Category: Recommended

Content Marketing Cost in 2025: A Data-Driven Answer

Posted on by Daniel E. Lofaso

Creating and sharing valuable content can help businesses attract and retain clearly-defined audiences. It’s no wonder that as many as 73% of B2B marketers use content marketing as a part of their overall marketing plan. 

However, there is a significant cost component to high-quality content. The actual cost depends on the type of content created – with the most popular content being blogs, graphics, and videos – the quality, and the quantity. Whether you are a small business owner or a marketing executive, understanding these costs of the process correctly is crucial for developing effective and sustainable content marketing strategies.

Content Marketing Costs by Company Size

Small Business $4,000 to $10,000 a month
Medium-sized Business $10,000 to $40,000 a month
Enterprise $40,000 to $60,000 a month

In this article, we will explore the various costs associated with B2B content marketing, including content strategy, content creation, and promotion. We will also discuss how you can optimize content marketing costs and maximize your return on investment (ROI). 

How much does B2B content marketing cost? 

​​The cost of B2B content marketing can range from a few thousand dollars per month for small businesses to hundreds of thousands of dollars for larger companies. This may include the costs to utilize outside vendors, working with an agency on content marketing, or hiring an in-house content marketing team.

However, these costs can be justified because the ROI on B2B content marketing can be significant. One study found that prioritizing content marketing helps companies experience up to 7.8 times higher website traffic than those without an effective content marketing strategy.

Here are a few more compelling statistics to reinforce the point that content marketing remains the primary vehicle for increasing marketing ROI:

In other words, the cost of content marketing is more than justified by its benefits. 

When it comes to the actual nitty-gritty, B2B content marketing costs depend on several factors, including the type of content being created and the level of promotion and distribution required. The recent Content Marketing Trends & Insights report compiled by Siege Media and Clearscope gives us a fair understanding of content marketing costs in 2023. 

Here are some of the report’s findings: 

  • The vast majority of content creators (over 44% ) surveyed reported spending less than $500 on a piece of content. Another 29% spent between $500 and $1,000 for the same purpose, while almost 16% spent between $1,000 and $2,000. A tiny minority (3.8%) spent over $4,000 on a single piece of content. 
  • Most of those surveyed (48%) had up to $5,000 earmarked in content marketing budget per month. Around 24% spent between $5,000 and $15,000, while 12% spent between $15,000 to $25,000. Just over 7% of respondents reported having a budget over $45,000 per month for content creation. 
  • Another major insight of the report was about content outsourcing. 35% of those surveyed outsourced up to a quarter of their content requirement, while about 15% outsourced between a quarter and a half. Likewise, around 10% of respondents depended on third-party providers for 75% to 100% of their content. Only 30% said they managed all their content in-house.

Cost of blogs, custom graphics, and videos

The cost of content is actually a misnomer when you consider that businesses don’t shell out money for the content per se, but rather the results they help accomplish. As a result, these costs may vary widely depending on the level of experience and competence that goes into each piece of content. 

Let’s drill down into the costs of three content types that are fundamental to content marketing. 

What Do Blogs Cost?

It is important to recognize that there are really four different tiers of blog costs (these can fluctuate based on length and technicality so these are general figures of an average 1,000 word post):

Blogs written by a blog writing service $40 to $100 each
Blogs written by a freelance writer $100 to $400 each
Blogs optimized for SEO (agency) $400 to $800 each
Blogs optimized for SEO with editors (agency) $800 to $1,500 each

If you seek a subject matter expert for the freelance or agency tiers, expect to add an additional 10 to 20% to the cost.

According to SiegeMedia, an outcome-driven blog post can cost anywhere between $1,500 to $6,000 on average. These costs are readily offset when the post generates, let’s say, upwards of $2,000 per month. 

Note that these costs don’t include design or development costs.

What does custom graphic design cost?

The element that often adds the most value to a blog is a customized graphic or infographic. A good infographic combines equal measures of research and design to give consumers quick and easy-to-relate insights into the topic of a blog post. 

Graphics can be simple visual representations of data such as the above Dental Implant Place comparison graphic that is used to accompany traditional written text, or more visually-stunning infographics. An example like the above can be anywhere from $100 to $400, depending on the complexity of the data visualization and whether you use a freelancer or agency.

A well-designed, well-researched infographic can take a few days to create and easily cost between $3,000 to $4,000. An animated infographic, on the other hand, can take a lot longer to create and also cost substantially more – in the neighborhood of $7,000.   

Videos

The cost of video production can vary widely depending on the complexity of the shoot. The average ballpark cost is $3,500 per minute of video, or $7,000 for a two-minute video. 

However, this price range is indicative only since each video comes with its own challenges in terms of the shoot, casting, videography, and script. Moreover, videos that require fresh footage can cost significantly higher than those that can be accomplished with stock footage. A one-off video done from scratch can reasonably set you back by $6,000 to $8,000. 

How much do different elements of content marketing cost? 

Let’s now break down the overall content marketing cost into its components, assuming either agency costs or in-house costs. 

Content strategy costs $4,000 to $20,000 per project
Content creation costs $5,000 to $15,000 per month
Content distribution costs $4,000 to $20,000 per post

They include:

Content strategy costs

  • $4,000 to $20,000 for a project with an agency
  • in-house content strategists draw an average salary of over $70,470 per year

Content strategy is a critical component of content marketing and plays an essential role in helping businesses develop and execute successful campaigns. At its core, content strategy involves the creation, planning, and management of content in a way that aligns with a business’s broader marketing objectives. A content strategy, or strategist, performs the following tasks: 

  • Customer research 
  • Keyword research
  • Competitive analysis
  • Audit of current content 
  • Creating content plan

A content strategist helps businesses develop different types of content that are effective in reaching and engaging audiences. 

One of the most effective ways of defining your ideal target audiences is by creating buyer personas. A buyer persona is a fictional personification of your ideal customer. Creating accurate buyer personas can be a game changer for B2B companies that need to target an extremely small cross-section of prospective buyers.  

Once you have your buyer personas ready, the next step is to perform keyword research around the topics that best-resonate with your target audience, as well as look at competitor content and audit existing content.

Depending on the complexity of your content strategy, costs can vary from $4,000 to $20,000 for a project, taking into account whether you need a content audit, the size of your website, and the total addressable market in terms of content topics.

In comparison, in-house content strategists draw an average salary of over $70,470 per year. Most brands would likely benefit from an outsourced agency partner unless they were creating 100s of pieces of content a month, but even enterprise brands bring in outside agencies for specialised content marketing strategies.

Content creation costs

  • $5,000 to $15,000 per month with full-service agencies
  • In-house teams require full time staff of writers, editors, graphic designers, and developers, each making in excess of $50,000 a year (plus taxes and benefits)

Content creation costs can vary widely based on the type of content being produced, the length of content, and the level of expertise required. At the agency level for example, expect an SEO to be involved to ensure content optimization best practices are met (the content being produced has ample search volume, at minimum).

Content can also be classified into several types, including:

  • Blog posts
  • Graphics
  • Photographs
  • Social media content 
  • Video content 

Depending on whether you hire an in-house content creator or opt to outsource the work to a freelancer, a 2000-word article can cost anywhere between $100-$2,000. For example, if you use a freelancer marketplace like Fiverr to hire a writer, you can expect to pay anywhere between $220 and $1,800, depending on the experience of the writer. The median pay for full-time writers is over $69,500 per year. 

Similarly, the median charge billed by freelance video producers and directors stands at $38 per hour, while the same for photographers is $19. Videographers charged on a per-project basis can charge as much as $3,500 per video minute. 

The median hourly pay for freelance graphic designers is just over $24, while a high-quality infographic by an experienced designer can set you back by as much as $3,000-$4,000. 

Costs can be even higher if you’re working with a content marketing agency that charges a monthly retainer. The advantage is that agencies typically have a full team of content creators who can handle large volumes of content with ease.

Content optimization costs

Content optimization involves analyzing and improving content to ensure that it is high-quality, relevant, and optimized for search engines and user engagement. Optimization involves conducting keyword research to identify the words and phrases target audiences search for. An SEO expert optimizes content by making changes to its title, meta description, header tags, and other on-page SEO elements to improve its ranking in search engine results.

Content optimization can be addressed at a relatively low cost, both in-house or through freelancers, when you’re dealing with a limited amount of content. Freelancers typically charge over $1,300 per month on average for content optimization. 

Larger enterprises with a significant amount of content may need to hire a content marketing agency to handle their content optimization. On average, SEO marketing agencies charge just over $3,200 in monthly retainer fees. 

Content distribution costs

  • $4,000 to $20,000 per post, depending on competitiveness

Simply creating great content is not enough. Businesses also need to distribute their content to ensure it reaches the right target audience. The strategist also develops a plan for content distribution and promotion. 

This might involve leveraging media outreach, link building, social media channels, email marketing campaigns, or other tactics to get content in front of the right people and on the right platforms.

Link building outreach or promotion can be as little as $500 a month for small, dedicated link building services to as much as $15,000 a month for services with substantial media outreach or relationships.

Social media promotion from agencies generally involves a paid promotion component, and these agencies charge $1,500 to $7,000 per month for ongoing promotion (which can often include the post graphics themselves).

How much is a full content marketing campaign?

Small Business $4,000 to $10,000 a month
Medium-sized Business $10,000 to $40,000 a month
Enterprise $40,000 to $60,000+ a month

A full content marketing campaign that includes strategy, content creation, and content distribution varies depending on the scale and competitiveness of the market and overall business goals.

Small businesses going after viable keyword topics can expect to spend $4,000 to $10,000 partnering with full service agencies that provide strategy, graphic design, development and distribution services.

