B2B Healthcare Marketing: 8 Questions to Ask a Digital Agency
October 12, 2017 - 11 minutes read - B2B, Healthcare MarketingWhen trying to grow your healthcare tech company or medical tech company, hiring the right digital marketing agency is key. A good digital agency will help you gain visibility with your target market and develop a b2b healthcare marketing strategy for turning this new attention into leads.
But getting results with any online marketing efforts, especially when executing content marketing for medical tech, usually involves long-term efforts. You have a vested interest in finding a digital agency that you can grow with, as they will have a better understanding of your goals, your audience, and what’s worked for your company and what hasn’t.
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Before settling on a digital agency to help you with your b2b healthcare marketing needs, you’ll want to start by asking them these 8 questions:
1. What Does My B2B Healthcare Company Need From an Agency?
Before getting too far into the process, make sure you know why you’re looking for a digital agency. Ask yourself if you need someone:
– To develop a strategy and implement it for you
– To create a strategy and then let you execute it
– To train your team, and then follow-up with monthly check-ins and analytics reports
Identifying your business goals and needs is the first step toward determining the right kind of agency for you.
Determine what you want to achieve in the short and long term before shopping around for an agency. For example, right now you may only need help with email marketing, but in the future you may also need help with SEO. Or you might want an agency that runs everything for you to start, but which allows you to slowly take the reins as you grow more comfortable or hire additional employees.
Finding an agency that’s willing to work with your changing needs is important for your continued success.
2. Does the Agency Specialize in B2B Healthcare Marketing?
There are several distinct types of digital marketing agencies: some that specialize in the finance industry, others in law, and of course, others in the B2B healthcare industry.
Before moving forward with any potential agency, make sure to ask what field they specialize in. Most agencies will have a handful of specific niches they focus on, which should be evident on their website and in their communication with you.
For the best results, you should be looking at healthcare digital marketing agencies that specialize in your industry. These agencies already know your target market and won’t require a lot of time or resources for getting up to speed on trends, news, and best practices. They’ll be able to suggest the most useful keywords, hashtags, blog topics, and other related content pieces. And finally, they’ll have already had the opportunity to work with other similar brands and prove their successes.
3. What Type of Marketing Does the Agency Specialize in?
Once you’ve decided on an agency that seems capable of handling your B2B healthcare marketing needs, you’ll next want to determine what specific type of marketing they specialize in. Find out:
– Do they do local SEO best, or can they launch a national campaign?
– Are they a one-trick pony or do they have many different specialties?
As mentioned before, you may just need one specific service now, but may eventually need help with other aspects of your marketing. Before entering a long-term relationship with an agency, make sure they will have the bandwidth to help you grow.
4. How Long Have They Been in Business and How Large Is the Agency?
Digital agencies come and go, so it is important to find an agency that is well established. If they’ve stood the test of time, they likely have years of success stories that prove their impact.
Furthermore, you want to find an agency that is the right size for your business. If you’re a small company looking to boost your local SEO, a smaller agency might be a good fit. They tend to give you more one-on-one attention and might be more affordable.
But if you’re a national (or international) company looking for an agency to run your entire B2B healthcare marketing efforts, you will likely require the concerted effort of a bigger team.
In order to determine the effectiveness of a prospective digital agency for B2B healthcare marketing, make sure to ask questions like:How many clients do you have?
– How many clients do you have?
– What is your client retention rate?
– What is your growth plan in the next five years?
– Do you have freelancers available to pick up work if your workload suddenly increases?
At Mod Girl Marketing, we’ve spent nearly a decade creating a dependable, experienced team of marketers to help healthcare tech companies and medical tech companies achieve their goals. Having a diverse, flexible team has been essential in helping our clients scale their companies.
5. Who Have They Worked With?
One of the best ways to get an idea of your prospective B2B healthcare marketing agency’s potential for success is to ask about the clients they have worked with in the past. Ask about the type of work they performed for those companies and the results they achieved while working with them. Most agencies will be ready for these questions with previously prepared case studies.
Looking at who they’ve worked with, you can also check to see if your direct competitor has hired them, which is something you’ll want to avoid.
6. Who Will You Be Working With?
Successful marketing campaigns are built on a great relationship between the client and digital agency. You want to make sure your team vibes with theirs and that your communication styles work well together. Ask who your point person will be and make sure you two build a good connection from the beginning.
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7. What is Their Measure of Success?
Results are the reason why business owners hire a digital marketing agency, but often, B2B healthcare marketing agencies fail to report these results—especially if they didn’t achieve the results they promised.
When deliberating over the details of a partnership, make sure to agree on a realistic set of metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs) that should be reached over a certain period of time. To ensure that your agency stays on track, ask for a monthly report detailing progress towards these KPIs. Don’t be shy—you’re paying to get results, so it’s the digital agency’s responsibility to be transparent with you.
8. What Happens When I Stop Working With You?
This question intends to answer whether an agency really wants to help you, or is just after your money.
An easy way to determine intent is by asking if you will own all the work after a contract is terminated. Don’t forget to read the fine print – some agencies will offer to build your site on a “proprietary” content management system (CMS), which means they will host it, making it unavailable for you once you stop working with them.
Grow Your B2B Healthcare Marketing Company with a Digital Agency
Hiring a digital marketing agency can help your B2B healthcare marketing firm gain new leads and scale—but only if you hire the right agency.
As the client and boss of the agency you decide to work with, you have a right to transparency in terms of what to expect from the partnership. If you take the time to find the right B2B healthcare marketing agency and form a strong relationship with them from the beginning, you’ll achieve the success you’re after.
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Tags: b2b healthcare marketing, healthcare marketing, healthcare tech company, medical tech company
