Medtech Content Marketing Gets Physicians to Lean In When It Leads With the Problem

Medtech content marketing works when it opens with the problem a physician lives with instead of the product.

That's what gets a clinical buyer to lean in, and it's why the strongest programs grow from a few recorded conversations rather than a calendar of spec sheets.

Most teams do the opposite. The budget goes to testimonials, features, and technical specs, which only help a buyer who already knows the category exists. Everyone else gets nothing.

Key Takeaways

• Medtech teams put most content budget into bottom-of-funnel proof such as testimonials and technical specs, while non-branded content about the problem gets very little because its ROI is hard to track.
• At Potrero Medical, a podcast with critical care physicians and conference photos on LinkedIn led to one of the three IRB researchers behind the paper that supported the company's FDA breakthrough designation.
• One recorded hour with a key opinion leader can become a long episode, 2-to-10-minute clips, and 30-second to 2-minute clips.
• Ungated content with a tracking pixel beats a gate, and if you do gate, ask for first name, last name, and email only.
• A webinar with five to ten attendees can still win if two or three are chairs of major programs, so report qualitative proof next to the numbers.
• Executive podcast guests shouldn't read scripts, so legal and regulatory should set guidelines instead of writing the questions.

Medtech Content Marketing Fails at the Top of the Funnel Where Budget Is Thinnest

Medtech content marketing fails at the top of the funnel because that's where the budget is thinnest. Most spend goes to proof for buyers who already know the category, while buyers who don't know it exists get nothing.

I walked through a funnel on a Medtech Growth Levers session about why medtech marketers must focus more on top of funnel:

"This is where the most budget goes to. This is where every medtech company focuses on, which is reasons to believe in the solution. So that's customer testimonials, features, why is it better, technical specs, everything. Our industry literally lives down here."

Non-branded content about the problem gets very little, I said, because top-of-funnel ROI is hard to track and most marketers can't explain it to their executive team. So when budgets get pressed, that's the line that goes.

I saw the other approach work at Potrero Medical, where I was Director of Growth. We launched a podcast with critical care physicians, and the problem we talked about was acute kidney injury. Back on the same session, I described what came next:

"I would take a photo with one of the people that I interviewed, and I'd post it, and we did this for months."

"That got a physician to lean in, because we got their attention, and they were curious, what does this company do?"

That physician later commented on a post, I messaged on LinkedIn, and the conversation turned into one of three IRB researchers on a paper that supported FDA Breakthrough Device designation for Potrero's AKI Predict algorithm.

One Recorded Hour With a Key Opinion Leader Feeds Every Channel a Medtech Team Runs

Podcast or video, SEO articles, and LinkedIn clips are the channels medtech content marketing can run from one recorded hour with a key opinion leader. The recording is the input, and every other format is a cut of it.

One recording gives you the long episode that a busy clinician can play on a drive, medium clips of two to ten minutes, and short clips of 30 seconds to two minutes that can also carry paid ads.

The transcript becomes the source for SEO articles and one-page case studies. Clips and articles then reach the buyers who never sit through a full hour.

I laid out the math on a session about why podcasts are the ultimate form of leverage for medtech:

"The better question to ask is, what is my point of leverage, and how do I get more output from the same amount of input that I have?"

A recorded episode keeps working long after it's published, which a paid ad and a lost blog post can't do. If your company can't launch a show, I recommended getting your key opinion leaders onto existing podcasts, or funding a series on someone else's.

Medtech Content Marketing Should Default to Ungated and Ask Only for a Name and Email

Medtech content marketing should default to ungated, and any gate should ask for first name, last name, and email only. Content exists to educate and change behavior, and every extra field gives a distracted clinician a reason to leave.

I made that case on a session about gated versus ungated content:

"The goal of all content is not to generate leads. The goal of all content is to educate and change behavior. And especially if you're new to market, you have to, in my opinion, make it easier for your prospect to get educated and get access to that content."

Later in the session, I described what a long form does to the reader:

"This is where I see a lot of medtech companies mess up. They put too much friction, so they ask first name, last name, email, your job title, your NPI number, your hospital. All these questions, it's irrelevant, it's too much."

Ungating only works with tracking in place. I recommended a pixel on every social channel so you can retarget the people who clicked or landed on the page.

A middle path is to put paid ads behind a post that features a recognizable physician, then watch who likes and comments.

If three of thirty people who liked a boosted post are surgeons who aren't in your database, your sales team knows exactly who to message.

A co-host on the session added a reporting fix. Ask how people heard about you on every form, then trace the answers back to the content.

Problem-Focused Posts From the CEO's Own LinkedIn Reach Buyers Who Never Visit the Website

Problem-focused posts from the CEO's own LinkedIn profile reach medtech buyers where they already read, and most of those readers never click through to your website. A co-host on the session put it simply: people buy from people.

