The healthcare industry is expected to hit $665.37 billion by 2028. This is great for businesses manufacturing products in the healthcare industry. But not so good for those offering a medical solution without healthcare market research.
Because a solution without relevant insight fails to improve health outcomes. And this can have impact on the business’s reputation in the long run.
While market research is perfect for understanding patient preferences. Its benefits don’t stop there. It can also help you create better products and services that fit the latest industry trends.
So, how can market research make sure that B2B businesses keep up with market trends? Let’s get into the details.
What is Market Research in Healthcare?
Healthcare market research serves as a vital starting point for businesses. With a deeper awareness of the healthcare market, B2B businesses become more efficient. It helps them understand how to eliminate pain points. What they need to make a change. And how they can improve patient satisfaction.
Also, by connecting with the subject-matter expert, businesses can explore key areas such as:
- Healthcare delivery
- Patient journeys
- Social factors affecting health.
Once they have this knowledge, they can make informed decisions. Plus, they can make meaningful improvements in the healthcare industry.
B2B firms can do the market research themselves (if they have access to niche experts). Or they can connect with a market research company like Nexus. With a vast database of experts, they can provide insights into the healthcare system.
Why is it Important to Conduct Thorough Healthcare Market Research for B2B?
Offering solutions without market research might work sometimes. But it always lacks accuracy and advancement. On the other hand, having a medical offer aligned with current trends is always the best option. It helps businesses:
- Power up their brand positioning.
- Fine-tune sales and marketing strategies.
- Build long-term relationships with customers.
Besides these, there are many other benefits of healthcare industry market research. Such as:
Know-How of Target Audience
As a medical B2B company, you have to work with a wide range of clients. This means you must know the target audience’s pain points from all aspects. If you don’t have more profound knowledge, you can’t drive success for your business.
Healthcare market research helps identify clients’ challenges and gaps so businesses can create the right solutions. This will ultimately enable you to build trust in the market.
Just like it helped one of our clients:
Deliver More Efficient Healthcare Solutions
The healthcare industry is one of the most sensitive industries. You can’t afford to give random solutions or disobey the regulations. A single mistake can cost you a significant loss. So, as a B2B firm, you have to comply with strict rules.
Using market research, you can ensure your product and marketing meet the set criteria. Not only this, but you also get the real-time feedback. This usability testing allows you to improve the features of your product. On top of that, you can bring more successful launches than you could possibly think.
Adapt to the Latest Market Trends
If you are in the medical care industry, you must have witnessed the constant evolution, like:
- Changes in healthcare policy due to value-based care, cost control, and recession.
- The shift in consumer behavior and expectations due to the pandemic.
- Introduction of telemedicine and other such advancements due to AI.
According to Fortune Business Insights:
“The number of healthcare AI companies surged to 2,513 globally by 2020.”
All this is proof of rapid expansion in the healthcare industry. You can keep up with these dynamic changes only if you know the emerging trends. Healthcare market research can make it possible for you to identify potential opportunities and grow.
Drives Competitive Advantage
Thorough market research allows you to analyze competitors’ strategies, pricing models, and market share. This helps businesses position themselves as leaders and refine value propositions to be ahead of everyone.
You can get these insights from the subject-matter experts. If you don’t have access to experts or don’t know how to approach the experts, a market research company can help you. One of them is Nexus Experts. Using their database, they can connect you to the expert according to your current needs. So, you stay informed and make accurate decisions.
Minimize Business Risk
Spending time and resources on market research can bring long-term success to any healthcare business.
According to studies:
“Companies that invest in healthcare market research and data analysis are more successful.”
That’s because market research made B2B businesses more aware of the market. This helps them identify and fix gaps while creating medical offers or solutions. In the end, this reduces business risks for them. Also, it helps them improve customer satisfaction.
What are the Different Sectors that Come Under B2B Healthcare?
| Pharmaceutical Companies | These companies (such as Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer) develop and manufacture medications and therapies for various health conditions. |
| Medical Device Manufacturers | These organizations (like Medtronic) produce an array of medical devices used in diagnostics, monitoring, and treatment. |
| Healthcare Technology Firms | Companies (Siemens Healthineers) in this category focus on developing technology solutions such as imaging systems, electronic health records (EHR), and telehealth platforms. |
| Healthcare Distributors | These firms, such as Cardinal Health, provide essential services by distributing medical supplies and pharmaceuticals to hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies. |
| Healthcare Consulting Firms | They offer strategic advice to healthcare organizations on improving operations, implementing new technologies, and navigating regulatory changes. Examples include McKinsey & Company and Deloitte. |
| Clinical Research Organizations | CROs like Covance provide outsourced research services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for clinical trials. |
| Health IT Companies | These companies, e.g., Epic Systems, develop software solutions for managing patient data and facilitating communication between providers. |
Target Audience in Medical Market Research
In the B2B healthcare industry, your target audience is vast. It includes organizations and professionals that need products, services, or solutions to run their businesses. A good understanding of your targeted audience helps you in many ways.
For example, when you know your audience, you can:
- Collect accurate data.
- Create solutions that work for your audience.
