2024 top trends for marketing in science
Inspired by some commonly-asked questions by our clients in the life sciences and healthcare industries, we’ve identified three key trends for 2024 in scientific marketing.
Video marketing dominance
Our clients are investing in video assets. And kdm Whether it’s a video customer testimonial, a quirky or straight-up corporate, a how-to, talking heads or animation, the motion picture is big. Covering content that your target audiences could find engaging, educational and interesting video can be deployed across your digital marketing channels in a highly effective manner. Don’t disregard the fact that YouTube is the second most commonly used search engine after Google. While your average oncology consultant or biotech CEO might not make it their first port of call for unearthing the most up to date must-read paper, the online world is changing faster than rat up a drainpipe – and video content hosted on YouTube as well as on your own website and across your social channels is a surefire way to communicate so much more info in a short space of time than the written word alone.
In response to this growing trend, we’ve established our own in-house video production department with a full production and editing team, and we’ve invested in our own studio and high-end kit, so if you are looking to up your scientific video content or develop some animations to tell your story, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Rise of AI powered marketing
As a life science marketing agency, we’ve benefitted from the rise of AI. According to AZO’s state of Scientific Marketing 2023 report, 29% of marketers that use AI daily indicate they are saving 10+ hours a week. Now not every marketing individual will necessarily engage with AI to that degree, but it certainly shows a shift in the use of technology that, 10 years ago, wasn’t part of our marketing vernacular. Let’s jump on this bandwagon, engage with it and allow it to save us some time and redeploy our energies to more useful activities. Treat any results from using AI with caution and check out any references (platforms such as ChatGPT do aim to please!).
Next level AI marketing will be more disruptive to day to day marketing operations to the extent that some forecast over 50 % of marketing specialist and marketing analyst jobs will be replaced with marketing technology. Typically AI in marketing will be used for data analysis, content creation, media buying, decision making (based on data input) and real-time personalisation. But the data out, will only ever be as good as the quality and integrity of the data in. And these technologies will require significant investment from corporations looking to use them.
As the Managing Director of a specialist scientific marketing agency, I am watching these trends with excitement and an element of trepidation. We must tread carefully, but being well-informed of these current trends is key, and I am keen to make sure our clients benefit from innovations in marketing that will help retain their competitive edge, best serve their customers, give them a great ROI and ultimately grow their bottom line.
Social media and Influencer marketing for b2b
Here’s where two powerful stars collide. And the impact of a key influencer cannot be underestimated in B2B marketing. At kdm, our team uses its own tried and tested algorithms to identify key influencers in highly niche target markets. And we look at how connected these key influencers are – how much to they publish? Who else are they connected with? Which geographical areas do they resonate in? And what social channels do they engage with.
We can then approach these individuals on behalf of our clients and create a positive association that benefits both parties and most importantly, extend our clients’ reach across key markets with a superb advocate. And where is this most visible… social media! Brand association with actual people can come with risks though – so tread carefully and think carefully about what your influencers are promoting. For example, surgical gloves that keep skin irritation at bay is a fairly benign subject area compared to promoting infant formula through a big name influencer.
If you are struggling to find actual customers to advocate for your brand, product or service, but believe that there are some key influencers out there who would happily engage with their followers and fly your flag, get in touch – we will identify them for you and enable you to significantly grow your reach.