Medium-sized businesses in competitive verticals can expect to pay $10,000 to $40,000 a month on content marketing services to help differentiate their content and get it noticed.

Enterprise content marketing services in highly competitive verticals are up against household brands that have millions of dollars in marketing budgets each year. To stand out in these areas, expect to pay $40,000 to over $60,000 for the creative minds that will help you create, promote and generate a positive ROI from these types of content marketing initiatives.

Elevate your marketing strategy with The Digital Elevator

Wondering how you can elevate your online presence? The answer is simple – with The Digital Elevator! Our team of digital marketing experts offers a variety of services designed to increase your visibility, drive traffic, and generate leads.

Whether you need content marketing strategy, execution, or distribution, our team of SEOs, content writers, graphic designers and developers have got you covered.

Redefine your content marketing experience with The Digital Elevator! 

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO): A Strategic Framework for Winning in AI Search in 2025

Posted on by Daniel Lofaso

The bottom line: While AI-driven traffic currently represents less than 1% of overall website traffic, its quality and conversion potential are unprecedented. SEO software leader Ahrefs reports that despite accounting for less than 1% of their total traffic, visitors from AI platforms are their highest converting channel—with a conversion rate exceeding 10%. This document outlines a strategic framework to capitalize on this shift, moving beyond volume metrics to capture highly qualified, high-intent users at the final stages of their decision-making process.

Every marketing team I speak to has heard of Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), but most have no idea how to approach it strategically. They’re stuck in the same mindset that got them ranking in Google—and that’s a problem.

As Klaus-M. Schremser, co-founder of Otterly.AI, puts it:

“Today’s AI-search engines are answering machines rather than search engines. We have to take that into account in our optimization strategies for LLMs and GenAI.”

I wanted to develop this AEO strategy document to give marketing teams a clear, repeatable process for optimizing their brand’s presence within AI answer engines—not just for visibility, but for active recommendation and high-intent traffic.

Table of Contents

Why AEO Matters: The ROI Question

Let’s face it. You have limited marketing budget and a lot of channels competing for it. So why should AEO be a priority?

The TLDR version: AI traffic converts at rates that blow traditional channels out of the water.

While the volume is still small, the quality is unmatched. Here’s what we’re seeing:

  • Ahrefs reports AI traffic as their highest converting channel, despite being less than 1% of total traffic, with conversion rates exceeding 10%.
  • Users who click through from AI are more informed, have done their research, and are ready to make decisions.
  • Early movers have a significant advantage—over 40% of AI professionals are exploring ways to optimize generative AI outputs, but most don’t have a strategy yet.

The shift is already happening. A study by Siege Media found that as AI answers more general questions, traffic to traditional “guide” and “how-to” content has plummeted by -34.7% and -88.3% respectively. AI is eating the top of the funnel. What’s left? High-intent, bottom-of-funnel traffic that’s ready to convert.

Understanding the Landscape: Mentions vs. Citations

Before we dive into strategy, it’s critical to understand the two primary forms of AI visibility—because they represent fundamentally different outcomes and require distinct optimization approaches.

Getting mentioned in LLMs

Mentions occur when a brand, product, or service is named in an AI-generated response without a direct, clickable link. This is a measure of brand recognition and recommendation by the AI itself.

Getting cited in LLMs

Citations, by contrast, are direct, clickable links to a webpage that the AI used as a source for its answer. Citations represent the new currency for driving high-intent traffic from AI.

Here’s the thing: mentions matter more than citations.

Research from BrightEdge shows that ChatGPT mentions brands 3.2 times more often than it cites them. From a user behavior perspective, users are guaranteed to read the AI’s direct answer (where mentions occur) but may not look at or click on the citations, which are often hidden or less prominent. Furthermore, mentions are more stable and less volatile than citations, providing a more consistent signal of brand trust and authority within the AI model.

What Drives Mentions and Citations?

Commercial queries are the primary drivers of both. The same BrightEdge study found that queries with commercial intent—using words like “best,” “deals,” “vs,” “alternatives”—drive 4-8 times more mentions than purely informational queries.

This insight is critical for content strategy. It reinforces the importance of bottom-of-funnel (BOFU) content in the AEO landscape—the same content types we’ve been pushing for years in our SEO-driven content marketing approach.

The 3-Pillar AEO Framework: Our Repeatable Process

At Digital Elevator, we’ve developed a proprietary, outcome-oriented 3-step process for building a defensible AEO strategy. The framework is built around the three fundamental ways that AI models determine brand visibility: through owned content, earned validation, and amplified authority signals.

We call it the 3 P’s: Presence, Prominence, and Propagation.

Pillar 1: Presence (Owned Media Strategy)

Goal: Establish your website as the definitive, authoritative source of truth for your products, services, and market category—directly influencing the information LLMs use.

Why Owned Content Matters

For factual, objective questions, AI models show a strong preference for first-party content. A Yext study of 6.8 million citations found that brand websites were the dominant source (over 40%) for all major AI models when answering objective, unbranded queries.

But here’s where it gets interesting: traditional SEO fundamentals still matter for AEO.

A recent study by Seer Interactive demonstrated a strong correlation (0.65) between organic search ranking and LLM mentions. This means that traditional SEO factors—particularly organic visibility—directly influence AI visibility. Backlinks, however, were found to be relatively neutral and not as relevant.

The Bottom-of-Funnel (BOFU) Shift

AI is accelerating a market shift away from broad, top-of-funnel content. The Siege Media study I mentioned earlier found that as AI answers more general questions, traffic to traditional “guide” and “how-to” content has plummeted. Users who click through are now more informed and have specific, high-intent, BOFU questions.

This is exactly the type of content we’ve been creating for our clients for years—”best,” “vs,” “pricing,” “alternatives” content mixed with strong UI and clear calls-to-action.

Actionable Steps for Pillar 1:

1. Build Your Brand Authority Repository

Create a centralized, internally-validated repository of all critical information about your brand. This serves as the single source of truth that informs all content creation and ensures consistency across platforms.

This repository must include:

  • Detailed product/service capabilities and key differentiators
  • Crucially, a focus on BOFU content: Pricing, detailed comparisons (“vs”), alternatives, integrations, compliance, and support details
  • Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) fit and specific, niche use cases
  • Proprietary data, case studies, and unique insights that cannot be replicated by AI summaries

2. Execute a BOFU-Centric Content Strategy

Based on the principles from the Graphite guide and the OtterlyAI research, create dedicated pages or enhance existing ones to target clusters of high-intent questions. Here are six key optimization principles for owned content:

  • Deliver Meaningful Value, Not Fluff: Prioritize expertise and specificity. Add unique insights, original research, or frameworks. Support content with data and credible sources.
  • Answer Search Intent Quickly and Clearly: Use summary boxes or TL;DR sections. Provide direct answers to common questions. Avoid burying key insights below the fold.
  • Structure Content for Semantic Parsing: Use clear headings (H2/H3) to delineate sections. Follow logical, hierarchical content flow. Include lists, tables, and callouts to break up text.
  • Align Content to Natural Language Queries: Use headings that match user questions (e.g., “What is [Product] pricing?”). Embed concise, relevant answers right below. Avoid keyword stuffing—focus on relevance and clarity.
  • Increase Originality and Authority: Cite your own data or case studies. Include expert commentary or author bios. Build domain authority with internal linking and topical consistency.
  • Optimize Existing Content at Scale: Refresh outdated information. Add missing sections that answer emerging queries. Consolidate thin pages into robust, evergreen resources.

Prioritize “Product Questions”—queries that are likely to result in a product recommendation. Structure content to directly answer these questions in a clear, concise, and easily parsable format for LLMs. Go beyond simple summaries and provide expert-level detail, proprietary data, and unique workflows that an AI cannot replicate.

3. Implement Foundational Technical Best Practices

While extensive technical AEO is not recommended, ensure content is easily crawlable, structured, and semantically rich. Use schema markup where appropriate to clearly define entities and relationships. Maintain strong traditional SEO fundamentals, as organic ranking directly correlates with LLM mentions.

4. Leverage E-E-A-T Signals

AI systems like ChatGPT and Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) rely on citations and authority signals to curate trustworthy results. Google has made clear that Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust (E-E-A-T) continue to influence content ranking—now also in the generative layer.

Content that is well-linked internally and externally, features clear authorship and expertise, and provides up-to-date, comprehensive answers is far more likely to be quoted or recommended by AI systems.

Pillar 2: Prominence (Earned Media Strategy)

Goal: Ensure your brand is prominently featured and validated by the third-party sources that AI models trust for subjective and opinion-based queries.

Why Third-Party Validation Matters

When queries become subjective (e.g., “What is the best…?”), AI models shift their reliance to third-party directories and industry-specific sources to gauge consensus and authority.

Understanding where LLMs get their training data helps inform where to focus earned media efforts. Large language models are trained on vast datasets that include Common Crawl (60%), WebText2 (22%), Books (16%), and Wikipedia (3%). Additionally, OpenAI has partnerships with news sites and has licensed Reddit’s user-generated content for LLM training.

Actionable Steps for Pillar 2:

1. Master General Directories

For subjective queries on OpenAI’s ChatGPT, third-party directories are a primary source, peaking at 46.3% for branded subjective questions. Ensure profiles on major platforms are complete, accurate, and consistent with your brand’s authority repository. This includes maintaining up-to-date information on pricing, features, integrations, and customer reviews.

2. Dominate Industry-Specific Platforms

For models like Perplexity, industry-specific directories are key. These niche platforms account for 24% of citations for unbranded subjective queries. Identify and optimize presence on the most authoritative review sites and platforms in your vertical. Actively manage reviews and engage with user feedback to signal ongoing authority and responsiveness.