Here’s a breakdown of the key target audiences:
- Hospitals and clinics
- Diagnostic laboratories
- Biotechnology firms
- Nursing homes or rehabilitation centers
- Pharmaceuticals
- Suppliers of medical devices
- Healthcare tech companies
- Government and regulatory bodies
- Health insurance & payer organizations
- Educational and research institutes
- Suppliers and distributors in the healthcare chain
- Logistics and supply chain partners
Types of Market Research
You can conduct healthcare market research in many ways. We have mentioned some important and widely known methods here:
Customer journey mapping:
Using this strategic visualization method, you can understand the complexities of the buying process. Also, you’ll get to know the customer persona. It includes their pain points, dream outcomes, and current challenges. In short, you can understand your customer’s pre-purchase to post-purchase behavior.
ABM (account-based marketing):
You can implement ABM strategies to create personalized marketing campaigns. With this, you can target the high-value accounts. Once you target the right audience, giving effective solutions will no longer remain a problem for you.
Qualitative research:
This is one of the most effective ways to collect insights from people. It gives you an understanding of people’s likes and dislikes, beliefs, and opinions. Other than this, you can also get to know what they think about certain medical products or services.
Many market research firms are conducting qualitative research. One of them is Nexus Expert. They use the latest tools and technologies to conduct this research for B2B businesses.
Quantitative research:
Suppose you want to know which age bracket will prefer your product. You can ask the people around you, but it will become very hard for you to evaluate the results. Market research companies, however, collect accurate numeric information using this method. Whether you want to know customer preferences or the ages of your survey participants, this will give you the right stats.
| Aspect | Qualitative Research | Quantitative Research |
|---|---|---|
| Data | Non-numerical (words, themes, opinions) | Numerical (percentages, frequencies, metrics) |
| Methods | Interviews, focus groups, open-ended surveys | Structured surveys, secondary data analysis |
| Objective | Explore why and how | Measure what, how much, and how many |
| Sample Size | Small (in-depth understanding) | Large (statistical relevance) |
Some Market research firms like Nexus also conduct primary and secondary research. These help B2B businesses get a deeper understanding of the following:
- Customers.
- Competitors.
- Market.
Let’s get into the details of these methods:
Primary Research
If you want to understand your customer’s why and how aspects, this one can help you. Using this, you’ll come to know why people feel a certain way and how they make decisions. All this gives you detailed insights into their experiences.
Nexus way to do primary research:
Secondary Research
More B2B healthcare businesses are now using this to perform patient market research. This research saves their effort because they just have to use the available data. This data may be available in the form of published reports, journals, news articles, etc.
Using this information, they came to know the trends, forecasts and industry benchmarks. Also, it helps them better understand patient preferences and needs in more detail.
Nexus way to do secondary research:
3 Biggest Challenges in Healthcare Market Research
There are almost 3,032 532 healthcare businesses in the US as of 2024. And there’s nearly an increase of 2.1% from 2023. This is a significant rise within one year. It clearly shows the higher competition and constant change in the market. With this kind of rise, there comes a lot of challenges. All this makes healthcare market research more complicated.
Here are some of the challenges that businesses face in market research:
Strict Data Privacy Laws (HIPAA, GDPR)
Many people rely on countries like the U.S. and Europe for advancement in the medical care industry. They can’t allow businesses to launch new products or services without considering the details. Also, there are broad concerns regarding the patients’ privacy. There are regulatory laws like HIPPA and GDPR to secure sensitive information.
All this makes it hard to get access to deeper insights. Businesses need to be very careful to collect and use data without seeking permission. One way to overcome this challenge is to connect with research firms like Nexus Expert. They can make the whole process easier for businesses.
Complex Decision-Making Processes
The decision in this industry depends on too many people. They might be doctors, nurses, IT experts, and healthcare administrators. This means that if you have to launch a product, you need to get approval from all of them. You cannot move one step further even if one person hasn’t approved your idea.
It becomes more complex when one decision-maker approves your idea within a few days. At the same time, others may take more time. All this delays the process and slows things down for you.
Limited Budgets and Resources
The business needs to invest in dynamic market research when making informed decisions. It has its own challenges. For example, if you need more comprehensive research, you may have to rely on the latest methods. This means businesses have to expand their budget. And it’s the most difficult for B2B businesses who have limited resources.
However, a firm like Nexus Expert can help you with this challenge. They can allow you to get market information by keeping within your budget.
Conclusion
B2B healthcare businesses can introduce the right product and service with market research. By understanding the market, they don’t have to worry about the success of their given solution.
Once they know the patient’s preferences, they can spot the new trends. Not only this, but they can plan smart strategies. All this enables them to bring up the solution that the market needs. This way, they can grow in the healthcare industry and make an impactful change.
However, medical privacy rules are a challenge for them. It is hard for them to get relevant and sensitive data. But now medical market research is no longer a problem with firms like Nexus Expert. They have made access to insights easier while adhering to rules.
FAQs:
You can create a new medical device or drug within the set rules. This will help you to get approval faster and launch your solution in the industry without any hassle. Also, you can improve the patient care approach.
Healthcare market research companies can predict future trends in a better way with this research. Businesses can identify the market pattern and understand consumer behavior. Using this, you can make data-backed decisions.
There are four main ways to break down your market: Demographic
Knowing what these mean and how they work is super important if you want your business to thrive long-term!
To keep things ethical, businesses should:
Follow all the rules and regulations around healthcare research.
The frequency of market research really depends on your business goals, but it's a good idea to do it regularly, like once or twice a year. This helps you stay on top of market trends, customer needs, and what your competitors are up to.
