How to Hire an Exceptional Healthcare Marketing Team

Ensuring that you find a well-qualified healthcare marketing team can be a stressful task. The industry is well-known for having specific jargon and complicated concepts that can be difficult to grasp for marketers. Aside from searching for people with a healthcare marketing background, you should also find people that are motivated to take charge of the points below once they are on the team. As you search for these candidates, see if they intend to master the following six qualities that make healthcare marketing teams exceptional:

They know your buyer personas. 

There is a vast range of buyer personas within the healthcare industry. Are you marketing to doctors and clinicians, hospital exectives, or patients? Your marketing team should have a clear understanding of who they are marketing to. For example, if you are selling hospital IT equipment, it may seem like you should be marketing towards the technicians who will be using the equipment...but are they making the purchasing decision to by the equipment? Maybe, but maybe not. Your marketing team should do extensive research to figure out who the buyer person is and know who will be making the purchasing decisions of your product or service.

They know your product front to back. 

Chances are, when a person first begins to market your products or services, they aren't going to come in knowing everything, but they should be eager to learn. The healthcare industry comes with a lot of technical jargon, and often the products and services for your company will as well. The marketing team needs to quickly get up to speed with the ins and outs of your company and what you're offering. In addition, knowing the product will best assist the marketer in figuring out how to solve your audience's pain points. The better your marketing team knows your product, the easier it will be for them to solve your target customers' wants and needs.

They have a keen understanding of the goals you wish to achieve and deliver on those goals.

Your marketing team needs to have tunnel vision when it comes to achieving your goals. Are your goals revenue related? Company related? Product launch and promotion related? Your marketing team needs to have a clear understanding of what they are trying to achieve from the beginning so they can put together a proper plan to achieve those goals.

They focus on what the customers want, not what the marketing team wants.

It's so easy to sit back and execute a marketing plan based off what you want to see go to market...but will it resonate with your audience? Just because your marketing team likes something, it doesn't mean your personas will. Marketers need to be able to step out of their own shoes and do what's best for the persona, even if it's not what they would typically choose for themselves.

They stay current with the latest industry trends.

The healthcare industry is constantly changing. It's important that your marketing team stays up to date with these trends, which will help your company stay current and ahead of the curve. If your marketing team doesn't keep tabs on industry trends, a marketing team for another company will and will have a competitive advantage. The more your marketing team knows about the industry, the more they can apply it to their marketing efforts and keep your company relevant in the minds of your personas.

They have Access to SMEs.

While you want your marketing team to know the industry, your product, and personas, at the end of the day, they still may not be the experts in your field. If your charged with handling marketing for a clinical blog, for example, chances are you'll need some insight or approval from a clinician, or subject matter expert (SME). No amount of marketing experience can make up for going to medical school or spending years in a lab. Because of this, it's imperative that to ensure clinical accuracy, a healthcare marketing team must always have access to an SME when developing content and for reviewing before the content is published.

While interviewing your healthcare marketing team candidates, ask questions that can help you gauge if the interviewee fits the criteria above, or if they show ambition to do the necessary research once they get the job. 

What else would you look for in an exceptional healthcare marketing team?