3. Execute Citation Optimization

Identify the most frequently cited URLs for your target AEO topics and develop a strategy to get your brand mentioned within that content. This is the core of an “earned” AEO strategy.

Use tools that analyze citation sources (based on Perplexity’s “Sources” tab, Google’s SGE snippets, or ChatGPT’s browsing references) to reverse-engineer visibility. This approach allows you to:

  • Identify content currently cited in AI results
  • Spot thematic or structural patterns across cited pages
  • Compare converting vs. non-converting content from AI-driven traffic
  • Map gaps and opportunities for content creation and optimization

4. Secure Wikipedia Presence

Wikipedia is not only a 5x boosted source in LLM training data, but it is also frequently cited by AI models for factual information. For brands that meet Wikipedia’s notability guidelines, establishing and maintaining a well-sourced Wikipedia page is a high-value earned media tactic.

Pillar 3: Propagation (Off-Page Amplification)

Goal: Amplify the signals of trust and authority around owned and earned assets, creating a feedback loop that reinforces your brand’s position within the AI ecosystem.

While direct content is crucial, AI models also weigh broader signals of authority and public discourse. This pillar focuses on influencing the wider web to reinforce the narratives established in Pillars 1 and 2.

Actionable Steps for Pillar 3:

1. Strategic Public Relations

Target PR efforts to secure mentions and links from high-authority news outlets and publications that are frequently cited by AI models. Given that OpenAI has partnerships with news sites and that news content is part of LLM training data, securing coverage in these outlets has a dual benefit: immediate visibility and long-term influence on model training.

2. Community Marketing and Social Validation

Foster conversations and user-generated content on social platforms that validate your brand’s key differentiators and market position. While forums like Reddit account for a small percentage of citations in location-based queries (~2%), they are still valuable for brand commentary and narrative shaping.

Importantly, Reddit’s user-generated content has been licensed for LLM training, making authentic community engagement a long-term investment in AI visibility. Encourage forum participation and thought leadership in relevant online communities. The goal is not just immediate visibility, but to influence the broader corpus of content that AI models learn from.

3. Targeted Advertising

Use paid channels to amplify your best-performing BOFU content, driving user engagement and signaling to AI models that this content is valuable and relevant. While advertising does not directly influence LLM training, it can drive traffic and engagement signals that indirectly boost content authority and visibility.

Next Steps: How to Get Started with AEO

The transition to an AEO-centric world is inevitable, and early movers have a significant advantage. Research shows that over 40% of AI professionals are currently exploring ways to optimize generative AI outputs, but most don’t have a strategy yet.

The strategic imperative is to act now to build a defensible position before the space becomes saturated.

Here’s how to get started:

1. Audit Your Current AEO Footprint

Begin by identifying the most important “Product Questions” and commercial-intent queries for your brand. Use tools that analyze citation sources to understand where your brand currently appears (or doesn’t) in AI-generated responses.

2. Initiate the Brand Authority Repository

Assemble the cross-functional team required to build and validate this central repository of information. This should include product, marketing, sales, and customer success teams to ensure comprehensive and accurate information.

3. Prioritize BOFU Content Creation

Analyze existing content for gaps and create a roadmap for developing the high-intent, comparison, and detail-oriented content that succeeds in the AEO landscape. Focus on content that provides a level of detail and expertise that a general AI summary cannot replicate.

4. Strengthen SEO Fundamentals

Given the strong correlation between organic ranking and LLM mentions, ensure that traditional SEO best practices are in place. This includes technical SEO, on-page optimization, and building domain authority through internal linking and topical consistency.

5. Reverse-Engineer Competitor Visibility

Analyze which competitors are being cited or mentioned in AI responses for target queries. Identify the patterns and sources that drive their visibility, and develop a strategy to match or exceed their presence.

Should You Go In-House or Use an Agency for AEO?

The decision of whether to handle your AEO strategy in-house or hire an agency is a complex one. There are a number of factors to consider, such as your budget, your in-house expertise, and your desired level of control.

If you have a large budget and a team of experienced SEO and content professionals who understand the nuances of AI optimization, you may be able to handle your AEO in-house. However, if you have a limited budget or in-house expertise, you may want to consider hiring an agency for AEO services.

An agency can provide you with several benefits, such as access to expert AEO professionals, access to specialized tools and resources, and a proven track record of success in both traditional SEO and emerging AI channels.

There’s also an opportunity cost to consider. The time it takes to get something to market matters. If an agency can take your AEO strategy to market in half the time it takes an in-house team, consider the impact that can have on your business. Those potentially untapped leads will be further along your sales cycle, and the ROI from investing in an agency will have a significant business impact compared to trying to save money using an in-house team that has a different focus.

As you plan ahead or are getting AEO budgets together, consider the opportunity cost of not launching campaigns quickly and effectively.

References

Graphite. (2025). Ultimate Guide to AEO (Answer Engine Optimization). https://graphite.io/five-percent/aeo-is-the-new-seo

Ahrefs. (2025). AI Traffic Has Increased 9.7x in the Past Year. https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-traffic-increase/

Yext. (2025). AI Citations, User Locations, & Query Context. https://www.yext.com/research/article/ai-citations-user-locations-query-context#introduction

Conductor. (2025). AI Search Explained: Citations, Mentions & SEO Impact. https://www.conductor.com/academy/ai-search/

BrightEdge. (2025). ChatGPT Brand Mentions vs. Citations: What Triggers Visibility. https://www.brightedge.com/resources/weekly-ai-search-insights/chatgpt-brand-mentions-vs-citations-what-triggers-visibility

Siege Media. (2025). The Clear, Accelerating Shift Toward Bottom-of-Funnel Content. https://www.siegemedia.com/research/blog-ai-content-shift

Seer Interactive (2025). STUDY: What Drives Brand Mentions in AI Answers?
https://www.seerinteractive.com/insights/what-drives-brand-mentions-in-ai-answers

Otterly.AI. (2025). Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Guide: How to Win in AI Search. https://otterly.ai

8 Biotech Content Marketing Strategies in 2025

Posted on by Daniel E. Lofaso

The best biotech content marketing strategies include buyer persona creation, roundup posts, resource hubs, sales-driven content, goal tracking, and promotion.

Every CEO or marketing team I speak to understands the need for a biotech content marketing strategy but always has a lot of confusion about how to go about it.

Having a strategy in place means that you have a roadmap to success, are not wasting time, money, or resources on marketing that does not work, and from an SEO perspective, are not simply “writing for the sake of writing.”

I wanted to develop this content marketing strategy guide for biotech brands that focuses on traffic, leads, and brand awareness because these are often the goals of the CEOs and marketing teams we are talking to and because, ultimately, that is what content marketing is for.

Daniel Lofaso, Digital Elevator CEO

To put things in perspective, Digital Elevator has been creating biotech content marketing strategies for over a decade for Fortune 500 companies as well as emerging biotechs. Historically, blogs have been the best driver of traffic and leads, although I certainly won’t discount the role of other types of content – white papers, eBooks, podcasts, etc. – in the life science content marketing sphere.

Learn the why’s and how’s on life science and biotech content marketing strategy, or skip to the examples section below.

Table of Contents

Why Develop a Content Marketing Strategy? Answering the ROI Question

Let’s face it. You have a lot of marketing options to invest in. But why am I telling you that content marketing could quite possibly be the best?

Content marketing is often the marketing channel that provides the lowest cost per acquisition

The TLDR version, based on my experience, is that it is often the channel that provides the lowest cost per acquisition. More bang. Less buck.

Content Marketing ROI Stats

  • Annual growth in unique site traffic is 7.8x higher for content marketing leaders than followers (19.7% vs. 2.5%). Aberdeen
  • Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing yet generates 3 times as many leads as traditional marketing. Demand Metric
  • Companies that adopt content marketing have conversion rates that are 6 times higher than those that don’t. Aberdeen
  • Marketers who say they blog boast an 82% positive ROI. HubSpot 

What’s the good news in all of this? The same Aberdeen reference above also cites that 56% (the majority of content marketers) don’t have a content marketing strategy. They don’t know who they are writing for, what to write about, or how the hell content marketing works. 

But you will… if you read on.

Create a Biotech Buyer Persona to Understand Your Reader

Perhaps the biggest train wreck we run into with biotech companies that want to begin content marketing is their lack of understanding of who their customer is and why they should care about their product or service.

From a content marketing perspective, it is fundamental to understand who you are writing for and what the takeaways need to be. This is the point of buyer personas, but they do have their flaws.

The issue with buyer personas is that you can pay big bucks to research firms like Gartner or Forrester to define them or use quick and easy tools like HubSpot’s Make My Persona tool. The problem with the former is that the price is out of reach for even some of the biggest organizations.

On the other hand, free buyer persona tools are fantastic for companies who need something to start with. Still, the way they are presented usually only creates more confusion about how the hell to use the information in a meaningful way.

Instead of trying to write for demographic data points, dissect what stage in the decision-making process your persona is in and craft accordingly.

As it relates to content marketing strategy, these personas are also aligned with the various stages of the buying cycle. While a more advanced definition would isolate five stages in the buying cycle, let’s keep things simple with three buying cycles and align directly with our buyer persona:

Buyer Personas, Content Marketing, and Sales Funnels

Top of the funnel

Top of the funnel content is often used as brand awareness content and covers high search volume content. Top of the funnel content is great for driving a lot of traffic, but it rarely, if ever, converts traffic to leads (initially).

  • Top of the funnel content example: what is NMN (Nicotinamide Mononucleotide)? (authored by a company that sells anti-aging supplements).
  • Buyer persona example: A middle-aged woman who is learning about anti-aging supplements.

Middle of the funnel

Middle of the funnel is steeped in low to moderate search volume topics and provides feedback to something that your company offers a specific solution for, yet without directly pushing sales content down the reader’s throat.

