Improving lead-to-sales conversion rates in Life Science: challenges and how to overcome them

Life Science marketing campaigns typically suffer from high attrition rates at each stage of the customer purchase journey. Most only average a lead to sales conversion rate of 10 to 20%. Salespeople complain about receiving insufficiently well qualified leads and Marketing is under pressure to fill the funnel to meet targets.

In one example, more than 80% of the leads were not sufficiently well qualified to convert to sales. The marketing team pushed content out to over 30,000 potential customers, consuming significant budget and time but the result was an overall conversion rate of only 0.03%! Sales reps invested time following up on leads that didn’t produce sales and lost confidence in the marketing process. In this particular case, as in many Life Science marketing campaigns, several factors combined to contribute to the poor performance. These included a lack of market understanding and inadequate planning.

 Example: Marketing campaign for an established Life Science consumable product:

What can be done to improve the conversion rates? Using the theory of marginal gains, it is possible to improve the overall performance by breaking down the marketing process into its individual elements and incrementally improving each one. This approach, focusing on small yet continuous enhancements, can achieve significant aggregated increases in performance.

By examining 15 elements that underpin key stages in the marketing process we can understand how lead quality can be improved.

1.    Set sales targets that are realistic given the size of the audience

Assessing the size of the potential audience and determining the proportion who are likely to buy is crucial for deciding the level of effort needed to achieve the expected sales target. This serves as a valuable reality check to make sure that the campaign can deliver on expectations. If the audience is small while the sales targets are large, the mission might prove to be futile.

Typically, sales targets are based on revenue, which can be a challenging metric for marketing to work with. However, focusing on unit sales or the number of customers is more concrete. Moving to more tangible metrics makes it easier to estimate the number of people who need to engage at each stage of the purchase journey to achieve the sales target.

2.    Know who your target customers are

When identifying your target customers, it's essential to go beyond broad definitions like "cell biologists." You need to be more specific and consider factors such as the labs they work in, the projects they're involved in, and the challenges they face. For example, a manufacturer of a cell analyser that produces images as well as phenotypic data, similar to flow cytometer data, would need to decide whether to market to Microscopists or Flowcytomitrists depending on the problem the instrument is solving for the customer. By understanding their unique needs, it is possible to precisely target your marketing for better results.

In addition, understanding the risk adversity of the audience provides valuable insights into how much persuasion will be needed, the means of persuasion and how long it will take. Profiling customers is an essential step in campaign design enabling you to tailor your approach and optimise the effectiveness of your marketing.

3.    Establish a product positioning strategy

It's essential to consider whether customers know where to find your product and which category they expect it to be in. To draw a supermarket analogy, is it located in the chiller or on the shelf? In other words, is your product positioned clearly so that customers know where to look? For instance, a new cell imager could be categorised as a cytometer or a microscope. Alternatively, it could be positioned entirely differently and may require some time for customers to discover it. Proper positioning can significantly improve customers' ability to recognize your product and what it’s used for.

4.    Determine the problem or need that the customer has

Is there a compelling value proposition that effectively communicates how your product or service addresses the customer's problem or need? The messaging that you use must unambiguously convey the unique value that your offering brings.

Equally important is identifying the stakeholders involved in the purchase decision-making process. Understanding their roles and perspectives allows you to tailor versions of your key message specifically for them. Creating appropriate content to support your message will ensure that your marketing efforts resonate with each key player, leading to a more persuasive engagement.

5.    Understand the buying journey

Understanding the customer's behaviour and information needs throughout the purchase journey is crucial to developing an effective marketing mix. It's important to identify where they look for information and what kind of information they rely on. The time they take to discover, comprehend, and act upon the information is key to moving the customer to the next stage of the purchase journey. This information will help you to develop a well-informed content plan and channel mix. Equally important is recognizing the signals that indicate that the customer is ready to progress to the next stage so that you deliver the right content at the right time.

6.    Aligning the sales process with the marketing process

Once you have developed a compelling value proposition, the next step is to craft the narrative to convey your value proposition at each stage of the customer purchase journey. Hamid Ghanadan's content-centric model for Life Science and Healthcare marketing provides an excellent framework for designing the message and creating accompanying content. Ghanadan's book, "Catalytic Experiences," outlines three categories of content: Leadership, Education, and Persuasion. Each type of content is intended to resonate with the audience at different stages of their decision-making journey.

The diagram below illustrates the alignment between the sales funnel and the content-centric model, enabling both marketing and sales teams to understand which content should be delivered at each stage. 

In addition to targeting customers, it is necessary for marketers to also market to the sales team, which is often an overlooked aspect of the campaign process. Ideally, a separate plan should be developed to educate and train the sales team on the value proposition, campaign objectives, messaging, materials, and available tools. This will ensure that the sales team is well-equipped to effectively communicate the value proposition and align their activities with the overall marketing strategy.

7.    Know the sales cycle length

The duration and complexity of the sales cycle is influenced by several factors, including the nature of the product being purchased, the perceived risk associated with the purchase, the number of stakeholders involved in the decision-making process, and the budgetary cycles of the customer's organization. Having a clear understanding of how long the sales process typically takes and aligning your activities with the customer's timeline will avoid rushing or prolonging the customer journey which can cause engagement to drop along the way.

