The life sciences space has been a rollercoaster over the last few years. As the industry looks to stabilize in 2024, marketing efforts need to keep up. Here are the top life sciences marketing trends for 2024.
A historic high-growth period fueled by the pandemic was followed by a relative slump. In 2024, life sciences organizations are looking for ways to not only stabilize but also capitalize on new technologies, techniques, and perspectives across the entire pharma and biotech ecosystem. This means what works with life sciences marketing will have to shift, too.
Here’s what we anticipate will be important for life sciences organizations in 2024.
8 Life Sciences Marketing Trends for 2024
- In-person events and conferences take center stage
- Content marketing and thought leadership remain vital
- Influencer marketing continues to grow
- Structured data boosts SEO
- Video marketing thrives
- Generative AI enhances content creation
- AI-enhanced marketing automation streamlines operations
- Social media continues to evolve
1. In-Person Events & Conferences Take Center Stage
Science is a collaborative discipline, and ideas can lead to awesome results down the line. That’s why events and conferences are the lifeblood of the life sciences industry – they allow for knowledge exchange, networking and announcements.
While the COVID-19 pandemic caused many shows to go virtual or hybrid in recent years, in-person events and conferences are taking center stage in 2024. One reason is that virtual event fatigue left many participants exhausted, disengaged or even burnt out. Plus, humans are social creatures, and the ability to trade screen time for face-to-face interactions brings excitement back to in-person shows.
However, this doesn’t mean you should attend every event you’re invited to. That would be expensive, and not every conference may be a good fit for your organization. Instead, focus on the events that align with your goals, whether it’s to advance research, find new business opportunities, secure funding or stay informed about industry trends and regulations. This approach allows you to attend meaningful shows that allow you to connect with like-minded individuals in the space.
You should also consider sponsoring an event. Sponsorships can bring many benefits, including brand visibility, booth space and an attendees list. You can utilize these benefits to push your brand forward and build credibility within the industry.
2. Content Marketing & Thought Leadership Remain Vital
Content marketing in the life sciences involves creating and sharing valuable, informative content that addresses industry-specific challenges, emerging trends and scientific breakthroughs. You can accomplish this through
- Blog posts
- eBooks
- Whitepapers
- Case studies
- Infographics
- Videos
- Webinars
By consistently producing high-quality content, you demonstrate your commitment to advancing knowledge in the field and building trust with life sciences professionals, researchers and patients.
Thought leadership, on the other hand, involves positioning key individuals within your company as industry experts. This can be achieved by having company leaders contribute articles, speak at conferences or participate in expert panels on relevant topics. When these experts share their insights, they not only showcase your company’s deep understanding of the industry but also foster connections with peers and influencers.
Together, content marketing and thought leadership can help you stay top-of-mind among your target audience, nurture existing relationships and attract new partners, collaborators and customers. Since the life sciences field is dynamic and constantly evolving, providing regularly updated and insightful content can help you maintain your competitive edge.
3. Influencer Marketing Continues to Grow
Influencer marketing involves collaborating with individuals, called influencers, who have a dedicated and engaged following. The goal is to leverage the influencer’s credibility and reach to promote a brand’s products, services or messages to their target audience.
Influencer marketing has become a popular marketing technique across various industries because it builds social proof and establishes authenticity and trust. However, it may look a little different in the life sciences space.
After all, you probably wouldn’t hire a celebrity influencer to market your new electronic trial master file system. Instead, you would focus on working with a respected voice in the life science industry whom your fellow peers look up to and trust. This could be a respected healthcare professional, researcher or scientist with a significant following in relevant fields.
You can have the influencer create content that educates, informs or advocates for your company’s products or solutions, making it more relatable to their audience. The influencer can also provide valuable feedback and recommendations, acting as a bridge between your company and potential customers.
4. Structured Data Boosts SEO
Structured data, often referred to as schema markup, plays a crucial role in enhancing a website’s search engine optimization (SEO) by providing search engines like Google with a more comprehensive understanding of the content on a webpage. It works by adding specific, standardized HTML tags to the code of a webpage, which helps search engines interpret and categorize the information more accurately.
