Onyx Health offers free support to healthcare SMEs

We are proud to launch a range of free training courses for healthcare SMEs, along with cost-effective services, in a bid to help ambitious businesses achieve their commercial potential.

The healthcare market is a challenging place for SMEs, with huge pressure coming from competition, limited budgets and stretched resources. ONS data reveals that almost half of all health start-ups will fail before they reach their fifth year, which means that any public and private funding they received for research and development could go to waste.

Even for businesses that have developed their commercial offering and entered the market, the road to sales success remains rocky. According to the UK’s Department of Business, 56 percent of SMEs cited competition as their second biggest worry, behind cash flow.

Onyx Health Director, Karen Winterhalter believes that marketing communications hold the key to turnover and growth in healthcare: “Many SME healthcare companies turn to media relations or social media as a way of driving sales, because that is all they can afford, but the healthcare market is much more complex than purely creating noise about a product. Even getting a NICE recommendation, which in itself can be extremely costly, is just the beginning.

“Over the years we have found that we are able to help healthcare SMEs begin to grow by offering some key services, at prices they can manage. The work that we do helps our clients establish a firm footing in the healthcare market, from which they can grow.”

We are opening our doors to ambitious healthcare SMEs and offering four free training courses to empower business owners to take their marketing goals forward. These cover key topics, from building a brand through to engaging key opinion leaders.

The training courses can be followed a range of affordable, fixed price services, designed with SMEs in mind. Service packages allow us to work with healthcare businesses on budget-friendly projects that span branding to lead generation, marketing strategy to medical education, digital communications to media relations, or can be tailored to suit individual needs.

Karen adds: “For many SME’s that have little marketing expertise this allows them to understand the what is needed to be successful. We become an extension to their team, without the need to take on permanent marketing professionals in-house.

“After investing in research, development and production, marketing should be where the company focuses its spend. Healthcare companies need to understand the importance of getting medics behind their products through medical education programmes. And it’s vital to have defined key messages about your offering, along a with a plan to target your customers and decision-makers with those messages.”

For cash-strapped SMEs marketing may seem like an unaffordable luxury, but its role in business growth makes it an essential investment. Fortunately, in certain areas of the country, such as the North East, funding is available for SMEs to help contribute to the cost of working with marketing communications agencies.

How to join our courses and find out more:

For more information on funding, free training courses and marketing communications services, contact on Onyx Health on 0191 640 3638, email enquiries@onyxhealth.com