Mike May, Ph.D.
Most bioprocessors are manufactured by existing companies with decades of experience, capabilities, extensive customer relationships, and mature technologies. For companies looking to enter this industry, the challenges can be daunting.
"It's often very difficult to compete with existing biotech companies in terms of capacity, but they may be limited in terms of capacity," said Daniel Lofaso, CEO of Digital Elevator, a biotech marketing agency. "Smaller, more nimble companies may have advantages in some treatments, and that needs to be identified and translated into marketing as a unique selling proposition."
The question is how to promote the new bioprocessor to highlight its advantages over existing competitors. "To successfully enter the competitive biorefining space, new biorefining companies must play to their strengths, especially in terms of time and cost," Lofaso said. “These are consistently cited as the biggest challenges in biorefining. So if the new biorefining companies can compete on speed and price, they may gain more traction."
To get the conversation started, Lofaso said it "starts on the website and then can go throughout the campaign and other initiatives." In fact, he says, "This site is always my go-to recommendation for new biorefining companies because it provides an opportunity to share details about the company, technology, leadership, and services." Next, Lofaso may recommend paid advertising, such as Google Ads or LinkedIn Ads. "It's the fastest way to generate leads for a business," he explains. "When done right, paid advertising can identify the right buyers and target them effectively and competitively."
However, aspiring bioprocessors need more than just a website and ads on Google and LinkedIn. You should also explore other paid media options. "Trade publications often offer a variety of targeted advertising opportunities to buyers, such as banner ads, e-mails, and more." mailings, podcasts or native advertising, which can be very effective in terms of lead generation and brand awareness,” notes Lofaso. "Identify the leading industry sites used by your buyers and look for opportunities in their media tools."
In addition to these steps, new bioprocessors should also take full advantage of them. "Inadequate promotional sales funnels and poorly designed website landing pages are often common problems I see with new biotech companies," Lofaso said. "Companies with limited experience managing paid campaigns won't do targeted targeting and show ads to people who don't intend to make a purchase."
Three great tips
When asked what his top three pieces of advice are for new biorefining companies developing a marketing strategy, Lofaso responded:
- Identify target buyers. "Understanding who you're targeting, what makes them buy your product over others, and what their pain points are when [evaluating] lifecycle providers helps optimize marketing campaigns and messages," Lofaso says.
- Create modern, creative and reliable websites. It's "probably the most important sales force a biorefining company can have," Lofaso says. “B2B buyers typically do about 80% of their research before contacting a partner (much of this research is done on-site), i.e. with new biotech companies. They need to invest in website information that shows their value.”
- Take advantage of the opportunity and start selling. "It's easy to get caught up in the desire for pretty business cards and prints, conference materials, or hiring a dedicated marketing staff," notes Lofaso. "For me personally, everything else is secondary to building connections because they are the lifeblood of your business."
Regardless of the marketing strategy adopted by a new bioprocessor, determination is needed to succeed. As Calvin Coolidge, the thirtieth president of the United States, said, "There is no substitute for persistence in the world."
