The 3 Best Ways You Can Market Your Medical Device

The 3 Best Ways You Can Market Your Medical Device

Investing millions of pounds, dollars or euros into medical devices is precisely what your business is doing. You’re creating the next wave of tools which are going to save lives and instruments which are going to be quite literally life changing, but, you have one big question, “what is the best way to market your medical device?” 

At Tricks, we have worked with many pharmaceutical and medical companies who tell us the same thing. “Trade shows” and “In-house medical representatives.” 

These are tried and tested, heck, they even work.

But there is a third way. Something you may have never used before but can be used to market, to help sell and to even get your name out there - but we’ll come to that in a bit. 

Whether it is directly speaking to the surgeons, medical teams or even the hospital procurement managers, we know that creating excitement and engagement around your product is going to be the most important factor. 

That goes for whether you are selling any of these three types of devices (see below). You are using the marketing methods most businesses use: 

• General Medical Devices
• Active Implantable Medical Devices
• In Vitro Diagnostic Medical Devices (IVDs)

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Trade shows

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The first recorded international trade fair was in 1851 and was the brainchild of Prince Albert. They obviously work. It’s a great way to showcase your product. You can narrow down your prospects and articulate your wider marketing message into one huge audience. 

Imagine, you have a stand, you have a team and you have active customers who are already salivating at the prospect of spending their procurement budget. They’re looking for the businesses who can woo them with the latest in the medical field of technology. 

There are of course pros and cons to this method of selling medical devices. 

The Pros include: 

• Direct access to target audience: Trade shows provide an opportunity to meet potential customers, healthcare professionals, and industry leaders face-to-face.
• Product demonstrations: Exhibitors can showcase their devices through live demonstrations - even using state of the art augmented reality headwear - allowing attendees to experience the products firsthand - applicability is necessary.
• Networking opportunities: Attendees can build new business relationships, connect with industry experts, and explore potential partnerships.

The Cons on the other hand are: 

• High Costs: Going to and exhibiting at trade shows can be expensive. You need the space, the budget and the transportation of equipment, staff wages, food, and other associated expenses. This is then multiplied by the number of trade shows you attend.
• Intense competition: Trade shows often feature hundreds of exhibitors, making it challenging to stand out from competitors. This crowded environment can make it difficult for companies to capture the attention and if you’re new or a smaller company, you may struggle to differentiate yourself from more established brands.
• Premature product launches: The pressure to meet trade show deadlines can lead companies to rush product development or showcase devices that aren't fully ready. This "Trade Show Effect" can result in premature product launches, where critical problems remain unsolved. 

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Building an information & education network

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Medical representation is a huge industry. It’s not only device education, it’s relationships, it’s networking, it’s being the person on the other side of a phone call to deal with the industry latest and sometimes even just reaching out to check in on your clients. 

Medical representatives who can get into hospitals, surgeries and even trade shows can help market your medical device in a way which is practical and useful. These relationships are built on trust - which can often mean a product successfully launching your business into the stratosphere!  

But what representatives do is that they become the person that doctor, surgeon, medical team contact to learn about the devices applied use. They have the information in their head and at their fingertips, they give feedback to their own marketing and development team about comments from the customer and help define what makes their device so special.  

Again, there are pros and cons to using a medical representative team and here are just a few; 

Pros:

• Direct customer engagement: representatives can directly interact with healthcare professionals, providing personalised demonstrations and addressing specific concerns about medical devices.
• Product expertise: A dedicated representative can develop in-depth knowledge of complex medical devices, effectively communicating their benefits and proper usage to potential customers.
• Relationship building: medical representatives can build strong relationships with healthcare providers, leading to customer loyalty and repeat business.

Cons:

• High costs: Maintaining a medical representative team can be expensive, including salaries, commissions, travel expenses, and training costs.
• Work-life balance challenges: Medical device reps often work long hours, on-call availability, and extensive travel, which can lead to burnout and high turnover rates.
• Market volatility: The medical device industry is subject to rapid changes, including hospital contract negotiations, price erosion, and industry consolidation, which can create a stressful and unpredictable work environment for representatives.

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Medical Device Animation

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And then, there’s the third way. The secret tool that most won’t have considered… That’s right, animation. 

Medical device animation is nothing new. But the way you can tell a story, highlight benefits / USPs or showcase the device in use can be a secret marketing weapon.  All without requiring a camera crew or needing someone trained in the device to showcase all the intricate things R&D has built into it. 

It’s something your competitors may easily overlook. 

We asked, “what is the best way to market your medical device?” and the simple answer is, the first two are incredible sales tactics, but when it comes to marketing, medical device animation is one of the most powerful marketing tools you can use. 

Here’s why; 

• You can use it as part of your customer education efforts. Medical representatives can use the animation to introduce the product showcasing the benefits and applications. 
• On trade stands you can have a rolling animation on repeat so that if your representatives are occupied, you can tell the story of your product. 
• It works brilliantly across your existing marketing channels, like social media and your website.
• You can create individual personas, for each person in the buying chain I.e. you can create a story of the doctor, another for the procurement manager and another for the medical team in after-care. 
• Medical device animations also make explaining hard or impossible things very easy, without performing an operation or bringing multiple stakeholders together in the same location. 

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So when you’re considering what to do when it comes to medical device animation consider a studio like Tricks.
We have years of experience delivering animations for some of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical and medical companies. 

We know what it takes to tell your story better. See how we service the wider pharmaceutical industry with our case studies and learn how our team can help you with your medical device animation needs. 

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