  • Middle of funnel content example: can MNM slow down aging? (authored by a company that sells anti-aging supplements).
  • Buyer persona example: A middle-aged woman who is learning the options for anti-aging supplements on the market.

Bottom of the funnel

Bottom of the funnel content is generally very low search volume but very high intent. It converts the best out of all three content types.

  • Bottom of funnel content example: the best anti-aging supplements (authored by a company that sells anti-aging supplements)
  • Buyer persona example: A middle-aged woman who is ready to make an anti-aging purchase but is in the final stages of decision-making based on previous research.

As you may have drawn from the above explanations, there are pros and cons to each of the segments of the sales funnel. These have to do with the ability to drive traffic and brand awareness (top of the funnel), help convince during buying decisions (middle of the funnel), and ultimately decide on a partner (bottom of funnel).

The above is certainly not a deep dive into buyer persona creation for biotechs, but here is a really good resource on the topic.

Ok, so now you know why it is important to invest in content marketing, the importance of using buyer personas to create content for your reader, and how to mix up your content to appeal to various stages of the sales cycle. 

Actionable Biotech Content Marketing Strategies

Content marketing is the process of creating and sharing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and engage a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.

In the biotechnology industry, content marketing can be a powerful way to attract new customers, educate your target audience, and establish your company as a thought leader. There are a number of different types of content that you can create for your content marketing strategy, such as blog posts, infographics, case studies, and white papers.

At Digital Elevator, we focus on what is called SEO-driven content marketing. This means that the content we create is versed in SEO and is driven by search volume and intent as much as it is driven by providing exceptional content to our clients’ readers.

Here are some of our favorite biotech content marketing examples:

Roundup posts

This Research.com roundup post ranks for over 300 keywords related to “clinical trial software,” “clinical trial management software,” and “clinical trial management systems.” Roundup posts- articles where you do side-by-side comparisons of competitors, software, or products – can often be bottom of the funnel content types where users will visit them to make final decisions.

Resource Hubs

Resource hub or blogs? Which strategy is most effective?

They both fall under the strategy of content marketing.

They both often provide a wealth of topic ideas.

However, many biotechs get this wrong from the start and create content that sort of blends both instead of keeping them isolated from a navigational standpoint and a content layout standpoint.

Resource content is generally to the point, fluff-free, and data-driven (objective). Blog content is often more conversational, offering perspectives and potential opinions (subjective).

When possible, it’s best to incorporate both, as both strategies can identify high volume and often high intent keyword opportunities.

For example, Excedr, a life science lab equipment lessor, capitalizes on both:

Blog

  • 30k organic visits/month
  • PPC equivalent value of $19k/mo
  • ranks for 30k keywords
  • 300+ pages published

Resource hub

  • 22k organic visits/month
  • PPC equivalent value of $18k/mo
  • ranks for 21k keywords
  • 200+ pages published

Sales-driven Content

Here’s a great example of a biotech content marketing resource from Thermo Fisher Scientific.

I’ll get to why, but first some SEO metrics:

  • it drives an estimated 7,600 organic visits per month
  • the equivalent PPC traffic would cost $5,500 per month
  • it ranks for 1,500 keywords
  • it has earned 41 referring domains

This content resource on Useful Numbers for Cell Culture is a great example of SEO-driven content marketing for so many reasons:

1. It’s useful to their target audience

Lab techs or scientists who need to order cell culture dishes/flasks would find this grid layout really simple and informative.

2. It’s related to product offerings

Should the lab techs need these products, the simplicity of understanding exactly what they need accompanied by links to the products makes this resource a real winner.

3. It’s probably a highly lucrative page in terms of content marketing investment

ThermoFisher probably knew the potential search volume from this page. Researching, planning, developing, and then ranking this page probably took quite a bit of work. However, if we look at some average conversion rates, you can see how lucrative something like this can be for an eComm biotech:

8,000 visits per month

x 2% conversion rate (modest average)

~$400 per order

= $64,000 in revenue per month

When creating content for your content marketing strategy, it is important to keep your target audience in mind. What are their interests and needs? What kind of information are they looking for? Once you understand your target audience, you can create content that is relevant and engaging.

Biotech Content Marketing Best Practices

So, you’ve got buy-in and you’re ready to dive into content marketing. Great start. Now it’s time to make sure your efforts are actually worth it. That means following some best practices that’ll keep your strategy on track and your team aligned.

Set Realistic Expectations

If you’re expecting content marketing to deliver overnight success, this might not be the right path. Content marketing is a long game. Ahrefs ran a study on how long it takes to rank in Google—and the results were eye-opening:

ahrefs age of pages ranking in google

Only 22% of pages that rank in the top 10 on Google were created within the last year.

That means nearly 80% of top-performing content has been around for a while. Translation: your blog post from last week probably isn’t going to dominate your industry’s SERPs by next Tuesday.

If you’re in this, be in it for the long haul. That said, you still need milestones to measure progress and keep your team accountable.

Create OKRs to Track Progress

OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) are a great framework for setting measurable goals and tying them to outcomes. For biotech companies, this could look like:

Objective:
Increase inbound leads by 10% over the next 12 months.

Key Results:

  • Allocate 10% of marketing spend to content initiatives
  • Increase organic traffic by 50%
  • Publish 4 new pieces of targeted content per month

It’s a simple framework that helps tie daily marketing tasks to business results—exactly what leadership wants to see.

Content Creation Is Only Half the Battle

To create a successful biotech content marketing strategy, you need to understand:

  • Who your audience is and what they care about
  • What your competitors are doing and how they’re ranking
  • How your content maps to business goals like awareness, leads, and revenue

Once you’ve got all that figured out, it’s easy to assume writing the content is the final step. But here’s the truth: if you write it, they won’t necessarily come.

Content without promotion is like a drug without a delivery system. You need distribution strategies that actually get your content in front of the right people.

Promote Like It Matters

Three primary channels will do the heavy lifting here:

  • Email Marketing: Still one of the best ways to get your content seen by the people who already know and trust you.
  • Social Media: Useful for amplification, but tough without budget. Organic reach on platforms like Facebook is dismal—industry-wide, engagement rates are often under 1%.
  • Link Building: Critical for SEO. Backlinks remain one of the strongest ranking signals. A solid link-building plan is non-negotiable if organic traffic is a priority.
facebook engagement stats

Know When to Build In-House vs. Outsource

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to content production. You have a few options:

  • In-house teams know your brand and product inside-out but often lack the SEO chops or bandwidth to execute a sophisticated strategy.
  • Outsourced agencies bring deep expertise, advanced tools, and proven processes—but they won’t know your brand like your internal team does.
  • A hybrid approach can be the sweet spot: your team provides the insider knowledge, while the agency handles strategy, SEO, and execution at scale.

Cost matters too. A full-time marketer can cost 120% of their salary when you factor in benefits and overhead. Agencies and contractors offer flexibility and often bring multiple specialists to the table for less than the cost of one hire.

If your goals involve brand awareness, thought leadership, and lead generation, content marketing should be mixed into your long-term marketing strategy. Combined with an SEO-driven approach along with promotion, it can effectively drive leads from top, middle, and bottom of the funnel while positioning you as a market leader.

If you need help with your biotech content marketing strategy, reach out to Digital Elevator today.

8 Best Competitive Intelligence Tools in 2025

Posted on by Daniel Lofaso

Choosing competitive intelligence software is all about matching tools to your goals. This guide compares leading options by data coverage, use case, integrations, learning curve, cost, and more. Use it to decide what competitive data you need for market sizing, page-level SEO, sales enablement, and technology profiling. 

Recommended Competitive Intelligence Tools by Use Case

If you want to compare traffic and keywords, use Semrush and Ahrefs. If you need a market read across many competitors, use Similarweb. If your priority is helping sales address objections and changes, add Klue and Crayon. For content angles and outreach, use BuzzSumo. For the technology context that guides targeting, keep BuiltWith handy.

Table of Contents

Competitive Intelligence Tools Comparison Table

ToolBest forStandout use casesNotable limits
AI ToolsCustom competitor intelligenceCompetitor messaging, strategic positioning, content strategy differentiationRequires manual prompting and engineering, premium AI tools
SimilarwebBest overallCategory share, channel mix, monthly trendsLess page-level detail, higher pricing tiers
SemrushDigital market share intelligenceCheck rival traffic, keywords, and ads in one placeEstimates, cost rises with features
AhrefsSEO deep divesPage ideas, link opportunities, content gapsLearning curve, SEO-centric
KlueSales teamsBattlecards, objection handling, usage trackingNeeds steady inputs, sales focus
CrayonFast alertsMonitoring product, pricing, and message changesRequires tuning to avoid noise
BuzzSumoContent ideasTopic validation, creator targeting, PR planningContent-focused, mixed historical depth
BuiltWithQuick tech checksStack profiles, ABM lists, switching-cost contextNarrow scope beyond technographics

Free & Premium AI Tools- Best for custom competitor intelligence 

With AI tools, we can now create competitor intelligence data that is as advanced as the prompts that are provided. You can get basic keyword research, data on competitor messaging strategies, have it cross-reference spreadsheet data into meaningful actions, and more. 

For example, Digital Elevator’s AI Competitor Intelligence Service combines competitor positioning and messaging analysis; competitive advantages and vulnerability identification; content themes, frequency, and strategic focus analysis; SEO-driven, keyword-based content recommendations for competitive advantage, and more into a comprehensive report summarizing competitive threats and market opportunities.

Using a few of the tools listed on this roundup, our output is based on sophisticated prompting and data feeds that make this type of competitive intelligence accessible to anyone who knows how to pull data and prompt AI tools. 