My co-host described a routine that works. Block 30 minutes on the CEO's calendar, run a quick interview, then transcribe, record, and cut it into video and written assets.

For a first test the board will accept, I suggested a problem-focused webinar. Using a knee rehabilitation device as the example, I described a session on the current state of knee rehabilitation and what every physical therapist needs to know.

"It says nothing about the product, but it's problem focused, so that the people who are really into that one thing are like, oh, this is for me."

Then teach the sales team to use the assets and post their own versions inside guidelines. That works better than resharing the company page. Finding key opinion leaders and where social media fits in healthcare marketing cover who to feature and where to post.

Legal and Regulatory Review Works Best When It Sets Guidelines and Leaves the Conversation Unscripted

Legal and regulatory review should set guidelines for executive content and leave the conversation unscripted. Scripted interviews lose the audience, and anything that describes what a device does still needs review against FDA rules.

A listener asked on the podcasts session how to stop executive appearances from feeling scripted when legal and regulatory are involved. I said:

"What you do not want is for somebody to go on a podcast and feel like it's this canned, scripted interview, because not only will people not tune into that, or they'll just jump to something else, but also it's not a good reflection of your brand or company."

I'm fine as a host if a company suggests questions. I don't book a guest whose team sends ten questions I have to ask. FDA's guidance on medical product communications that are consistent with FDA-required labeling is where your regulatory team will start.

Medtech Content Marketing Results Need Qualitative Proof Next to the Numbers

Medtech content marketing results need qualitative proof next to the numbers, because the audience is small and a few readers can matter more than the count. Report both to your board.

I made that point about webinars on the gated versus ungated session:

"What if I told you, of those five or 10 people, two or three of them are like the chairs of the most important programs in the United States? That changes the conversation."

In front of a board, I recommend bar graphs plus screenshots of who attended and what they asked. I also recommend every marketer sit in on sales meetings, because hearing objections in the customer's own words shows which message missed.

What Does All of This Mean for Medtech Founders?

In my experience working with medtech founders, content programs stall when they're built from the channel backward. Pick the conversation first, with a physician or a customer, and decide which problem it names before anyone opens a design tool.

That's market engineering applied to content at MarketCraft. The category, the language of the problem, and the narrative come first, and the formats come after. Healthcare content marketing covers the category-first sequence in more depth.

The State of MedTech works the same way. Each recording gets cut into clips, and the transcripts feed articles like this one.

And measure by who showed up. A few of the right physicians in the room tells you more than a download count.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is content marketing in healthcare?

Content marketing in healthcare is educational content that moves healthcare buyers through a decision, from first awareness of a problem to a purchase.

In medtech, it works best when it starts with the problem a physician lives with and gets the buyer to recognize it before a sales rep ever calls.

What content marketing channels are most effective for medtech companies?

Podcast or video, SEO articles, and LinkedIn clips are the channels medtech teams can run from one recorded conversation with a key opinion leader.

Long-form audio and video educate busy clinicians, articles get found in search, and short clips reach people inside the LinkedIn feed, where most top-of-funnel content gets read.

Should medtech content be gated or ungated?

Default to ungated. The goal of content is to educate and change behavior, and I haven't seen medtech content good enough to justify the friction.

If you do gate, ask only for first name, last name, and email, and use tracking pixels to retarget the people who engage.

Does medtech content need legal and regulatory review?

Yes. Anything that describes what a device does should go through your regulatory team before it's published, using FDA's communications guidance as the starting point.

Set guidelines instead of scripting executive interviews, because scripted conversations lose the audience and don't reflect well on the company.

How do you measure content marketing success for a healthcare company?

Report quantitative results next to qualitative proof, such as who attended a webinar and what they asked.

A webinar with five to ten attendees can succeed if two or three are chairs of major programs. Also ask how people heard about you on every form, then trace the answers back to the content.

Where Should You Go From Here?

If you're doing this yourself. Record one conversation with a physician about the problem your device solves, then cut it into clips and articles. The State of MedTech is a working model, and the healthcare marketing agency guide covers what to look for in outside help.

If you want it engineered with you. MarketCraft takes on a small number of medtech teams each quarter, starting with The Market Engineering Audit. It checks whether your gap sits upstream in the category or downstream in sales.

Listen to the Full Conversations

• Marketing: Why Medtech Marketers Must Focus More On Top of Funnel
• Gated vs Ungated Content. What Medtech Marketers Should Choose
• Why Podcasts Are the Ultimate Form of Leverage for Medtech in 2025

Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

About the Author

Omar Khateeb is the founder of MarketCraft and host of The State of MedTech, the number one podcast in the medtech industry. He works with medtech founders and commercial leaders on market engineering, commercialization strategy, and revenue growth.

Visit marketcraft.ai or subscribe to The State of MedTech for weekly conversations with the people building the future of medical devices.