These days there are many ways that a life science company can reach out to researchers, which is great. You likely don’t just have one list of contacts in your CRM, you’ve got employees using LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. With this added flexibility comes new questions regarding how to make contact that is welcomed. We like to use the golden rule, in other words, do unto others as you’d have done to you. Here are some examples of what we consider to be breaking the golden rule, illustrating why it is a simple and effective guideline for many different situations.

1. Unsolicited newsletter opt in. I was recently signed up for a newsletter simply because I’d exchanged an email with someone that had nothing to do with their products. I hear this complaint often from colleagues, that they’ve been signed up for newsletters and resent the sender. Your newsletter recipients should request to be signed up, or you should match their interests closely and monitor unsubscribes closely. Don’t assume a contact is a lead, and remember a newsletter is a regular publication which carries more weight than just sending an email.
2. No ‘unsubscribe’ on mass emails. Related to the last point, you should ALWAYS include an unsubscribe option for all email blasts. Modern CRM software and other tools make it easy to send mass emails, but failing to include the option to unsubscribe can cause resentment towards your brand. In addition, without the option to unsubscribe, your leads may mark your emails as spam, meaning you could be blacklisted and that they will no longer receive your messages.
3. Automated direct messages (DMs) from Twitter. This is one of my personal pet peeves and I can assure you that we NEVER do this and advise our clients against it. Some applications send a DM automatically when you follow an account, and experienced users (i.e., those you want to engage) get very irritated by them. Depending on the user’s settings, it can arrive as a text message, and minimally an email. On Twitter, you may be following 1,000 or more accounts–can you imagine if all of them texted or emailed you regularly? (Note: We’ll cover etiquette in our March 10th Twitter Workshop.)
4. Lack of respect for communities. I think the above Twitter transgression occurs with new users because they don’t understand the etiquette of the community. I see similar missteps with those who join one of our LinkedIn groups and immediately post 3 self-serving items. I guess the golden rule assumes that you can ‘stand in the shoes’ of the other person, but as a newbie it’s difficult. In short, don’t rush into a new application and make assumptions about contacting people. Take your time or find an aficionado who can help you.
5. Too frequent communication. A possible issue with having so many ways to communicate with people is that you could barrage someone with the same message too many times. With broadcast advertising (e.g., print Ads), it was considered a good thing to get your message in front of a potential customer multiple times, with personal communication the rules are different. When planning, determine the maximum number of times a person may see your message in, say, a week’s time. Consider how you’d feel if you received the same message from a company with the same frequency. Also, always remember that your targets may not hold the same affection for your brand as you do, so do the comparison with a company you’re not overly fond of. I like to use the car dealership I bought my car from 6 years ago that still sends me monthly mailers (a personal gripe). Look for tools which will help you marry contact information between applications, for example this Constant Contact plugin for Salesforce .
6. Mixing personal and company connections. We’ve covered this before, but from my personal experience the problem seems to be getting worse so I’m bringing it up again. Building a network is a fantastic way to find and engage prospective leads, but you should be very careful to not assume that your personal contacts don’t feel as though they’ll be automatically entered into your company’s CRM. An example that illustrates this concept well involves LinkedIn contact information. Should you upload your LinkedIn contacts into your company CRM? As a general rule, I’d say no. However, we do manual updates when we see, for example, that emails are bouncing and we know it’s because the person has moved jobs. Usually this means we know the situation fairly well and have followed the above rules as well, so that the person can opt out if needed. You should also think about your personal brand when making these decisions–if your company abuses the contact information now or at a later date, the damage to your reputation could be irreversible.

We hope these examples will help you understand a simple way to determine how your company’s communications will be perceived, so that you can make them as effective as possible. Also, feel free to ask our advice if you’re unsure about a campaign you’re planning, we’re always available for a free consultation.

Personally, have you been irritated by communication missteps, and how do you think could they be avoided by life science companies?

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Seth Godin is a true thought leader in social media–he understood it years or maybe even a decade before many. Three of his books have literally changed the way I think about marketing and even the course of progress in many areas. Here is a short review of the books, and they’re all good and short reads, I suggest you pick them all up (each is linked to its Amazon page, and I swear I’m getting no kickbacks!).

