The New Healthtech Marketing Playbook Webinar

On December 13^th, my colleague Mark Erwich presented a thought-provoking webinar on the New Healthtech Marketing Playbook. This provided fresh data on B2B buyer behavior and what this means for marketing. This included a perspective on developing an effective marketing strategy and actionable guidance on measurement.

Recording

The Modern Healthcare Buying Reality

Mark presented some fresh new data on the Buyer Journey from multiple sources, including HIMSS, Bain/HBS, and 6Sense.

Here is a sample:

• 70% of B2B buyers engage with sellers only after completing 70% of their buying process
• 85% of buyers have vendors in mind before starting research
• Healthcare buying groups are growing: 27% have more than 10 people
• 69% of buying cycles are 13+ months, with 40% taking 24+ months
• Average of 17.6 vendor interactions per buying group member

The Need for a New Marketing Strategy

This is the root of why traditional volume-based tactics don’t work as well as they used to. The buyers are in control and will not get in touch until they are good and ready.

Mark clearly explains why traditional “MQL-focused” marketing is no longer effective. Buyers remain anonymous longer and control when they will engage and who they will speak with.

One of the most important conclusions is that there needs to be a balance between demand generation and brand building. If buyers are unaware of and not familiar with your brand, you will be unlikely to make their shortlist.

The Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Mandate in Healthcare Technology

There are several reasons why ABM is ideally suited to address the sales and marketing challenges in the healthcare technology market.  Firstly, it’s a highly addressable market with well-defined personas and roles across organizations. There is rich data available from sources like Definitive Healthcare.

Not surprisingly, the majority of marketers are either implementing or considering ABM.

In the webinar, Mark explains the following five steps to implementing ABM:

1. Define TAM/SAM
2. Segment and prioritize
3. Select target accounts
4. Build buyer group personas
5. Develop engagement strategy

Mark’s Presentation

New Marketing Measurement Framework

A change in strategy requires a change in measurement. Marketers should shift from lead-based to account-based measurement. This involves focusing on collective buying group influence and tracking account progression through stages. You must measure both early-stage (brand/awareness) and late-stage (engagement) metrics. Ideally, you will also integrate sales and marketing data for a comprehensive view.

How To Implement This

In the webinar, Mark provides an actionable framework for getting started. Change to this new measurement model requires reevaluating your marketing technology stack roadmap. You will need to consider integration requirements across departments and evaluate staffing needs for new technologies.

It will be important to ensure consistent data sources across the organization and balance data quantity with actionable insights.

Big Questions For 2025

As you develop your game plan, here are six questions to consider:

1. How can you develop a balanced marketing strategy combining brand building and ABM
2. What high-value content would buyers actually pay for?
3. How can you implement account-based measurement to track collective buying group engagement?
4. What signals and intent at the account level can you track, even without sophisticated tools?
5. What is the right reporting framework for your business?
6. How will you build genuine relationships through executive networking and community building?

If you liked this post and want to learn more…

1. Check out more posts like this in the Healthtech MarketingLearning Center. It is chock-full of articles, use cases, how-to’s, and ideas. Check out our resource center dedicated to the Buyer Journey.
2. Follow me or connect with me on LinkedIn. I publish videos and articles on ABM and healthtech marketing.
3. See what other healthcare technology marketers are doing. Check out the State of ABM in Healthcare Technology.
4. Buy Total Customer Growth: Our book on how to win and grow customers for life with ABM and ABX.
5. Work with me directly. Let’s book a growth session and we can explore ways you can improve your marketing using the latest techniques in account-based marketing.