Pharma Inbound for 2020
Inbound: An effective but widely underused marketing approach in B2B pharma.
“Skyrocket your marketing success with inbound!” I see these sorts of openers to inbound-related content and often cringe. People sometimes over-play the results of inbound marketing.
Of course, inbound marketing does produce results. For the three-month period of January-March 2020, our internal inbound campaigns have resulted in a 606% increase in website users and a 683% increase in the number of website conversions compared to the same period for 2019. We are seeing similar statistics across other campaigns in pharma. But these results don’t come overnight.
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This sort of increase in metrics requires significant investment in time and resource, as well as patience. Campaign assets - mainly content - take time to assemble, but once assembled we can truly vouch for an inbound approach to a digital marketing strategy
Back at the beginning of 2019, I wrote a post that contained six considerations for pharmaceutical marketers seeking to adopt inbound. Although over a year has passed, the tips still ring true today:
Avoid seeing inbound as a sales funnel
Don’t be fixated on the data at the beginning
Inbound and outbound tactics work hand-in-hand
Curation, syndication and guest contributions are advised
Vary content forms - see a list of pharma content options
Stimulate conversation.
6 FURTHER INBOUND CONSIDERATIONS FOR PHARMA
Whilst the 6 points above are still valid, a further 15-month period of running various inbound marketing campaigns in pharma and its sister sectors has given us additional first-hand perspectives on what works and what does not.
Here are a further 6 tips and action points for pharma marketers doing inbound in 2020.
1. SET UP A CONTENT PRODUCTION PROGRAMME
By now, I’m sure we’re all aware of the benefits of inbound marketing, which is why many marketers want to begin running inbound campaigns in pharma. The issue is, of course, that inbound is dependent on content. That is, content being readily available to set up an inbound campaign as well as an ongoing stream of new content to keep building a subscribed audience from those visitors. But as we’ve stated in a list of common pharma content challenges, content isn’t easy to come by in this sector.
Content is the driving force for inbound marketing campaigns - it’s the primary reason a user would come to a website, engage with web pages and then take action on those pages. Once a conversion has been attributed, and the user has subscribed to a mailing list, content is then required to build a rapport with that user via email on an on-going basis. To succeed with inbound in 2020, pharma marketers must set up a content production programme to ensure that relevant content is constantly produced and sourced from the relevant departments to feed the inbound campaign. Investing in this content is always a good idea because all of the content you will create can be repurposed and used over and over.
But rest assured, no content means no inbound and more content means better results. Content really is the enabler of inbound.
2. TRACK THE RIGHT METRICS
Yes, in the previous article I mention that pharma marketers shouldn’t be fixated on the data in the beginning. Being scientific in nature, we tend to analyse campaigns and performance on a micro-level. As inbound marketing campaigns take a while - sometimes between 6-12 months - to come to fruition, not seeing a return early on can put pharma marketers off inbound. But you would be stopping at a time when results are likely around the corner.
This said, we should always be measuring - just the right metrics. HubSpot’s State of Inbound 2020 report looked at the metrics which content marketers track the most (below). They include the most common metrics that track inbound marketing campaigns, and it’s certainly worth tracking a few of these (not all) to ensure your pharma inbound campaigns are taking shape as they should. Every organisation and marketer is different, but should you want a steer on this, I would suggest that you track the number of website visits as a priority (determining where they are coming from) and then the website/landing page conversion as a secondary metric.
3. OPTIMISE FOR THAT CONVERSION RATE
We always want to demonstrate success or failure in our inbound campaigns to be able to fix or build on what we are doing and drive the ROI for those activities. Bringing people to the website is great, but inbound is also about building an audience of subscribers via email that can turn into clients and customers. These conversions, initially, can take the form of subscriptions, newsletter signups, contact us submissions or via downloadable/gated content offers. Virtually anything whereby a website user can provide an email address to receive more from your organisation.
