How Brandformance Marketing Drives Long-Term Growth in Life Sciences
In the fast-paced life sciences marketing landscape, it’s easy to get caught up in short-term performance metrics. With the growth of digital platforms, social media, and data analytics, performance marketing promises quick wins – driving clicks, leads, and sales. However, for life sciences companies, building long-term trust and relationships with healthcare professionals, patients, caregivers, and other consumers is essential for sustained growth. This approach, known as “brandformance,” combines brand marketing and performance-driven tactics to achieve lasting success.
In this blog post, we’ll explore how brandformance strategies can help you develop a compelling brand that resonates with your audience and drives ongoing success in your life sciences industry.
INTERTWINE BRAND MARKETING AND PERFORMANCE TEAMS
Performance marketing typically focuses on generating immediate actions, such as encouraging healthcare professionals to request product information or motivating patients to consider treatment. Brand marketing, however, is about shaping perceptions and educating patients, clinicians, and consumers over time. When these two teams work in silos, marketing efforts become fragmented, resulting in inconsistent messaging.
Integrating your brand and performance teams ensures a seamless experience across campaigns and touchpoints. This cohesive approach allows your marketing to drive short-term conversions while also nurturing long-term loyalty and fostering trust in your brand. In this highly regulated industry, you must also ensure that all marketing and performance team members receive comprehensive compliance training. It’s critical that everyone understands the laws and regulations that govern your work, from FDA guidelines and industry codes to ethical decision-making and best practices for adhering to regulatory standards.
PRIORITIZE PERSONALIZATION
Whether you are marketing a novel biotech solution, a new medication, or a cutting-edge medical device, patients and other consumers want to feel personally cared for. Use marketing strategies that emphasize the personal connection between patients and physicians or between industry consumers and the solutions you offer. Highlight tailored care and individual relationships to build trust. This helps establish your product or service as a trusted partner and helps you stand out among more impersonal competitors. Remember to check in with legal and regulatory experts to ensure these personalized campaigns remain aligned with the latest regulatory changes.
UNDERSTAND CONSUMER SENTIMENT
Social listening tools are invaluable in the life sciences space. Monitoring conversations on social media, online forums, and other digital platforms gives insights into what patients, healthcare professionals, and industry consumers are saying about specific treatments, therapies, technologies, or medical devices. For example, a conversation about patient concerns about side effects from a drug is valuable information that can guide your next campaign. Understanding sentiment allows you to address specific pain points, answer questions, and reinforce your brand’s value proposition, helping you build trust within your target audiences.
ADVERTISE ACCESS AND COMPLIANCE
Access to lifesaving treatments is a primary concern for many patients and healthcare providers. Pharma and medical device companies need to communicate how they’re working to improve access to their solutions. Transparent communication about how your solutions increase patient access or streamline healthcare provider workflows is a powerful way to build a loyal customer base.
Additionally, by communicating key regulatory information and how your products or services adhere to regulations or even contribute to compliance, you can position your company as a valuable partner to patients, healthcare providers, and other customers. For example, if you work for a healthcare equipment supplier, to maintain regulatory compliance, you might promote your company’s products or tools with a focus on precise environmental controls, ingredient integrity, and dosing accuracy.
DARE TO BE DIFFERENT
The life sciences industry is highly regulated and often relies on standard language and imagery, but to truly stand out, you must push the boundaries. In pharma and biotech marketing, inject creativity into your campaigns by focusing on unique value propositions, patient success stories, and the real-world impact your products have on patient outcomes. Highlight what differentiates your drug, device, or solution, and tell your brand’s story with emotion, creativity, and authenticity. In a crowded field, this will make a significant difference in how your brand is perceived by both healthcare professionals and patients. Remember, you have a responsibility to be ethical, prioritize people over profits, protect patients’ privacy, and comply with regulatory standards in every communication. So, it’s important to run these creative campaigns through your experts and digital monitoring tools.
GET CREATIVE – IT’S CRUCIAL
Research indicates that 49% of a campaign’s impact is determined by its creative assets, with messaging that resonates deeply with your target audience being key to success. In life sciences marketing, this means prioritizing content that speaks to the real-world benefits of your products or therapies. Whether it’s through patient testimonials, clinician insights, or outcomes data, using creative approaches that evoke emotion will help connect with your audience and reinforce the value of your brand in a competitive marketplace.
DEFINE YOUR CORE MESSAGE
Consistency is critical in life sciences branding. Your core message should align with your overall brand and speak to your values. That could mean improving patient lives, enhancing healthcare provider workflows, or offering innovative solutions. From digital campaigns to educational webinars and in-person events, a unified message reinforces your brand and helps create a lasting impression with healthcare providers, patients, and key decision-makers in the industries you serve.
CAPTURE ATTENTION AND EMOTION
Video content is a compelling way to engage your audience and increase retention. For life sciences brands, patient stories or clinician testimonials are powerful tools in building emotional connections. By showcasing real-life experiences, such as a patient’s journey with a medical device or the impact of a new drug, you make your brand relatable and memorable. Creating emotional, impactful stories in your videos will resonate deeply with your audience, improving both short-term engagement and long-term brand loyalty. Investing in high-attention platforms, such as streaming video and social media, can help you share creative campaigns with strong central messages and eye-catching imagery more effectively.
BUILD MEMORIES THAT SHAPE BEHAVIOR
While performance marketing can provide short-term results, long-term growth in the life sciences industry is built on trust and patient and consumer behavior. Consistently reinforcing your brand’s key messages, delivering exceptional outcomes, and providing positive experiences will help shape future decisions. When patients, healthcare professionals, and industry consumers remember your brand favorably, they’re more likely to choose your solution or recommend it to others. Emphasizing the ways your products mitigate the risks of human error, maintain optimal conditions for sensitive medications or materials, enhance ingredient traceability, and ensure authenticity will augment your attractiveness to healthcare and industry consumers tied to their own strict regulatory standards.
LET HAPPY PATIENTS AND CLIENTS TELL THEIR STORIES
In life sciences, word-of-mouth referrals and patient testimonials can significantly influence a potential customer’s decision. Encourage satisfied patients, clinicians, or industry leaders to share their experiences with your drug, device, or therapy through testimonials or online reviews. Also, consider using community-based marketing strategies that invite patients and healthcare providers to share their stories through social media, webinars, or patient conferences.
By breaking down silos between your brand and performance teams, embracing the power of emotion in creative content, and focusing on personalized marketing, your life sciences brand can build trust, foster community, and drive growth over time. If you’re ready to elevate your “brandformance” efforts, we can help! Contact LIGHTSTREAM today.
