Are you putting a great deal of energy into marketing your B2B healthcare product or service, but getting little in return? The source of your problem might be that your company lacks the brand cohesion needed to unite your value propositions, content and identity throughout your marketing channels. Although B2C is often thought to take center stage in this area, the B2B industry also recognizes the important role branding plays in increasing the reach, and ultimately the adoption, of new products and services. In the B2B healthcare sector especially, thoughtful market research paired with a clear brand strategy set the necessary foundation for outlining the way a business is perceived.
Here’s how brand identity and visual optimization can fix some of your biggest marketing disconnects:
1. My products and services aren’t resonating with my target audience
B2B marketing in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry can be difficult, as reaching your target audience tends to be tough. If you haven’t done so already, the first step is to create detailed buyer personas by conducting market and customer research. Buyer personas should guide the content you create for prospective clients and list channels where you’re most likely to engage with them. Tools such as BuzzSumo and LinkedIn can help you find this information. Next, work on refining your mission statement and establishing three to five unique value propositions that will differentiate your offering from the competition quickly and clearly. Lastly, combine the insights gleaned from your buyer personas with your differentiators to cater quality content to your target audience and start generating brand awareness.
2. My website’s content is not generating enough leads or traffic
Maximize the potential of your buyer personas by establishing guidelines for your brand messaging. Effective messaging that generates website traffic must be optimized, quality content that provides the best user experience (UX). By setting guidelines, you ensure that your external messages are an extension of your brand’s identity and all the groundwork you’ve formalized in your brand strategy. Brand messaging comes into play not only through content marketing but also through social media and search engine optimization (SEO), as it translates your ideas to the language and search terms used most by your buyer personas. Do you want to present your business as personable, humorous or informative? Select a tone of voice for the messages carried across each channel, but stay consistent by aligning them with your overarching strategy and utilizing keywords that best represent your products and services for site crawlers like Google. Also, keep in mind the physical layout of this content on various devices so that your brand messaging can always take center stage.
3. My brand seems far behind the top players in my industry
If you’ve found your ideal messaging voice but still feel as though your content isn’t performing at the level you want, your visual identity might need a facelift. Focus on elevating and differentiating your business by enhancing your company logo. Oftentimes, complementing a logo with an anchorline will help lift the cloud of ambiguity around your offering. An anchorline is different from a tagline; it articulates what you do into one brief descriptive phrase, such as “Lab Supplies & Solutions” or “B2B Telecom Services” and is oftentimes designed right into the logo or featured just below it. Another way to elevate the look and feel of your company is to revamp and expand your color palette for marketing collateral and set expectations for the visuals that will accompany your blogs and social posts. By following design best practices, your marketing agency will be able to develop relevant and shareable visuals that complement your content while showcasing your business as one that others would want to work with.
Once your brand is fully optimized, your digital and traditional marketing efforts will follow suit. Start making headway on your B2B healthcare marketing dilemmas by implementing these solutions today.
For more ways to effectively market your offering to the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry, download our new eBook: Top Tactics for Marketing to Healthcare and Pharma Companies in 2017.
Are you interested in B2B healthcare marketing services? Contact Sagefrog Marketing Group today!
