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?
    

Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Included in List of Top 40 FDA Websites

Within this blog, I really do try to refrain from self-serving bragging about Pharmaceutical Manufacturing and PharmaQbD.com. However, I am going to brag just a little bit in this post.

FDAzilla.com, a blog written by Tony Chen, has the mission of publishing content, data and information on "How can we work smarter with the FDA?"

I am proud to report that PharmaManufacturing.com was included on FDAzilla's Top 40 Websites (and Tweeters) on the FDA.

We are proud to have been included on the list and are happy that we are seemingly striking some balance between the serious (and probably too often stuffy) world of B2B publishing and a lighter view of the often comical pharmaceutical industry.

I must confess that this balance is not easy to strike and is often the subject of our internal team discussions. As a brand, Pharmaceutical Manufacturing does serve the very serious role of helping pharmaceutical manufacturing, operations, QA/QC, engineering and R&D professionals improve product quality, manufacturing/operational efficiencies and compliance. However, scientists and operations folks, just like the rest of us, need a good chuckle on a regular basis.

Hopefully, we will continue to successfully navigate this balance and we are always open to your ideas - ideas either on the serious or lighter side.

Another Great Resource--Marketing Podcasts From Leading Internet Marketing Consultants

Jay Berkowitz, CEO of Ten Golden Rules features tips to business owners about the leading internet marketing and online advertising trends, including search engine marketing and Web 2.0.

Acccess Ten Golden Rules podcasts

Recent Episodes Include:

• Jay Berkowitz and prominent Twitter Rock Stars Warren Whitlock, Gail Goodwin and @Iconic88 discuss personal branding

• Meet internet marketing Rock Stars including Google’s Albert Chen, Mitch Joel, Author Six Pixel of Separation, Craig Agranoff, Founder of WorstPizza, Shawn Rorick, Author / Past Director of Marketing – Cirque du Soleil, Murray Izenwasser, Mike Monahan Cruises One, Alex Harris from eDiets.com and AlexDesigns.com and Chris Thornton from Definition 6 in Atlanta.

• Meet Posterous Co-Founder Sachin Agarwal, Optimizing Video for the Search Engines, 10 Top Twitter Stories, Web 2010: Discover the 10 Trends Defining Your Business Future, Micro Communications, Mission Pie, ‘The Girl with the Golden Disk’.

Acccess Ten Golden Rules podcasts

Web Content Development: Defining Roles and Managing the Process

Whether responsible for the success of a Web site or merely contributors of content, marketers must understand the skills and processes required for achieving the site's communications objectives.

Yet the role of a content manager and the processes for creating a Web site are often unclear and mismanaged. Sometimes, content simply "appears" when someone realizes the task is left undone. Other times, a copywriter is hired and given a daunting task that he or she is incapable of executing.

Generally, when a company decides to redesign its site, it does not fully include the task of content creation and management into the scope of the project—and it rarely understands the nature of the role, the work process or the necessary deliverables.

This article first defines the role of content manager and clarifies the qualifications. Then, it delves into the details of the content management process and workflow and how they fit into the big picture. It also provides a list of resources to aid in the quest for clear content creation.

Read Marketing Profs article Web Content Development: Defining Roles and Managing the Process

Content Is King. Database Is Queen. We Can Help

As you dive into the world of digital media and marketing, the phrase " content is king and your e-mail database is queen," surfaces over and over.

In many ways digital media and marketing has been falsely spun as being somewhat of a low-cost savior for B2B marketers.

It is true that your cost structure in digital marketing is different than many traditional marketing efforts. It costs nothing to start a Facebook fan page or to open a Twitter account. The delivery cost of hitting "send" for an e-mail deployment is a lot less per recipient than the postage cost of putting a catalog in the mail. We have always needed graphic designers to produce our materials, but now our printing needs are less...yet another cost reduced.

