A common misconception is that creating content is easy in the era of large language models. In fact, this task has become even more complicated because simply producing a lot of subpar content is not enough anymore—everyone can do that in mere seconds. To compete effectively, you must create engaging pieces that strike a chord with your audience. More so, you have to produce the right types of content for the right audiences and publish it across the right channels. The key to achieving this is leveraging data.
Data-driven content marketing enables businesses, including pharmaceutical companies, to develop solid content strategies and create compelling content that moves customers down the sales funnel. In this blog post, the Viseven team will focus on proven strategies to set up your content marketing efforts based on data rather than gut feeling.
Understanding Data-Driven Content Marketing
In data-driven pharma content marketing, specialists use data analysis to plan, create, and distribute their content. They also measure content performance over time and use audience insights to improve campaign effectiveness.
This type of content marketing gives you a better understanding of your competition, industry, audience, and channels to ensure your content hits the mark. It helps companies to ensure their marketing efforts are paying off by boosting engagement and improving the bottom line.
Why Your Brand Needs Data-Driven Content Marketing?
The data-driven marketing approach requires significant investments, so it is natural to wonder what is at stake and what value you will get in return. Here are some key benefits of using data in content marketing:
You have better engagement
Without data, your content probably repeats what is already out there on the internet or within ChatGPT’s generic outputs. Consequently, it does not resonate with customers as you would hope. They have seen it all before, and it tends to be general advice that either barely interests them or is completely irrelevant to their needs.
However, by incorporating insights on industry trends and customer behaviors, you can create unique content that stands out in a sea of sameness. Such content typically collects more likes, shares, comments, and saves. Customers are more willing to engage with your brand because they can relate to the content, experience the same issues you are talking about, or are eager to learn about your solutions to their primary pain points.
You strengthen your SEO
If you are not seeing progress with your link-building efforts, focus on your data-driven content. If you have unique, engaging insights, other websites will likely link back to yours. As others actively reference your data in their blogs or cover it in media outlets, your brand will become more visible, and you will see increased engagement.
You become an authoritative source
The rule of thumb is that the more high-quality, resonant content you publish, the more your customers will see you as a reliable and credible source. This way, you do not even need to push your products aggressively. By providing value to your audience, you establish yourself as an industry expert and build customer trust. This, in turn, increases their consumers’ willingness to engage with your brand, use your solutions, and recommend them to their peers.
How to Craft a Perfect Data-Driven Content Strategy
We hope you now feel motivated to create an effective data-driven content marketing strategy. Without further ado, here are some key steps to take:
Set your business and marketing goals
It is probably one of the most common first steps in ‘how to’ guides. This essential stage will help you draw a line from point A to point B. To do it right, you need to understand where you are now. For instance, if you are entering a new market, you might want to focus on increasing brand awareness in the first few months rather than generating leads.
It is also important to note that your goals should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound). Otherwise, your team will not know what is expected of them, will not be able to celebrate their milestones, and ultimately, will struggle to turn abstract ideas into reality.
Source: Medium
Segment your target audience wisely
Many brands put a lot of emphasis on demographics when segmenting customers. However, this approach is not always effective, and here is why. For instance, two 30-year-old male cardiologists living in Texas might partner with different life sciences brands, choose different products, or have different behaviors (one might not seek cooperation at all). Demographics alone provide a limited understanding of your target audience, as no one makes decisions solely based on their age or geographic location.
Beyond basic information, you need to delve deeper into your customers’ frustrations, fears, motivations, behaviors, and hopes. You can gather this data through surveys, social listening tools, customer feedback, and website analytics. Pharmaceutical companies can also analyze engagement through eDetailing or emails to better understand healthcare providers’ (HCPs) areas of interest.
Moreover, consider using lookalike audience modeling to broaden your customer base. Focus on identifying high-converting customer groups and leveraging data to discover similar segments that might be interested in your brand and solutions.
Do not compete. Think about how to add value
When developing a content strategy, do not fixate on outdoing competitors or capturing market share from industry leaders. Instead, analyze competitors’ content to pinpoint gaps in their value propositions.
One effective approach is to produce content that differs from that of competitors, either in format, tone of voice, or themes. For instance, while most pharmaceutical companies focus on educational blog articles, it might be more effective for you to prioritize creating explainer videos that delve into disease biology.
Challenge conventional wisdom. Many life sciences brands assume that showcasing technical expertise through content will suffice. What they overlook is the importance of crafting compelling stories that resonate deeply with their audience.
