DTC Marketing for Medical Device and Other Healthcare Organizations

Hi, everyone. Stuart Gandolf here, welcome to our podcast today. We’re interviewing Brianna Hunt, who is founding partner at HealthReach, LLC, and we’re just talking offline. A little bit ago I saw Brianna speak at a conference recently about medical device.

which was an excellent conference, by the way, and I love that we have so much in common. She was talking about d to see marketing, and but it was from a little bit different vantage point, talking about how to do. D. 2 C. If you’re in a more of a device kind of environment to change that mindset which actually some of our clients are doing that right now. But, Brianna, before we get into all that, let’s tell me we’re just talking about. How did you even get into this device marketing stuff.

Breanna Hunt

Yeah, so I’ve got 17 years experience in performance, marketing, leading customer acquisitions and digital campaigns.

And I entered device marketing after a stint at a.com and then a financial services company. 7 years ago, and a recruiter just had reached out to me on LinkedIn and told me about an innovative therapy that helps people with chronic pain, and at that time my family was dealing with a family member who had very severe chronic pain.

And so I was just blown away that there could be a technology out there that hadn’t been discussed that could really help my family member. And so it really became a passion project for me to enter the healthcare space and help more patients and families like mine that just weren’t aware that these therapies existed, and there was just so much room for education, and really getting people to advocate for themselves.

Stewart Gandolf

Oh, that’s great, you know. It’s funny.

I think a lot of people be surprised if they’re not in our space. How many people that are doing marketing activities. They’re not clinicians, but just want to help that want to be part of helping people get better. And that’s really common. I would say. In fact, at least from my experience. I don’t know what you’ve seen, Brianna, but probably more than half the people. When I asked them on an interview. Why do you want to work for our company? It’s about the passion for healthcare.

Breanna Hunt

Yeah, you know, it’s a challenging industry. There’s a lot of special dynamics that go into it. And you know it. It makes it. You know. Simon Sinek, you know, talks about what’s your why and that that’s really been my, why is, you know, understanding that there’s technologies out there that you’ve never heard of before

that can really make such an impact on your quality of life. And so I got really excited about being in this space. And you know I I, too, you know, when I’m interviewing people love to hear that there’s, you know, a passion behind helping patients get better outcomes than they’ve traditionally gotten.

Stewart Gandolf

Yeah, for sure. So your background is in device. And it’s funny because you people are listeners that know us well, we do a device, Pharma and whole bunch of providers more often. And so a lot of things that we take for granted in that space is a little different than device. And in fact, some of our device clients have issues. I think we’re gonna talk about today getting used to changing the mindset. And so 1st of all, let’s start off by just explaining, you know.

Take a step back. And just what is DTC. Or healthcare marketing. And how does that different from traditional marketing, from healthcare marketing. From your point of view.

Breanna Hunt

Yeah, so direct to consumer healthcare marketing refers to marketing strategies directly aimed at patients or consumers so unlike traditional marketing, which primarily targets, healthcare providers and focus on influences. Decision making. DTC healthcare marketing speaks directly to the patient

and involves educating about conditions and treatment options and getting them to advocate for themselves so that they can come in and have all the information they need, and potentially even find a provider in their area, because it’s so common that you know a provider. You know your current provider may not be offering all the latest therapies, so you may have to drive a little ways.

or, you know, explore a different care plan in order to get access to a treatment and it typically involves a direct consumer typically involves digital channels like social media search engines and patient centric websites which really capture the patient’s attention and speak their language and their pain points. It’s often not about the technology or

you know, very complicated language. It’s about making it really easy to digest. And short clips, you know. They say consumers, you know, have about a 7 second attention span. And so, you know, you’ve got to really grab their attention quickly and get them into action to move forward down the treatment path.

You know, I like to say, often patients don’t like to learn a whole bunch about a therapy before they know if they’re qualified.

The 1st step is, you know, is this, is this potentially right for me, and then I’ll dig in and learn about it. And so it’s kind of flipping the funnel a little bit from traditional healthcare marketing, which says, Okay, put a bunch of content out there and then. You know, the doctor has all of the background. You just have to, you know, really check your assumptions because the patient knows, you know often nothing about the treatment option.

option.

