One of the ways that you can capitalise on your online presence is to apply inbound marketing strategies to your existing posts. This is a relatively cost-free way to ensure that your website gets higher click-through rates and customer satisfaction. The way to do this, however, is more complicated than it seems. There is so much content available on the Internet, and of each variety, there is a plethora of choices that include visual and written media.
These choices alone could overwhelm the typical customer. Inbound marketing content’s role in regards to satisfying client expectation is to build a relationship of trust between the content provider – yourselves – and the audience you wish to attract.
As life science enthusiasts – whether scientists or educators – it can be difficult to get the general public to be interested about your services or platforms. This is not to say that the information is lacking or difficult to understand, but the sciences have long been a field of study that have caused anxiety in the minds of anyone who has ever had trouble comprehending some of the basic concepts as a child. This could be down to subpar teaching, or a lack of understanding of the subject that has been imparted to the subject.
Because we are marketing towards these people – as service providers of equipment and consulting services – a knowledge of what each life science discipline needs is a must in regards to crafting a content marketing strategy. Whether it’s for high electron microscopes or healthcare, a basic understanding of how it works can lead to a better methodology.
Inbound Marketing Benefits
Having both an enterprising and scientific mind for handling businesses is a rare talent to have, so handling both sides can be an issue when starting or continuing a life science-based business. It is in this pattern that inbound marketing can particularly benefit your business as it can lead for profits without having to sacrifice capital or income, funds that would be better used funnelled back into the business. Rather than having to work to look for customers, you tailor your strategy to bring your audience closer to your, granting a more intimate and interactive experience for clients and fpartner business alike.
As most consumers are now Internet-savvy, they will most likely research a product before intending to purchase it. Scientific instruments and apparel can be an investment, so there is a lot of thought in the mind of the potential customer to really get the best quality for their money. Higher quality stethoscopes and thermometers, for example, are highly prized in the medical field and in diagnostics, as the basis for initial diagnoses. Short from buying the actual product itself, they will scour the Internet for product reviews and industry certifications that come with your products. This word-of-mouth form of advertising is often one of the most reliable and hardest to recover from, so make sure to be aware of your reviews.
What Blogs can do for you?
One way to keep track of these reviews and to keep track of your target audience’s pulse is through establishing an onsite blog. Creating an onsite blog is relatively simple as it can help imbibe a more personal, human touch to the products you are presenting. You can do this with your own marketing team or use the resouces of an external inbound marketing agency to do it for you. With the advent of Google and Bing as search engines, it has become much easier to rank higher with the creation of unique and high-quality content that can also help boost the life science industry as a whole. Writing about your products, life science news, industry news, and other company developments help possible consumers and first-time visitors in pondering whether to transact business with you.
If the idea of creating unique, high-quality content deviates you from doing the rest of your life science marketing duties, availing the services of an outsourcing company that can provide this content for you in a monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis. You can meet and collaborate with them in order to get the kind of posts that are right for you, and you can add multimedia to them at will. Videos, images, diagrams, infographics, and attachments can add depth to the contents you wish to produce, so do not be afraid to seek them out.
Good SEO practices
If one is just starting with life science content marketing, one word or phrase that stands out is SEO. This stands for search engine optimisation, or a method of ranking higher in search engines like Google and Bing by following through with their rules on what makes high-quality content. This includes a specific word count, external and internal authority links, images, and click-through rates. An SEO specialist can be consulted so as to improve and maximise a particular blog’s chances of ranking higher on these channels, leading to higher exposure and even advertising for your blog.
Having even a basic understanding of SEO can help you have a better understanding of online marketing for your business. Regardless of who creates your content, one can easily arrange an inbound marketing methodology to fit SEO practices and increase click-through rate for your blog. Being involved in all aspects of your business bodes well for the life science industry, as well as providing better resources for those in the industry who are just starting out.
Life Science Content
Life science, on its own, is a fairly broad subject that encompasses fields such as agriculture and medicine. It is different from fields such as chemistry and physics, where the purest forms of these studies strictly deal with chemical reactions and the motion of matter. Rather, life science deals with the study and observation of organic, living matter. This knowledge is then used in order to preserve, extend, improve, and medicate all kinds of flora and fauna. In its deepest form, it can be deeply experimental and theoretical and unbeknownst to most humans. Most of us see only the practical applications that these studies have given us, from innovative cancer treatments, weather-resistant crops, antibiotics, and many more.
Despite being a business, one can still generate interest in these fields of study through the promotion of your products and services. These can serve to humanise and make other readers feel at home with reading about life science content, as they have come to respect and appreciate the practical applications of such studies. In any case, life science content should not just inform, but educate and enlighten readers.
