B2B Pharma Marketing Trends in 2022: Orientation Marketing’s Top 10
Your pharma marketing focus for 2022 based on the trends we are seeing in the sector.
As COVID-19 swept the world in early 2020, the effects on B2B pharma marketing activities were quick to see as all events got cancelled or transformed into virtual events. Pharma marketers were forced to adapt and think about alternatives to traditional face-to-face presences and print advertising, which were (and still are to some extent - and rightly so) mainstream in B2B pharma marketing.
One could argue that COVID-19 has accelerated digital transformation in B2B pharma marketing and our prediction is that this trend is only going to strengthen throughout 2022 and beyond. This post will look at some of those digital marketing tactics which we have witnessed grow in importance over the last few years for B2B pharma organsations.
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B2B pharma marketing trends in 2022
Please see our top ten trends in B2B pharma marketing and get in touch if you would like our help with any aspect!
1. Search engine optimisation
Any pharma marketing manager would not go too wrong by improving search engine results. Improving both off-page elements and on-page content with relevant and carefully selected keywords is essential for any B2B pharma marketer to ensure that your organisation comes top in search results and continues to do so. SERPs (search engine results pages) are a very competitive place in this sector, so be prepared to have to fend off some of your competitors if you are embarking on an SEO campaign. This is something that requires continuous attention and work, from content optimisation to building backlinks to tweaking the technical performance of your website. Please see a recent post for more information about how to conduct activities related to SEO in pharma.
2. Marketing automation/inbound marketing
With effective marketing automation, you can handle routine marketing tasks and activities without the need for human action. Common marketing automation activities (usually labelled as “workflows” within the marketing automation platforms themselves) include email marketing, behavioural targeting, lead prioritisation and personalised advertising. As HubSpot states, by automating these tasks, teams can work better together, provide more personalised, relevant content to prospects and customers, and save time. This also allows you to nurture your leads to sales-ready prospects, through a workflow that supplies your contacts with relevant content at regular intervals. Examples of marketing automation/inbound systems include HubSpot, as well as our platform of choice, SharpSpring. For more, please see our recent article on marketing automation in pharma.
3. Content marketing
Content marketing is closely linked to inbound marketing and will help you enhance your position as a thought leader and can be also be used to achieve a range of other common marketing objectives, such as lead generation. When writing content, you can choose to go down a more commercial route (advertorials) or aim at a more scientific audience with less promotional content (blogs such as this one). There are various places where you can push your content to attract new and existing audiences: Third-party publications (print and digital), website content, content marketing on social media channels, email campaigns and webinars. Content marketing and writing is not easy, though, and takes experience and a thorough technical eye to write content that works for your and your audience. For more, please see a popular content marketing article on the Orientation Marketing blog on pharma and life science content challenges.
Let us help you write content that resonates with your target audience! We have a large pool of experienced B2B pharma writers with a scientific background and would be delighted to connect you with one suitable to write for you and your organisations
4. Google Ads and PPC
We are seeing a strong focus on Google Ads within our client marketing activities of late. COVID-19 has likely triggered this, however, the scientific audience which we cater for has always used Google and other search engines to find information, so this slow maturity can somewhat be seen as surprising. And Google Ads, although can be costly, can provide immediate ROI. There is a certain amount of prework required, in terms of setup and research, for example, and one must be able to allocate enough budget towards Google Ads campaigns to ensure you make an impact. Your options are often always going to be text or image/text ads within the pharma sectors. Orientation Marketing is a Certified Google Partner - please get in touch to discuss your options with us more in detail.
5. Video content
Creating more and more video content has been a constant trend for about ten years in B2B marketing in general, however, it started to make a real entry into B2B pharma marketing only in the past few years. Clients find video content engaging and informative, and there is a real demand for good quality explainer videos, product demo videos and site visit videos, for example. 2D animations are relatively cheap and quick to script and produce, whereas 3D animations take more time but can make a real impact when demonstrating molecular structures and other complex scientific information. Real-life footage of manufacturing sites, customer testimonials etc. are also a powerful way to engage with your customer, where you can have them visualise your product and service offering. We can also help you with any kind of pharma-based video project, from conception to scripting to final production. Please see some recent examples on our Portfolio Page.
6. Social media marketing
Social media marketing is powerful in deepening customer engagement, and based on our experience, it’s becoming more and more prevalent in B2B pharma marketing. For anyone outside of B2B pharma, you might find it surprising that this is the case but it would demonstrate how far behind other B2B industries pharma and the life sciences are from a B2B perspective. We’re seeing some incredible results in creating brand awareness, driving traffic through to our customers’ websites as well as lead generation (sometimes at a lower price point than often expected for our paid lead generation campaigns). For example, we can generate leads from LinkedIn Sponsored Content for around £25-£35, when the appropriate content has been paired up with the right audience, often very targetted and specific. When you compare that with other lead generation tactics in B2B pharma, you might be pleasantly surprised. The main channels in B2B pharma marketing are LinkedIn and Twitter.
7. Email marketing
Everyone in B2B pharma has been doing email marketing for years, however, it’s good to ask yourself a question: Are we doing it as well as we could? Are we optimising our email campaigns? Are we using the right tools? Are we nurturing our leads through effective email marketing? This brings us back to content marketing, marketing automation and inbound marketing. Our tool here at Orientation Marketing for email marketing activities is SharpSpring, however, we have also experience in other tools which as sometimes more basic. But it is this basic form of email marketing - usually mass e-blasts - that the trends are moving away from, where more event-based and triggered email marketing jobs, which are often more personal, relevant and well-received, are what we are experiencing more of and are running with our own clients. So, if your target audience conducts a known action, such as downloading a PDF or visiting a specific web page, email marketing campaigns are triggered that seek to engage with that person with similar content.
8. Event marketing
Now that face-to-face pharma events are back on track there is a certain level of excitement in the market. People are enjoying seeing familiar faces again and building those all-important personal contacts and relationships with their peers. Our prediction is that hybrid events forced upon us because of COVID-19 are still here to stay and that physical events will most likely see fewer attendees but of better quality. If you are attending a physical event this year, ensure that you adopt lots of digital-based activities around that event. Some ideas can be derived from this recent guide to the changing event landscape in 2022.
You can also be able to meet our team members face to face at a number of B2B pharma events this year – feel free to reach out to make an appointment!
9. Traditional print ads – brand awareness
Unlike in many other B2B industries, print is far from dead when it comes to B2B pharma marketing. We won’t go into detail in this post; you are fully aware of the benefits of print by now. But if you are to use print, ensure you choose the appropriate publication and look to use some supplementary digital media with that publication. We have a large network of industry titles in our database, with statistics that go back years that help us determine the best positions for our clients.
10. Account-Based Marketing (ABM)
ABM (Account-based marketing) is relatively new in B2B pharma marketing, however, the principles are not really new at all. In fact, every good salesperson should be doing some form of ABM and likely has been doing it for years. It all comes down to knowing your customer; using good quality data (CRM) to profile and identify your accounts and then focusing on targeted customer nurturing. Marketing campaigns become targetted To read more about ABM, I would recommend reading a recent blog on ABM specifics by one of our directors, Gareth Pickering: “ABM isn’t a quick win and you won’t see the needle on the gauges of these metrics shifting overnight, but they will. Do not lose sight of the results.”
For more on marketing approaches in the pharmaceutical sectors, and how we can help you, visit our section on content.
