From Advertising to Health Tech: How Aratrika Learned That Empathy Is the Most Powerful Marketing Strategy
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When Aratrika first began her journey in health tech, she was taken aback by something she hadn’t expected, the fragile financial health of hospitals in the United States. Working with large health systems across the country, she learned that the national median operating margin for hospitals hovered around just one percent. That meant that even though hospitals were the backbone of their communities, offering life-saving care to millions, they were often struggling to keep their doors open. This realization left a deep impression on her. It also changed the way she approached her work as a marketer.
That’s why empathy became the foundation of her approach to marketing financial software solutions. She learned early on that numbers, charts, and data tell only part of the story. Behind every hospital system, there are people, finance leaders balancing limited budgets, staff managing heavy administrative loads, and patients who just want access to affordable care. Understanding these perspectives became essential to how she framed every message, product launch, and go-to-market strategy.
Cultivating a mindset of customer centricity by leading with empathy, understanding real-world challenges, and turning insights into meaningful, human-centered marketing.
Today, as a Product Marketing Manager at Experian Health, empathy remains at the core of everything she does. Whether it’s conducting Jobs-to-be-Done research to deeply understand buyer motivations or collaborating closely with product managers to refine and launch new solutions, her goal is to connect with the human side of healthcare. She believes empathy is what allows teams to move beyond business goals and focus on the people they serve. It builds trust, drives innovation, and ensures that the business remains customer-centric—not just product-centric.
Her ability to empathize and tell powerful stories didn’t emerge overnight. It was cultivated during her early career in advertising, where she worked with global agencies like Ogilvy, BBH, and TBWA. Back then, Aratrika wrote marketing copy for some of the world’s biggest consumer brands, including Google and Nissan. Advertising taught her that the best campaigns aren’t about clever words—they’re about understanding people’s emotions, frustrations, and needs. One of her favorite projects was a campaign for Google that highlighted the lives of delivery workers. The campaign showed how they worked tirelessly to deliver online orders during challenging times, and Google used the campaign to thank them publicly. The work resonated deeply, earning recognition in marketing publications like Campaign Brief and Ads of the World. More importantly, it reinforced her belief that great storytelling is grounded in empathy. About this experience Aratrika says, “These experiences made me realize that I couldn’t tell a compelling story about a product without truly understanding the person using it—their challenges, their routines, their world. I had to step into their shoes, see what their day-to-day looked like, and only then could I craft a story that revolved around them, not just the product.”
When she transitioned into the health tech industry, Aratrika carried that same storytelling mindset with her—but now she used it to communicate the value of complex healthcare technology solutions. At Experian Health, one of her proudest achievements has been helping to launch a mobile application that allows patients to apply for financial assistance with their medical bills. Previously, the process had been long, manual, and often uncomfortable for both patients and staff. Patients were embarrassed to discuss their income or fill out lengthy forms, while staff were overwhelmed by paperwork and delays in approval. The new mobile app transformed that experience. By allowing patients to discreetly enter basic information like household size and income, the app automatically determined eligibility for financial assistance. It simplified the process for staff and restored dignity and financial ease for patients.
Aratrika made sure the product’s positioning and messaging always kept the patient at the center. She worked closely with product managers and sales to understand what really happens when patients go to the hospital and seek financial help for their treatment. Many patients don’t even realize they qualify for assistance—and that can make the stress of medical bills even heavier when they’re already dealing with health issues.
How to create messaging that actually resonates with buyers
So, how do you turn complex product features into stories that truly resonate with buyers? Here’s what Aratrika recommends:
1. Start with the problem, not the product.
Immerse yourself in your buyer’s job to be done. What are their pain points? How are they currently trying to solve them? What barriers or frictions do they face in their day-to-day work? When you start from their reality instead of your product, your story becomes instantly more relatable and emotionally engaging.
2. Use the customer’s voice and context.
The best stories come from real conversations. Talk to your customers—through interviews, surveys, testimonials, or even ethnographic research. These interactions help you uncover genuine insights and emotions that no data sheet can capture. When you bring your customer’s voice into your story, it feels authentic, grounded, and human.
Must-Read Books to Sharpen Your B2B Health Tech Writing
Aratrika swears by these two books for anyone looking to level up their writing and messaging in B2B health tech:
1. Obviously Awesome by April Dunford
April Dunford, a true positioning guru, breaks down how to carve out your product’s unique place in a crowded market.
2. Make It Punchy by Emma Stratton
Emma Stratton delivers a no-fluff, super practical guide filled with real-world examples that help you craft sharp, compelling messaging for B2B products.
Exploring new trends in health tech
What excites her most about her work is that it sits at the intersection of creativity, strategy, and technology. As a product marketing manager, Aratrika not only crafts positioning and messaging but also tracks the innovations shaping the future of healthcare. She believes that artificial intelligence is one of the biggest transformations happening in health tech today. But she also notes that AI’s power extends beyond clinical decision-making. It can revolutionize backend operations by automating routine administrative tasks, predicting patients’ ability to pay, or even identifying and preventing claim denials before they occur. She often says that healthcare organizations that don’t embrace AI will fall behind—not because they lack technology, but because they’ll miss the opportunity to make their operations more efficient and their patient
experiences are more seamless.
Continuously learning and giving back to the community
To stay ahead of these trends, Aratrika continues to invest in her own learning and growth. She is an active member of the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA), where she learns from industry peers about the financial and operational challenges healthcare leaders face. These insights often feed directly into her marketing strategies, helping her frame Experian’s solutions in ways that align with what hospital CFOs and revenue cycle leaders care about most.
Beyond her professional work, Aratrika is passionate about giving back to the broader product and tech community. She frequently contributes to industry events and platforms, sharing insights on topics like go-to-market strategy, competitive intelligence, positioning, and storytelling. She believes that sharing knowledge not only helps others grow but also keeps her connected to new ideas and fresh perspectives.
Looking back, Aratrika’s journey from advertising copywriter to Product Marketing Manager has been shaped by one consistent theme: empathy. It has guided her work across industries, from creating emotional consumer campaigns to crafting value-based healthcare messaging. Whether she’s building a launch strategy, developing buyer personas, or leading a cross-functional team, she approaches it all with the same mindset—to understand people first. That belief, she says, is what makes marketing meaningful. Because at its best, marketing isn’t about selling a product. It’s about telling a story that solves real problems, makes life a little easier, and helps people feel seen and supported.
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