specific processes become streamlined as a result of the solution? 

One of the best ways to help a potential customer feel confident in your solution is to provide third-party reviews, testimonials, implementation playbooks, and customer satisfaction scores. These will validate that you are indeed trustworthy—and aren’t touting a total flop.

SEE ALSO: Don’t Miss these 10 Details to Ensure a Successful Social Media Plan

Get Out of the Frenzy

Health care technology companies are usually in the business of saving lives, keeping people healthy, and addressing society’s deepest and most difficult problems. The technology being applied within healthcare usually has a similar purpose: to track health data better, to improve hospital communication, to make clinicians’ lives easier or save them time, to educate patients, and ultimately to help foster better, healthier lives. 

If you can tie your brand messaging strategy back to these core goals while also being transparent and trustworthy, then, my friends, you’re on your way to becoming one of those amazing sharks they profile on National Geographic shows. You know, that mammoth miracle-of-nature shark that swims alone between oceans to meticulously hunt seals. That shark rules.

About Ali Amoroso:

Ali Amoroso is Right Source’s director of content marketing. She crafts impactful content strategies that drive brand awareness, lead generation, and business growth. Ali received a bachelor’s degree from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in journalism and international studies . For the past decade, she has turned her reporting edge into a marketing one, much to her clients' gratitude.