Every web page should have at least one form on them to encourage a conversion there and then. If you can’t include a form - homepages often do not have forms, for example - be sure to include a CTA to a page with a form. Limit the number of barriers (and pages) for a conversion and always thank the users for submitting their details on the form after a conversion via an iframe message or thank you page. See a previous post on 14 methods of increasing form conversions for more on conversion triggers and conversation rates for your website.
4. FOCUS YOUR EFFORTS ON A SINGLE CHANNEL
With the content created and a website optimised to generate leads, the focus is now on actually bringing people to the website to take the action within the conversion path you have set. This is sometimes a stumbling block in itself because we often expect our content to “just get found.” In reality, this is rarely the case. Certainly not in the numbers required. Here’s where pharma marketers need to focus on a specific channel to bring the audience to the content.
I’ve previously mentioned that the way to maximise this channel focus is to mix inbound and outbound, direct and non-direct methods. So if you find that social media is the channel which you will reach your audiences, focus on creating social posts to engage with your followers, as well as running paid ads on those platforms. When adopting a marketing a channel, adopt it fully. Should SEO and Google Search be your channel preference, look to build on your rankings for organic content as well as use Google Ads for some of your more effective content.
We also work with publications and vendors to promote our clients’ content as these vendors are hugely popular with the scientific audience, and we will also draw up a short-list of vendors that have relevant audiences to those clients and will focus on advertising with them via the range of products they offer.
5. CREATE LOTS OF EMAILS (THEN CREATE SOME MORE)
Your inbound campaigns will likely include basic email marketing, more likely newsletters delivered at scheduled intervals as well as nurturing email workflows that are triggered off downloadable content. This is a great start and you will soon see your email lists and email engagement rates grow. But there are many more emails which you can send to your email subscribers based on triggers. The chart below form Marketing Sherpa comes from a research study in 2013 that asks marketers “What type of automated, event-triggered, lifecycle email messages does your organization deploy?” that still provides some good ideas for B2B email marketing.
First, realise that the types of emails you can send fall into 3 categories: Content, Offers and Relationship-building. Second, look at your email lists/CRM to find those that are engaged and those that are not and decide on the content that would interest these groups in relation to the 3 email categories. You want to be experimenting with these emails, setting up triggers and creating lists within your inbound marketing automation software. What you might end up with is review emails, similar content emails based on behavioural data, thank you emails, checking-in emails and any email you feel which your subscriber will value or will help you determine if that subscriber is suitable for your products and services. The more pre-written emails and templates, as well as workflow triggers you have, the more likely your emails will be opened, read and acted upon.
6. BUILD AN ONLINE COMMUNITY JUST LIKE REAL COMMUNITIES
Online communities and networks present the perfect setting for building relationships and brand awareness. And inbound marketing is about relationships - the B2B pharma sectors are, although large, still quite tight-knit and word spreads quickly. Your inbound strategy can sit right in the middle of this community, especially if you have a sub-community set up yourself.
Turn to your media partners and other industry influencers to help promote you and your brand so that your customers can see your popularity within your specific vertical and marketplace. We all like to feel part of communities that offer mutual benefits, such as personal development support and opportunities for social interaction. Inbound can offer all of this, and although the prospect of creating online communities is difficult, always have the mindset of doing so with your content and your promotions and look to engage and drive conversations - your subscribers and other prospects will certainly appreciate it now to replace real communities during the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Consider starting with surveys and interviews to generate feedback and to demonstrate their value in your community. Inviting others to contribute to your blog is also a great opener, as that person is likely to become more known in the sector through your community channels.
BRING INBOUND INTO YOUR PHARMA MARKETING PLAN
If you’re a pharma marketer, you will likely have your work cut out with your current marketing initiatives, as well as the additional workload caused by COVID-19. Should you want to explore what Orientation Marketing can do for you - creating and managing inbound campaigns to build your pharma audience - please get in touch. I will join you on a call to discuss our process, what we did to achieve the metrics mentioned from the first paragraph and explore how we could run some content campaign for your pharma organisation in the most efficient manner.
Alternatively, you can access our inbound marketing checklist to determine suitability by making the most of your current content and processes and build your own campaigns. Or maybe you have other ideas? Either way, we’d love to hear from you.