Permission Marketing. This book was published in 1999 and truly shows that Godin was ahead of the curve, defining new media marketing strategies and tactics before the term ‘social media’ was even recognized. I call this the ‘newsletter book’ because it espouses getting permission to market to customers and uses newsletters as a prime example. In short, create marketing materials such as newsletters which provide value to your customers outside of your products, and they will give you permission to market to them. Need an example from life science? We worked with San Diego-based specialty chemicals and services provider BioBlocks to help them create a newsletter featuring the research behind their products–see an example here. As a result, they’ve increased their reach and actually gotten many compliments on their newsletter, no doubt improving the BioBlocks brand perception. In this book, Seth introduced us to the concept and benefits of engaging our customers rather than broadcasting to them using traditional marketing strategies such as print advertisements.

Meatball Sundae. In this book published in 2007, Godin expertly continues along the path he began with Permission Marketing and explains the new media world to us. He begins with the description of the impact of mass media in the 50′s and 60′s, where television allowed marketers for the first time to reach a broad audience quickly with messages about their product. He contrasts that with media today, where consumers have so many choices–for example, it is no longer a big ‘coup’ to get an article in Time Magazine, as it reaches a much smaller demographic. He points out the many media choices consumers have these days (e.g., cable, internet, youtube, blogs), and the dearth of time and attention they have. Concomitant with this is the continuing loss of the impact of entities which he calls ‘gatekeepers,’ which control the information the public receives (e.g., the editor at Time Magazine). With less control of information flow, there is a more level playing field for companies and individuals who want to get the word out via their own website, blog, YouTube channel, etc. The book describes how to succeed in this ‘new media world,’ and gives plenty of examples. If you have time only to read one of the three books in this post, choose this one. Relevance for biotech and life science? Small companies such as our client Assay Depot can reach more through tools such as blogs. The drug discovery 2.0 blog we developed with them is now the second result in Google searches for ‘drug discovery blog.’

Tribes. This 2008 book is what I consider to be the last piece of Godin’s social media trifecta, a natural progression from the two earlier books. In it, he describes the consequences of shifting media on a personal level–the full title of the book is ‘Tribes. We Need You to Lead Us.’ He describes that the internet has provided unlimited ways for groups of people to connect and affect change. No longer constrained by gatekeepers, a passionate leader can start a movement, finding others who share interests and who often have a natural affinity for the tribe they create together. He gives Barack Obama’s campaign as an example, where supporters were connected and engaged to help him win the presidential election in 2008. Can companies start tribes? Sure they can, look at Apple. Even before the internet, they created a group of loyal fans centered around their products. If you doubt that they are true fanatics, check out the movie MacHeads on Hulu. Tie in to life science companies? Many brands have special meaning to their customers, and they can be considered fans of them. The assurance of a cabinet stocked with Sigma chemicals. The trust placed in their antibody provider for reagents that will work the first time. The pervasive blue Qiagen boxes that appear in almost every shot of a lab shown on TV. As we’ve pointed out with our list of life science companies using social media, they’ve got a long way to go, but they also have a solid foundation to build upon. We think the possibilities for forming life science and biotech tribes is enormous, and have had much luck with the San Diego Biotechnology Network.

Still skeptical, or don’t feel like you have time to read these books? We’d love to give you a social media primer, and we’ll also include an analysis of your company–sign up for a free consultation. We strive to be the ‘tribe leaders’ of social media for biotech and life sciences, we certainly meet the ‘passionate’ qualification and would love to speak with you.

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I see enormous potential for life science companies to use social media to engage their customers and grow their business. Sometimes when I talk about it, however, the concepts can come across as being somewhat foreign. Some people wonder how tools like Twitter can help them to grow their business, and are perplexed by the jargon and ‘special world’ that social media marketers seem to live in.

However, social media can be seen as an extension of tools life science companies have been using for years, such as newsletters, posters, and guides. Realizing that social media is really a natural progression of these resources helps to better understand how to create new tools and how to fit them in with your traditional marketing strategies and tactics.

