By Rich Glew
In the fast-paced, high-stakes growth phase of a life sciences technology company, it can often be tempting to skip certain activities in an effort to save time. Yet there are several non-negotiable product marketing activities and initiatives that must be completed to give your product or solution the best chance of commercial success.
From developing core messaging to listening to your customers post-launch, here’s five product marketing shortcuts not to take when launching a new life sciences technology product or solution.
1. Develop Core Messaging
The very foundation of your messaging will shape the customer’s perception of your product and company. In developing new messaging, ask yourself the following questions: What is your story? What problem are you trying to solve? Why should customers care? Product marketers need to ask (and answer) these questions to ensure the product finds a clearly differentiated place in the market. A well-written, carefully considered messaging framework provides a foundation for all subsequent marketing and sales collateral.
For example, if your company develops medical technology for patients dealing with chronic pain, your messaging should focus on how the new device improves patients’ quality of life better than the current standard of care, reduces the need for medication, and makes daily activities more manageable.
2. Define Success
Identifying and aligning key performance indicators (KPIs) helps evaluate where your business is currently and where it is heading. A healthcare diagnostic software company entering a new market may pose several questions to measure performance: What are important milestones for my marketing strategy? How many deals do I have to close every quarter to stay profitable? What’s the best platform to track, manage, and optimize data? Based on the given resources, what is a feasible growth outcome?
Answering these questions — and utilizing a visualization dashboard and/or KPI software tools — will help you establish a clear and defined roadmap to enable a holistic view of your company’s growth — without any guesswork.
3. Align with Sales
Operationalizing the lead development process requires a strong collaboration between marketing and sales. While each team plays a distinct role in the buyer’s journey, a close partnership between marketing and sales helps to ensure that your sales enablement assets speak to your customers and deliver value throughout the process.
In the clinical trial space, marketing teams must tailor assets such as case studies, fact sheets, or email templates that address the pain points of the biopharmaceutical industry. By aligning with the sales team, marketing can create assets that resonate with the targeted audience, ultimately leading to more successful lead nurturing and sales efforts.
4. Plan for Lead Follow-Up
After aligning your marketing and sales efforts, it’s crucial to have a well-defined lead nurture plan to sustain customer interest in your product. Whether it’s a director, a scientist, or a researcher, identifying and segmenting your audience in the plan will help you communicate more effectively.
Following up on leads is not only an effective way to keep your products top of mind, but it also provides an opportunity to establish relationships with potential customers and convert them into paying customers. Consistency is key, and it’s crucial to adhere to your follow-up plan without skipping any steps. Even one follow-up can make the difference between losing a potential customer and closing a deal, so it’s well worth the investment to develop a robust lead nurturing plan and execute it consistently to achieve optimal results.
5. Listen to Your Customers
Marketing is all about understanding and serving customers, but your perception of your company may be radically different from that of your customers. For life science technology and data companies, there are several proven methods they can implement to obtain customer feedback from their pharmaceutical, medical device, healthcare organization, and digital health clients, including:
- Create customer advisory boards and consortia —invite customers to an ongoing advisory board or consortium to provide feedback on new product features, usability, and customer service.
- Build early adopter programs — offer key customers early access to new products and features in exchange for feedback on set, performance, usability, and stability.
- Create user groups — form a community of users who can share best practices, ask questions, or provide feedback.
- Conduct surveys and interviews — gather qualitative and quantitative insights from existing or prospective customers.
- Leverage industry associations — participate in life science associations and industry events to collect and analyze industry interests.
Although it can be tempting to take shortcuts in product marketing to save time during the growth phase of a life sciences technology company, it is important to remember that certain non-negotiable activities and initiatives must be completed to achieve commercial success. By following these five steps, companies can establish a clear roadmap to growth, create assets that resonate with their target audience, and build relationships with potential customers. Ultimately, taking the time to invest in these critical marketing activities can lead to increased success in the life sciences technology market.
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