The distinction between traditional and digital has fully dissolved—because now it’s difficult to say what is traditional versus digital. The decades old habits of mass marketing are still prevalent in most marketing organizations and plans today. Medical device marketing leaders have no option but to tackle the multichannel customer experience challenge head on. How are marketing leaders doing that? Well, consider these six critical success factors:
1. Set an Anchor
The first thing marketing leaders should consider is establishing a core message. The core message comes to life in the form of a clearly defined brand story that crystallizes who the company is, how it should be positioned in the market, what the company does, what differentiates it from the competition, and the core value it delivers to customers. It is the entire brand story told end-to-end through consistent messaging that is organized into compartmentalized content (iterations of the story) and is leveraged across all communication channels and customer touchpoints.
2. Prioritize (Focus on Critical Channels)
With a core message now set, marketing leaders must prioritize the channels used throughout the customer journey. Which channels have the greatest impact on engagement, conversion, retention, and loyalty? Which channels positively or negatively impact customer satisfaction and perception? The goal is to establish consistency in the channels that have the greatest impact on the customer experience.
3. Define the Roles and Responsibilities
Leading marketers are also looking at the internal and external roles involved in messaging development and delivery across these channels. This is critical to ensure you know where and how the messages originate so you can ensure consistency.
4. Drive Accountability
Typically channels, positions, and partners were identified as having the greatest impact on the multichannel experience—and partners have the greatest impact. You must invest time and effort to educate and train those who manage the channels.
5. Focus on Personalization
The need to create lifelong, holistic relationships with healthcare consumers has never been more important. Building relationships across the customer lifespan, understanding the person and establishing a foundation of trust before they need you is the objective. The core narrative serves as the anchor for every stakeholder responsible for developing or delivering messaging throughout the customer journey. Personalization strategies and decisions should align with the messaging. Every message consumed by customers is now anchored in the platform to ensure the story remains consistent from one channel to the next.
6. Monitor and Listen
The most essential change marketing leaders are making is to ensure a closed-loop feedback process exists to ensure the new, integrated operating model is working. From the core narrative to new roles and responsibilities, cross-channel processes, personalization efforts, and more. The goal is to ensure the story delivered, and the processes used to connect customer-facing channels, are producing positive results to ensure everything is working together to deliver a compelling and consistent customer experience.
Delivering a consistent story throughout the multichannel customer experience takes time. It requires having a plan, developing consistency, and leading the steps required to develop and build. And it starts with setting an anchor—a core narrative that can be pulled through multiple touchpoints in the customer journey. As a marketing leader, taking this on now will set your organization up for the future—customers are entitled and this is what they expect.
