Strategic digital

marketing tools
for CROs
Sciential whitepaper series
November 2020
A selection of the best digital
marketing tools for CROs

Business development is shifting a business development or marketing

towards a digital approach budget. It is rather determined by how
The COVID-19 pandemic is changing smart and creative companies are using
the way life sciences companies meet easily-accessible and cost-effective
potential clients and business partners. digital tools to generate leads for their
Visiting conferences, participating in products or services.
workshops, or speaking at events are
no longer the go-to strategy for In collaboration with our marketing and
executives, business developers, and life sciences experts, Sciential has
sales professionals. Luckily, the written this whitepaper about the five
innovative life sciences field is adapting best digital marketing tools for small-
quickly to the new circumstances and and medium-sized CROs. This
business development is transitioning whitepaper will help your organization
to a digital approach through webinars to generate warm leads and find new
and digital conferences. Conferences clients during the COVID-19 pandemic.
are now organized as digital events and The five tools have been carefully
most companies are starting to become selected based on the following criteria:
more active on LinkedIn. Even before 1) ease of implementation, 2) cost-
the pandemic, large CROs were already effectiveness, and 3) measurability of
executing strong digital marketing results.
strategies.
This whitepaper covers the following
For small- and medium-sized CROs it is five digital marketing tools:
important to adapt to the new business 1) Automated business development
development standards within the life (p. 3)
sciences industry. There are numerous
2) Search engine optimization (p. 4)
digital marketing tools that can help
you achieve this. Although it can be 3) Social media channels (p. 5)
challenging to navigate through the 4) Email database utilization (p. 6)
digital marketing jungle, there are only
5) Cost-efficient advertising (p. 7)
few tools available that work best for
CROs. A successful digital marketing
strategy does not depend on the size of

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 1. Automate your business
development efforts on
Linkedin

LinkedIn is the most dominant and of potential clients at once and await
effective networking platform for their response. This significantly speeds
CROs up the lead generation to conversion
As a CRO, you only have limited process, which takes 84 days on
personnel and time available to contact average. You can even go a step further
potential clients. It important for a with the tool by sending out subject-
successful business development specific surveys, sharing valuable
strategy to contact prospects, leads, whitepapers, or inviting them to follow
and clients in the most time-efficient your LinkedIn page.
way. The LinkedIn platform helps
organizations and professionals to With the LinkedIn automation tool, your
connect with their professional company can scale lead generation
network, including potential clients, without the need for additional time or
business partners, and colleagues. For budget. This way, the sales process of
CROs, LinkedIn is an excellent tool to your company becomes much more
maximize their client reach and target efficient and cost-effective.
the right audience with their product or
services. However, connecting with
potential clients on LinkedIn manually
drains valuable time that you could
have used for other important tasks,
such as content writing, marketing, or
product development. This is where an
automated business development tool
for LinkedIn comes in handy.

The Linkedin automation tool allows

you to select key targeting criteria, such
the as industry (e.g. medical devices,
biotechnology) or position (e.g. CEO,
CSO, business developer) of your target
client. Instead of sending out individual
messages one by one, you can send out
your personalized message to a range

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2. Improve your online
visibility with Search Engine
Optimization

What is search engine optimization? How to apply SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is To position your website higher in Google
the method to improve the visibility of and improve your company’s online
your company by positioning your visibility, you can apply the following
website on top positions in search tricks:
engines, such as Google. The Google • Adding valuable content to the
search algorithms determines the website, (e.g. articles about your
position of your website based on, products or services).
among other things, relevant keywords • Choosing the right keywords in your
quality, and quantity of the content on content that relate to popular searches.
your website. SEO is a relatively cheap • Getting mentioned (and linked) by
marketing tool because it only requires websites with strong authority (e.g.
the investment of your time. Improving news or university websites).
your search engine ranking as a CRO is
highly relevant since potential clients Next to these tricks, there are numerous
will click on the first hits whenever they other factors that Google assesses to
search for your products or services in determine your website. These include
Google. In fact, up to 32% of your bounce rates and user experience. With
potential clients will click on the first the right approach, your website can end
Google search hit. This makes SEO an in the top searching results and you will
interesting and effective lead be more visible to potential clients.
generation tool.

Up to 32% of
your potential
clients will click
on the first
Google search
hit.