Balance SEO with broader strategic thinking
SEO data is crucial for crafting a successful, data-driven content marketing strategy. It enables a deeper understanding of current trends and the specific content your audience is seeking. By assembling relevant keywords, companies can create content that stands out amidst similar materials and provides genuine value to customers. Additionally, SEO metrics aid in refining content strategies and content over time.
However, there is a caveat. Many companies often tend to prioritize keywords over topics. This may lead to generic content that mimics competitors rather than innovating or challenging existing norms, which disregards our earlier point. So, it is often better to pay attention to your customer unmet needs along with SEO data.
Choose the right channels and time
No matter how engaging, compelling, and relevant your content is, if you disregard this aspect, there is a fat chance your audience will stumble upon it. Effective content marketing requires a robust distribution strategy that targets customers where they are. You should dig into customer behavior to understand them better. By collecting and analyzing customer data, you will determine the best channels and timing to reach each segment.
Visualization, like charts and graphs, can help you see those trends at a glance. Consider using interactive dashboards to see the complete picture. These let you zoom in on specific details and uncover reasons behind certain patterns and anomalies.
For example, at Viseven, we use the Einstein Send Time Optimization solution to determine the best time to send messages to each customer within the next 24 hours. The technology relies on machine learning (ML) algorithms that analyze customer behavioral data over a 90-day period. Our clients receive push notifications when their contacts are most receptive to emails.
Einstein Send Time Optimization solution
Data-Driven Content Marketing Tips & Tricks
When planning to implement content marketing, it is important to learn tips and tricks to avoid costly mistakes. Here are some best practices that help our team deliver outstanding data-driven marketing to pharma clients:
Talk to your Medical Representatives (MedReps)
Leveraging technology like artificial intelligence (AI) and ML is undoubtedly a smart move, but adding a human touch to the process is equally important. Sometimes, data will not tell you the whole story simply because it is not complete. So, reaching out to the Field Force can be a viable solution in this case.
MedRep teams get face-to-face time with clients, which lets them assess their real-time needs, identify doubts about your product, and pinpoint key sources of discomfort. Direct customer feedback helps you determine the most relevant topics, content formats, and even the appropriate tone of voice. On top of that, this content will serve as powerful testimonials for future clients, showcasing industry expertise and ability to solve customer problems.
Here are some questions you might want to ask your experts:
- What are common concerns HCPs have about our product?
- What are the most common patient concerns that HCPs usually mention?
- What are the most frequently asked questions?
- What are the main pain points in their practice?
Even though MedReps only interact with HCPs, it is still vital to ask questions about patients. After all, patients are the end users, and their preferences should be central to all our efforts.
Centralize your content management
Modern content management systems (CMSs) centralize all your marketing activities, saving marketers time and improving team communication. Brands no longer need 101 tools to build high-quality content at a scale. As a one-stop shop, CMSs enable users to collaborate on projects, co-create content, publish, distribute, and measure campaigns efficiently.
eWizard is our advanced CMS designed to improve clients’ omnichannel journey. With eWizard, users can efficiently plan content, cooperate with content agencies, adopt a modular approach, speed up Medical Legal Regulatory (MLR) reviews, facilitate localization, and analyze data, all in one place. Life sciences companies use this solution to break down data silos, improve collaboration, increase content automation, and ensure consistency across markets and channels.
Go modular to personalize your message
Nowadays, customers usually dislike aggressive marketing and in-your-face ads. Therefore, businesses try to connect with their audience through friendly conversation. One way to do this is by personalizing communication with them.
Instead of pushing your message in a way that interrupts HCPs’ workflow, create content they actually want to read. Gather data on HCPs’ behaviors and preferences and generate materials that meet their real-time needs. A modular content approach can help here. By identifying the most resonant modules, you can create highly engaging content assemblies and increase the overall effectiveness of your content operations.
Integrating Data into Your Content Marketing
Data plays a vital role in your content marketing efforts. It helps you segment your audience, customize your messages, reach customers more effectively, and track the performance of your campaigns. This leads to higher engagement, improves your SEO, and lets you position yourself as a trusted industry expert distinct from other market players.
If you need a content experience platform for data-driven decision-making, look no further than eWizard. Last year, it was nominated as the best overall content marketing software in the MarTech Breakthrough Awards.
Please contact our experts for more details.
