The Challenge

A boutique med device product development and engineering firm looking for incremental growth as the founders retire, and the employee owners (ESOP) take over.

Client Struggles

The client had done some amazing work, for a who-is-who list of med-tech startups and giant med device and pharmaceutical companies, but all their growth was based on existing relationships and in-person event attendance, and as COVID hit, their business stalled even as the investments in various med-tech sub sectors like hospital-at-home and in-vitro diagnostics rose dramatically.

They needed a new go-to-market approach.

They had struggled with both internal and external marketing resources over the years, with each experience leaving much to be desired and an increasing bad taste in their mouths. They needed a different and proven framework that they could more easily stage-gate and prove out the value.

Their measurement systems and frameworks were mostly non-existent. They had a website, Salesforce, and Google Analytics, but none of it worked together to tell a full picture of what was happening with their sales and marketing activity. They needed help with foundational measurement infrastructure implementation.

The Work

Put the necessary infrastructure in place and build a digital-first go-to-market strategy that increases qualified business conversations.

Strategic Narrative

After interviewing both internal stakeholders and past customers, our team was able to synthesize their actual secret sauce, while also uncovering the core pain points and related language that actual customers use. Leveraging these insights, we crafted an all-new narrative and implemented it across core marketing and sales materials (e.g. website and sales decks).

Leveraging a key research insight - speed to data determinees go-to-market success - we developed and launched a podcast to help build affinity and start conversations in an all of a sudden remote-first world. This allowed them to not only highlight some of the amazing work they have done with their clients - because case studies and testimonials in this space are hard to come by - but also to start conversations with some of their ideal, and often hard to reach, prospects.

Telling the Story

Leveraging video testimonials that we produced as well as a variety of downloadable templates and guides, we leveraged LinkedIn ads to drive affinity and start conversations with medtech R&D and engineering leaders within target accounts.

They also wanted to do more of what they called “fun projects”. These were complex, end-to-end product development projects that were much harder to come by but their website didn’t do a good job of selling this service. Through first-party qualitative research we developed the messaging and worked with a developer partner to put together the landing page, and then ran service-specific ads to drive awareness.

Results

• $12 million in revenue (20% YoY Growth)
• Recovered and hit growth forecast after initially being behind during COVID
• Built an owned media asset that will continue to drive conversations

It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows though

Our team was first contracted to do more written content development, because the client wasn’t initially bought into the idea of the podcast as a sustainable content stream. Good technical writing is hard enough, but when you layer in a new industry, and a regulated one at that, our team really struggled to deliver.

That’s when we pivoted to a video-first strategy, because that allowed us to leverage the immense expertise of their engineers as the source. During one of our on-site visits, we brought some camera and audio equipment and right then and there recorded their first episode. Before we left that day, we had sent them a rough draft of a few micro-clips, along with some social media copy. One of these clips went live on LinkedIn the next day, and the rest is history.

As COVID ended, and in-person events came back with a vengeance, the client also decided they didn’t want organizational strain that the exponential growth that our services provided. They were happy moving at a consistent 10% per year. At which point, we recommended that their dollars would be better spent on incremental business development headcount.

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