Women’s health business: Lessons learned in the industry

Women’s health is a growing industry sector. This guide outlines the lessons one company learned.

Launching a business in any economic environment is a monumental task. The energy and risk involved is great whether you begin as a lean startup or in capital campaign. Even if you have the perfect idea for a product or service, you will without a doubt run into road blocks right out of the gates.

These include things like worker turnover, possible barriers to entry, saturated markets, competing products or services and even things outside of your control like politics and economic landscapes. The current pandemic is an example of something outside of anyone’s control. So, as you can see, starting a business and building it up takes time, dedication and patience. As the old saying goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day”.

Investments in digital applications and tools focusing on women’s health are expected to reach 50 billion dollars in ten years. Over several decades, healthcare products and solutions were developed without taking into account that men and women have different needs, given their physiological differences. More than that, women’s health has been neglected, as most research for the development of health and wellness products has always had a male focus.

The subject was addressed in a recent report by Forbes Magazine . The publication pointed out the fact that only 4% of funds for this type of research are concentrated in the interests of women. However, it revealed some data that give great scope for optimism. A wave of change is currently taking place, and healthcare companies recognize the need to better serve the female audience. The women’s health technology industry has received more than $1 billion in investments since 2015.

Known as “FemTechs“, companies operating in the field will move more than 50 billion dollars in less than ten years, according to the report. They must therefore have a considerable impact on the global healthcare market.

Potential for expansion

Frost & Sullivan consultancy, which works in the area of ​​innovation development, pointed out some investment areas for FemTechs. Among them are:

• Empowerment of women for self-management of their health, using digital technologies;
• Solutions to improve sleep quality and control stress;
• Use of technology for reproductive health and postpartum care;
• Data collection to indicate physical activities according to physical condition;
• Tools to facilitate healthy eating planning.

Women’s health industry factors

At Intimate Rose we have found that leading with empathy and providing value in educating current and potential customers has helped to steady our business and thankfully we are in a growth phase once again.

Our brand consists of products and solutions for highly sensitive women’s health issues. Due to the nature of the products, use of traditional marketing and social proof methods have simply not worked. There are many challenges in breaching taboo topics such as urinary incontinence and pain after gynecological cancer that have called upon our team to be creative and bold in order to get our message out.

We have found that once we opened the lines of communication on women’s health, it sent a message to our customers that it is ok to ask questions and talk about their issues. This in turn has allowed for greater awareness and conversation about what our products can do to help. Where social “likes”, “shares”, and paid advertising has been challenging, word of mouth messaging and the use of private groups to allow for a safe space for our customers has been extremely helpful over time.

Here are some additional insights we have found in running a women’s health brand:

1. Education and awareness are key

   When it comes to women’s health, there are many gaps in understanding. Additionally, there are many myths and false information that has been handed down generationally or through the internet. We have found that disseminating useful information in an easy to digest manner has helped our customers find solutions to their sensitive health issues through our brand. We have made it a priority to provide informative blog posts, videos, and social media posts for both our customers and health care providers to earn trust and gain footing as a thought leader in the women’s health space.

2. Provide a story

   We have found that by sharing my story of injury and pelvic pain, we have been able to break down the barriers between brand and customer. As the face of the brand I have truly been the patient and the customer of my own brand. My own suffering lead to innovation and creation of the devices that we offer. Two years ago we placed my story on our website, offering up my own experiences as a “light at the end of the tunnel” to offer hope of complete resolution of pain.

3. Empathy in customer service is key

   When you have customers writing or calling customer support in the women’s health space, many of them are experiencing emotional distress due to the sensitive nature of their issues. We have made it a priority to respond to our calls and emails with compassion. Some women come to customer service with questions that have not yet become a customer- some have even bought products from our competitors. We continue to help them and by providing sincere support, many become customers eventually.

Conclusion

Finally, the lessons we’ve learned about the women’s health industry may not apply exactly to your market but hopefully you’ve learned something from our journey and can take it and apply it to your business or startup. Just know that there’s no success blueprint, despite what Gurus tell you. We’ve gone through the pains of letting members of our team go, investing in products we thought would be a huge success only to discontinue them and had to weather storms outside of our control. However, our mission and focus on the customer has been the backbone and will continue to be.