With structured data, you can improve your chances of your content appearing as rich snippets in search results, increasing your visibility and the likelihood of attracting click-throughs from users seeking detailed and credible information.
Your life sciences company can leverage structured data to describe various elements on a page, such as
- Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
- eCommerce product details
- Reviews
- Event information
By strategically implementing structured data across various aspects of your online content, you can solidify your position as an authoritative source in the life sciences industry.
5. Video Marketing Thrives
Life sciences often involve intricate subjects that can be challenging to comprehend through text alone. That’s why more and more life sciences organizations are turning to video marketing to
make these concepts more accessible to a broader audience. Through visuals, animations and demonstrations, you can convey your message more effectively and leave a lasting impression on your audience.
You can also leverage video to humanize your company by featuring interviews with scientists, researchers or key opinion leaders who can provide authoritative insights. These experts can share their passion for their work, explain the significance of their research and discuss the real-world applications of their findings, all in a relatable and approachable manner.
Those types of videos demystify the often complex world of life sciences and put a face and a voice to your company, making it more relatable and trustworthy. When viewers see and hear the individuals behind the science, it creates a sense of authenticity and credibility, which is particularly crucial in an industry where precision and accuracy are paramount.
6. Generative AI Enhances Content Creation
Generative AI has taken the world by storm. Tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney have changed the way content marketers work, and all signs indicate that this trend will continue for years to come. But what exactly is generative AI?
Generative AI creates content autonomously, often in the form of text, images or audio. These systems use machine learning algorithms to produce new, original content similar to the existing data it has been trained on. For example, you can ask ChatGPT to list the benefits of life sciences marketing, which will generate a text response outlining the advantages.
Your life sciences company can leverage generative AI to assist in content creation by automatically generating ideas for scientific articles, blog posts or reports. Generative AI can even help to write the content itself, which is especially helpful to break through the blank page and give you words to work with. However, you should take the time to review the text for accuracy and write it in your own authoritative voice. Use these as tools, not content writing replacements. Your human readers will thank you.
7. AI-Enhanced Marketing Automation Streamlines Operations
AI is becoming more prevalent in marketing automation because it can handle routine tasks such as sending emails, managing social posts and tracking customer interactions. This frees up marketing teams to focus on more strategic activities, which is especially useful for life sciences organizations that have highly specialized and technical marketing needs.
You can even utilize AI-enhanced marketing automation to analyze vast amounts of data to identify trends, preferences and behavior patterns among life sciences professionals, researchers and patients. With this information, you can segment the audience more effectively, allowing for highly targeted marketing campaigns.
8. Social Media Continues to Evolve
Life sciences organizations use social media to connect with their target audience, share valuable information and build brand recognition. These strategies will continue into 2024 but with a newfound focus on the human experience.
After all, social media is made for human engagement. By humanizing your brand, you can build deeper connections with your audience and show that your life sciences organization genuinely cares. To do this, focus on storytelling to convey the real impact of your work on people’s lives. Sharing patient success stories or behind-the-scenes glimpses of researchers and scientists at work adds a human element to your social media presence that fosters engagement.
It’s also worth asking your team to post on social media so your company can repost or share the content. This showcases that the organization comprises real people who are passionate about their work, which can foster a more relatable and trustworthy image. Plus, employee-generated content often reaches a different and more diverse audience than the company’s official channels, expanding the brand’s reach and potentially attracting new customers or followers.
Final Thoughts on Life Sciences Marketing Trends for 2024
Embracing these life sciences marketing trends for 2024 will give your organization the tools it needs to stabilize and capitalize on the potential of the new year.
Position yourself as a dependable industry leader by establishing a strong digital presence and fostering credibility within the dynamic marketplace. This trust is essential for attracting and retaining valuable business partnerships that take your organization to the next level.
Need help staying on top of life sciences marketing trends in 2024? We’re a B2B agency providing life sciences marketing in and around clinical trials, biotech, biopharma and healthcare technology — with results to show for it. Get in touch today.
