BioBM Newsletter - August 2016

The Latest Thinking:

Are You Providing Self-Service Journeys?

Customers are owning more of their own decisions.

We’ve all heard the data on how customers are delaying contact with salespeople and owning more of their own decision journeys. Recent research from Forrester predicts that the share of B2B sales, by dollar value, conducted via e-commerce will increase by about a third from 2015 to 2020: from 9.3% to 12.1%. Why does Forrester see this number growing at such a rate? Primarily due to “channel-shifting B2B buyers” – people that are willfully conducting purchases entirely online rather than going through a manned sales channel.

All this adds up to more control of the journey residing with the customers themselves and less opportunities for salespeople to influence them. Your marketing needs to accommodate these control-desiring customers. Continue Reading.

What Google RankBrain Means for SEO

There’s been a ton of buzz in SEO circles about Google’s new RankBrain algorithm. It’s an artificial intelligence-based algorithm, and anything with AI in it is buzzy and awesome. More importantly, Google has stated that RankBrain is already the third most important ranking factor behind content and links.

To really understand what RankBrain means for life science SEOers, let’s zoom out a bit and understand what RankBrain is and what it does. Read the Article

Lessons from Scientific Publishing’s Fight to Survive

First it was open access, then pure and simple pirating (Sci-Hub), and now preprints, as a recent New York Times article outlines. The business model of the major scientific publishers is under attack.

This probably doesn’t come as a surprise to many of us. For one, it’s been a slow and steady process occurring over the course of many years. Secondly, it’s something that scientists have openly complained about for a long while. The system of publishing in the biomedical sciences is slow, arduous, and by and large hasn’t been improved upon in centuries. The cost to institutions of obtaining subscriptions is huge.

That said, many of the large scientific publishers are some of the most entrenched, disruption-shielded companies in all of the sciences. Not only have they had a near-monopoly on the mass dissemination of scientific information for centuries, they have also been the de facto method by which scientists are evaluated. Almost all generally accepted methods for measuring the impact of a scientist’s contributions are based around citations from publications in scientific journals. Deviating from the system would be a massive professional risk for all but the most respected and recognized scientists.

With such massive forces reinforcing the system of scientific publishing, escaping it would seem intractable. Now, perhaps for the first time, it seems vulnerable. In this vulnerability, we find valuable lessons for both entrenched industry champions as well as the upstarts looking to dethrone them. Learn More.

Contact BioBM

Phone: +1 313-31-BIOBM
(+1 313-312-4626)
E-mail: info@biobm.com
Web: www.biobm.com

Network with us!

August 2016 - Headlines &
A Special Announcement

It's been a while since we've sent a newsletter but we have some important updates that we think you'll be very interested in. Before I get into it, though, I want to explain the mission of this newsletter, why we decided to change from a quarterly frequency, and why we think it's the best newsletter on Life Science Marketing out there. To do that, let me tell you a little more of our story.

When Doug and I started BioBM back in 2010, it was a big leap of faith. We had very few industry contacts and we had nothing else to fall back on. We were committed to making BioBM work. To succeed in an industry where we were relative unknowns, we knew we needed to make an extraordinary effort to prove ourselves - we needed to demonstrate our expertise before we would be able to be successful. To do that, we devoted ourselves to building a top-notch content marketing program. We wanted to freely share our expertise such that the life science tools & services community could learn from us. We made education the cornerstone of our communications. We decided that we didn't want to grow our client base through pushy sales tactics, but rather work with companies who agreed with our thinking and wanted to work with us because of it.

This newsletter is one arm of our mission to bring the latest information and thinking in life science marketing to you, and we're very committed to ensuring that education always comes first. We need to promote ourselves a little, and we give ourselves a little leeway to do so, but those who have been getting this newsletter, reading our blog, downloading our reports, participating in the Marketing of Life Science Tools & Services LinkedIn group, or interacting with us in other ways know that we're not big on self-promotion. We know that in order for us to be able to share our knowledge effectively we need to earn your trust, and you won't trust us if you feel that there's an ulterior motive. So we make sure there isn't one.

Because of that mission, we have to make some promises to you, our audience. We promise to be honest and not to dilute our educational content with promotion. There's a place for each, but you'll always clearly know which is which. Perhaps more importantly, we promise to respect your time. We'll only share things that we think are really valuable for you. We'll never say something just to get your attention. We'll only send you a message when we think we have something to say that is sufficiently valuable that we truly believe you'll get something from it that's well worth the time it takes you to hear it. Our standards for ourselves have been slowly but surely raising while our time has become more and more limited. Because of that, we broke away from our previous quarterly format and will instead be sending out our newsletter when we feel it would be worth YOUR time to do so.

Thanks so much for your continued attention. We appreciate it more than we could possibly express.

Now on to the headlines.
-Carlton

We recently presented on the problems with Content Marketing and the rise of Resource Marketing in Affinity Biotechnology's webinar series. We recorded it for you.
Carlton was interviewed on the Life Science Marketing Radio podcast about Decision Engines and how they shape buying journeys.
We'll be presenting as part of the ACP-LS's 2016 Life Science Marketing Super Summit along with a ton of other top-notch presenters. You should definitely check it out.

"Beyond Content" Webinar

Attention is a resource that is inherently limited. Each person only has so many hours in the day. As more companies (and other distractions) vie for their attention, it behaves like any limited resource under increasing demand – the cost goes up.

Content marketers in the life sciences have reached a critical point. The traditional paradigm of content marketing is becoming ineffective. Content marketers have endeavored to create, publish, share, and then repeat this cycle to the point where there is far too much noise. It is becoming ever more difficult to win the battle for attention. Quite simply, content marketing is no longer enough.

We need to shift from a simple content marketing paradigm to a resource marketing paradigm. We need to stop thinking about creating more stuff and start thinking about how to build things of utility that meaningfully help solve our audiences’ problems.

You can register to view the webinar or view the transcript here. The webinar was hosted by Affinity Biotechnology, which is a recruiting agency for life science sales and marketing professionals that we're very happy to recommend. Look them up if you're looking to add top-notch sales or marketing staff to your team. We'd be happy to make an intro if you'd like.

Life Science Marketing Radio Interview

We're living in a world where there is more and more choice and those choices are becoming more readily accessible. That's not necessarily a good thing, however. Too much choice can lead to decision paralysis, where your customers will make no decision because they can't figure out what solution would be best.

How can we help customers overcome decision paralysis, make confident decisions, while at the same time bring the scientists' decision journeys onto platforms that we control? Decision engines. Learn more in this interview of BioBM Principal Consultant Carlton Hoyt on the Life Science Marketing Radio podcast.

ACP-LS Life Science Marketing Super Summit

Want to hear some of the best minds in life science marketing - for free, and from the comfort of your home or office? The Association of Commercial Professionals - Life Sciences (ACP-LS) and Affinity Biotechnology are co-hosting the 2016 Life Science Marketing Super Summit and BioBM's Carlton Hoyt will be one of the 9 speakers, opening the two-day event with the talk: "Beyond Content: How 'Resource Marketing' is the Paradigm That Will Deliver Transformational Value To Your Brand" at 10am US Eastern time on September 7th!

If you register (for free!) you’ll also receive a 10% discount on registration to the 2016 ACP-LS annual meeting in Philadelphia this October. For a full schedule or to register, go to this page.

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