Six strategies (& examples) for crafting compelling health tech thought leadership content that healthcare buyers love and engage

Thought leadership is all the rage in the health tech landscape these days, but how exactly can marketers do it and get it right?

At a time when 95% of buyers are not actively seeking products or services, B2B healthcare technology marketers are turning to thought leadership to gain the attention and trust of target hospital and health system decision-makers.

In the virtual health tech marketing summit hosted by HealthLaunchpad, the panelists suggested thought leadership is one way marketers can build a strong brand and establish authority in an increasingly complex and competitive health tech arena.??

I couldn’t agree more, after all, look at these recent thought leadership stats.

The 2024 Edelman-Linkedin B2B thought leadership report which surveyed 3500 management-level professionals across seven countries found that:

Three of four decision-makers say that an organization’s thought leadership content is more trustworthy for assessing its capabilities and competencies than most marketing materials and product sheets.        

Nine in ten decision-makers and C-suite executives say they are moderately or very likely to be receptive to sales and marketing outreach from organizations that produce high-quality thought leadership.        

With these stats in mind, it can be inferred that thought leadership is a powerful tool for building trust and attention and eventually influence demand for your products/services when healthcare buyers are actively in the market.?

What is thought leadership in the healthcare technology space?

Thought leadership is tough, but that’s because most people have a complicated definition of what it implies. A search on Google for “thought leadership in B2B” displayed more than 10 pages of search results, each with a distinct take on the topic.?All these ideas have a lot to offer, but have also made thought leadership seem like a Rube Goldberg problem.

However, as it pertains to the healthcare technology landscape, this definition by Patty Enrado ,director of content development at HIMSS does it for me: “Real thought leadership is understanding? the issues, the pain points, the ecosystem, and being able to comment on it and offer real solutions (not technology or product solutions) that’s helpful for all stakeholders.”?

In a nutshell, thought leadership is knowing the problems your audience face daily in performing their jobs to be done and suggesting thought-provoking solutions, signaling that your brand understands their needs. It can take the form of sharing practical knowledge, success stories, personal perspectives, counter-opinions, and hard-earned experiences to invite your target audience to have a conversation with you.

How do you develop thought-provoking ideas??

In this article, you will learn six strategies (with examples) to help you develop meaningful thought leadership content for healthcare solution buyers. They include the following:

1. Have strong opinions on industry challenges
2. Elevate the people behind the brand
3. Explain ‘the How’ behind the scenes
4. Analyze key industry moments
5. Try customer-led thought leadership
6. Share a personal narrative

These strategies overlap. Thought leadership elevating the people behind the brand can be built on explaining the ‘how’ behind the scenes or sharing their personal stories. A personal experience can inspire strong opinions on industry challenges or lead to customer-type thought leadership. What matters is picking whichever works best for you and your audience at the given time, even if you combine two or more strategies to create one thought leadership content.

1. Have strong opinions on industry challenges

With the overabundance of online content regurgitating same information, healthcare decision-makers care for thought pieces that share a different, opinionated, but high-value perspective. When done right, this can spark meaningful conversations that eventually lead to business results.?

An example of opinionated thought leadership is this article on HealthLeaders Media: Is healthcare on the right path to transformation?? One of the contributors, Arthur Gianelli, MA, MBA, MPH, FACHE, opined that EHR changed healthcare the wrong way. He says, “EHR has made the lives of practitioners demonstrably worse,” an opinion he defends in the coming paragraphs.

It gets better as you read. In the next section, What’s the fix? Call your baby ugly, Sachin Jain, MD, MBA, FACP, suggested that healthcare has not really changed anything yet, despite all efforts at transformation.

He makes many bold statements backed by real-life examples and uses rhetorical statements to hit all the high points.? See:

“Why have we made changing healthcare harder than putting a man on the moon? Healthcare is hard, but why is it hard? Have years and years of pay-for-procedure and episodic healthcare clouded the playing field so much that healthcare executives can’t understand what constitutes value?”

In creating thought leadership, consider these questions. What are the pain points of your target audience? Can you suggest new ways to think about the challenges? Do you have an opinion that counters the general consensus on those pain points??

2. Elevate the people behind the brand

During the summit, Justin Metz, content lead at HealthLaunchpad, suggested that real thought leadership involves elevating the people behind the brand and showcasing their expertise. This is particularly useful for health tech companies that are new to the market, with little recognition and fewer resources.?

Who are your stakeholders? What about subject matter experts, clinical providers and developers? How can you bring their expertise to spotlight?

