Just do it is one of the most recognised taglines in marketing, and it’s good advice. But Highland Marketing founder, Mark Venables, thinks there’s more. With marketing, you need to do it, and do it right.
When’s the right time to spend on marketing?
In my role I talk to a lot of leaders in the healthcare technology industry – suppliers, influencers, purchasers – and they’re telling me it’s tough out there. A year of political uncertainty in the run up to the election means conditions won’t be easing any time soon.
As always, when times are tough, there’s a temptation to dial down marketing and communications. After all, you can always build the brand when things get better.
Bad idea.
If you don’t invest in your future, things will never get better.
Innovators missing a trick.
When times are tough, it’s time to foreground your marketing programme. If you don’t, you risk a spiral of decline – less marketing, fewer sales, decreased revenue, even less marketing, and so on. That’s not only bad for your business, it’s bad for the healthcare sector which will miss out on your powerful combination of innovative technology and proven products.
Choosing the right approach.
It’s not just about doing the same things over again. To safeguard your success in good times and bad, it’s not just do it, it’s do it and do it right. For that you’re going to need the best advice, guidance, and implementation you can find.
Of course, you may be thinking “he would say that wouldn’t he”. After all, Highland Marketing is in the advisory business. But we’ve seen from experience of many business cycles that long-term success is built on consistent investment. And we’ve seen that tough times require great content, strong campaigning, and risk taking – for us as an agency, and for our clients.
Of course, doing it right is a challenge when every line of your budget is under intense scrutiny. That makes working with an experienced agency even more important. When you need to show your CEO and CFO that you’ve got a handle on value and return-on-investment, it helps to have a strategic partner who thinks the same way. You need, an agency focused on your business, not on doing the same thing over and over again.
How do you find a partner like this? Well, there are a few questions you should ask:
- Have they done this before, and did it work?
- Do they know and understand healthcare technology, and can they prove it?
- Do they have a clear business goal in mind for their proposed campaign?
- Are they choosing from across a wide marketing mix, or are they limited to a few standard tricks?
Most importantly of all, do they care as much about your success as you do yourself?
Get it right, but get it done.
We all know 2024 is going to be hard. What that says to me is that what we do as marketers and as healthcare technology innovators is more important than ever. If you’ve got something that really makes a difference, tell the marketplace. If you don’t, it’ll be someone else making the weather.
As a postscript, after I started writing this, Highland Marketing put on a webinar with the ABHI. One of the speakers, from a Health Innovation Network, said, “companies make their own luck… and take the opportunities.” Couldn’t put it better myself.
Whether it’s content creation, campaign development, or strategic advice, get in touch if you want to know how we can help you make your own luck.
