Achieving scalable growth as a life science company is tough if you’re using an outdated playbook. It used to be that companies could rely on sales professionals as the primary means of content delivery to prospects, but the landscape has made a dramatic shift.
Today, marketing channels play a crucial role in supporting life science sales teams and serving timely content to decision-makers. The companies that succeed in seeing real growth are the ones that implement a well-informed strategy for developing and delivering content.
Build Your Content Strategy Around the Buying Process
The buying process for life science solutions hinges on several decision-makers, not just on the clinical side of the business. A winning content strategy speaks to each of these stakeholders:
- Clinical: Life sciences companies tend to do well when speaking to clinical stakeholders. Data from clinical trials becomes the foundation for the clinical story.
- Content kickstarter: What clinical benefit does your solution provide? How does that benefit compare to other solutions?
- Financial: While your clinical evidence plays a strong role in the buying decision, so does the financial implication of adopting your solution. Financial stakeholders need to know the dollars and cents associated with your solution, both on the cost and ROI side.
- Content kickstarter: What is the total cost of ownership of your solution? What is the expected return on investment?
- Operational: Even if your solution is a no-brainer from a clinical perspective, implementation is another major consideration during the buying process. These stakeholders need to know how your solution impacts workflows, patient throughput, and other operational factors.
- Content kickstarter: How does your solution impact traditional workflows? How do you ensure quick, efficient training of relevant staff members?
- Technological: Healthcare companies are supported by a complex web of technologies. Stakeholders on the IT side need reassurance around integrating your solution into their tech stack, and readily available support should they need a helping hand.
- Content kickstarter: How does your solution integrate into your audience’s tech stack? What does the integration process look like for your audience’s IT team?
As you brainstorm content, here’s a good place to start: for each of the four stakeholders identified above, jot down 5-10 barriers to adoption that they may have about your solution. Addressing those barriers can form the foundation of your content strategy.
Leverage Your SMEs
Successful content strategies aren’t a stab in the dark. They’re informed by the experience and expertise of people who know your subject matter and what drives your audience.
Fortunately, many life science companies have SMEs readily available, either on staff or through a close working relationship. Between scientists, finance experts, and even individuals who were once on the buyer side, you likely have a wealth of information to inform your content strategy.
Ask your SMEs: given their experience, how would they overcome the barriers to adoption that you identified in the previous step? You will likely end up with a wealth of information that will help you win the hearts and minds of your prospects and close sales easier.
Maintain a Regular Cadence
Even a well-planned marketing strategy can fall short if it isn’t executed with restraint. Too often, life science companies release a torrent of content over a handful of weeks or months, then the well goes dry.
The “spurt and stop” cadence isn’t a viable strategy. Companies that release content on a regular cadence more often find success with the algorithm and with building audience trust.
This measured approach gives life science companies the time and breathing room to experiment with different forms of content, and gather insight on their performance.
Short-form, long-form, video, written content—experimenting with various formats and media will reveal what truly resonates with the decision-makers you’re trying to reach. Those insights can inform a more precise content strategy moving forward.
See Life Science Sales Enablement Strategies In Action
If your team lacks the bandwidth to put these sales enablement strategies into practice, partnering with a marketing agency can give you the support you need. Jairus is a specialized life science marketing agency, with a proven track record of sales enablement for some of the leading names in the industry.
Jairus arms life science sales teams with the curated content they need to nurture leads and ultimately close deals. With support from our team’s deep experience in the life science industry, both established and emerging life science brands rely on Jairus to connect with decision-makers and revive their pipelines.
Ready to put your sales enablement plan into action? Let’s talk.