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 3. Build your own free
advertising channel on social
media

Investing time in your social media How to generate high-quality

channels followers
As the life sciences industry becomes Generating followers for your
more digitally active, it is now the time company’s social media channels can
to invest in improving your social media be a challenging process because it
company channel on platforms that are requires a lot of your time and focus. It
relevant for your products or services. is always recommended to hire a
By investing sufficient time and effort in marketeer who can manage your social
the generation of high-quality followers media account. Or, if your company has
(i.e. your existing and potential clients), a limited budget available for marketing,
you create your own fully-owned and you can always hire an intern.
free-to-use advertising channel. Here, Regardless of who is taking care of the
you can share strategic content (e.g. social media channels, here are some
news, articles, videos) and drive traffic affordable ways to generate followers:
towards your website, where of course, • Posting articles, whitepapers, or
your potential clients become warmed- blogs that are relevant for your target
up leads. You may also keep existing audience
clients updated on new products or • Engaging with your potential
services and offers. The formula for a followers by replying on their posts
successful social media channel is or comments.
straightforward: investing more time in • Requesting your co-workers to get
content and engagement will lead to involved as content writers and
more followers who may become your asking them to share the posts from
clients. the company channel on their
personal accounts.

If you have difficulties creating

interesting content on regular basis, it
can be useful to write a content
roadmap. This document will help you
organize the types of content that you
can share and a strategy on when,
where, and how to share your posts.

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4. Get the most out of your
client email database

Efficiently leveraging your client base Banner advertising through third

for direct advertising party websites
Client databases that include email A more advanced form of using your
addresses are an important asset for client database is via third party banner
business developers and marketeers. advertising. Nowadays, all the well-
Your company should leverage and known advertising platforms, such as
expand its existing client database Google, provide features to upload
because it provides a way to efficiently email addresses of individuals you
reach (potential) clients. And this goes would like to target. This allows you to
further than you might expect. exactly target whoever you want. If you
have already built a solid database of
A straightforward practice of utilizing (potential) clients, then using this tool is
your client database is using direct a no-brainer for your company. Even if
email advertising, meaning that you you have a limited list of emails
bring new products or services under available, the advertising platforms
the attention of your (potential) clients allow you to additionally target
by sending an email. To improve the individuals with similar profiles, which
impact and the results of email would still facilitate a sufficient reach
advertising, you can also share a for your ad. Even though this tool
whitepaper explaining new requires a financial investment from
technologies or interviews with your company, you will generate leads
satisfied clients. In email advertising, it that are of high quality and are easier to
is important to respect your (potential) convert to sales.
clients by relevant and interesting
emails to avoid being marked as spam.
There are tools available online that can
help you to design and manage your
email advertising campaigns in a time-
efficient manner. Be sure to explore
these tools before you scale your digital
marketing efforts.

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5. Cost-efficient advertising
through data-driven
experimentation

Making paid advertising profitable

Paid digital advertising is always an Ad 1
effective way to reach potential clients. Region: Europe
Budget: €500
Google and LinkedIn offer interesting
Result: 20 clicks
paid advertising products for companies
that are highly relevant for CROs. The
concept is simple, you pay the platform Ad 2
to become more visible to your target Region: USA
audience. But how do you make sure Budget: €500
Result: 10 clicks
that your advertising budget is spend in
the most efficient way?

Experimentation is the way

To achieve cost-efficient advertising, Of course you spent a limited amount
following basic experimentation of budget because you want to allocate
methodology is the best approach. your the rest of your budget to the best
Every experiment starts with a performing ad. You collect the data
hypothesis that you want to test. This from both ads and the results are clear:
hypothesis is then assessed by the European ad has generated 50%
collecting data to see if your hypothesis more clicks and leads in comparison to
is correct. Let’s now apply this principle the USA ad. This means that it is wise
in the following simplified example. to spend the rest of your advertising
budget on the European ad because it
Your company has developed a generates more leads per euro that is
breakthrough preclinical screening spent.
service. You want to promote and sell
this service to biotechnology companies This is a simplified example. In practice
in Europe and the USA. Unfortunately, you will have to narrow your target
your digital advertising budget is limited group even further to become cost-
so you come up with an experiment to efficient. To achieve this, you will have
test if the need for your screening to include as much parameters as
service is higher in Europe in possible (country, size of company,
comparison with the USA. You set up development stage, etc.). Keep in mind
two identical ads, but each targets a that experimentation is always an
different region (Europe and USA). ongoing process.

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About Sciential Marketing
Sciential is a digital marketing agency that provides online marketing solutions
for companies operating in life sciences and health. Whether your company is
targeting consumers, medical professionals, CROs, clinical subjects, academic
institutions, or big pharma, Sciential is your go-to marketing partner.

Sciential goes beyond traditional marketing agencies and helps your company to
promote and sell products or services using innovative digital technologies, data,
and analytics. Our consultants support you in achieving more leads and sales
while helping you to better identify the needs of your target customers. The
Sciential team consists of digital marketing and data science experts with a solid
understanding of the life sciences and health market.

Our client network includes companies, research organizations, non-profits, and

medical facilities in Europe. The head office is located in Rotterdam, the
Netherlands, where we are connected with local life sciences and health hubs.

Contact us

Sciential Agency
Cambridge Innovation Center
Stationsplein 45
3013 AK Rotterdam
The Netherlands

[email protected]
www.scientialmarketing.com

+31 10 3070496