Health Tech Marketing Begins with
Research and Readiness

- Kristin Norton, PHD

From a marketing perspective, it’s challenging for any technology startup to build awareness, establish credibility, and differentiate its device, application, platform or data solution from the competition.

This is especially true in health technology where startups, and even established technologies wishing to enter the space, face bigger obstacles than companies in other industries:

  • Multiple, Hard to Reach Stakeholders with different Value Propositions
  • Longer Buying Cycles and unusual Sales hurdles
  • Resistance to Workflow Changes and solutions outside of Source Systems
  • High Reliance on Demonstrable Profit and Revenue over Cost Savings
  • Evidence-based Data and Practices Requirements to Measure, Validate, Interpret Value

A comprehensive Market Readiness Strategy is composed of market research, market readiness strategy, and ultimately proof of market, 

  • Defining the Market
  • Assessing the Value of your Product
  • Identifying Viable Points of Entry
  • Gaining Acceptance
  • Sustaining Growth

These steps afford you the necessary understanding of your market and your place in it that will allow you to create compelling messaging and outreach that leads to real growth.

Market Research

The path to market readiness begins by undertaking detailed market research and identifying your course from concept to scale. Steps include:

  • Defining the Market
  • Identifying Viable Points of Entry

In addition to generic market research activities like sizing and competitive assessment, health tech companies must understand the value of their products to multiple personas in the complex healthcare environment – the User (often a provider), the Buyer (usually a hospital, health system or payer), and the Beneficiary (who may be your customer’s customer, the patient).

Because no one wants to sign in to yet another disparate app, or miss opportunities to share results with their patients via traditional route, you must also gain an understanding of how users will access your product – on which platforms, through which means of distribution – and which standards needed to do so.

Market Readiness Assessment and Strategy

Market Readiness involves meeting your product up to the research above.

Part of our focus at Green Room Technologies is to help identify areas where additional work is needed to enhance the probability of market success

To begin, you must meet these criteria:

  • Is your product ready for market?
  • Do your data sources and uses contribute to business viability?
  • Is your business model (how you make money) validated?
  • Define the path to demonstrate market readiness
  • Map and achieve the proof points
  • Tie market readiness milestones to funding and capitalization

Important components that may not be obvious to early stage technology innovators include the 3-part value proposition to identify gaps that often exist between product validation and market acceptance.

Part of this awareness involves avoiding (or more rightly, preparing reasonable responses) to the Killer C’s of market acceptance: Cost, Complexity, and Change.

  • Is it priced at a point that your customer can justify?
  • Does it avoid overly complex implementation and use?
  • Do required changes justify the resources and time necessary to replace current workflows and existing solutions?

Proof of Market = True Market Readiness

In the end, the only true definition of market readiness that matters is that someone sees enough value in your product or service to give you money for it.

Product-market assessment and accompanying market research surface the insights you need to determine strategic partners, perform proof of concept demonstrations, and identify the most likely target market for entry and growth.

The market readiness process is deliberate and demanding, but the rewards will justify the effort and prepare you for challenges that sink most early stage health tech companies. It will also make your content marketing more effective, more targeted and ultimately more successful.

In short, research and assessment performed by someone with expertise in the healthcare market grounds your content marketing and readies you with the right positioning to connect with your target audience.

Learn how to convert your market research and readiness knowledge into successful health technology content marketing strategy.

Green Room Technologies | Turning Good Ideas Into Good Business

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