B2B healthcare brands know the importance of in-depth research. Lab testing, pilot sites and clinical trial data are the bread and butter of securing FDA approvals and establishing use claims, which are required to even begin marketing most products. While this data is key for business success, many brands are not tapping into the full potential of research; they are not gathering data on target audience attitudes and beliefs.
Market surveys are nothing new, but there are many insights that fly under the clinical research radar. By prioritizing voice of customer research savvy marketers can get to the heart of their customers’ biggest challenges and learn what keeps them up at night. Voice of customer research tells a broader business story about the healthcare industry. Your company can gather insights from a relatively large group of people and provide specific metrics on where customers find success or struggle.
The process of deploying one of these surveys is less arduous than one might think, especially with the right partner. It is an investment worth making and should be done right with a proven healthcare research partner in collaboration with your PR partner. The two can work with your team to identify questions that will help get to data both trade editors and internal stakeholders find compelling. Each study will be different in its level of financial investment, which is typically impacted by length of survey, the audiences you’d like to respond and how big the respondent pool is, among other considerations. Highly sought-after decision-maker audiences, such as healthcare c-suite executives, and smaller niche clinical audiences, will likely require a larger budget.
Not only will the unique insights gathered through this research help a team sell and market its products more effectively, the insights are also ripe for the public relations picking! So, don’t forget to budget for marketing and PR efforts to leverage study results in addition to the survey costs. You are going to want to tell the world what you find out – trust us.
The data collected gives you angles and insights that competitors may not have in their arsenals and can provide market intelligence and competitive intel that equips marketers to tell better stories customers are looking to hear. A large study of a niche customer population could drive content for an entire year with data contributing to, or being the basis for, a plethora of high value content, such as an industry report or new educational programs.
Here are just a few ways you can enhance your marketing programs by leveraging the data through a mix of earned, owned and paid channels:
- Create a pillar piece of content, such as an e-book or industry report, and gate it on your website to drive leads.
- Use that pillar content to create as many derivative pieces of content as possible. Slice and dice that baby into blog posts, social posts, newsletters, infographics and podcasts.
- Run a sponsored LinkedIn campaign to drive traffic to your pillar content.
- Distribute a press release on the unique insights you gleaned from your customers and how you are helping them overcome the challenges they face.
- Contribute articles to industry publications written by your subject matter experts using stats identified in your survey that speak to a deeply held industry belief or are contradictory to expectations.
Investing in voice of customer research is an all-around win for marketers and PR practitioners. It provides new, unique insights into your customers wants and needs, all while creating new story angles to fold into an integrated communications plan. This research can strengthen, or establish, a brand’s position as a market leader by getting on a customer’s level.
To learn more about how this research can benefit your company, reach out to us for case studies of how Inprela has successfully helped our clients execute and leverage survey data.