Pros: 

  • Fully customizable based on inputs and prompting

Cons: 

  • Manual processes 
  • Lack of clean dashboards and automated monitoring

Starting Cost: Custom

Similarweb– Best for all-in-one digital landscape intelligence

Similarweb estimates total visits across sites so you can see category leaders and channel mix quickly. It helps with market sizing, seasonality checks, and spotting fast-rising rivals. The monthly views make goal-setting easier for leadership and marketing alike. Use it when you need a top-down picture before picking tactics.

Pros: 

  • Quick market share snapshots 
  • Channel mix breakdowns 
  • Executive-ready charts

Cons: 

  • Limited page detail 
  • Expensive at higher tiers
  • Modeled data

Starting Cost: $199/month

Semrush– Best for digital market share intelligence

Semrush brings traffic, keywords, and ads into one place so you can compare competitors without juggling platforms. You see which pages drive visits, which search terms matter, and how paid campaigns shift month to month. The reporting works for weekly check-ins as well as quarterly planning. Most teams can start here and add niche tools later.

Pros: 

  • Broad coverage
  • Clear trend reports
  • Strong page-level insights

Cons: 

  • Time-consuming setup
  • Expensive add-ons

Starting Cost: $117.33/month

Ahrefs– Best for SEO deep dives and page ideas

Ahrefs shows which competitor pages pull the most traffic and who links to them. Content Gap reports surface topics your site has not covered yet that others rank for. Historical charts let you spot early momentum on new pages. The Brand Monitoring tool alerts you to new mentions and backlinks, helping you respond and build links quickly. If you want clear next steps for content, outreach, and reputation tracking, this is a strong choice.

Pros: 

  • Excellent link data
  • Simple gap reports
  • Useful history

Cons: 

  • Learning curve
  • SEO-centric focus

Starting Cost: $129/month

Klue– Best for sales teams

Klue turns research into short battlecards that sales reps can open inside the tools they already use. It keeps pricing updates, product changes, and objection handling in one place, with usage data to show what the field reads. This closes the gap between research and what gets said on calls. Choose it when the goal is to help sales win more often.

Pros: 

  • Simple guidance 
  • CRM integrations 
  • Usage analytics

Cons: 

  • Requires regular updates
  • Geared toward sales teams and takes time to curate

Starting Cost: Custom

Crayon– Best for fast alerts on competitor changes

Crayon tracks competitor websites, news, and social media, providing alerts for significant changes such as new product launches, pricing adjustments, or messaging shifts. Routing and tagging keep updates organized so the right people act quickly. It saves hours otherwise spent on manual checks.

Pros: 

  • Timely alerts 
  • Less manual monitoring 
  • Good cross-team visibility

Cons: 

  • Lighter SEO detail 
  • Setup for tags and rules

Starting Cost: Custom 

BuzzSumo– Best for content ideas 

BuzzSumo shows which topics and headlines get shared and who amplifies them. It helps you plan calendars, pitch lists, and launch content that match reader interest. You can also set alerts for brand and competitor mentions to stay current. It pairs well with search tools to guide angles and outreach.

Pros:

  • Topic validation
  • Creator discovery 
  • Helpful alerts

Cons: 

  • Narrow content focus, 
  • Uneven historical coverage by network 
  • No paid ads data

Starting Cost: $199/month  

BuiltWith– Best for tech stack analysis

BuiltWith lists the software running on any site, from analytics to commerce platforms. These details help you tailor messages, choose accounts to target, and estimate switching costs. You can also build prospect lists by technology for campaigns. It is a practical add-on for sales operations and product marketing.

Pros: 

  • Fast technographics
  • ABM list building 
  • Messaging context

Cons: 

  • Limited scope beyond technographics
  • Some stacks go undetected 
  • Needs manual verification
  • Very expensive starting cost

Starting Cost: $295/month

How to choose the right mix of competitor intelligence tools

Begin with the decision you need to make. If you want to compare traffic and keywords, use Semrush and Ahrefs. If you need a market read across many competitors, use Similarweb. If your priority is helping sales address objections and changes, add Klue and Crayon. For content angles and outreach, use BuzzSumo. For the technology context that guides targeting, keep BuiltWith handy.

Many teams may find that a combination of tools helps to align with their goals.

FAQs about competitive intelligence tools

What are competitive intelligence tools used for?
They help you compare your site with competitors, see where visits come from, track changes, and find topics that work.

Do I need more than one competitive intelligence tool?
Often yes. One tool rarely covers market share, page-level ideas, sales enablement, and content planning equally well.

Which tools are best for small teams?
Start with Semrush for a broad view. Add Ahrefs for deeper page ideas and link opportunities. Use BuzzSumo for content and BuiltWith for fast tech checks.

Are these tools legal to use?
 Yes. They rely on public information and provide ways to collect and compare it ethically.

The Ultimate Guide to Biotech Marketing

Posted on by Daniel E. Lofaso

The biotech industry is an extremely competitive landscape, with an estimated 9,022 companies across the various sectors and sub-sectors.

With so many players vying for attention, it is crucial for biotech companies to have a comprehensive marketing strategy in place that will help them stand out from the crowd as they seek favorability with clients, investors, potential partners, prospective employees, and, of course, the media.

In general, biotech companies can be split into three buckets of marketing, all of which can benefit from this guide.

  1. Emerging– Most emerging biotech companies have goals of raising capital, partnering, or commercializing their products, but tend to be in a pre-sales or revenue state.
  2. B2B– Established biotechs are primarily comprised of B2B companies selling to other biotechs.
  3. Pharma– B2C pharma companies with commercialized products selling primarily to consumers or vying for the attention of HCPs.

These companies tend to require different marketing strategies as they are catering to different audiences and buyer personas. More on that below.

Table of Contents

Foreword

As a veteran biotech commercial planning and commercial optimization contact once told me:

Every clinician thinks their product is the best, but the reality is that if the brand awareness and relationships that are made through marketing and PR aren’t there, emerging companies will face an uphill battle differentiating, meeting stakeholders, and forming strategic partnerships.

This guide aims to provide your company with a holistic understanding of marketing, from identifying its target audience to measuring your success. By following the advice provided, you can make smart decisions about marketing vendors, budgets, and brand exposure, ultimately helping you to gain a competitive edge in the industry.

The takeaways will be less about the actionable marketing initiatives you need to take and more about the marketing arenas you should consider planning for along with a marketing partner who has your best interests, and budget, in mind.

Understanding Your Audience

Understanding your audience is a crucial first step in developing a successful marketing strategy for biotech companies. This involves identifying your target audience, conducting market research to understand their needs and behaviors, and developing buyer personas. 

Identifying target audience

The first step is to identify your target audience. As a scientist or CEO of an emerging biotech company, your audience may include investors, potential partners, researchers, clinicians, or even patients.

For B2B biotechs, you are likely gearing your marketing up to speak to the types of companies that purchase your products or services, as well as the job titles that you’ve identified are involved in this buying process.

By understanding who your audience is, you can tailor your marketing efforts to reach them effectively. For example, if your audience is investors, your marketing messages should focus on the potential return on investment and the commercial viability of your product.

Conducting market research

The next step is to conduct market research to understand your audience’s needs and behaviors. This involves analyzing data on their demographics, behavior patterns, and preferences. By doing so, you can gain insight into what motivates them to make decisions, what challenges they face, and how they prefer to consume information. This information can then be used to develop a targeted marketing campaign that speaks directly to your audience’s needs.

At Digital Elevator, we recommend that our B2B clients engage in a market research survey that helps our clients see how their prospective clients see them. For example, we have a case study that highlights how we helped an eCommerce biotech with the following:

  • Gathered biotech decision-makers by title, seniority, industry, and company size and showed them the two landing pages on the existing website.
  • With personalized questions, we were able to survey the client’s ideal customer profiles to get their feedback on the product and service pages, and how they felt about the offerings.
  • We workshopped on these findings and updated the sales copy and page designs.

This market research had an immediate impact on sales and conversion rates and helped the client see how they were viewed from the eyes of their prospects.

Developing buyer personas

Finally, developing buyer personas can help you understand your audience on a more personal level. A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer, based on research and data. By creating a detailed profile of your target audience, you can gain a better understanding of their motivations, pain points, and buying habits. This can help you tailor your marketing messages and create content that resonates with them on a personal level.

By identifying your target audience, conducting market research, and developing buyer personas, you can create targeted marketing campaigns that resonate with your audience, ultimately helping you to achieve your marketing goals. Once this is done, the marketing comes easier.

Get a free marketing proposal from our team today.


The discovery call is the first step in discussing your business, your goals, and the potential services you need for your marketing or web design campaign.

Let’s Talk

Biotech Marketing Focus Areas

The next steps are generally performed in the order presented, as this is the most logical way to carry out a marketing campaign. Some of these marketing initiatives may or may not apply to your biotech brand, you’ll have to determine the potential efficacy of each channel with your marketing team.

Logo & Branding

Building a strong brand identity is crucial for biotech companies looking to stand out in a competitive market. One of the first steps in creating a brand identity is designing a logo that accurately represents your company’s values and mission. A logo is a visual representation of your brand and serves as a key element in all of your marketing materials. 

The process of creating a logo typically involves several steps. The first step is to develop a creative brief, which outlines the goals and objectives of the logo design. This brief should include information about your company’s values, mission, and target audience. From there, your vendor will typically present several logo design options for you to choose from, which can then be refined based on your feedback. Once a final design is chosen, the vendor will provide you with the necessary files and formats to ensure that the logo can be used effectively across all marketing channels.

In addition to a logo, a brand guide should also be developed at this stage. A brand guide is a comprehensive document that outlines your company’s brand identity and provides guidelines for its use. This includes information on your logo, color schemes, fonts, and other visual elements that should be used consistently across all marketing materials. By establishing these guidelines, you can ensure that your brand remains consistent and recognizable across all channels.