What to write about
With so many possible fields to cover, there can be many ways in which to produce unique content. You can section the different fields of life science, from agriculture, medicine, biotechnology, zoology, and the like to fit your content. Variety in these topics, from discoveries to inventions and popular news, will aid in bringing to your blogs potential customers and enthusiasts alike. One could cover the practical applications of a certain invention or of the work of a pioneering scientist. Writing in more informal, conversational language will also draw in readers who have less knowledge of life science and serve to educate them.
There are many resources and online forums that can aid you in writing content that is fit for your blog. News websites and offsite blogs can offer insight into the kind of content you want featured, as you can curate the kind of information that can be found on your blog at your own request. Collaborate with your content and graphic design team – or anyone you’ve tasked to create the content, it need not be a whole team – to incorporate certain features into your onsite blog.
Fields of study in the Sciences
The kinds of services or products that you provide usually indicate the field of life science that you usually portray. For example, glassware such as beakers and test tubes would be fit to laboratories and medical technologists, as they are more often than not the ones who utilise these tools. Scrubs and rubber gloves would be better suited to those in the medical field such as doctors and nurses. Write for the fields that your business provides, in order to attract them to your business. If wishing to expand to other services that may require involvement in a related field, expand content accordingly.
Be wary of the kind of content you do end up posting on your blog. For example, medical photographs that contain blood and exposed body parts can trigger unpleasant memories for some people, or else make others feel uncomfortable. Ensure that the videos and images that are on your blogs are accurate, or else verified by an expert as being true. If possible, take the pictures yourself or cite them properly to avoid issues such as plagiarism in the long run. While blogs should give information, they should also help forward your content marketing scheme and alienating potential customers is not the way to do that.
Discussing Controversial Topics
Life science, in itself, can trigger a number of heated discussions, usually about the ethics of certain procedures or the validity of certain theories. When writing about them, be careful to write any and all inflammatory language and refrain from taking sides; this could lead to bad business down the road as not all your customers and peers will share the same opinions as you. Instead, offer your venue as a vehicle in which to instigate discussion, facilitating as you go and making sure that the discussion will allow you room to talk about your existing products and services. Examples of controversial topics include the proliferation of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, in the agriculture industry, as well as stem-cell therapy for previously-terminal diseases.
Rather than courting controversy, you can tailor your blogs to discuss both sides or to provide an avenue for both sides to air out their own issues. A discussion or seminar on these topics can do wonders in enlightening the general public about these issues. Increasing participation with your target audience also leads to rising influence, so use this wisely. Do your research wisely, and make sure that your sources are verified in order to avoid any controversy.
Blog Presence through Social Media
Apart from creating unique, quality content, one can establish a stronger onsite blog following by integrating it via social media. Facebook, Twitter, and other social sharing websites are some of the easiest to cross-post and link back to, thanks to their easily-navigated user interface. Having more platforms online is a plus, as it can lead to increased collaboration between these platforms and fellow industry members. Collaboration between life science products and services will make potential customers more susceptible to viewing your products and services, so make your business available for social media sharing.
Social media is a form of organic content that leads to minimal costs, and yet is capable of having a huge impact on your content marketing methodology. You are also able to interact more with potential customers and network with those who are in the same industry, here and abroad. That kind of reach using outbound marketing schemes will be costly and is not guaranteed to succeed, whereas social media is a virtually risk-free way to increase your potential in providing products and services.
The Future of Content Marketing
Online marketing has only become more interactive as the years pass by. In this light, utilising content marketing measures to make your blog posts rank higher online requires skills that can be easily learned over the Internet. A good grasp of technical knowledge in writing and in the industry you work in, as well as keywords in the life sciences that potential clients may be confused about, is crucial in successful content marketing.
Apart from blogs, make use of and collaborate with other kinds of content, such as creating infographics, producing videos, and the like. Companies are now becoming increasingly mobile and screens are shrinking to fit the palm of someone’s hand, so fitting your website and accompanying social media sites to these specifications will benefit you in the long run. Establishing online and real-life forums and business networking opportunities can help you expand your business to accommodate several branches of life science, from healthcare to nutrition to wildlife conservation.
Sources:
Content marketing tips, Social Media Strategy
Organic Vs Inorganic SEO, Mohsin Khan
Other articles worth reading:
- Get Your Money’s Worth: An Inbound Marketing Checklist for Life Scientists
- Integrate Content Marketing With Search Engine Optimisation
- Inbound Marketing Spotlight: Instagram
- PPC: Earn A Pretty Pence With An Inbound Marketing Agency in London
