Is Digital Media Testing a Sign of Weakness?

There are many days I feel like a broken record as I interact with our Pharmaceutical Manufacturing team internally and with our clients. To settle internal debates (and the very occasional professional spat within the ranks), my favorite response is...."I am not sure if we know how our audience will respond, let's test it." I often have a similar reply when working with our clients. "Our previous experience suggests that 'this' approach will perform the best, but we should do some testing."

Part of the reason I love digital media is that it is humbling and challenging. Every time I feel that I have the game figured out, our audiences prove me wrong. I fully believe that digital media success requires the confidence in one's professional knowledge and abilities because we will be wrong on regular occasion. But, digital marketing then requires that we dive in passionately to figure out how to fix or to optimize whatever it is we were wrong about.

Back to the question posed in the title of this post, "Is Digital Media Testing a Sign of Weakness?" The question beneath this question is..."Is a lack of certainty a sign of weakness?" Absolutely not in my opinion. In fact, I believe just the opposite it true. Too much certainty (without very specific analytical reference points) makes me nervous and it should make you nervous too. A lack of willingness to test will deliver nearly certain failure over the long haul.

There is a difference between a dedication to accomplishing the objective and knowing with 100% confidence precisely how the objective will be achieved. There have been plenty of times on the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing team in which we have an objective to achieve, but our original plan simply did not work. If Plan A does not work, the smart digital marketer starts testing Plans B and C. On particularly rough days, I am thankful that there are 26 letters in the alphabet and a frosty beer at the local sports bar.

I think that you will find this post from Marketing Profs quite interesting. "One Very Convincing Reason to Test." Fascinating and further proof that some of the sharpest minds in digital media and marketing can be dead wrong.

Happy testing!

Pharma Replay - Newest PharmaManufacturing.com E-Newsletter

This morning Pharmaceutical Manufacturing deployed the first edition of Pharma Replay, the newest additional to our suite of digital products. Pharma Replay will be a monthly deployment containing "Quips & Quotes Heard 'Round the Industry."

Pharma Replay is designed to deliver important information about issues within the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry in a fun and interactive manner. Although the first edition has only been out for about two and a half hours, the initial open rates and click thru rates look quite promising. Stay tuned for more information, or contact Jeanne Freedland, Sr. Digital Specialist, at jfreedland@putman.net to learn more.

Twitter....Why? Five Great Reasons for Tweeting

I don't think I am the first person to ponder the best use of Twitter. For a good while I was a Twitter hold out. Not a complete hold out, but far from a regular participant and avid user. I puttered around from time to time working to figure out where Twitter fit within my personal and/or professional lives.

I am at Pittcon in Atlanta this week and feel as though I have found some wonderful uses. Below are five:

1. Following #Pittcon was very helpful as I worked to prepare for the conference, setting my agenda, etc. It also has been extremely helpful during the show to keep track of happenings, events and interesting "finds" of fellow conference attendees. I have been following #Interphex for the same reasons.

2. Posing a question to a very large group. Pharmaceutical Manufacturing is publishing a special report on green chemistry and sustainable manufacturing next month. I knew that a lot of Pittcon exhibitors have been actively involved in green chemistry initiatives and I knew some specifics, but I knew there are many solutions in the area that I was not aware of. I posed a question to the group via #Pittcon and learned of a few solutions I was not aware of via responses to my post.

3. Made new friends. I participated in one of the Pittcon Tweet Ups and it was a lot of fun - interesting conversation and I learned a lot.

4. Promoting the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing brand, myself and our clients to Pittcon conference participants.

5. Reminder of the value of reciprocity. There is a code of conduct on Twitter, as there is for most areas of life I suppose. A great deal of the Twitter code of conduct is strongly rooted in reciprocity and a "give to get" mentality. I like this approach, believe that there is great karmic benefit to it and believe that by approaching Twitter life in this manner more of this mentality will carry over into my offline conduct.

The Pharmaceutical Manufacturing (@PharmaMfg) and PharmaQbD (@PharmaQbD) brands will actively be participating in #Pittcon for the remainder of the conference, as well as #Interphex. I will also be making comments from my personal feed (@ToniaBecker). If you are not familiar with Twitter and how to use it, Michele Vaccarello, our Sr. Digital Editor, created a HowCast that I think will be really helpful.

Happy Tweeting!

You Have a Click, a Lead, a Visitor…..Now What? Ten Questions to Ask Yourself.

We know that many marketing communications tactics are now very measurable. You can include vanity tracking URLs in your print ads or print brochures. You can include code within various landing pages to track conversion rates. You could create a pretty sophisticated and effective lead nurturing program.

All of these things can be done, but are you doing them? Everyday I interact with our clients who are providing various solutions to pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical manufacturers. Nearly all of these marketers know that they should be measuring the effectiveness of their marketing communications programs, that they want and need leads for their business development efforts, that branding and awareness is still critically important and that they should be strategically developing engagement amongst their customers and prospective customers.

Most marketers know these things, but many (probably most) are quite unsure how to execute. Although executing effective marketing communications programs is now a constant and fluid activity that we are always working to perfect, it might be helpful to ask yourself at least some of the questions below.

1. A new visitor was driven to deep link within your website as a result of an e-newsletter ad you placed with one of your media partners. The web page discusses the attributes of one of your products. What do you want the visitor to do now?
2. Is the action you are hoping for from the website visitor described above reasonable or should you provide intermediate engagement opportunities?
3. Do you have enough content to support your lead generation goals?
4. Is the content you do have focused on helping your customers and prospect solve their problems or is it focused on your products?
5. What do you do with the contact information from an industry member who meets your target customer profile, but does not have a need for your product or service at this time?
6. Are you thinking about all of the various places and information delivery formats your customers are engaging with?
7. How are you measuring success or failure of a given marketing communications strategy or tactic?
8. Are you setting realistic performance success expectations among all stake holders on your team?
9. Are you testing, measuring and refining your efforts within all of the marketing communications mediums in which you participate?
10. What messages, content, themes do your customers and prospects most actively respond to?