Creating a strong brand identity is essential for biotech companies looking to build trust with their target audience and stand out in a competitive market. 

Biotech Logo & Branding Costs

Expect to pay anywhere between $5k to $10k for smaller agencies for this type of work and as much as $50k for larger agencies. If you are budget-conscious, consider sourcing talent on a site like 99designs.

Web Design

Having a strong web presence is crucial for biotech companies looking to establish themselves in the industry. In today’s digital age, a company’s website is often the first point of contact for potential clients, investors, partners, and employees. As such, it is important to ensure that your website accurately represents your brand and provides visitors with the information they need to make informed decisions.

As a leading biotech web design agency, we recommend different approaches depending on the type of company you are.

Emerging biotech website considerations
For smaller, emerging biotech companies, we recommend starting with a basic 5-10 page website that includes various sections on their leadership team, science, clinical trials, pipeline, press releases, and contact information. 

A life science hero image from Ironshore Pharma

These sections are essential for providing visitors with a comprehensive overview of your company’s activities and achievements. The leadership team section, for example, should include bios and photos of key executives, while the science section should provide an overview of your technology platform and any patents or intellectual property you may hold.

The Leadership section from Ironshore Pharma

Clinical trials and pipeline sections are also critical for demonstrating your company’s potential for success. These sections should provide detailed information on any ongoing or completed clinical trials, as well as an overview of your product pipeline and development timelines. Press releases are another important component of a biotech company’s website, as they showcase the company’s latest achievements and milestones.

An example of a Pipeline page from Novita Pharma

Contact information is also an essential element of a biotech company’s website. This should include a phone number, email address, and physical address, as well as links to any social media profiles or other digital channels.

B2B biotech website considerations
For an established B2B biotech actively selling products, services, or via eCommerce, we recommend a much more comprehensive website strategy involving information architecture audits, UX/UI considerations, SEO, sales copy, and the continuation of a resource-rich website that helps educate prospects for what are normally long sales cycles.

Biotech Website Costs

For a professionally designed website built by an agency with experience in biotech, the prices can vary greatly. Specialized agencies who build simple, small websites are often found in the $15k to $25k range. For projects that require more planning and consideration into information architecture, UX/UI, and graphic design, expect projects to easily venture into the $40k to six-figure range depending on site size and integrations.

Note that the more complex the graphic design (ex. custom animation), integrations (CRM, ERP, eCommerce, etc.) the more expensive websites can get.

Graphic Design

For biotech companies of all sizes, graphic design is an essential tool for communicating complex scientific concepts to a broader audience, particularly those audiences who may need visual representations to quickly grasp your technology (which, let’s be honest, is everyone).

There are several elements of graphic design that are particularly important for you, including:

  • data visualizations
  • animations
  • medical explainer videos
  • infographics 
  • print adverts
  • digital creatives
  • presentations
  • conference and booth creatives
  • email content 
  • landing pages

Data visualizations are critical for biotech companies, as they enable the clear and concise presentation of complex scientific data. By transforming raw data into visual representations, such as charts, graphs, and diagrams, you can help to communicate your findings to a broader audience. Animations and medical explainer videos are also effective tools for illustrating complex scientific concepts, such as how a particular drug works in the body.

Infographics are another important element of graphic design for biotech companies. These visual representations can help to distill complex information into a more easily digestible format, allowing audiences to quickly grasp the key takeaways of a particular scientific study or concept. Print adverts and digital creatives, such as social media posts and banners, are also essential for promoting your products and services to a wider audience.

Presentations are an important part of the biotech industry, as they allow you to showcase your latest research and development efforts to potential investors and partners. Conference and booth creatives, such as banners, flyers, and other promotional materials, are also important for creating a strong brand presence at industry events. Email content and landing pages are also critical for biotech companies looking to engage with their target audience and convert leads into customers.

Biotech Graphic Design Costs

The costs of creative materials vary from company to company and can depend on factors such as whether you need an ongoing retainer or a la carte items. Each item can have significant cost differences as well. For example, a magazine graphic for print would be much more approachable than a medical explainer video. Expect to pay $175 an hour to as much as $400 an hour, depending on the agency and their background.

Public Relations

Public relations (PR) is a crucial element of marketing for emerging biotech companies. It is a must-have if you are looking to raise funds, partner with other companies, or get acquired. PR can help you to create a strong brand image, establish credibility, and gain exposure to potential investors, partners, and customers.

PR services for biotech companies can include:

  • developing a public relations strategy
  • message development
  • media training
  • media relationship management
  • podcast interviews
  • press release creation and submission
  • content creation
  • thought leadership outreach
  • award submissions
  • trade show pitching
  • editorial calendars
  • KPI measurement

Developing a biotech public relations strategy is the first step in creating a successful PR campaign. This involves defining your key messages, target audience, and goals for the campaign. Message development is also essential, as it ensures that all communications are consistent and aligned with your overall brand message.

Media training and relationship management are also critical for biotech companies, as they help to ensure that spokespeople are prepared and confident when engaging with the media. Podcast interviews can be an effective way to reach a targeted audience and showcase the company’s expertise in a particular area. Press release creation and submission are also essential for getting the word out about new products, partnerships, or research findings.

Content creation and thought leadership outreach can help you to establish yourself as an expert in your field and position yourself as a leader in the industry. Award submissions and trade show pitching can also help to increase visibility and credibility within the industry.

Editorial calendars and KPI measurements are important for tracking the success of a PR campaign and making adjustments as needed to ensure that it is meeting its goals.

While PR is not limited in effectiveness to emerging biotechs, this is what I’d call a must-have for companies looking to get some better exposure. PR for larger, more established brands is also important as brand awareness and the trust that inherently comes from being published in major industry publications cannot be overlooked.

Biotech PR Costs

Public relations costs will vary more than perhaps any marketing channel on this list. Depending on the prestige of the PR firm you hire, the relationships in place, and the number of hours spent getting your brand featured, the fees can vary greatly. For boutique PR firms, expect to pay $5,000 to $7,500 a month, depending on the inherent newsworthiness of your business. For large PR firms, expect to pay $15k to $20k per month. Learn more about the services at our biotech PR agency.

SEO & Content Marketing

SEO and content marketing are vital components of brand awareness and lead generation. A well-optimized website can drive traffic for relevant searches and content marketing such as blog posts can help familiarize your brand with informational topics where your company may provide solutions.

In general, our agency finds that blending SEO and SEO-driven content marketing — meaning all the content published is researched with keyword volume in mind — is the best use of resources.

SEO services for biotech companies might include:

These services help to ensure that a company’s website is optimized for search engines and that it is providing value to its target audience.

Technical audits involve reviewing a website’s technical aspects, such as page load times, mobile responsiveness, and URL structure. Content audits involve assessing the quality and relevance of a website’s content and identifying areas for improvement. Keyword research helps to identify the keywords and phrases that are most relevant to the company’s target audience and that can help drive traffic to its website.

Competitive analysis involves analyzing the strategies and tactics of competitors in the industry and identifying areas where the company can differentiate itself. On-page SEO involves optimizing individual pages on the website for specific keywords and ensuring that they are properly structured for search engines. Link building involves acquiring high-quality backlinks to the website, which can help to improve its authority and visibility in search results.

Site architecture analysis and user experience analysis involve assessing the overall structure and usability of the website, including navigation, layout, and content organization. This helps to ensure that the website is easy to use and provides a positive experience for visitors.

Biotech SEO Costs

SEO and content marketing costs vary by agency. Digital Elevator, for example, focuses on SEO and content marketing initiatives that have business impact whereas other firms may sell you on the notion of running site audits and fixing technical issues. The impact of SEO and content marketing depends on the competitiveness of your topics, and the quality of work you need to outrank competitors. Expect to pay $6k to $8k a month for more streamlined SEO campaigns and as much as $10k+ a month for hyper-competitive content and outreach. You may also consider an AI SEO agency to help scale and automate content production without breaking the bank.

Paid media services are an effective way to drive traffic to your biotech company’s website or specific landing pages, but they also require careful consideration of regulatory restrictions. 

Paid media services include:

  • Google Ads
  • programmatic ads
  • CTV ads
  • native ads
  • display ads
  • social media ads

It is important to adhere to industry regulations when advertising healthcare products or services, including adhering to FDA regulations on advertising, ensuring that claims are supported by clinical data, and avoiding unsubstantiated or false claims. 

In addition, it is important to choose the appropriate channels and targeting options to reach the right audience while ensuring that the ads are compliant with industry regulations. A marketing agency can help navigate these complexities and ensure that your paid media efforts are compliant and effective.

Biotech Paid Media Costs

Paid media involves two costs: the cost of the actual ad spend, which goes directly to the ad platform, and the cost of management. While every product and campaign has different goals and target markets, there is a wide range of costs with paid media as it concerns the competitiveness of your products or services. For example, we’ve successfully run ads with a paid media budget of $3k a month, and have run other campaigns with budgets of 10x that amount. Most management fees will depend on the ad spend amount, with something like 15-25% of ad spend as an average fee, or flat fees, or flat fees plus a percentage of ad spend. Learn more about how agencies price PPC.

Social Media

Social media services can be an effective way for biotech companies to engage with their audience and raise awareness about their products and services. However, social media in the biotech industry can be challenging due to strict regulations around what can and cannot be shared publicly.

Social media services might include:

  • social strategy development
  • social calendar management
  • user research
  • social audits
  • user persona research
  • content guidelines
  • branding guidelines
  • social media ads.