Stewart Gandolf

I like that. That’s actually a really good point for sure. And we always oftentimes we’re working with different teams. We talk about. Okay. 1st of all, what is this? What does it do? Why should I care right? And then like? And then why should I choose this particular thing? So that’s a really good way of looking at the same thing. That’s awesome.

I alluded to something which wasn’t on our sort of pre check list of what I’m seeing this a lot. Tell us. Tell me about your insights of with deep with device, especially if they’ve been doing sort of traditional Hcp marketing. Some of the challenges or opportunities and convincing them to go to DTC, because sometimes it’s a whole different culture. And I’m curious what you’re.

Breanna Hunt

Yeah.

Stewart Gandolf

And.

Breanna Hunt

Yeah, you know. It is a whole different culture, you know. You know patients or excuse me. You know, people who are providing DTC, strategy and consulting or you know, or running the programs internally are often a team of one you know where they they’re working with colleagues that might have bigger teams it can be a little bit more focused around consumer marketing.

And so in terms of convincing an organization. You know, that’s where internal leadership support is absolutely critical, that there’s a belief around the ability to go to consumers and get them to advocate for themselves will make a really big difference in the growth trajectory of the company.

And so some of the things that you know I like to look at is, you know, is there an accessible patient population? Can you actually reach these patients through some of these digital channels, you know? Is there broad healthcare coverage because your metrics can get really skewed if you’re going after a device that doesn’t have broad healthcare coverage. And then again, is there leadership support.

So I was very fortunate to come into Nevro, where the belief story was sold in, and they hired specifically for a growth marketer to come in and execute this. So I learned from some really good peers how to you know, sell in the idea of direct to consumer and it has to come from the top down. You know. The CEO interviewed me.

you know, and was very engaged in, you know, direct consumer as a as a marketing channel, and supported the resources that it took to build that out, including building a team around it.

Stewart Gandolf

Great. Let’s take a step back and cause you mentioned the product which I hadn’t gotten to yet. What product are you working on these days and like. And what does it do? And why is it? And I’d love to know more about that.

Breanna Hunt

Sure. So currently, I’ve got a healthcare marketing consultancy where I’m helping Med device companies through direct consumer marketing. My background worked in the chronic pain space. I worked at Debro for 7 years and helped patients with chronic pain get relief through an implantable medical device. So that’s where the bulk of my experience comes from.

Stewart Gandolf

Great, alright excellent! And then the

So we talked about culture, which is a big deal. And culture, by the way, is such a i really am just now figuring this out in my life how important culture is, because to me, marketing is like, you know, it’s what you do. It’s just as you walk across the street. It’s not something even. Second, give a second thought to. But a lot of companies are very skeptical about marketing of any kind, let alone due to see in a culture that’s been scientifically driven and very much driven towards

HCP Marketing. So beyond the culture or, in addition to culture. I guess. What advice would you give to HCP or healthcare companies? Rather, that are just beginning to explore DTC Marketing.

Breanna Hunt

So it really starts with a deep understanding of the audience. You know their preferences, their pain points. Building is really a patient centric approach is critical and learning to speak in their voice, you know, which is often a big change. It’s a voice is a really interesting thing when you actually put pen to paper. And you figure out what language people use that really activates them to move forward. So

primary research is incredibly critical. And we did a ton of this at Nevro, and so I came into an organization that had a deep understanding of the patient.

and was, we were able to then build out a content engine to deliver on their needs and support their education and empowerment. And so that’s really the 1st thing is making sure that you can build content that speaks in the patient’s voice and really understands their pain. Point

additionally, you know. You know, I talked a little bit about the short attention span. You know the messaging has to be clear. You know it. It has to really quickly explain. What is this, what does it do? And who is it? For, you know, without those kind of key points? And you know, the 1st 5 to 30 seconds of a video clip. You’re gonna lose people.

you know they don’t. You know. You can eventually get into some of the other features. But you know it, it’s really important. And then finally, you know, one of the things that you know, I I talked to a lot of companies about is that this is a long game getting somebody from a Facebook ad

to say an implantable medical device is a long journey, and so be prepared to iterate and test, and we’ll talk a little bit more about this. But you know you’re probably not going to knock it out of the park and get the lowest cost per lead on your 1st campaign.

