Boost Market Penetration with a Chicago Healthcare FCMO

It’s time your company got the recognition it deserves in the Chicago healthcare market. The opportunities are huge — but so is the competition. To do so, we need to talk about market penetration. Market penetration is the process of increasing an organization's share of a local healthcare market by bringing in new customers or increasing the sale of products or services to existing ones. 

Selling the right products to the right people at the right time is the deceptively simple golden ticket. With the right strategy, you can get closer to your sales goals, optimal growth, and increased revenue.

Continue reading to learn more about market penetration in Chicago’s healthcare market and Chicago fractional CMO services. A fractional CMO is the best person to have on your side, and we’ll explain precisely why.

Take a look at this helpful guide to learn more about how a healthcare digital marketing agency can help you!

A Look At Chicago’s Healthcare Market

To say that the healthcare market in Chicago is competitive would be an understatement. With the demand for medical services and products higher than ever, it’s become a race to see who can accommodate those needs the best. 

The Illinois healthcare market is projected to continue to grow, indicated by several factors, especially the job demand growth. Part of this growth is thanks to the state of digital transformation in healthcare, which has opened up numerous possibilities with developments in AI, value-based care, and home care support. 

What Is Market Penetration?

Market penetration is the percentage of sales of a product or service relative to the total estimated market. It involves finding ways to expand your market presence and achieve greater sales.

To give a rough example, let’s say your estimated market consists of 1,000 people. Out of these 1000, you were able to sell your products to 400 of them. This means there are 600 more people who haven’t bought from you. This presents a lot of potential to grow and increase your market share.

In other words, market penetration involves finding and capitalizing on new opportunities to tap into different markets and attract more customers. Whether it’s by price changes or innovative marketing efforts, the goal of market penetration remains the same: to sell more and earn more.

What Are the Market Segments of the Healthcare Industry?

Healthcare marketing isn’t just targeted towards patients; it also focuses on a whole network of healthcare professionals. Let’s go over a few healthcare segments and how they contribute to the overall industry.

• Healthcare providers: These are professionals and institutions that deliver and administer healthcare services directly to patients. This would be doctors, nurses, hospitals, and clinics.
• Healthcare payers: Healthcare payers consist of insurance companies and third-party administrators who finance healthcare services.
• Pharmaceutical and biotechnology: These companies are in charge of the development and production of vaccines, drugs, medications, and other products used for treatment.
• Generic drug manufacturers: These produce drugs that are chemically similar to branded drugs and sold at lower prices.
• Medical devices and equipment: This market segment focuses on the design and manufacturing of medical devices used for treating and monitoring medical conditions, such as surgical tools, diagnostic tools, and machinery.
• Healthcare IT and digital health: This involves integrating technology into healthcare systems to improve efficiency and accessibility. Examples include automation tools, data-gathering software, monitoring apps, and telehealth.
• Healthcare education and training: This segment includes institutions that educate and train healthcare professionals (medical schools, nursing schools, and certification programs).
• Regulatory and compliance: This ensures that healthcare institutions comply with legal and ethical standards, such as HIPAA laws, licensing, accreditation, and more.

Why You Need an FCMO to Boost Market Penetration in Chicago’s Healthcare Market

Let’s first go over what a fractional CMO does: Think of fractional CMOs as marketing coaches. Like how sports teams rely on their coach’s guidance to succeed, marketing teams need a fractional CMO.

These part-time marketing professionals guide and oversee a company's marketing efforts and help teams achieve their goals. Fractional CMOs provide businesses with a clear healthcare marketing plan that leads to measurable growth and sustainability at lower costs than a full-time CMO.

Chicago fractional CMOs also use their knowledge of consumer behavior to find ways to break into new markets. By understanding the needs and nuances of different healthcare segments, FCMOs can create targeted marketing plans that increase sales and attract new customers. 

What Are the Four Market Penetration Strategies?

Market penetration involves making specific adjustments to their current processes. 

Here are four strategies that can help healthcare providers expand their reach:

Price Penetration

Everyone loves a good bargain, especially when there are so many other brands that offer similarly priced products or services. If there’s one way to win customers over, it’s by offering competitive prices or penetration pricing.

Let’s go back to the example earlier: Say that you have 600 customers who chose not to buy from a company for various reasons. One of them is likely because of the price. Market penetration pricing is one way to attract more customers and convince them that your brand is the more cost-effective option.

This strategy also involves undercutting your competitors to gain an advantage and forcing competitors to think of other strategies. 

Product Changes and Adjustments

Sometimes, customers won't buy a product because of a certain feature. Other times, preferences may get in the way. In this case, companies can introduce new changes and adjustments to the product or design a brand-new one altogether.

You can gather information on what could be changed through surveys and customer analysis. Use this time to understand your customers’ pain points and challenges they notice with the current product and address them in the new one.

Better products are more likely to convert customers and increase sales. It’ll also put you a step ahead of competitors as you'll have something unique to offer clients and customers.