Social strategy development involves creating a plan for how your company will use social media to achieve its goals. This includes identifying which platforms to use, how often to post, and what types of content to share.

Social calendar management involves scheduling and publishing content on social media platforms. This ensures that your company is consistently engaging with its audience and sharing relevant information.

User research involves understanding the needs and preferences of your company’s target audience. This information can be used to create content that resonates with the audience and drives engagement.

Social audits involve assessing your company’s current social media presence and identifying areas for improvement. This can include analyzing the content that is being shared, the engagement levels, and the overall effectiveness of the company’s social media efforts.

User persona research involves creating profiles of your company’s ideal customers. This information can be used to create content that is tailored to the specific needs and interests of the audience.

Content guidelines and branding guidelines help to ensure that the social media presence is consistent and aligned with its overall brand messaging. This includes guidelines around tone of voice, visual branding, and content topics.

Social media ads can be a powerful way for biotech companies to reach their target audience and promote their products or services. However, these ads must comply with strict regulations around advertising in the biotech industry.

Biotech Social Media Costs

Social media can be isolated into consulting or ongoing management. Consulting engagements can entail strategy or audits and can often cost $4k to $10k per project, sometimes more. For ongoing maintenance that includes creating content for clients, the monthly costs can be similar, however, the addition of video content on the agency side would greatly increase the monthly cost.

Budget Considerations for Biotech Brands

There are significant differences in cost between biotech marketing agencies like Digital Elevator and larger, well-known ad agencies, which can charge 2x to 5x as much as smaller agencies. 

While these larger agencies may carry a certain prestige and brand recognition, the higher costs are often attributed to the agency’s size and reputation rather than the quality of work or expertise offered. It is worth noting that while these larger agencies may have an impressive portfolio and a long history of successful campaigns, clients may be paired with junior-level marketing representatives once they sign on. 

On the other hand, smaller agencies like Digital Elevator may offer more personalized service, with experienced marketing professionals who are more invested in the success of their clients’ campaigns. These agencies can provide high-quality work at a lower cost, allowing emerging biotech companies to allocate their budgets more effectively while still achieving their marketing goals. Ultimately, choosing an agency comes down to balancing cost with the expertise and level of service provided.

Evolving Your Biotech’s Marketing With Your Company’s Evolution

As biotech companies progress through various stages, their marketing practices need to evolve. It’s important to recognize that not all biotech companies are speaking to the same audience at the same time. Some may be seeking patients for clinical trials, while others may be attracting investors or partners, and others trying to sell products or services to other biotech companies.

The key takeaway is that biotech companies need to improve their ability to identify target audiences and develop effective strategies to communicate with them through multi-channel marketing. Prioritizing marketing efforts alongside the science itself is crucial, as it can significantly contribute to the long-term success of the company.

Effective communication strategies are critical for success, and the right marketing partner can help. It’s essential to choose a marketing agency that understands the unique challenges and opportunities of the biotech industry and can provide tailored multi-channel marketing strategies that align with the company’s goals and target audience.

Overall, biotech companies need to be proactive in their marketing efforts, from creating a strong brand identity to developing a comprehensive marketing plan that includes public relations, content marketing, SEO, and social media. By doing so, they can effectively communicate their science and story to the right audiences and position themselves for success as they evolve over time.

Ready to Market Your Biotech?

If you are ready to share your science with the world and need a seasoned biotech marketing partner, contact Digital Elevator today to get a free analysis.

Get a free marketing proposal from our team today.


The discovery call is the first step in discussing your business, your goals, and the potential services you need for your marketing or web design campaign.

Let’s Talk

Biotech Account-Based Marketing Strategy for LinkedIn Ads 

Posted on by Daniel Lofaso

Account-based marketing (ABM) is the holy grail for biotech companies that sell complex products to institutional buyers, healthcare providers, and scientific decision-makers. But without a way to get in front of those hard-to-reach stakeholders, even the most brilliant strategy falls flat.

LinkedIn is the only platform that allows biotech marketers to surgically target exact job titles, industries, and company sizes. Combine that with an ABM framework, and you have a predictable, scalable way to drive demand from your highest-value accounts.

Here’s how to build a LinkedIn ABM strategy, based on our biotech PPC expertise, that generates real results in biotech—without bloated prospect lists or wasted ad spend.

Table of Contents

Build Your Targeting Strategy Without Uploading a List

The traditional ABM playbook starts with a static list of target accounts. While you can buy a list from a site like BioPharmaGuy and upload it into LinkedIn, you can skip this step (and expense) and let the LinkedIn algo do the heavy lifting.

If you already have a list of companies you want to target, that’s fine, too. You’d just want to consider testing an uploaded list versus something LinkedIn targets based on the parameters you set up.

According to our LinkedIn Ads manager, Piper, she gives the following advice:

Regarding LinkedIn list uploads, they can be highly effective, however, the success of list targeting depends on a few factors:

  • Match Rate: LinkedIn requires at least 300 matched profiles to run ads. The match rate depends on the quality of the data (company domains and LinkedIn profile URLs help).
  • Engagement Strategy: If the list is small, layering additional targeting (like job functions or seniority) can help broaden reach while keeping it relevant.
  • Campaign Objective: Lists work particularly well for account-based marketing (ABM), retargeting, or precise outreach.

Company lists typically have a better match rate than contact lists; however, contact lists are good for retargeting.

Personally, we like to let LinkedIn do the heavy lifting, using Campaign Manager to target, for example:

  • Company industry: Biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices
  • Company size: Focus on mid-market and enterprise buyers (51+ employees)
  • Job titles and seniority: R&D Directors, Clinical Operations, Procurement Managers, Lab Heads
  • Groups and interests: Life sciences professionals, biotech investors, or niche verticals (e.g., cell and gene therapy)

This approach allows your targeting to scale and self-optimize without the manual headache of building and maintaining a CSV.

Segment Cold, Warm, and Hot Audiences for Funnel Control

Biotech buyer journeys are complex and don’t happen in a linear fashion. By using segmentation to target leads by behavior, you’ll have a better chance of peaking the interest of your top, middle, and bottom funnel prospects.

Segmenting by funnel stage ensures you serve the right message at the right time:

  • Cold (top of funnel)
    • Focus on messaging that highlights the company’s biotech innovations, value proposition, and mission to build the initial awareness layer.
    • You’ll typically want to run this for at least 30 days to get LinkedIn enough data to see who is interacting with your ads. The goal here is not conversions but to get biotech prospects to click your ads and visit your website so you can retarget them and nurture them.
  • Warm (middle of funnel)
    • Use LinkedIn’s website visit tracking and retargeting lists to create engagement-based campaigns.
    • Incorporate diverse content types such as case studies, testimonials, white papers, press releases, and other resources on the website to your ads.
    • These people are only targeted after they’ve interacted with the cold layer since they now know about what you do and the problems you solve for. 
  • Hot (bottom of funnel)
    • BOFU campaigns will be introduced only after sufficient engagement is observed (like the interaction with multiple content pieces, a pricing page, or contact forms).
    • The warm segment has familiarity with your brand, has demonstrated interest from what we can see from our retargeting layers, and has shown some sort of purchase intent.

Use separate campaigns and creatives for each stage to keep performance optimized. More on that below.

Ad Types That Work for Biotech ABM

Different ad formats shine at different stages of the funnel—and cost plays a big role in what to prioritize.

  • Single Image Ads (All Funnel Stages): The most versatile format with lower CPMs ($60–70). Use these for cold outreach, mid-funnel engagement, or retargeting with a clear call to action.

Source: LinkedIn Single Image Ads

  • Video Ads (Top & Middle of Funnel): Great for brand awareness and education. Expect a CPM between $80–$100, making them relatively cost-effective for engagement. Use to explain complex biotech workflows or product mechanisms.

Source: LinkedIn Video Ads

  • Carousel Ads (Middle Funnel): Ideal for explaining processes or showcasing multiple benefits. Slightly more expensive than single image ads but often worth it for more immersive storytelling.
  • Thought Leader Ads (Top of Funnel): Run from the profile of a scientific founder or executive. Perfect for building credibility early in the funnel. CPMs vary but are often higher due to premium positioning.

Source: LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads

  • Conversation Ads (Bottom Funnel): Excellent for driving demos or downloads from warm audiences. High intent, but often more expensive ($150+ CPM), so use selectively.

Source: LinkedIn Conversation Ads

Match each format to your campaign goal, and remember: higher-cost formats often yield higher-quality leads when timed right.

LinkedIn ABM Mistakes

Biotech audiences are highly skeptical given their background in data and objectivity. Here are some common pitfalls to avoid when running LinkedIn ABM campaigns so as to not blast through ad spend.

Starting with Mid or Bottom Funnel Campaigns 

When running ABM ads, by far the biggest mistake we see is when other agencies or our clients are running campaigns that skip the initial cold layer of targeting. Their campaigns have not yet broken down the barrier that communicates who they are, what problems they solve, and the outcomes they can expect when working with you.

Think about it: if you see an ad for a white paper from a biotech you’ve never heard of how likely are you to read it? Compare that to a company whose ad you interacted with, website you visited, or blog you’ve read that runs the same ad. 

Don’t skip the cold layer, it sets the foundation for the rest of your campaigns.

Not Retargeting

Biotech buyers have a lot going on in their work lives, so hitting them with one ad is often not going to cut it. This is why we always recommend retargeting ads based on user behavior.

This is also why we generally recommend driving clicks through to your website rather than keeping prospects on LinkedIn (like with Lead Gen Forms).

Sales cycles can be long. Make sure to retarget to optimize for use behavior.

Falling for LinkedIn’s Audience Expansion Option

You may be tempted to use LinkedIn’s audience expansion option to “show your ads to member accounts with similar attributes to your target audience.”