It takes a lot of time to figure out what that voice is. And so, you know, having a team that can come up with hypothesis and test them and be comfortable. Being wrong is really important, because this is developing a new skill and a new muscle. I’ve found that, you know. You can’t, just, you know, swap, you know somebody who’s got a lot of experience in Hcp into consumer, you know, bringing somebody in who

really understands the consumer mindset is really important. And so building out that team from the start and being prepared to to iterate and learn is really important.

Stewart Gandolf

Yeah, it’s really funny. I love that about the setting, the expectation. And one of the things I’ve been. I use a lot of metaphors, Brianna, and one of the things I say is like we might hit a grand slam on that 1st pitch, but we’re not going to

cause. Then, if that’s what cause. When I hear people say things like, well, how many? You know we’re so say, we’re 2 or 3 months into this. We haven’t got any results yet. We shouldn’t do this if you have that kind of a short term front timeframe for, especially for anything you’re pioneering, innovating. There has to be more commitment to. That doesn’t mean you have to go on forever. And it does. But if we’re already looking for, I always say, if we’re looking for the exits before we begin. I’m worried. This is for you.

Breanna Hunt

I completely agree with that. And I think that there are. You know, I I love doing pilots and feasibility and finding out. Okay, can we, you know, is there an addressable patient population? And we can we get leads? But leads is very different than getting patients, you know, into a practice. And so you know, it’s 1 of those things we’re setting your metrics early and saying, Okay, what does success look like? And it

it may not be, you know, revenue right off the bat. Because again, that’s going to take time. But really understanding your funnel and being able to measure. Okay, what does success look like for a 3 month, pilot? And then what does scale look like.

Stewart Gandolf

Yeah, for sure. And it’s interesting, too, because there’s different models. I mean, sometimes we’re doing d 2 c and the doctors are going to be integrally involved, the individual practices right? Because they have to be involved other times. Not as much. But again, it’s there’s it’s just a lot figuring out that. And I love the addressable market. I think that’s what

grab my attention when you were speaking, because that’s so. Our experience as well is like, is there a market for it? A lot of times there is. And it may you have to think about

that those kinds of questions we can solve up pretty front pretty quickly. I’m sure you would agree. Yeah. So because if it’s not an addressable market, or sometimes I always say and see if you agree with this, that it’s continuum right? Some things are just completely Hcp driven. There’s it’s just way, too technical for consumer to care or understand or know. You know where that is in the, in the pipeline. But on the other side there are a lot of things that are can be very consumer direct.

And so like figuring out where that sweet spot is. What? So you know, as we’re approaching this, I think we’re this, we’re going down the path here perfectly. What are the critical steps that for launching a DTC like, if you said, Okay, someone calls you and says, I, we know how to spell DTC. But I’m not sure what to do.

Breanna Hunt

So. You know, 1st we talked about research and audience segmentation. And this doesn’t have to be big and expensive, but really spending some time. I love patient journey maps and really understanding the patient pathway. That’s 1 of the like, MVPs, that I like to do for starting a DTC program.

And then, you know, understanding. You know that this is the less sexy part of health care. But who are your regulatory and compliance partners and make friends. You know this. This is, you know. Get them involved early in the process, start to initiate them, and you know what is direct to consumer marketing. And what does this program look like in the future?

From just a broad strokes perspective so that they feel included, and you’re starting to set up the processes in order to get regulatory review. You know, and that you understand what the company’s

appetite for marketing is, and messaging is because you don’t want to do this at the end where you’ve created this big blockbuster breakthrough campaign and your regulatory and legal folks say, no, this this isn’t aligned to. You know what we’re looking to do again, that the tone is different. The messaging is different. It’s shorter. You’re putting ads out on search.

you know. And so you know even how you do. Disclaimers can really impact the format of your ads. So make friends with your legal and regulatory folks, make them your partners and bring them along on the journey.

and then start to develop your content.

You know that content that’s exciting. It could even be funny, you know. You know, it educates and forms. It’s got to have thumb stopping power.

Content is still King and with the targeting and the platforms, and you know not. And the ability to, you know, target broad groups. You’ve got to really have your messaging. Speak to the patient and go back to your read research that you’ve done to figure out. You know what is the right content whether that’s ads, websites at minimum testimonials.

email, nurturing SMS, you know all of those different, you know, content development.

