How to find the perfect partner for your life science content marketing needs

When deciding on the best route for your business, consider the capabilities of your existing staff, your ability to find new staff and your available budget. The benefit of using existing staff to run your content marketing programme is that these people usually have the best understanding of your products, services and markets.

As a result, they’re in a prime position to create great content. That said, you need to make sure that your team isn’t preoccupied with other projects, as creating content can take significant time and focus. Dropping the ball on your content marketing strategy will simply waste resources without any tangible results to show for it. What’s more, while your internal subject matter or marketing experts might know everything there is to know about your market area, they might not feel that their writing skills are strong enough to carry the load of your entire content marketing programme.

When expertise or internal bandwidth are limited, outsourcing your content marketing can be the best option. It’ll also free up internal resources to focus on other projects.

So with all these points in mind, who should you outsource to?

Here are a few options:

PR AGENCY

Traditional PR agencies generally can assist with pitching and writing articles, auditing content, as well as liaising with the media. For a PR agency to implement your content marketing strategy effectively, it needs to plan articles and blog posts strategically, ensure return on investment, and include a wide range of content types over and above articles (like guides, videos and infographics). If a PR agency is capable of doing all of this, it could be a good fit.

DIGITAL AGENCY

Digital agencies are experienced in running websites, campaign sites, email marketing, online advertising and possibly even social media accounts. Because content marketing has such a high impact on these digital properties, it might seem logical to outsource this to them as well. This could be your solution if the agency can consistently deliver relevant, high-quality content and give your content marketing strategy the attention it needs. Remember, the success of content marketing depends on its consistency. Generally speaking, your company will benefit from a digital agency if you need broad digital marketing expertise. However, ensure that they also have the necessary experience in content development, or you may find that your team will end up being responsible for what is the largest, most important and often most challenging part of any content marketing programme.

CONTENT MARKETING AGENCY

Content marketing agencies are set up to create and curate content and, as such, are able to deliver on your content production needs. Just make sure to quiz them on how they are going to ensure ROI - content for content’s sake won’t help you deliver against your business goals. Content marketing can also be expensive; if you’re not generating leads and increasing existing customer spend, it can be difficult to justify. Going the content marketing agency route can work for your company as long as they are committed to demonstrating a solid ROI and are producing content that aligns with your overall business strategy.

INBOUND MARKETING AGENCY

An inbound marketing agency uses content to build a sales pipeline, and then uses content to qualify and nurture the leads. This process is usually managed through marketing automation software that tracks and measures success. If you’re looking to include other elements of content marketing, such as customer service and customer advocacy content, ensure that the agency can create that content for you. Keep in mind that any inbound agency worth their salt should practice what they preach and do their own inbound marketing.

SPECIALIST LIFE SCIENCE MARKETING AGENCY

If you work in the life science sector, your best bet is to source a life science specialist that has the technical understanding and the marketing knowledge to deliver content programmes that deliver results and justify your investment. There are very few agencies in the world that have both the PhD-level scientific writing expertise and the content marketing experience to do this, so it’s worth seeking them out and requesting examples that demonstrate their proficiency in both disciplines.

Busy marketing teams like yours are under increasing pressure to create content, support sales teams and satisfy the diverse requests of internal stakeholders. And when they’re swamped with keeping everyone happy, it can be difficult getting the results you need.

We understand your challenges and feel your pain. Our experts have been supporting companies like yours with life science content marketing campaigns for a number of years and have the technical, writing and content marketing expertise required to help you deliver results for your organisation. Book a free, one-hour consultation to learn more about how BioStrata can help you to create more demand for your products and services, capture more leads, and more effectively nurture them into customers.

Download the our latest eBook “The Life Science Marketer’s Guide to Content Marketing” to find out more about content marketing for life science companies, or request a free consultation to chat with a member of our team.