Medical Device Company Creates Virtual Experience for Physicians During COVID-19

Learn how I managed to help a medical device company take a large industry event online in a matter of just a few days.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Acutus Medical is committed to creating superior outcomes for patients with complex atrial arrhythmias. Due to restrictions brought on by COVID-19, Acutus was forced to postpone one of the medical device industry’s most noteworthy annual events: The EP 3.0 Summit. This postponement prompted the VP of Marketing to reach out to me in search of a workaround. I partnered with Acutus to create a virtual three-day event with only ten days to prepare. In spite of the short notice, I worked diligently with Acutus to create a successful event. Results included a show rate of 60%, an engaged audience, and excellent feedback from attendees.

PROJECT TYPE

Website development

Content marketing

PROJECT SKILLS

Virtual event management

Email and SMS marketing

TECHNOLOGY STACK

WordPress, Mailchimp

Zoom, Zapier, SimpleTexting

CHALLENGES

The target audience for the EP 3.0 Summit was electrophysiologists—highly specialized and busy medical professionals on the go. In pre-COVID times, this summit provided these specialists the opportunity to learn from and network with their professional peers. We had ten days to turn one of the industry’s largest global events into a successful virtual experience. This project challenged many aspects of my marketing and communications expertise, but I was eager to meet these challenges because of my desire to make this virtual event a reality.

SOLUTION

Since every aspect of this project was digital, I wanted to ensure that every touchpoint of the experience felt personal and authentic. One of the main goals was to successfully acquire sign-ups for all three days. This goal was achieved by creating a highly engaging virtual experience that these medical professionals found worthy enough to include in their busy lives.

Responsive Webinar Registration Page

A responsive search engine-optimized WordPress webinar page was developed to organically drive attendees to register for the event. Mailchimp web-collect forms were integrated with the landing page to collect attendee data. We knew our attendees were busy physicians with limited availability, so we gave them multiple options for registration. We also provided options for receiving communications and event reminders via SMS, email, or both.

Pre-Webinar Promotion

Acutus Medical’s email guest list was imported from the Salesforce CRM to Mailchimp to send the first Save the Date campaign. This email was sent a week before the virtual summit and generated 75% of the event signups. To keep the event in the forefront of the registrants’ minds, I used a SimpleTexting integration with Mailchimp to send automated text message reminders to registered users. Registered attendees received event reminders one week, three days, 24 hours, and 15 minutes before the event. We used the #SavetheDate hashtag to promote the event on Facebook and Instagram and encouraged those who had signed up to share this hashtag with their peers.

Zoom Webinar Setup

We used Zapier to integrate Zoom with Mailchimp, which automated the webinar workflow. Zoom Webinar offered an interactive video and web conferencing platform and enabled attendees to seamlessly communicate and use polls to share opinions. We broadcasted the EP 3.0 Virtual Summit to Facebook Live and YouTube, which created quite a buzz!

RESULTS

60% showrate for the event
30% email open rate, 16% CTR (Click Through Rate)
75% attendees showed up to all 4 virtual events

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Hosting a webinar can seem overwhelming at first, but with the right mechanisms in place, it’s one of the most successful tools available to healthcare brands
The key to success for any virtual event is to make it relevant, inclusive, and engaging. And of course, don’t forget to ask for feedback!
The recent global pandemic has undoubtedly created a lot of challenges for many businesses, but it has also given them the chance to innovate and connect with their audiences on a new level of compassion and empathy