And then, as you’re doing that in parallel, you know your Channel selection, you know. Are you going to be on Facebook? Are you going to be on Instagram? Are you going to be doing Google? You know, this helps also inform your content strategy. So really, looking at your Channel selection

and then, you know, you get to your launch and promotion steps. And actually, you know, the exciting day where you actually get a launch, everything and hit go. And then, you know, that’s really ensuring the messaging and seamless, patient experience.

and you know just a a hard, learned tidbit. There is. Check your analytics early. Make sure everything. You’re tracking everything so that you can answer your question and develop new hypothesis. So really make sure that all of your web analytics and your Crm analytics and everything is working as expected. Because you you don’t want to get, you know, 3 months down the road and realize you didn’t collect the data you need.

And then data monitoring and optimization. You know, this is a passion of mine. I started my career in data and analytics, digital data and analytics. And you know, you get a voice at the table. When you understand the data, you can explain how it was collected.

You understand the privacy landscapes to make sure that data isn’t being stored in systems that you know it shouldn’t be, and that it’s being used correctly. But you really do get a seat at the table when you say, okay, I launched this campaign.

This is, you know how people are engaging with it, whether that be clicks or conversion rates. You know this is how you know many people I’m getting from leads. This is how many people I was getting on the phone, you know. And eventually, you know, this is how many people actually went into a practice and got the procedure. So really.

deeply understanding your funnel and starting to tweak those levers, can have big differences. You know you really want to understand every stage of the funnel, so that you can speak to it and speak to your partners and power your partners, you know. In my role in in the past, you know, I haven’t been the one running the call center. But if I can feed them, the data

about how their teams are managing the calls, you know, from a patient navigator program that gives them the insights and how to optimize the program on their end. So it’s really you know, set the data free and allow your partners across the funnel to really use that information to make better decisions.

Stewart Gandolf

I love it, and it’s so funny, so much of what you’re talking about is exactly the same things we talk about when we work with providers like, for example, the call center is so vital.

And you know, I want to bang that drum for the rest of my career. I’ve been doing it since I started in this world, and it’s like it just never is easy.

so another thing it’s like that, I think, was really interesting is your discussion about building trust with consumers. Tell us a little bit more about that.

Breanna Hunt

Yeah. So you know, there, there’s so much advertising out there, for you know, products that don’t have the FDA regulations and the and the rigor that has gone into medical device. And so you really have to set yourself apart.

as you know, a device that you know, or a therapy that has been well tested and clinically proven.

And we, you know, in our space, we really have access to a lot of that good data, and so providing educational content. That that makes it really user friendly. I love using tables. You know, that that really show, you know that it’s that, that it’s easily consumable information, very digestible.

And then I absolutely love and have been blessed with in in my career. Incredible patient testimonials. This is, you know, life changing information about what a patient had experienced and then getting the therapy, and then their life today.

And you know this is your classic marketing before and after. You know, but in in patient testimonials they’re emotional. They’re relatable and you can’t do enough of them. And the trick is figuring out a way to get that partnering again with your sales organization because they’re the ones seeing these incredible outcomes

and feeding that into marketing? So patient testimonials really help educate and answer the question is this for me? And when you can look at a patient testimonial and say, yes, you know I, you know, just want to be able to walk my dog. I just want to go to the mailbox. I just want to be able to do these things. But you know, maybe I’ve tried treatments XY and Z.

And now I tried this, and I actually am able to do that. It’s just incredibly powerful. So building a patient testimonial engine is critical.

The other things that I’d recommend is data privacy. We did a lot of testing and optimization about. You know, if you’re going to use a very common tactic of using an assessment on a website

is, let the let the person know exactly how you’re using that data and why you’re asking those questions. So bring data. Privacy, you know, follow all the rules and regulations. But go a step further.

and really tell the patient how you’re using that data, and so that they’re comfortable, giving it to you and completing those steps of the assessment to find out if they’re qualified. That made a huge difference in our conversion rates when we kind of took it out of a black box and really brought that forward.

and then we’ve talked a little bit about it. But you know, those nurse navigators, those coach programs have responsive customer support when you’ve got a patient who maybe saw an ad on Facebook and raised their hand, that you know they’re they want more information at 3 Am. In the morning because they’re dealing with symptoms, having a friendly voice

text them, you know, the next day and call them and say, You know I’m here to answer your questions and help connect you with a provider is a game changing part of this, because

it’s frankly, you know, I wouldn’t say it’s always easy, but it’s solvable in order to get leads in the top of the funnel. But actually getting a patient into a practice is really challenging. And that’s where having that trusted person is really so critical. So you know. And it’s about developing a relationship I love, you know, being able to connect patients with a person who remains

their point of contact, you know, that’s in their, you know. So in their local area, or supports their local area, that’s really the best, the best approach possible.