However, by moving some efforts from offline media to digital media, other costs will surface. Or rather, other costs should surface. Without a doubt, a digital marketing campaign will not work without content and without an audience. Without content we are saying nothing and generally speaking, effective digital marketing requires more content - a lot more content - than most offline marketing efforts. Without an audience, we are talking to ourselves and most of us want to grow the audience we are talking to so that we can uncover new opportunities.

As wonderful as we think our products are, our customers do not really care about our products. Our customers do, however, care deeply about the solutions our products provide. So, an entire website full of product spec sheet type of information will not be particularly engaging to your customers and prospects. Don't get me wrong, you need product spec information on your website, but you also should have interesting and relevant content that addresses prospective customers and existing customers in educational and problem solving manners. Research, application stories/notes, case studies, articles, podcasts, videos, webcasts are all ways to help to market to your customers and prospects. Most importantly, it is this type of content that will keep your customers and prospects engaged with you.

Once you have a constant stream of content to engage your audience, how do you build the size of your engaged audience? Your own CRM databases is certainly the first place to start, as well as outside marketing/media partners, trade shows, SEO efforts and much more.

A constant stream of relevant and engaging content and audience growth/engagement....this is not easy, effortless or free. For next to nothing, anyone can start a wide variety of digital marketing efforts. BUT, it takes time, focus and money to engage an audience in a manner that strategically advances your marketing and sales efforts.

The ironic thing is that traditional print-based marketing always has had many of the same demands--constant, engaging content and an audience. Most offline media is more challenging to measure, so often we told ourselves that our efforts worked when the reality was we simply did not know. Since everything in the digital world is extremely measurable, efforts that are not interesting, relevant or engaging to your audience are quickly and sometimes harshly revealed.

How can the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing team help you in this area? We are really good at content creation and audience development. Many aspects of our business have changed radically within the last 6-7 years, but the need for great content written by industry experts has not changed. In fact, the need has only grown. In the throes of the recession, many b2b publishing companies made the unfortunate and, in my opinion, unwise decision to reduce costs by reducing the size and quality of their editorial/content creation teams. Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, nor Putman Media as a whole, took this approach. Our editorial teams are stronger than ever and could be a very substantial asset for you.

We have developed a number of content development programs. Some of these programs are turn-key, more "off-the-shelf" type of efforts that are adjusted to fit your needs. Some of our solutions are very customized and are more involved efforts.

We also have a programs to help you to grow and nurture the audience interested in your content--lead generation programs, contextual advertising programs and behavior-based content programs.

To discuss how we might be able to you help, please contact Tonia Becker, Publisher at tbecker@putman.net or 630-467-1301 ext 455.

Google Instant 101

Still wondering how Google Instant—the new enhancement that shows results as you type—changes search marketing?

Well, Google promises to shave 2.5 seconds off each user's search, with the end result of 10-percent faster searches.

In a recent post at the Daily Fix blog, David Felfoldi cites the benefits of this change, according to Google.

They are:

• Predictive Typing. As you type, a prediction is made of what you are seeking.
• Instant Results. As you type, the results appear. Every typed character updates the search results instantly.

How will this affect your efforts? Read full MarketingProfs article

Optimizing Your Webcast Efforts

The pharmaceutical industry has become overrun with webcasts of various sorts. I am not making this statement in a judgmental fashion as I believe webcasts can be a very effective part of a marketing mix. However, I have seen a good number of cases where our clients are not optimizing their energies.

It is more and more difficult to secure an audience for webcasts today - there is simply a lot of competition for an audience. We have undeniably seen the effects of webcast audience competition via Pharmaceutical Manufacturing's own programs and the programs we produce and promote for our clients. Thankfully, we have developed some approaches that have worked quite well and these approaches are continually evolving as our audiences change.

If hosting webcasts is part of your marketing mix, Pharmaceutical Manufacturing might be well-suited to help you to: extend your potential audience beyond your own CRM database and help you to think of ways of creatively extending the value of the energy you expend to produce your webcasts.

If you are interested in learning more about some of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing's approaches to working with clients to enhance their webcast programs, please contact Jeanne Freedland, jfreedland@putman.net or Tonia Becker, tbecker@putman.net.