Content marketing for healthcare is gaining momentum. Leading organizations are embracing the challenge of developing content and the primary channel for its distribution: a business blog. For many medical device and diagnostic marketers, the mere suggestion that they should consider adding a blog to their digital marketing arsenal incites fear, paranoia and a sense of utter hopelessness.....

Fear not intrepid ones! Here are some tips to overcome the most common hurdles you'll encounter when implementing a new business blog. 

With the increasing pressure on marketing to deliver measurable results you need to identify new ways to drive sales and increase revenue. Recruiting, training and motivating a great sales team is a key factor in driving revenue.  As marketing professionals we are responsible for developing the marcom materials that will support our sales efforts. We are also tasked with developing sales training materials.  And, we arm our sales team with the industry knowledge and insights they need to be a trusted resource for our customers. But is your website pulling its weight in the sales process?

In a recent post titled "Digital Marketing Strategies for Medical Device and Diagnostic Companies," Jacqueline Murray made a convincing case for why healthcare marketers should ignore social media at their peril.  And now, LinkedIn has published the results of a survey of what it calls "Content Revolutionaries" that provides step-by-step instructions for how B-2-B marketers can use the LinkedIn professional networks effectively.

Part One: An Effective Creative Brief

For many marketers, attending creative presentations is one of the best parts of their job.  But, let’s face it, while seeing the marketing strategy for a new product launch come to life in words and images can be exciting–it can also be stressful.

Medical device and diagnostic companies develop some of the most technologically advanced products, but often their marketing tactics lag behind other high-tech industries.  Despite the limitations of marketing in a highly regulated environment, there's an opportunity for medical device and diagnostic companies to stand out in their respective spaces with a solid digital marketing strategy.

After 28 years leading a B2B agency through change, I can honestly say that the trends I see developing this year offer unprecedented opportunity for marketers and agencies alike. 2014 is a different animal, and it’s one that offers you new power.

To gain that power you need to have those trends and a clear action path on your radar.  Our  new publication, 2014 Trends in Marketing, offers actionable insights from DardenLentz and:

You’ve come up with a great medical device or diagnostic technology.  You’ve got your plans in place for Product Development, Manufacturing, and Regulatory but now it’s time to think about how you’re going to launch this product.

There’s always great excitement for the next new shiny marketing tactic.  There’s a tendency to drop the “old ways” and chase after the next big thing.  Inbound marketing has been gaining momentum as the “new marketing” method and some are proclaiming that outbound marketing is dead.  However, the prediction for the demise of outbound marketing, especially in B2B marketing, is exaggerated. For most organizations a well-rounded marketing strategy includes a mix of inbound and outbound tactics.