No surgeon would begin open-heart surgery without extensive consultation with the patient and other medical professionals. All parties should know the patient’s condition and all possible outcomes.
In the same vein, every product marketing consulting engagement should begin with a strategy session. This is particularly important in healthcare. Common pain points may persist while new trends emerge. Also, healthcare providers have limited budgets. They need to spend their money on solving their biggest pain points.
An experienced healthcare marketing consultant should help answer three important questions during your product marketing strategy session.
- What is the optimal messaging around this product?
The consultant can provide a balanced view of the organization’s existing messaging. One that is free of internal bias and assumptions. An outside perspective ensures a focus on product benefits. The consultant can also confirm you’re targeting appropriate personas and market segments.
These efforts should ensure any existing messaging resonates with the target market. Messaging illustrates how the company’s products can help. A strategy session that includes several team members can be particularly helpful. This ensures people’s biases and opinions don’t misdirect the organization.
- What are the capabilities of the product?
During the product marketing strategy session, the consultant should work with you to articulate:
- product capability
- positioning
- value proposition
This sets the direction for forthcoming tactics. You want to ensure you align all marketing tactics to resonate with both the decision makers and end users. The consultant can also identify and explore the competitive landscape. This allows them to confirm messaging and position and to increase the longevity of implemented tactics. A cohesive healthcare product marketing strategy establishes the language used in subsequent marketing materials.
- What are the organization’s long-term goals?
One of the hardest aspects of marketing is maintaining consistency of message across different platforms and over time. You should refer to the information gathered during a product marketing strategy throughout the product’s life span. Don’t file this strategy away! You need to share it with all who may be responsible for contributing to your marketing.
All parties involved should also review it each year to understand if any market or competitive dynamics have changed. And, to determine how to implement lessons learned over the previous year. An expert product marketing consultant will identify strategic marketing tactics that support both short- and long-term goals.
Start with a Strategy Session
Starting a consulting engagement with a product marketing strategy session may seem obvious. But, I have found that’s not the general tendency. Rather, companies push out marketing efforts to meet deadlines without understanding and monitoring market demands.
A strategy session doesn’t have to be lengthy and complex. Your goal can be to review what you know and fill gaps in understanding. Conducting a strategy session creates alignment and space for new ideas. It sets a solid foundation for the language that is so critical to a successful marketing effort. The strategy session should include documentation of all aspects of the strategy and value proposition. This ensures clear communications throughout the rest of the engagement and memorializes decisions.
If your organization could use some strategic direction or some personalized marketing guidance, we can help. We provide specialized healthcare IT product marketing consulting services. Please feel free to contact us to set up a consultation.