If the founders have an interesting story, use it. For example, in an interview with Swaay.Health Marketing Community , Cheryl Alden, CMO of Finthrive, shared her experience at PointClickCare. The interview is titled, building momentum is key for healthcare marketing success, on Swaay Health’s YouTube channel.?

PointClickCare had two very charismatic founders, Mike and Dave Wessinger, said Alden. What did she do with that talent? She spent time branding and marketing the brothers to customers because it worked well.

“When you put them on stage, they capture the room immediately, and so when you have that kind of talent, you want to push that out.”?

In the early stages of building thought leadership, capitalize on showing off the expertise of your people. Pitch their ideas to the media, look out for speaking engagements/events where they can connect with and impress the target audience with their domain knowledge. With speaking engagements, you have an audience to yourself, and less competition. It is great for connecting with? peers and business leaders, and building momentum.?

3. Explain ‘the How’ behind the scenes

In the context of elevating the people behind the brand, I believe posing “how” questions to the right people (founders, directors, product developers, clinical providers, technology experts, researchers, etc.), is a sure way to uncover useful insights? for thought leadership. How did you achieve this or that? How did you solve this problem? How did you come up with this idea? How have you implemented this idea in your job?

Carol Smith , a design researcher, found that when she changed research questions from why to how, people presented more informative details.? “How questions gave people more leeway, were less constraining, invited them to answer in any way that suited them, to tell a story that included whatever they thought the story ought to include in order to make sense.”

For example, consider this story on Becker's Hospital Review on how Kaiser Permanente EHR evaluates medical devices.? The author did a great job interviewing Liz Paxton, PhD, director of medical device surveillance and assessment at Kaiser Permanente. The first three questions start with how and because of that, Dr. Paxton went in-depth and provided very specific details in her responses, ?including a background and historical context.?

4. Analyze key industry moments

Are there any trends impacting your industry? Is there a big news or industry debate that is on everyone’s lips? This is a perfect time to earn the attention of your target audience because everyone is fixated on the news.

Join the conversation by analyzing the issue, discussing what’s working and what’s not, and how things can change. You can even question other people’s opinions or proposed solutions.

An excellent example of analysis-based thought leadership is the one written by Chris Van Gorder, president and CEO of Scripps Health, during the wave of the Change Healthcare cyberattack.

He begins his argument by questioning how the government handled the issue.?

“Legislators have been quick to point fingers, with suggestions to hold healthcare CEOs and organizations directly accountable for breaches… victims, rather than the international terrorists that attack them.”?

Van Gorder’s thought leadership is further strengthened by his personal experience. He shares how Scripps Health had a cyberattack in 2021 despite their preparedness and investments. This personal touch makes his analysis more relatable and his suggestions more compelling. He concludes with suggestions for the federal government and healthcare organizations on how to fortify their defenses against future cyberattacks.

5. Try customer-led thought leadership

Considering that healthcare is distrustful of vendors, if you have developed a relationship with your existing customers, you can benefit from using their voice in your thought leadership.

Corroborate with existing customers, and engage them during the creation process. Ask if they can participate in interviews or surveys or perhaps provide written quotes for your thought leadership. Additionally, you can reference your case studies or success stories in your thought leadership content.

6. Share a personal narrative

In this example , Omada Health shared their journey with artificial intelligence. They share a personal history with artificial intelligence,? including challenges, lessons, and growth impact. Another example is this one on Beckers, What a 24-year-old CEO has learned 2 years in .

Check for any personal story that will resonate with your audience. Did you make any recent improvements? Did your organization solve a hard problem? What are the lessons? your audience could care about?

I've shared six strategies you can start implementing today in creating thought leadership. But, keep in mind that your audience should be front and center of any thought leadership.? The healthcare buying committee consists of many stakeholders across multiple roles, hence, what matters to the CFO is different from what matters to the hospital CEO or CIO or the end user.?        

Why your health tech brand needs thought leadership

Health tech companies often underestimate the role of thought leadership in their marketing strategy. Whether you are looking to build brand awareness, educate your market, generate leads, investing time for thought leadership is essential for healthcare marketing success.

Brands that reach the thought leader status gain a lot from the positive reputation. First, partners and prospects see you as a trusted source, which can foster deeper relationships with target hospital and health system stakeholders who seek you out for your knowledge. Second, it increases organic exposure and reach. Third and most importantly, it creates separation in the crowded health tech marketplace and differentiates your brand from competitors. Because you are taking ownership of the issues in your industry, answering the questions buyers are asking, showing prospects that you understand what’s at play, and proving that you can deliver value.

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