At Infuse Medical, we’re given a unique vantage point very early on to digital marketing trends and technologies that are being adopted by medical device and diagnostic marketers. We conducted a survey at the end of 2013 from over 60 device and diagnostic manufacturers, and we learned some interesting and important facts including:

  • 81.3% are now outsourcing 100% of their digital marketing efforts. Most device and diagnostic manufacturers are finding it difficult to satisfy their digital marketing needs in house.
  • 2014 Budgets for Digital Solutions are either increasing or staying the same. It’s requiring more and more effort and resources to stay ahead of the digital marketing curve in these industries.
    • 46.9% reported staying the same
    • 34.4% reported increasing
    • Only 12.5% reported decreasing their budget in 2014 for Digital Solutions Development
    • 6.3% reported not applicable
  • 68.8% of all manufacturers are using mobile systems for syncing and managing PDFs, videos, and other corporate content for their reps to use. Mobile tools are becoming the norm for device and diagnostic sales teams–not the exception.

This means that marketers in the device and diagnostics industries need to work hard and innovate to stay on the cutting edge. With this and additional data gathered, we’ve identified six key digital marketing trends that can help you catch up to and move ahead of the competition:

  1. Develop your mobile applications to mirror your sales engagement.

    ladiesMobile devices have completely redefined the sales engagement. It’s one thing for a rep to explain a medical device to a practitioner. It’s another thing entirely for a rep to use a high-quality interactive iPad presentation to demonstrate a product’s utility and unique value proposition. It’s becoming increasingly important that you arm your sales team with custom mobile tools and apps that help you refine and systemize your sales message.
  2. Integrate your mobile sales apps into your enterprise ecosystem.

    Sales rep efficiency is increased in orders of magnitude when mobile presentation apps are integrated into 3rd party platforms such as CRM Salesforce.com, CMS Dropbox and enterprise software such as SAP. These types of integrations make it easy for you to gather lead information and sales data instantly, improve response times, and streamline your lead funnel. You can also centrally manage and measure your digital sales aids to complement and extend your CRM and CMS.

  3. Build websites using Responsive Design.

    Responsive design is essential to the development of any browser-based site. Mobile searches (85.9 Billion) are projected to exceed desktop searches (84 Billion) for the first time in 2015 (eMarketer). And search engines prefer responsive design to mobile sites on separate domains. To see how effective responsive design can be, try changing your browser size on this page or, even more powerfully, on our new home page. See how all the information is presented in a visually appealing manner at every resolution. Your websites need to do that.

  4. Gamification works. Use it.

    gamification1If you want your message to stick with your sales team, make a game out of it. Games and their built-in incentive structures are becoming an innate part of our cultural mindset. Take advantage of this by creating timed and scored activities for your sales team that are fun to come back to, and you’ll create a community connection and reap the great long term benefit game-based training.

  5. Consider Augmented Reality.

    realtityytytyGame engine technologies now available on mobile devices are bringing the simulators to the masses for effective, efficient and measured training. Augmented reality platforms like Google Glass, WiiU, and Oracle VR are capable of providing realistic 3D environments you can use to train your sales team and that they can in turn use as sales tools or product walkthroughs.

  6. Know what your Digital Content is doing for you.

    graph2Content is still king. Instrumented digital content is even better. Bridge the gap between digital sales collateral and your CRM. Measure how sales reps are utilizing your digital collateral in the sales engagement and correlate it to their success in the sales pipeline.

For more information about the marketing trends expected in 2014 for the medical device industry, contact us. Our innovative team has the expertise to help you design and implement a digital strategy that works for you. We look forward to it.

If you need help creating digital sales aids, 3D medical animations, mobile app development or other creative services you can contact us today!