Social media is about stepping beyond your product line and offering customers with resources that apply more generally to their daily ‘pains’ or interests, and allowing them to interact with you and other customers in the process. These resources could be blogs, forums, or groups set up with customers in mind, you can see examples on our compilation of life science companies using social media. While many of these companies are just getting started, check out the Promega or the 23andMe blog for good examples.

While these new tools are more interactive, taking advantage of ‘web 2.0′ principles, many of the ideas are similar to educational materials life science companies have been putting out for years. Calbiochem, now EMD Chemicals, has long provided signal transduction pathway diagrams and reviews to help researchers understand complex phenomena such as apoptosis and angiogenesis, and was also famous for its detergent guide (a favorite of mine). Invitrogen/Life Technologies (past & present!) have distributed several different newsletters over the years, one dating back to 1978!

What’s the take home message? Sell social media to your management as an extension of your existing tools with the added benefit that web 2.0 tools will help you broaden your customer base while collecting more metrics, often in real time.

How do you get started? Use existing content and themes to bootstrap a social media program. If you’ve stopped putting this useful material on the web because you’re putting it in newsletters or fancy flash animations, put it back into your web content as it will help customers who are seeking the information you’re providing to find you (and improve search engine optimization or SEO). Social media is a tool to help you engage your customers more, but realize that it is a natural extension of what you’re already doing. Employ those closest to the customer, such as customer service and sales, to help you devise a plan. Integrate social media with your existing marketing plans–you might even say that you should marry the two…

Yes, there will be some adjustments you’ll need to make when thinking about using new media. You’ll need to think about policies and strategies to chart a course for success. Need help? Comprendia is the only company with extensive social media experience specific to life science, let us help you develop a social media charter so you can hit the ground running with the tools you already have in hand.

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While vacationing, visiting family in coastal New Jersey (nicer than it sounds), I spent some time on the beach. A plane with a trailing banner flew by, advertising a product I still don’t remember. Ever the marketer, and never being the type who likes to zone out for hours on the beach, I started to think about this flavor of ‘broadcast’ advertising.

The problems are multi-fold: 1. I didn’t have any clue what the product was 2. I had no idea how to follow up to learn more 3. Even if I did have a ‘burning desire’ to find out, I certainly forgot the name of the product by the time I got to the internet (ignore the fact that I had my blackberry and could have looked it up).

What’s interesting is that this company probably paid $1-3K for this promotion (maybe more, as I learned that flying a plane with a banner is quite an art). What did they get in return? I’m sure they don’t even know–hard to determine a return on investment (ROI) on a media has no way of tracking. Instead, I think they should have hired college students to visit 4-5 beaches, and hand out free samples and chat the beachgoers up. Now THAT I would have remembered, and they also would have gotten feedback on peoples’ reactions to the product.

Relevance to life sciences? If you’re like me, you ‘cut your teeth’ on this type of ‘broadcast’ advertising, mostly print Ads (although it would be cool to rent a plane). Even some online banner Ads and e-mail blasts can be forms of broadcast advertising (banner blindness is a well-known phenomenon where users learn to ignore such information). You got used to putting your message ‘out there’ without expecting many metrics and feedback. Now, however, there are myriad ways to promote your products in an engaging manner AND to get metrics that can be used to determine ROI and the next tactical (or even strategic) steps.

Examples? Set up Google Adwords, targeting those who are looking for your product, and learn what people are searching for. Start a blog or forum on your website, forming an interactive community that cares about your products and tells you want their needs are. Make sure your newsletter is about customer needs, and not just a listing of your products. These are just some ideas–by being resourceful, and ruthless about ROI, you’ll surely come up with more.

Should you abandon broadcast advertising? No, it has a place in your tactical marketing plan, reinforcing your brand. But, it is easy to fall into the ‘same old, same old’ and to rely on it too heavily. Contact us for a free consultation to learn how to get started engaging more and broadcasting less.

