Cross-functional collaboration lies at the core of successful medical device marketing. 87% of sales and marketing leaders say collaboration between sales and marketing enables critical business growth.
But without proper alignment, market penetration can quickly suffer due to:
- An inadequate understanding of market needs.
- Poor product differentiation.
- Weak outreach strategies.
One of the most effective ways to create rock-solid alignment between the two teams is through the use of a marketing portal.
What is a Marketing Portal?
A marketing portal centralizes all of your marketing materials in an easy-to-use, web-based platform. Users across departments and locations can order pre-printed, ready-to-ship marketing assets or customize pre-approved templates with customer names, logos, images, messages and more.
The portal provides 24/7 self-service access for users to create, order and distribute the marketing materials they need, including:
- Letters to physicians and HCPs.
- Product flyers, corporate brochures, presentation folders.
- Patient education brochures.
- Trade show and event materials.
- Promo items.
- Product launch kits.
- New sales rep training kits.
Portal admins, typically members of the marketing department, retain enterprise-level control over the portal, and every setting is customizable to ensure branding, budgets and inventory are always in check.
For example, admins can set unique permissions for each user, including:
- Who can access the portal.
- What materials they can order.
- How much they can order.
- Which materials they can and can’t personalize.
- Approval routing and workflows.
Next, let’s examine the benefits of a marketing portal, especially when it comes to aligning medical device sales and marketing teams.
Marketing Portals for Medical Device Sales and Marketing TeamsA marketing campaign or product launch will fail to meet expectations if the audience is treated as a one-size-fits-all entity. Success is dependent on speaking to the needs of the individual–this is what builds trust and creates emotional connections to the brand.
For example, the needs of a physician in a rural community with a high percentage of geriatric patients is completely different from those of a surgeon at a level-1 trauma facility in a major metropolitan area.
Providing the rural physician and the metropolitan surgeon with the same messaging about the product neither addresses their needs nor differentiates the product’s benefits for their facility.
But these are just two segments. You likely have dozens of segments within your target market–each with different pain points, needs and local health populations to consider.
Creating, storing, managing, and distributing different versions of flyers, brochures, presentations, letters and other marketing materials for every segment of your audience can be a massive undertaking for marketing teams.
Add in the frequent customization requests from sales reps and you have a recipe for friction between the two departments.
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Does this scenario sound familiar? A sales rep has a meeting with a prospect in three days and needs to knock the presentation out of the park with on-point messaging that addresses the unique needs of the physician they’re in talks with. In addition to requesting additional copy that speaks to the physician’s local health population, they want to add design elements like the physician’s name, logo and an image of their office to personalize the presentation. But marketing is working on a major initiative and is frustrated at yet another last-minute request from sales. Plus, the requested copy strays too far from key messaging and there’s no way the legal department will approve that kind of language. While the design elements are doable, it takes time for marketing to format such requests since all new materials need to go through the review process to ensure brand and regulatory compliance. |
By uploading pre-designed and pre-approved templates to a marketing portal, marketing teams can provide sales reps with an arsenal of marketing assets that can be tailored to each and every prospect.
Sales and marketing teams can work together to draft a list of custom copy snippets that speak to how the product benefits each segment. Portal admins can upload the approved copy snippets for sales reps to select from a dropdown menu when customizing collateral content for a prospect.
Sales can further personalize content by having a prospect’s information readily available in the portal to prevent extra time sourcing logos, researching names, pulling addresses and more. Instead, it all lives in the portal to make personalization a breeze.
Both branding and messaging are safe in the portal too since admins decide what variables or sections can be customized and what are locked into place. Even style guides can be embedded into the portal to ensure that all fonts, colors and other design elements are on point. This “controlled customization” ensures a cohesive brand narrative while also speaking to the needs of the individual prospects.
A marketing portal also provides workflow efficiencies, expedites speed to market and provides other bandwidth-boosting benefits, including:
- Simplifies and streamlines marketing asset management.
- Reduces the resources required to create and distribute marketing collateral.
- Expedites turnaround times, thanks to 24/7 access and automated approval workflows.
Beyond that, a marketing portal keeps sales and marketing teams in alignment when circumstances are dynamic, or unforeseen events and opportunities occur.
Marketing Portals for Dynamic Business Environments
Marketing and sales teams need to plan for unforeseen events and prepare to evolve in a rapidly changing business environment.
For example, no one could have predicted that virtual communication would replace in-person communication for the majority of 2020 and most of 2021 due to the pandemic. Even though social distancing restrictions have lessened, in-person communication hasn’t bounced back to its pre-pandemic levels.
This has been extremely challenging for sales reps who relied heavily on traditional, in-person sales outreach strategies to build the trust and connections that seal the deal. They’ve had to adapt to this “hybrid” environment and need to be armed with tools that prepare them for every type of conversation.
Marketing teams can arm sales reps with these tools through the portal. For example, sales reps can access the traditional marketing materials they need to have a fully stocked “trunk” of brochures, flyers and product information kits on. They can also order these “trunk” materials and have them professionally packaged and shipped directly to a prospect–complete with a personalized letter to the physician thanking them for their time on the Zoom call.
No matter the request from sales, the Jet Mail Marketing Portal can help.
Jet Mail Marketing Portal
Since 1993, Jet Mail has specialized in speed to market, personalization and data-driven marketing fulfillment solutions for the medical device industry.
Our technology, infrastructure and in-house marketing fulfillment services are directly linked to the Jet Mail Marketing Portal, including:
- A state-of-the-art print shop and commercial mail house.
- On-site 80,000 sq. ft. fulfillment center.
- Domestic and international distribution network.
Ready to see how the Jet Mail Marketing Portal can work for you? Schedule a demo of the Jet Mail Marketing Portal today.
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