There are several reasons why a medtech company might need to change their messaging. Maybe there is a major change coming, or a new product is being added. In other cases, you might just simply need to tweak something that doesn’t quite fit anymore, or create content for a new persona.
Regardless of the situation, there are often a lot of factors at play when you need to update your messaging, and managing them all can be tricky. We discussed this topic on an episode of The Health Connective Show with Marnie Hayutin, the founder of Writing.Health. Marnie gave us her tips on how to navigate that process.
Tip #1: Get everyone invested in the process.
There will likely be several people involved in the process of changing the messaging, but not everyone will be as excited about the change as the marketing team.
For example, the person who created the original messaging might not be happy that that messaging is going away. Or, sales teams who were comfortable with the original messaging might be concerned about having to change their processes and learn new systems.
This is why it’s important to introduce the change in a positive way. Changing your messaging means that your company is growing and evolving, and it’s exciting that everyone gets to be involved in that process.
Tip #2: Be responsive to market conditions, not reactive.
It’s important for medtech companies to keep an ear to the ground about what’s going on in the market, so that they can adapt messaging to be responsive to market conditions.
For example, a lot of companies pivoted around COVID to be more supportive in their messaging. On the other hand, if you are changing messaging due to one piece of negative feedback during the sales process, that is taking a more reactive approach. If you stay in tune with the state of the market as a whole, you can be more thoughtful about how and when you want to change your messaging to adapt to those changes.
In the case we mentioned above, a marketing team should reevaluate how to address more objections during their sales process. They shouldn’t reposition their entire brand. For more on this, see Creating Effective Product Marketing Content for Each Stage.
Tip #3: Address what doesn’t change in the messaging.
Sometimes, medtech companies can get so focused on getting the new message right that they end up scrapping the components that really explain what they do. Often, you do not need to throw everything out, but rather just change the parts that no longer work with your current direction. You want to make sure that you are still ultimately addressing what you do and what you stand for.
If you start by identifying the parts of your message that still work and don’t need to change, you can make sure that that information doesn’t get lost and is still present in the newest iteration of your messaging.
Tip #4: Use personas to pivot to new customer groups.
Sometimes, when medtech companies want to reach a new customer group, they think they need to totally overhaul their messaging, branding, taglines, etc. Often, you don’t need to go that far.
If you split your customer groups into different personas, you can tailor your content to each of those groups. Then, when you need to reach a new audience, you simply create a new persona and tailor the content to them. Often, you can even reuse content you already have and just tweak it to fit your new persona, which makes the process more efficient.
Tip #5: Solicit individual feedback.
Medtech companies tend to hold large brainstorming sessions to solicit feedback and ideas for new messaging. However, that doesn’t always give you the full picture of how people are feeling about it.
Group sessions can be helpful for collaborating and iterating on ideas, but what often ends up happening is that a handful of people dominate the conversation, and the more reserved members of the group stay silent. That is why it can be helpful to solicit individual feedback–you might hear some great ideas or identify pain points that may not have come out during a group session.
Tip #6: Have one person or department be in charge of the actual updates.
When it comes to actually rolling out your messaging, it helps to have one person or one department (depending on the size of your company) to spearhead that process. Ideally, you want the writers on your team to handle the content updates to make sure that the new messaging is being rolled out in a way that makes sense for the various channels and formats where it appears. Sometimes, non-writers will apply changes a bit too literally, not adjusting for context.
Having one person or group manage the implementation also helps you better keep track of changes–what order you are updating in, what has already been updated, and what still needs to be updated–so that you can better manage your content inventory.
Making a change in your messaging can be a big undertaking even if it’s a relatively minor change because there are so many people and departments involved in the process. Hopefully, these tips will help make it a more manageable process for your company.
Michael spends a great deal of time with the healthcare industry both professionally and personally, which gives him the perspective of what stakeholders on either side of the care equation need.
He began coding in 2008 and subsequently shifted his attention entirely to online marketing. Michael completed his MBA in 2018, focusing on the intersection of healthcare and marketing.
As the marketing manager, Ashley ensures that our clients’ marketing strategies are put into action. This includes content writing, SEO, online advertising, analytics, and interfacing with the tools, systems, and team members needed to help our clients accomplish their marketing goals.
