What Every HME Needs to Know About Communicating with Their Audiences

We asked our industry expert, Joshua Schneiderman, to share his expertise when it comes to marketing to HME audiences and how medical equipment differs from other verticals.

Watch the video, here:

What is the most important thing to remember for Medical Equipment businesses that might not apply to other industries?

The dynamics between who shops, who uses, and who pays for an item. There are so many possibilities and sometimes it takes a couple different approaches in your strategy to make sure that the right audiences get the right answers.

Do you think advertising has changed dramatically with web marketing outlets? Or is the concept the same?

Data has changed. The interactivity has changed. Where there were TVs, newspapers, billboards and phone books - now there is online video, social media, programmatic display and search marketing. Each adds a layer of data and interactivity that its predecessor didn’t quite have. It’s also appropriate to consider the sheer volume of content these changes have brought. Content creation used to be so concentrated. Now anyone can create content and virtually everybody is. It can even seem like too much – but it’s important to remember that quality counts and not necessarily quantity.

What do you look for in a site’s analytics that would tell you whether or not a campaign or site is successful?

If you’re skeptical about the success of a campaign, you’re probably right to be. The only thing that pays the bills is income. But it is true that changes in sales numbers are a lagging indicator. You need to make decisions more quickly than that. We can usually get a good read on what is coming from a campaign with a set of collectively exhaustive and mutually exclusive leads – then looking at the closing rate and if not the actual return on investment, at least a moving average return. We look at the ratios. But also understand engagement and what it means for your audience.

Where can an HME save some money?

Not producing a dedicated landing page is one way to save money. A landing page puts one solution out there for all the different questions. Your website is where you should have great answers to the questions that people have. Another way to save money is to start small, but that doesn’t necessarily mean geographically - start with specific keywords and start with less frequent posts.

What mistakes do you see those in the medical field most often making?

Missing what the shopper truly needs. What hurdles are they trying to clear? What media are they willing to consume? Trying to be too clever. Choosing sparklier media over the hard-working fundamentals – or even choosing the type of campaign before identifying the need it is supposed to fill. And not giving their campaigns any real substance. Plus, not understanding what they actually bring to the table.

What changes do you see for the future of medical marketing?

There has been a lot of tightening around how you can use data in the medical space. With so many limitations, multi-channel strategies are becoming even more important. Hedging your bets. The four largest search engines right now are Google, YouTube, Amazon and Facebook. Those are four very different ways to approach meeting customers’ needs. The things I don’t see changing are how important it will continue to be to give people what they need.

Contact us if you would like to arrange a meeting with VGM Forbin’s marketing experts!