Stewart Gandolf

Outstanding. This is excellent, really good stuff. We talked about some of the challenges previously, for you know, launching DTC. But in addition to the cultural challenge, what are and maybe not having enough budget or long term viewpoint.

pretty common.

Breanna Hunt

Yeah.

Stewart Gandolf

Any other ones that you can think of, or you can expand on those if you like.

Breanna Hunt

Sure. So regulatory compliance is and and the systems, you know, required to get something approved is, you know, one of the big big challenges it can lead to

frustration team conflict burnout. You know, I’ve seen models of all of this, and so really understanding the process. And and even, if possible, if you’ve got a good relationship with your partners doing pre review before you put it in your Mlr systems

so that you can get that live feedback and not have to iterate. And you know what can be a clunky system, you know. Figure out a way that it works for both partners, but again bringing those regulatory partners along.

You know, just knowing that you know that that can be a challenge. Another area is messaging. You know this, you know, from a process standpoint having a claims. Matrix that’s been pre approved

can make a world of difference when you understand where the guardrails are. And so, you know, having a process where you’re regularly reviewing the claims and the messages across all the parties, and one call at the same time

and saying, Okay, this message was blessed on this day by everyone in the meeting legal, regulatory compliance. So that then, you know, you’re not having one off conversations where you know it may not pass the temperature chest. So somebody just denies it. You can have a more active conversation, and you build that library over time.

so you can always go back to that. Well, that was a big difference for me than in my previous consumer roles where I never had to to really get every message and sometimes every word approved. But it can be really valuable discussions when you you do that regulatory and claims matrix

patient. 5. 0, yeah.

Stewart Gandolf

Alright. I’m sorry. I thought you were positive. Go ahead.

Breanna Hunt

Oh, I was moving on to the next one. Did did you have a comment on that one?

Stewart Gandolf

No, I just thought the regulatory part is such a vital part. And I agree it’s the if you’re outside of healthcare, it’s just a whole new world. Right? It’s fine. I’ve worked in finance before, which has plenty of regulation, but healthcare is even more so, I told you. But continue.

Breanna Hunt

So the next big one, I would say, is patient privacy. And really understanding the privacy landscape. This is again making friends with your legal teams.

and I would recommend everybody in digital marketing, even if you’re not, consider yourself like a digital analyst to take a course on cookies and tracking tools, and deeply understand what data is being collected and how it’s being collected. It’s all very transparent and and quite I wouldn’t say easy to understand. But once you understand the mechanics of

how something like a Google analytics works or a Meta conversion pixel works, then you’re not relying on other people or get potentially surprises. So I’ve gone through several privacy audits. And I’ve actually become a partner in those privacy audits to explain exactly what I’m tracking, how it’s being collected

pulling up a screen. And you know you gotta get into code. But you know that’s the day and age for marketers. Don’t be afraid of Code and really understand what the tracking tag is doing in all of the settings. And be willing to know that your regulatory team may, you know, restrict some of the information that you can collect and be willing to test and optimize and work

around that. You know, I like to say, Okay, you know, if we turn off, you know, data collection setting X, it may have this impact on our conversion rate. You know, we’re gonna do it on, you know, this day, and we’re gonna test it. But be really open to the the reality of healthcare. You know, you may not get everything as optimized and tracked as you want it to. But the more you understand about your data

collection, the more trust your partners will have that you’re not just relying on an outside vendor or somebody else that doesn’t have the same responsibility as the internal stakeholder.

and then the other challenge that I would say, is measuring Roi.

This one is different for every company, and really gets to what data you have available, how much trust you built with your partners. But some companies are actually able to track who gets the final procedure and can tie that back to how did they enter into the system? You know. What campaign did did they enter into? You know, even down to what creative they entered into.

Some companies are selling in bulk, and it’s just materials on the shelf, and they don’t have that same visibility to the end procedure. So tracking Roi can be a lot harder. But this is a big challenge to really understand what is possible and building trust with your partners so that you can get access to the final procedure data. You know, if at all possible to really understand the impact to your programs.

