Patience Hurlburt-LawtonLet’s face it – while the medical industry has made advancement in technology by leaps and bounds, introducing high-tech devices and equipment for consumers, it is still far from adopting digital strategies to enhance brand exposure and create awareness. For medical device companies to stay current with the digital trends, stay relevant, and enhance their online presence, they need to rethink their marketing strategies and implement methods and techniques that foster engagement and increase sales online.
Why Should You Update Your Medical Device Website?
For starters, we live in a digital age, and any medical device company without an online presence is as non-existent as a ghost. A study conducted at Stanford University showed that more than 45 percent of users measure the credibility of a business based on its website design alone – that’s a lot of potential customers.
Whether it is to keep visitors on your website for longer duration, lower bounce rate, or increase conversion rate, monitoring its performance regularly to determine areas that require improvement is of paramount importance. It is essential because an engaging website directly influences the amount of leads and sales a business generates. However, if its core design elements and basic functionalities lag behind, most of the potential users won’t stick around to explore the site – it is as simple as that.
Most budding medical device brands have the potential to make it big in their industry, but they eventually hit the ceiling when it comes to business growth. This is essentially because of a few simple yet serious mistakes they make in how they present their medical brand, as a whole, online. You should start by redesigning your website, if you have one.
By redesigning, it doesn’t mean that you scrap your existing website and make a new one or change every single aspect of it, including branding. It means that you need to work on improving its functionality and aesthetic appeal to make it easy for users to explore your website. Both user experience and user interface are key aspects, which should be taken in account when redesigning your medical device website.
Signs Indicating Your Website Needs a Redesign
1. Slow Site Speed
One of the most alarming signs is your site’s page loading speed. It affects several factors related to your online presence, such as SEO, user experience, and the time a user spends on your website, among other things. A slow website can be a result of several issues – it can be that your website is designed poorly or you have a slow hosting platform. Both of these issues indicate that it is time for you to make improvements. You need to understand that today’s consumers are impatient, especially people looking for healthcare solutions, and want medical companies to provide them instantaneous solutions that seamlessly cater to their needs.
2.Unresponsive Website
Believe it or not, but more than 60 percent of total internet traffic derives from mobile devices, and the figure is expected to rise further in the coming years. So if your medical device business website is still unresponsive, the chances are you are already losing leads and potential customers. Mobile users need brands to have a responsive website that functions smoothly on their small smartphone screens and provides the same user experience as on their desktop. It is highly important for a medical device company to optimize their website for mobile to enhance user engagement and provide better exposure to their products.
3.Outdated and Old Website
As you know, technology is evolving at an unprecedented rate, and what used to be a hot trend a few years ago is likely now have become a thing of the past. So if you had your medical device business website built 5 years ago and it used to be a masterpiece back then, it probably looks absolutely outdated now. If your website gives an old, worn out feeling and make one question whether this company is still in business, you need to consider getting a complete makeover and give it a fresh look – one that would instantly build credibility the moment a visitor enters your website.
Digital Marketing – It’s Time for Medical Device Companies to Let Go of Traditional Methods
What started a decade ago as a mere trend has now become a necessity that every medical device company needs to integrate into their marketing strategy. It won’t be wrong to say that digital channels are taking over traditional marketing, and are quickly becoming the primary platform for product or service advertising.
Here are a few statistics to help you understand the importance of digital marketing for medical device companies. According to Hubspot:
- 78 percent of users use the internet to search and learn about a product
- Companies that have a blog get 55 percent more traffic on their website
- The costs of inbound marketing are 62 percent less than traditional marketing
As you can see, there are a lot of opportunities for medical device companies to provide more exposure to their products, enhance their marketing and sales efforts, grow their business, and expand their clientele. So what you can do to take your marketing game online? Read on to find out:
Digital Marketing Tools for Medical Device Companies
1.Revamp your Website
Your digital marketing efforts should begin from the center point, i.e. your medical device business website. Most of the medical device websites are made using the outdated philosophy that it should make branding statements, have corporate credentials, and provide information about product features and benefits. However, this is not a workable strategy anymore. You need to shift the focus of your website towards the needs and wants of your target audience, and design its content in a way that it is engaging, relevant, and appropriate.
2.Go for Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing is one of the most effective marketing strategies that allow your potential customers to readily get the information they are looking for. If your target audience considers you a trusted resource, it will dramatically increase the number of leads. By implementing inbound marketing techniques, you can take your website’s lead generation capabilities up a notch, while keeping your average costs per lead to a bare minimum.
3.Search Engine Optimization is Still Very Important
Organic traffic is known to have the highest conversion rate, and the only way to get this type of traffic is to optimize your medical device business website for search engines. It allows customers looking for products similar to yours to land on your website and make a purchasing decision. However, SEO requires dedication and time, as it takes some time to get higher ranking on search engines. Also, make sure you optimize your content as well and design it in a way that enables search engines to rank your website higher in SERPs.
4.Be Social
There has been a misconception revolving around social media and scarcity of target audience of medical device companies. Take these numbers into account: Facebook has over a billion users, LinkedIn has 300 million, and Twitter has 240 million users. How it is possible that none of these social media users would be interested in your medical products. So it is essential to set up a social media marketing campaign to improve engagement, attract customers, and improve sales.
Conclusion
These are just a few approaches for a medical device company to take their online presence and the marketing game to a whole new level and get a competitive edge in this cutthroat corporate landscape. At the end of the day, the players that stay up-to-date with the latest innovations take the cake – that is why you should start revamping your website and marketing strategies to maximum the sales potential of your medical device company and expand your customer base.