Mergers and Acquisitions

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em! Mergers and acquisitions are an effective way for two companies to expand their customer base. Mergers involve two companies joining together to form a brand new one, while acquisitions are when a company buys another.

Not only is this method effective in gaining a much larger market share, but it also eliminates the competition and calls for the two parties to work together. However, this method is quite costly and not always ideal for growing companies.

Marketing Revamps

Sometimes, marketing campaigns aren’t as effective as initially protected, resulting in lower sales and smaller penetrated markets. In this case, it’d be helpful to rethink the entire marketing strategy and see what can be done differently.

To do this, revisit previously set goals and KPIs and see which areas need the most improvement. This also includes monitoring a campaign’s analytics to gain objective insights into what processes or areas need revamping.

Comb through customer reviews and feedback to gauge customers’ reception toward the product. Changing a marketing strategy allows groups to start anew, given the insights gathered from campaign analytics and customer feedback.

How To Improve Market Penetration in Chicago’s Healthcare Market

With so many market segments to reach in the healthcare ecosystem, the potential for market penetration is limitless. Here are four ways to improve market penetration in Chicago’s healthcare market:

1. Research and Segment Your Target Audience

Chicago’s healthcare industry is full of diverse market segments to tap into. The best way to break into these markets is to conduct research and segment them according to different categories.

Audience segmentation is an effective way to gauge your target market’s specific needs and preferences. This information is invaluable as it helps fractional CMOs create personalized campaigns that resonate with the target demographic.

In other words, the more you know about the people you’re selling to, the easier it’ll be to convince them to purchase your product. For example, you can segment audiences according to:

• Age group (young adults, middle-aged, senior citizens, etc.)
• Specific healthcare requirements
• Behavioral data
• Geographic data
• Psychographic data (values, lifestyle choices, etc.)
• Medical history

2. Form Professional Partnerships

Remember what we said earlier about mergers and acquisitions? These are examples of strategic and professional partnerships that help healthcare companies penetrate new markets. 

The healthcare ecosystem is full of companies and organizations that, when you partner with them, you can access wider market penetration. These complementary companies include, but aren’t limited to:

• Nonprofits
• Insurance providers
• Community organizations
• Medical device providers
• Physicians
• Product manufacturers

These partnerships open the door for additional resources and provide enhanced services to customers. Additionally, these partnerships benefit both parties involved; each gains access to wider markets and increases their opportunities to sell more products. It’s a win-win!

3. Enhance Digital Marketing

If you want to reach new markets, it’ll require you to kick your marketing efforts into high gear. This involves going back to the drawing board and enhancing your current processes to reach even greater audiences and drive more conversions.

Healthcare companies rely on various digital channels, such as healthcare email marketing, SEO, pay-per-click advertising, and social media to gain new leads, retarget old ones, and enhance brand visibility.

Healthcare content marketing is another way to outperform your competitors and build your authority and credibility. Content ranges from blog articles, case studies, videos, newsletters, and more, all of which have the goal of keeping users engaged and building trust. For healthcare content local to the Windy City, your FCMO might connect you with a Chicago local SEO agency.

Speaking of Chicago SEO, here are a few Chicago medical SEO tips from Jason: 

Additionally, optimize your Google Business Profile (GBP). Look at your GBP like a virtual Yellowbook, where your company appears immediately on Google’s search results, making it easier for people near you to find. 

Ensure your profile has all relevant and consistent information, including:

• Company name
• Address
• Contact information
• Operational hours
• Customer reviews
• Products and services

4. Improve Customer Experience

Part of market penetration is making things better for the customer in order to win them over. For example, in the case of medical device companies, the best way to expand to newer markets is to optimize the buyer journey.

A fractional CMO for medical device companies can monitor every stage of the buyer journey, namely Awareness, Consideration, Decision, and Advocacy. By keeping leads nurtured and providing them with something valuable at every stage, companies are more likely to gain their trust and sell their products.

Medical websites are another important aspect of improving the user experience (UX). An intuitive and informative website explaining the details of medical devices and products helps customers make better-informed decisions.

Finally, 24/7 customer service plays a key role in ensuring customer satisfaction. Multi-channel customer support platforms, such as live chat and email support, guarantee quick response times to solve any device issues. Customers are more likely to trust a company that offers consistent and speedy support. 

Talk to a Chicago FCMO About Healthcare Market Penetration

There’s no denying that market penetration in Chicago’s healthcare market can make a huge impact. It's an important piece of the puzzle when trying to achieve growth and reach out to more people.

You can enlist the help of a healthcare marketing agency like Digital Authority Partners which specializes in fractional CMOs in Healthcare. No matter the challenge, our healthcare marketers always bring their A-game.

Our fractional CMOs don’t just talk the talk, but they walk the walk. With their wide set of skills and years of experience to back them up, they help create the perfect market penetration plan that fits your exact needs and brings you closer to your goals.

Contact us today to get started!