Case Study – Conversions increase 5X for Assay Depot

This article is short case study about our successful project with AssayDepot.com which engaged Red Funnel to help diagnose and improve their website last spring. Working with their team has been a extremely enjoyable experience for Mark and I, we wish them continued success.

Case Study

Service: Full website and Analytics analysis using Red Funnel’s science SEO service.

Results: 5-fold increase in quote and info requests for Assay Depot’s clients.

Background: Assay Depot.com provides direct access to expert advice about scientific assays and contract research services (CROs) via their open web marketplace to scientists in Big Pharma, Biotech, and Academic research. The site is focused on 5 target assay and service areas- Biology, Chemistry, DMPK, Toxicology, and Pharmacology with several thousand webpages covering individual services. The business depends on scientists requesting information and quotes for research services through Assay Depot’s referral engine and expert scientific staff.

Assay Depot engaged Red Funnel improve the conversion rate of the quote request process.

The Engagement: Red Funnel identified the key causes of page abandonment based on traffic movement to the most popular assays and services using Google Analytics, science-based SEO, and User Interface (UI) testing.

We worked with the team at Assay Depot to improve these areas by adding Scientist-targeted SEO content and improving the UI to lead visitors to the assays they were seeking. Over the course of the improvments, we saw:

• Decreased Bounce Rate (10%)
• Increased Time on site (> 1min)
• Increased traffic to relevant assay pages
• 5-fold increase in conversions

The bottom line: Assay Depot is now capturing more traffic and converting more visitors; resulting in more quotes for their customers in the CRO and Life Science Service business from scientists in Pharma and Academia.

Digging into Scientists and Social Media

The Language of Science for Marketers and Sales – Part 2

by Rusty Bishop

Last week, I explained how you can use online tools to carefully dissect what products scientists are searching for online and determine the exact phrases they are using. If you haven’t read the post, have a look now. I’ll be right here waiting on you with part 2.

Discover what scientists want by speaking the language

Now that we are armed with the knowledge that the majority of Google searchers call a pcr machine a “Thermal Cycler” and we have developed a nice list of popular secondary search terms (real time, troubleshooting, gradient, multiplex), it’s time to get into some real conversations.

Here’s what you are listening for:

Social Media

1. What type of content are scientists seeking (protocols, specs, technical resources, reviews)?
2. What is the context of the conversation about my products? experiments vs purchase decisions
3. What is the general sentiment about my products? positive? negative?
4. Where is the conversation happening? Facebook? Twitter? Discussion Boards?

Armed with this information, marketers can make informed decisions about the type of content that needs to be created and where to place the messages outside of your website. For example, maybe your audience would value a scientific publication review of your key products for your blog and Facebook page.

The 5 Minute Exercise! – Part 2

So let’s take the above guidelines and see what we can learn in 5 minutes.

1. Open up your favorite Social Media Search Tool. Don’t have one? Try ours for free. It searches many sites that scientists visit online to talk to one another. (Shameless self-promotion). Other examples might include Facebook, Twitter, etc. I don’t normally find many scientists discussing products on those popular sites however.
2. Enter your product terms, with modifiers from your secondary search terms. I’m entering  - “thermal cycler real time”.
3. Scan the results and click on those that seem interesting.  The objective is to gather sentiment and learn how scientists are talking about your products.
4. Content – I see words like –  ”protocol“, “demo“, “shopping“, “program“.
5. Context – The conversation seems to be around both purchase decisions (Ebay) and experiments (degenerate primers).
6. Sentiment-  That PCR machine from Perkin Elmer is actually a really good deal.” Why is it a good deal? What do these scientists like about the product?
7. Where – Science Blogs, Biotechniques, Protocol Online.
8. Finally, take a look at the Pay Per Click ads Google is serving up. Who is competing for the same terms as your product?  What terms are they adding to their PPC campaigns?  Look at the landing pages for each of the ads.

In Praise of Pilots – Deal with Change by Testing

By Mark Walker

Is the the speed of change different in the life science business world?

When you combine the trends impacting the rest of the business world such as new communication channels and devices with the rush of new discoveries and technologies into this marketplace, you have a potent mixture. If it’s not the market with the fastest pace, then it has to be in the in the top tier.

For marketers, new products from these discoveries (yours and the competitors) and new communication channels are just two of the trends making your lives “exciting.”

Picture a basketball court completely covered with set mouse-traps (the old spring-loaded ones). Someone tosses a single ping-pong ball onto the floor. Sprung traps flip and set off their neighbors. Now imagine that the traps reset themselves, the floor gets larger and the chaos grows. Ok, I admit I think it would be fun to be initial “tosser” and watch the activity from a safe place. I don’t know of a safe place in the life science business world. You are in the middle of the basketball court.

Use the Tools to Test Initiatives

Take advantage of the very tools contributing to this speed to test marketing initiatives and get feedback on results. It’s easier and faster to share information, right? Iterate quickly and constantly to test what works–and what doesn’t. Want to see how a new lead process works?  Pilot it with a region of your sales force. Test it with a couple of your inside sales reps. Want to test a new web page to get better conversion rates? Google has great free tools that you can implement.

When I worked with organizations interested in subscribing to our information service (a database for mining information about researchers and their grant awards), many were concerned about launching it to the entire sales force without testing. I would often recommend a pilot program. The idea was pretty simple.

• Set up the objectives and goals.
• Select a small, representative group of sales representatives (generalists, specialists, regional manager) .
• Train the pilot team on the service and set expectations for usage and feedback.
• Evaluate the results.

The value was evident for the organization. The overall investment and risk was minimal but the insights gained could be applied when rolling the new program out to the entire organization. The potential ROI could be extrapolated to the entire sales force and it was easier for managers to make the right decision and create buy-in for the sales force. Another element for success was in place as a result of the pilot. In the organization, there was already a group of peers that could not only help troubleshoot but specify best practices.

Testing Your Website? Of Course You Are.

For websites, there are free or inexpensive testing tools (Google’s Website Optimizer is an example) that can help you test different versions of a web page so you can see the changes that impact your activity. Amazon tests every pixel of their pages to find out what works (and doesn’t) and continues to iterate their home page and product pages. Not all companies have those resources but you can certainly test critical pages such as landing pages and sign-up pages as well as key elements such as Calls to Action, trying different copy, buttons and images.

Imagine you are having guests over to your house. You generally want to make that an enjoyable experience, right?  Why are you not treating your customers that visit your website in the same way? Tidy up, move chairs around to create some conversation areas, and decide where you are going to put the refreshments so your guests can get them conveniently.

Which Initiatives?

Google famously enables their staff to use 20% of their time on interesting projects not necessarily related to their job description.  Whether it’s a day a week or a couple hours each morning, the point is to include time to review new ideas (from customers, field reps, social media, internet, etc.) and think about how they could help your business.  Then figure out how you can test a couple of the ideas, quickly.

There are going to be blind alleys that we all go down when trying some new things. The advantage of the pilot is it reduces your risk by having a time point when it will end, requires a minimal investment in time and funding, and you come away with results based a set of measurable criteria. Test it and track it, then implement it, change it or shut it down.

What is your experience with pilot projects and what are the keys to success?  I’d enjoy hearing your story in the comments.