Maximizing Lead Generation in B2B Healthcare IT

One of the major challenges the healthcare technology industry faces with marketing is lead generation. It’s safe to say that there’s a large gap in the identification and conversion processes of marketing qualified leads, especially when looking at priority buyers. The healthcare industry has come against a litany of hurdles over the past few years, and technology supporting the industry has spiked, both in terms of needs and functionality. As a solution provider to these types of buyers, it’s your role to not only market to them efficiently but generate a pipeline of high-quality leads to manage.

1. Call to Action

Lead generation is the result of passive thought leadership and segmented marketing outreach. A significant piece to the outbound strategy is the call-to-action. Most B2B marketers do this, especially if you’re selling healthcare software. However, a common challenge with call-to-actions is the over-reliance on “setting a meeting.” Yes, it’s important to get your leads to talk to you, but not everyone is ready at the same time they engage with their email.

Most of the time, buyers at hospital groups or general practices are being pulled into multiple directions and appreciate a well-written and authoritative article or other piece of content to read through when they have time to dedicate to research. It’s this action, coupled with a strong value proposition, that will help you convert more leads over time. Using a content download or ungated piece of media can go a long way with your buyers.

2. Landing Pages

In B2B lead generation, most campaigns direct the prospect to a landing page of some sort, with the goal of gathering more information. There are a lot of different ways to approach developing a landing page, whether you want to focus on an all-encompassing solution page, or a personalized needs-based page for a specific type of buyer. When it comes to generating leads from a landing page, however, there are a few key aspects to keep in mind:

• Use various content formats and media to pull your prospec’ts eyes all around the page.
• Provide compelling data points or copy to keep your prospect engaged longer.
• Prioritize straightforward content. Don’t leave the prospect guessing about what you mean.

Landing pages can tend to run long, so focus on the crucial information your buyers need. Similar to your CTAs, landing pages require a value prop or statement, a needs-first narrative, and practical content the healthcare facility can share across departments.

3. SEO

Healthcare technology is one of the more commonly searched solutions on Google, mainly because of the variety of needs the search engine can help address. However, this also creates an extremely competitive space for health-tech marketers to play in. You’re not only trying to get the attention of your direct buyers, but also compete against solutions that might not be the same as yours. Healthcare has become a catch-all term to apply to anything related to wellbeing, hospitals, or pharmaceuticals.

One of the easiest ways to stand out against competitors is to develop keywords that best define the solution you’re marketing. For example, you might be a patient database software that targets doctors’ offices, but because of how your buyers are searching in Google, now you’re competing with a meditation app.

Here are some easy-to-implement SEO best practices to help increase the quality of leads you’re generating.

• Search Intent – Use a search engine and type in what your software does. Chances are, you’re going to come up with questions addressing the general use case of your solution. Now, take those results and apply the, to the content you produce. Creating blogs or landing pages talking about these commonly searched problems can help you boost your search ranking.
• User Experience – Search engines appreciate good UX. Developing a variety of content that is both visually appealing and actively engaging will help your brand pull in more organic page views. Try using white space on your blogs or product pages to help emphasize specific points of interest like a CTA or a value prop. Put yourself in your buyer’s shoes and try to imagine what they’re thinking as they scroll through your website.
• URLs – An often-overlooked issue with bad SEO is the use of URLs. The way you format these links to your site can greatly impact your buyer’s ability to find it. Again, keeping search intent in mind, these links should use a commonly searched key phrase about your product, service, or solution. Try to avoid a URL that is too long and focus on a snappy phrase that will hook your buyer.
• Internal Linking – It’s a best practice, from the moment you build your website, to have your webpages link to other pages within your ecosystem. That keeps your buyer engaged with the variety of solutions you offer and (should) eventually funnel them down to providing you with some personal information, usually by filling out a form. Search ranking strongly prefers when websites use a variety of links that fit within a specific subject. For example, you may have a blog about the evolution of CPAP machines that would fit perfectly on your page about health-tech machine automation.

4. Content Syndication 

Buyers engage with content. Believe it or not, one of the best ways to convert your prospects into leads is to deliver them relevant content that addresses a need they’re facing. They’re more apt to fill out a contact form to download a well-timed or interesting white paper than to ask to be a part of a sales pitch. This is why content syndication is such a valuable marketing solution for demand generation marketers.

In the healthcare space, technology buyers tend to gravitate toward actionable data points derived from research about the various pain points they need to address. This very reason is why white papers and ebooks  perform so well. They explore the challenge the buyer is trying to overcome while providing information that expands their knowledge in a given field of interest. Content syndication provides a great source of qualified leads that are looking to gather more information about a solution-based need they’re facing, priming your marketing team to further nurture them into an eventual sales opportunity.

5.  Intent Data

When your team is putting together a marketing campaign, one of the biggest challenges they’ll face centers around data quality and/or enhancement. There is a major gap in B2B marketing when it comes to the agility and usefulness of the database. The main reason for this is there’s a common misconception about the type of data you need to collect. Currently, buyers are not only providing their basic contact information, but decisional and behavioral intent data based on the actions they take.

As a B2B marketer, your job is to generate leads that accelerate your marketing funnel. Bad data can stifle your marketing campaigns through out-of-market or unsubscribed contacts. Through the gathering of intent data, you can now market more effectively with personalized campaigns that address your specific buyer’s challenges.

Lead Generation Options Galore

If you’re looking to generate quality leads from scalable and agile programmatic marketing campaigns, DemandScience offers a slew of options for your team to utilize. All of our lead gen solutions utilize intent data, social triggers, and first party content engagement, designed to gather the most accurate in-market buyer data available. Whether it’s content syndication, display advertising, or lead conversion, DemandScience can help your team hit their goals and reach the best buyers in the healthcare industry.

If you’d like to learn more, reach out to us today!