Stewart Gandolf

Great. Well, you brought up a couple of things that are really vital. The we talked about the regulation a lot and as well as the data analytics. And I would tell

or add to perhaps, what you were just saying, that for people on the outside of this, to the

really fully understand how deep the analytics rabbit hole can go and how deep it needs to go. And I’ve got to applaud you for something. That philosophically, I’m big on, which is to learn all this stuff. Don’t rely on everybody else for everything right? Because then you’re stuck in the meeting, and you don’t have.

If you don’t really understand what’s going on, it’s really hard to defend what you’re doing.

Breanna Hunt

It’s it’s nearly impossible, you know, and you and you lose the trust of your partners, you know very quickly.

Stewart Gandolf

Right? So it’s okay to have experts you work with. But you really need to understand it. And that’s that pursuit of continuing education. I love that you’re doing, because that’s something you’re looking at my wall with even not so many books buying new, because at least the hard part.

Breanna Hunt

It’s on or off.

Stewart Gandolf

But you know I I just believe in forever. And it’s like, you know, it used to be these big, broad principles. But now things like deep dives into an analytics tool or understanding how something works is really, really important. And it’s a huge part of what we do which leads me to my last question today? About the role of digital transformation. And how does that play into the evolution of healthcare marketing? What are your thoughts? There.

Breanna Hunt

Yeah, it. It’s absolutely huge. I mean, this is what enables us to collect the information. You know, the systems that allow us to collect the information

and all of the digital tools so you know everything from the advanced analytics to you know, understanding your marketing efforts. And and I’ve seen this, you know, being being at a company for 7 years, you know, and seeing how everything from their sales enablement, and Crm and Mlr. You know, to use a lot of different acronyms. But you know the these all of these systems have to talk nicely together.

And again, this goes back to understanding the data, the structure, and the questions you’re trying to answer and being able to build systems that effectively again free the data so that you know, there’s not one person that just has, you know, visibility into the full funnel. But anybody with.

you know, a cursory knowledge of, you know, the business questions can go in and answer that. And so, being able to have systems that talk well to each other, that then, can be fed into a data visualization tool, like, for example, tableau or one of these others. So that business users can. Then, you know, really understand? Okay, if I’m running the

the the customer experience team. Can I go in and see how my nurse navigators are actually, you know, connecting with patients and qualifying patients and find, okay, well, there’s variability from person X to person. Y, you know, why is that and dig in?

That’s absolutely huge, and is all enabled through the digital transformation. So really being able to have, you know, an understanding of the data architecture, and and, you know, really feeding in good information and then being able to present that to business users again, builds trust.

Stewart Gandolf

Outstanding anything else that you’d like to talk about today, because I know we’ve also we talked. We had a couple of questions prepared about regulation and also analytics. But I think you covered those pretty well. But anything else that you would like to discuss today that you think is sort of parting thoughts for people contemplating this, or looking to do things better.

Breanna Hunt

Yeah, so you know, I I’ve developed a patient maturity audit, and I think really understanding your readiness for direct to consumer, and where your blind spots are helps you, you know, navigate that quicker. So you know, if you’re interested in understanding, where, where are you at today and where best in class companies are, and kind of what that path

way looks like, you know, doing something like a DTC maturity audit can have a really big impact

and help you talk to your stakeholders and your partners about why it’s important to have the regulatory pieces in place. Have the content pieces in place, have the privacy pieces in place. And so, you know, that’s that’s something that I would recommend for people looking to to get started and direct to consumer.

Stewart Gandolf

Okay, so how do they get that?

Breanna Hunt

Yeah. So you know, I, I am doing consulting now and helping companies specifically starting in the Med device, start DTC programs or optimize their existing programs. So you can reach out to me at [email protected] my new consulting company, or go to my website, HealthReachLLC.com as well.

Stewart Gandolf

Great, awesome Brandon. That was fun. I enjoyed it. It says we’re like-minded colleagues in the battle of Health Care Market. I think.

Breanna Hunt

Absolutely no, this is, this is fun. It’s always great to, you know. Dig into this stuff, and, you know, put it, put it all together.

Stewart Gandolf

Awesome. Thank you.

Breanna Hunt

Thank you.