We find this results in unnecessary ad spend, often showing your ads to audiences with weaker attributes than more sophisticated targeting.

Avoid this setting as a general rule.

Retargeting That Reflects Real Buying Behavior

Don’t stop at initial targeting. That is probably the biggest missed opportunity we see when taking over accounts for biotech clients. 

LinkedIn lets you retarget based on:

  • Website visits (especially demo, pricing, or case study pages)
  • Video views (great for engagement scoring)
  • Lead form opens (even if unsubmitted)

Build progressive retargeting flows that get more direct over time—starting with soft educational offers and ending with sales CTAs.

Budgeting & Campaign Settings That Maximize Results

LinkedIn isn’t the cheapest platform, but it’s the most precise—and that matters in biotech.

  • We find that starting with a minimum of $3,000/month to collect actionable data is a good budget. It can often be started with less, but the reduction in ad spend may mean limitations in targeting capabilities. 
  • Organize campaigns by funnel stage or audience type for clean reporting

If you’re targeting high-value biotech accounts, LinkedIn ABM isn’t just an option—it’s a necessity. With the right strategy, you can create a campaign system that aligns with how scientific buyers actually make decisions.

Need help building your funnel or fixing underperforming campaigns? We’ll audit your targeting, creative, and retargeting to show you exactly what’s working—and what needs to change. Or, we’ll build one from scratch. Reach out today for a discovery call.

CDMO Marketing Strategies: Meet Buyers at Critical Stages of Their Buyer Journey 

Posted on by Daniel Lofaso

If you Google “CDMO marketing” one of the key trends in the articles that cover this topic is the following:

CDMO sales cycles are long and require multiple marketing touchpoints.

Truer words were never spoken. So while there are a bunch of articles that talk about identifying your target market, building buyer personas, and leveraging social media, I’m going to assume you have heard all that before. 

This guide cuts through the noise to deliver actionable CDMO marketing strategies that address your most pressing challenges. You want to hear how to compete with Lonza and Thermo Fisher (Pantheon) and drive leads today and tomorrow.

I’ll be covering key aspects of how buyers go through their buyer journey and how you can meet them there, and how you can cover most of your bases by getting a few primary marketing channels right.

Value Proposition & Positioning Before Everything Else

When it comes to defining your value proposition as a CDMO, the temptation might be to lean into the tried-and-true claims of being “better, cheaper, or faster.” However, these messages often fall flat—especially when stacked against industry giants like Lonza. 

Lonza’s decades of trust and reputation make it difficult to compete using generic claims like ‘better, cheaper, or faster.’ Instead, focus on your unique strengths.

Example CDMO value proposition

A good example of a value proposition is WuXi Advanced Therapies which positions itself as a comprehensive partner in the cell and gene therapy space, emphasizing its role as a Contract Testing, Development, and Manufacturing Organization (CTDMO).

They have taken the focus of specificity and differentiation in the cell and gene therapy market.

Other areas for differentiation for your value prop might include:

  • Innovation: Highlights the use of advanced technology (single-use systems), which is a key industry trend.
  • Target Audience Alignment: Speaks directly to mid-sized biotech firms, which may feel overlooked by larger CDMOs but need the same high-quality solutions.
  • Solution-Oriented: Addresses a real pain point—providing tailored, scalable solutions for complex biologics that minimize risk and optimize efficiency—without relying on generic promises.

The good news is that you likely already have a unique selling proposition (USP) similar to the examples above—you just need to uncover it. Often, the differentiator lies in what your company is already doing exceptionally well, whether it’s your niche expertise, tailored solutions, or ability to address specific challenges your competitors overlook. 

The key is drawing that out of your messaging and ensuring it’s front and center in your marketing. When a prospect skims your website—which, let’s face it, is how most initial research happens—they should instantly know what sets you apart and why you’re the ideal partner for their needs.

Your Website as Your Best Sales Tool

Your website is your best sales tool—hands down. For CDMOs, it’s often the first impression prospective clients have of your brand, and it sets the tone for your entire buyer journey. To truly capitalize on its potential, your website needs to be both an educational resource and a lead generation machine.

From an educational standpoint, it’s critical to focus on key areas that address your audience’s specific needs and questions. This typically includes service and subservice pages that clearly outline your capabilities, technology pages that showcase your cutting-edge processes and equipment, and educational resources like white papers, case studies, and webinars. 

These sections not only demonstrate your expertise but also align with SEO best practices, ensuring you appear prominently when prospects search for solutions in your space.

For example, here is a screenshot of AGC Biologics and their service menu dropdown. 

CDMO marketing site architecture example

They have what is called a “mega menu” with sections and dedicated pages for Offerings, Services, and Specialized Platforms & Programs.

This portion of the site build is often SEO-led, meaning that when you work with a specialized CDMO marketing agency like Digital Elevator, we are going to provide research for the site architecture as well as the keywords with commercial intent that have the most volume based on conversations with the client. 

Strong site architecture doesn’t just improve user experience—it also drives organic traffic by aligning with SEO best practices.

Here is a screenshot of some rankings of the services section of the AGC Bio site that showcases some of those rankings for critical keywords like “viral vector services” or “AAV CDMO.”

CDMO marketing rankings example

The above type of site architecture and SEO strategy can be done during a new website build, or post-launch. Regardless of when you do it, it underscores the importance of creating content for your users so they understand your value proposition, but also the depth and breadth of your CDMO services.

CDMO Lead Generation and Brand Awareness

As you’ve probably recognized, the site architecture and SEO best practices discussed above can help set the tone for organic search rankings. SEO (or search engines) is just one channel where prospects may interact with your brand in their buying cycle.

Independent of marketing channels, however, is the deeper principle of buying journeys and how that plays into marketing touchpoints.  

Effective lead generation and brand awareness for CDMOs require a deep understanding of your prospect’s buyer journey. 

This journey typically unfolds in three key stages: 

  1. problem identification, 
  2. solution exploration, and 
  3. requirements building. 

Each stage represents a unique opportunity to connect with potential clients, but it also demands tailored strategies to address their evolving needs.

  • Problem Identification: At this stage, prospects are just beginning to understand their challenges. They’re looking for educational content that validates their pain points and introduces them to potential solutions.
    • Blog posts, white papers, and webinars that address common industry challenges—such as navigating regulatory hurdles or scaling complex biologics production—can position your brand as a trusted authority.
  • Solution Exploration: Once prospects know their problem, they start researching specific solutions.
    • This is where your service pages, case studies, and technology overviews become critical. Prospects are comparing vendors, so it’s essential to highlight your unique capabilities and demonstrate how you solve their exact challenges better than the competition.
  • Requirements Building: By the time prospects reach this stage, they’re narrowing down their options and defining what they need from a partner.
    • Detailed resources like RFQ guides, downloadable specifications, and comparison tools can help prospects align their requirements with your offerings, positioning you as the obvious choice.

Accompanying this framework, the infographic below visually breaks down each stage, showcasing how your content and outreach strategies should align with the mindset of your buyers at every step. By understanding and addressing these stages, you can drive not just leads, but the right leads—those who are primed to engage with your brand and convert.

Worth noting, the website lies at the core of most of these buying processes. While there may be some external channels such as LinkedIn and industry publications mentioned, the bulk of the marketing channels point back to or are derived from your website. 

In the perfect scenario, your CDMO would have processes in place for all of these buckets. However, a good starting point would be the build out of the website itself, the site architecture and SEO mentioned above, and Google Ads and LinkedIn Ads running in tandem.

Online Presence and Content Marketing for Your CDMO

At Digital Elevator, we approach biotech content marketing from a repurposing point of view. For example, if the goals are to create assets like white papers, blogs, and LinkedIn posts, we’d first determine the topics that our CDMOs want to talk about and the subtopics that provide value to their prospects.

From there, we’d create a white paper that could then be repurposed into three or four blogs as subtopics, and then our clients could repurpose elements of the blog or white paper into another 10 or so social media posts. For example, a white paper on viral vector manufacturing could generate blog topics such as regulatory considerations, scaling production, and emerging trends in viral vector technology.

The white paper, in addition to being a downloadable asset on their website or something to distribute to their prospects via email, could also serve as a lead generation and brand awareness asset for a LinkedIn Ads campaign. 

From our point of view, the blogs would be SEO-driven and focused on keywords to drive organic traffic while the white paper could help garner visibility via LinkedIn Ads to an audience that may have limited visibility or awareness of the brand. 

Thus, we are driving brand awareness, pushing prospects down a sales funnel, and establishing trust based on the ways we know prospects buy. Combined with bottom funnel service pages, this encapsulates most of the buying journey.

However, to reinforce the way we know people build trust with brands, we may also promote the creation of case studies. Case studies are invaluable for CDMOs. They’re proof you can deliver, whether it’s scaling complex biologics or navigating regulatory challenges. Pair these with thought leadership content like white papers, webinars, and conference presentations to establish your credibility. This kind of content resonates with decision-makers and builds trust over time.

Here’s an example of benefit-driven case studies from AGC Biologics, with one topic about cost savings and the other about an upgrade from a well-known competitor. 

CDMO Marketing Has Many Layers, Focus on the One’s Most Important

When we work with CDMOs on their marketing, our process is often the same. We look to see where we can provide the most value the quickest based on the client’s goals of speed or weakness in marketing. 

For fast results, a paid media strategy – using Google and LinkedIn Ads – is what we recommend. For establishing touchpoints earlier in the sales cycle that are more sustainable than paid ads, we recommend SEO and content marketing. Both approaches can work in tandem, and that is the most effective way to get in front of CDMO prospects in all stages of the buying process.

For help with your CDMO marketing strategy across all stages of the buyer joruney, reach out to Digital Elevator today.

preloader