Medical Device Marketing in a Saturated Market: Four Winning Tactics

Competition is fierce in the medical device marketplace. So much so, that some specialties are becoming saturated with offerings. Given that, it is more important than ever to build a targeted, multi-layered strategy to connect with your audience.

Follow these four essential steps to help stand out in an increasingly saturated medical device marketplace.

1. Hone Your Value Proposition

Developing your unique selling proposition (USP), or value proposition, is essential in a saturated market. Your brand will instantly become more appealing when your audience can quickly and easily grasp what sets you apart from the competition.

Typically, price shouldn’t be the primary USP. What do you have to offer consumers or patients that no one else does? For example, which features of your product operate more efficiently? Do you offer different benefits than competitors? Is your product more eco-friendly than others? Before you launch any campaigns, you should home in on precisely what makes your product more appealing than others in the industry.

2. Follow Your Successful Competitors

What are the leaders in your market doing? The more you understand the successful strategies of your competitors, the more you can craft a distinctive marketing strategy that makes you pop.

Look at their campaigns, messaging, content and channels. How are they winning? Once you have a clear idea of what leads to their successes, decide what makes sense to mimic and where you can establish differentiation. There you’ll find a mix that can help build your presence in a saturated market.

3. Create a Distinctive Brand Identity

Following on the USP, your brand identity needs to be unique and memorable in order to stand out. Visual components, messaging, calls-to-action and brand resources (such as downloads or customer portals) should mix together to provide a stand-alone experience for your audience.

Your brand identity should align with the benefits and experiences your products offer as well as exhibit your company's values. This identity will help establish your USP, showing patients and healthcare professionals what makes you different and better than your competition.

4. Leverage Clinical Journals

Healthcare providers and payers often turn to clinical journals, like the highly-regarded ones Elsevier publishes, to obtain reliable information on recent breakthroughs in the market. Print and digital journals are critical resources for medical device marketers who need to break through the noise to reach their target audience. 

Leverage HCP searching habits by aligning your advertising with relevant journal content. Make sure to present a consistent brand identity and brand messaging across digital and print publications, as some in your market will switch from devices to print format during their customer journey with your brand.

There may be no slowing down the hyper-competitive nature of the medical device market, but with the right marketing strategy in place, you can make inroads in even the most saturated market segment.

Article Written by Alex Brown