8.    Generate persuasive and actionable content

The content you create for a marketing campaign should educate the audience about the issue that they face and emphasize why it is important before introducing your value proposition. Each piece of content should incorporate a compelling call to action, encouraging the customer to actively engage with the content and ultimately with your product. The content should convincingly demonstrate that your product, through its value proposition, is uniquely positioned to address the issue in a way that alternative solutions can’t. To guide your choice of content for each stage of the customer journey you can use a tool such as our Content Matrix  (available to download from www.viveo.io).

Content matrix tool

9.    Find out where your customers look for information

To reach customers, it is essential to identify where they spend their time and which channels they use to access different types of content. Discovering the most frequented and credible channels is key to distributing your content effectively. Channel conversion rates from previous campaigns can be a valuable indicator of what works well and can help you determine which channels offer the best value for money.

Start by actively listening to conversations taking place on various social media platforms and online publications. This will provide insights into the type of audience that engages with each channel, the content they are interested in and whether those channels align with your campaign goals.

10. Test everything

Market research can provide insight into how well the message, content, imagery, and channel preferences of your target audience work. However, piloting the campaign can be a cost effective alternative. Before launching the campaign to the entire market, select a small sample of potential customers to test it with. This provides an opportunity to gauge the campaign's impact and effectiveness and allows you to make changes before significant amounts of budget are spent.

It is important to follow up with customers who have progressed along the customer journey, as well as those who have dropped out, to gain insights into what worked and what didn't. This feedback is valuable for refining and improving the campaign.

While this approach works well for products with shorter sales cycles, it may not be as effective for those with longer sales cycles. For these, customer research methods like focus groups or interviews can provide deeper insights into customer behaviour. It is also crucial to test combinations of content, messaging, channels, and timing to identify the optimal mix that resonates with your target audience.

11. Signpost the customer journey

Understanding the signals that indicate a customer's readiness to progress to the next stage of the purchase journey is essential to delivering your content at the right moment. Customers can quickly become frustrated if there is no clear pathway for them to move forward when they are prepared to make a purchase.

An effective campaign aims to build trust with the audience and equip customers with the necessary tools to confidently commit to the next step in their purchase journey by providing them with relevant and tailored information that is appropriate to their current position in the process.

For customers who are not yet ready to make a purchase and require further nurturing, it is important to avoid pushing them to buy too early.

12. Have a plan to nurture customers

Many potential customers may not be ready to make a purchase due to various factors such as budget constraints, funding delays, or lack of internal stakeholder agreement. Understanding what kind of content and the appropriate frequency of contact to keep them interested will maintain their engagement without overwhelming them with excessive communication.

Content that helps customers visualize how they can utilize the product is particularly valuable for lead nurturing. Examples include case studies, application notes, and short demo videos that showcase specific use cases. By providing tangible examples, customers can better picture how they might use the product.

Marketing automation is highly effective for lead nurturing. It allows for regular progress monitoring and ensures that any unresponsive leads are removed from the database.

By providing relevant and valuable content in a personalised manner, you can effectively nurture their interest until they are ready to purchase.

13. Don’t forget the after sales plan

Marketing campaigns often only focus on lead generation for new sales, but it is equally important to include post-sales marketing and installed base marketing. This will help to keep customers satisfied and encourage repeat purchases, especially when selling instruments and associated consumables. It is crucial to incorporate relationship management into the campaign from the beginning so that customers are delighted with their purchase and become advocates for the product.

Post-purchase marketing strategies can significantly increase product usage. For instance, providing user-friendly training tutorials to ensure more users are trained and actively using the product, creating a forum for users to share protocols and applications, or developing apps for experimental design and data analysis that enable offline work while others use the instrument, all contribute to driving higher utilisation rates and consumable use.

By designing a comprehensive marketing approach that considers the entire customer lifecycle, from initial purchase to post-sales engagement, businesses can increase customer satisfaction and establish stronger relationships with customers.

14. Measure effectiveness to learn what works and what doesn’t

Despite thorough planning, some campaigns can encounter obstacles. It is vital to continuously track progress against objectives at each stage of the customer journey. Conducting a post-mortem analysis at the end of the campaign is valuable for learning lessons, but it may be too late to salvage the campaign. Rather measure progress on a weekly or monthly basis to identify any issues and implement backup plans. For instance, if a specific communication channel is not producing the desired results or if a piece of content is not resonating with the audience, being able to course correct before proceeding to the next stage of the campaign is crucial to avoid a knock-on effect on the rest of the campaign.

 15. Do the maths

Regularly compare the cost and conversion rates across various channels to identify the best return on your investment. Instead of focusing on cost per click, analyse the cost per engagement - the individuals who actively respond to your call to action. Ultimately, measure the revenue generated per marketing dollar to calculate effectiveness. Compare campaigns to determine the most effective subject lines, calls to action, communication length, layout, channels, content types, sources of contact details etc. By doing so, you can determine which strategies give the best results.

Analysing the conversion rates of a campaign at each stage of the funnel allows you to identify attrition points and focus on generating new sales.

Life Science product marketing campaigns can typically achieve lead-to-sales conversion rates of around 30%. The earlier stages of the sales journey typically achieve conversion rates of 15%. Higher rates can be achieved by making marginal gains that come from true customer insight, careful planning, continuous monitoring and the flexibility to course correct if needed. How effective is your marketing process in producing high quality sales leads?

Sources: Catalytic Experiences: Persuading Scientists and Clinicians with Effective Digital Marketing Hardcover – May 1, 2016 by Hamid Ghanadan