How you can prepare for a successful Medical Device product launch

Launching a new Medical Device might be one of the most nerve-wracking times for a Medical Device manufacturer. A wildly successful launch could set your product on the right path, whereas a launch that hardly generates any interest can mean hard work for marketing teams trying to drum up interest.  

We’ve worked on many launches over the years and often find that a multichannel approach that covers multiple digital (online) and traditional (sales team) channels is the key to success. However, the most important starting point is to ensure your branding and product messaging is well constructed. 

By the end of this article, we hope to enlighten you on the factors that determine the success of a launch and give you the knowledge to create a powerful campaign that gets results.  

There are many different metrics to consider when defining both long-term and short-term success metrics for a launch. The end goal is always to hit and exceed commercial targets for the number of devices sold. However, this is not the only metric that defines a successful launch.   

Some devices have a longer sales cycle than others, so will need additional metrics to show that the launch is on track. For example, how many leads you have or how much buzz there is around the device. You could measure this based on the visits to your website or your impressions on your social channels.  

When planning a launch, mapping out goals for each quarter can really set you up for success. In the quarter before a launch, you’ll want to start creating awareness, so goals like impressions on a teaser webpage, the number of people signed up to your email list to hear more, or the increase in followers on your social media could all be great metrics. 

A well-constructed brand message will set your device apart from your competitors and gives your audience something to connect with and remember.  

But, why is this so important? Your message needs to be seen between 15- 25 times before a potential customer acts. This is how long it takes to become memorable and fully engage them. If your brand’s message is confusing and inconsistent – it will be hard for your audience to recognise you and therefore it’s going to take even longer for them to act, if they do at all.  

How you want to be perceived and the story you’re going to tell to achieve that needs to be well thought out, before you even start creating any materials for your Medical Device launch. This will ensure that everything you produce and all of the content you put out across your various channels is consistent and recognisable.  

If you’re interested in learning more, feel free to check out our guide to Medical Device branding.  

As the device is new to market, potential users will be curious to learn what it does and how it can benefit them, so that information needs to be readily available to them. Nobody will invest in your device until they have all the information needed to make a decision.  

Furthermore, your website will probably also be the destination your audience visit to take the next steps to becoming a customer. For example, they could make a purchase on an ecommerce site, or they could fill in a contact form.  

It’s a good idea to examine your website and consider whether it’s optimised to convert users. Are they being encouraged to take the step in the buyer’s journey? Is it clear what the next step is?  

Here are some tips for optimising your website ahead of your Medical Device launch.  

When you start promoting your new Medical Device, where are you going to direct your audience to find out more or take the next steps?  

Most companies will probably create a page on their website dedicated to the Medical Device, and this would be a good place to send your potential customers. This is great as it designates a landing page for all channels, whether digital or traditional, to direct traffic towards. Sales teams can even direct their leads towards this page for more information.  

This page is an opportunity to showcase your product’s unique value and demonstrate how it can solve your audience’s problems or meet their needs. Product pages are most successful when they are clear, concise, engaging and aligned with your company’s or product’s branding and messaging to be visually appealing and impactful.  

A strong landing page can help establish credibility and trust with your target audience, making them more likely to consider purchasing your product. Without a well-crafted landing page, you risk losing potential customers and missing out on valuable sales opportunities. 

Now that your audience is on your website, what do you want them to do next? Make a sale? Get in contact? Once you have determined this, you just need to make sure they know what it is.  

This is the next step on their buyer’s journey, and if isn’t clear what action they’re supposed to take next, you risk them leaving the site and potentially losing their sale.  

It’s a good idea to have one strong call-to-action (CTA) that is repeated throughout your product page, and indeed throughout your whole website. It helps if the CTA always has the same look and uses the same words so that it’s instantly recognisable and easy to find for users. This makes it easier for users to convert.  

All activities that can get you in front of your target audience are beneficial, but your social media, emails and sales teams are particularly powerful, as long as they are optimised appropriately.  

Social media can be an incredibly powerful tool to support your Medical Device product launch. By using social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, you can connect with potential customers, build brand awareness, and drive traffic to your website.  

To make sure that you’re giving yourself the best chance of a success, it might be a good idea to tease the launch in advance. You can build anticipation amongst your audience, so that when the official launch happens, people are already engaged and ready to learn more.  

After the official launch, you capitalise on all of the interest that you’ve built up to build trust and loyalty amongst your audience. This is done by responding to comments, starting up conversations and just generally engaging and interacting with your followers.  

One thing to keep in mind with your social media posts is that selling solutions is generally a more effective solution that selling features. It’s better to discuss how your device will solve the problems your audience are facing, rather than just the features it has.  

If you think your social media skills could use a little bit of a brush up check out our top social media tips. 

Similar to your social media channels, email marketing can help you build the hype around your product launch, but it’s also one of the best channels for nurturing your potential customers and persuading them to convert into paying customers.  

First time website visitors rarely convert, you’re likely to find that most of your conversions come from returning visitors. This is to be expected as people need time to consider a purchase as important as a Medical Device.  

That is where email marketing can be so influential, by getting directly in front of your users and encouraging them to return to your website (where they will hopefully convert).  

You might find that the first few days following your device launch sees a huge amount of traffic to your website, so it’s great if you can capture these visitors and encourage them to join your mailing list – that way you can encourage them to return once they’ve had time to consider.  

You can send out new clinical data and case studies to put your device back to the front of their mind. You may not see lots of conversions in your initial days after launching, but email will help you to keep the excitement alive.  

Looking for some more tips for email? Check out our article on optimising email campaigns.  

While digital marketing can add a lot of value to a product launch, your sales team are equally as important.  

They can be armed with high-quality, branded materials that help them to communicate with key stakeholders and potential customers. Videography, animations, PowerPoints and leave pieces can all convey what the device does and why they need it in a way that is engaging, and importantly, memorable.  

Similarly, conferences offer an excellent opportunity for sales teams to get people excited about the device, hosting symposiums and demonstrations that dives into its capabilities and evidence.  

Marketing teams can also play a role in this, by supporting the sales team to effectively communicate the story they need to tell. Take a look at our article on how marketing teams can help maximise the success of sales teams.  

Podymos is a healthcare marketing agency, specialising in downstream Medical Device marketing.  

We’re more expensive than non-specialised agencies and freelance teams because we only work in the Medical Device space so we have specialist knowledge and experience that other agencies may not be able to offer you.  

If you want high-quality, compliant campaigns that help achieve your business goals, we’d love to hear from you. Simply leave us your contact details below and we’ll get back to you very soon for a no obligation chat.