A friend told me she saw a story on NPR about gaps in coverage of events in Afghanistan because so many news organizations are suffering and can’t afford as many reporters in the different regions. Hopefully, this is just a temporary situation, and changes in the media landscape will eventually mean more coverage, but it made me stop and think about news in the biotech and life science industry. With fewer resources, some news organizations have resorted to simply reprinting press releases rather than adding value by selecting truly newsworthy releases, and/or editorializing to put the information in a broader context. I have watched this firsthand as the San Diego Union Tribune’s biotechnology section has changed significantly over the last year, as changes in personnel have taken place.

The result? A sea of press releases, each told from the company’s perspective, touting their company or new product as the best thing since sliced bread. Who will listen or care? Fewer than you think, as we all are confronted with much too much information these days. Anyone can send a press release these days, and that means that everyone does. Comprendia monitors the web and social media activity for the major life science brands, and has found that these verbatim press releases make up a significant amount of the online ‘news’ from these companies.

What is the solution? If you’ve been reading the Biotechnology Marketing 101 Blog, you likely know what’s coming next, as it’s a common theme (some would say it’s our soapbox ;). Today’s environment requires that you build a community that will care about your news or product launch. A newsletter is a great first step, but let me ask you: how much of your newsletter is simply focused on your company and products? This limits your reach substantially. For example, let’s say you sell columns for protein purification, and your newsletter reflects this very narrow field. Your customers will see you in this small area, stifling your opportunities for growth. Think about the potential to grow by creating a general protein purification blog or newsletter, providing tips and resources that are not always directly related to your products (as we’ve discussed earlier). Besides widening your customer base, you’ll get feedback from customers not only about your core products, but also about upstream and downstream applications, allowing you to move into new product areas. Becoming the resource for a more broad area also helps you to be found by search engines, and your readers may even be so zealous that they pass the information on to colleagues.

The community you build will feel as though they are a part of the product development process, and will truly care about your product launches. While this type of marketing appears to take more time and effort, you’ll find that not only does today’s environment require such an approach, but that it is more beneficial for all involved. In effect, the crowd has spoken and, they want and need this type of interaction from you. Need help? We’d be more than happy to help you get started, sign up for a free consultation.

Life sciences companies can be divided three ways: those who don’t have a newsletter, those who have one, and those who have one and understand the purpose. Companies often see the newsletter as simply a way to showcase new products, and see it as a monthly chore. As we’ve discussed, this ‘broadcasting’ of your products is much less effective these days, as customers have a lot of ‘noise’ to sort through during their daily routine.

A company newsletter should focus on your customers, not you. If they simply want to see a list of new products, they’ll visit the website. Here’s an example to help understand how to ‘turn around’ your thinking on newsletter content. I have a friend who’s a photographer, and I was trying to talk her into sending her clients a newsletter (yes, I think marketing 24/7). She replied “Why would I want to send my clients information about photography and how I shoot pictures?” She is thinking that a newsletter is about her company. Instead, I suggested that she give her clients information that may be considered tangential to her business, but very relevant to her clients. For example, for her wedding photography clients, send tips on the best locations and times for weddings. Where are the best deals on bridesmaid dresses? For her portrait clients, send couples or family-focused tips on vacation spots, and include some nice photography she’s done at the location. Her clients will start to look forward to her emails even after their pictures are finished, and will keep her in mind for themselves and friends.

How does this translate to developing a newsletter for your life sciences company that will contribute to your bottom line? Think about your customer first. What are their daily challenges, and how can you use what you’re already doing to help them even more? We helped chemistry building blocks and services provider BioBlocks develop a newsletter using this approach. BioBlocks’ scientists are very savvy with several classes of chemical building blocks, and they utilize this know-how to build their collection. Their newsletter focuses on helping their customers understand the research behind their choices, including patents and drug discovery publications. Of course, their newsletter is tied to their products, but it is not simply a listing of what’s new. As a result, they’ve received many compliments on their newsletter and their mailing list has grown substantially.

Want to get started? Contact us for a free consultation today. Newsletters, like other forms of social media, take time to develop, and there’s no time like the present to begin connecting with your customers. In the meantime, check out our Biotechnology Marketing 101 blog series, and sign up for email updates.