Creating valuable and engaging content in the fast-paced world of Life Science can be a challenge for marketers. The challenge is amplified significantly when you consider long sales cycles, multiple decision-makers and the noise of the competition. While long-form content, such as eBooks play an essential role in conveying complex ideas and multiple data points, translating these in-depth resources into accessible and engaging formats can be the key to unlocking their full marketing potential, and saving you considerable time and resources. This is where derivative content comes into play.
When it comes to Life Science marketing, your eBook or research paper is more than a single piece of content – it’s the cornerstone of a broader content strategy. By repurposing and reformatting a single piece of long-form content into various types of derivative content, you can maximize its reach, ensure your messaging stays consistent, appeal to different segments of your audience, and achieve a more significant return on investment.
In this blog, we’ll explore the advantages of creating derivative content from one single ‘big piece’ of content and share practical examples of how you can transform just one piece of content into a multi-channel marketing campaign. I am going to use an eBook as an example, but realistically it can be applied to any ‘big piece’.
1. Leveraging eBooks for content diversity
An eBook takes a significant investment of time, resources and expertise to develop, making it one of the most valuable content assets you have. However, the true value lies in its potential to be repurposed into a variety of formats that cater to different audience preferences and different channels.
Not all your audience members have the time or inclination to read a full-length eBook. Some of them might prefer short, bite-sized content, while others may engage more with visual or interactive content. By breaking your eBook into smaller pieces of derivative content, you get to share the real nuggets of information, meet your audience where they are and engage with them on their terms.
For example, an eBook on gene therapy can be transformed into blog posts, infographics, videos, social media posts, webinars and more. Each format appeals to a different type of consumer, allowing you to extend the reach and impact of your original content.
Example: Breaking down a gene therapy eBook
Imagine your company has published an in-depth eBook on the latest advancements in gene therapy. Using the eBook as your primary source, you can create derivative content in the following ways:
- Blog series: Divide the chapters of your eBook into a series of blog posts, each focusing on a specific aspect of gene therapy, such as emerging technologies, ethical considerations, and real-world applications.
- Infographics: Create visually appealing infographics that summarize key data, such as the potential patient outcomes, market trends or the future of gene therapy.
- White papers: Extract detailed technical sections from the eBook to create more formal, downloadable white papers that target your more academic scientist.
- Social media snippets: Condense important quotes, statistics and visuals into bite-sized social media posts that drive traffic back to the full eBook.
This multi-format strategy not only increases the visibility of your content but also ensures that each audience segment receives the information in a way that resonates with them.
2. Enhancing SEO and driving organic traffic
As Life Science audiences often turn to search engines to find the information they need, search engine optimisation (SEO) is crucial. An eBook alone, even if it’s filled with lots of valuable content, may not be optimized to drive organic traffic unless it’s broken down into derivative content.
By repurposing your eBook into different content formats, you can optimize each piece for SEO by targeting specific keywords that your audience is searching for. A tool like Semrush can be invaluable here to identify those keywords. Blog posts, infographics and videos derived from your eBook can be strategically optimized for different search queries, increasing the likelihood that potential customers will find your content through organic search.
Additionally, repurposing content creates more opportunities for backlinks, internal linking, and social sharing, all of which will improve your website’s SEO performance. The more frequently your content is shared, linked to, and viewed, the more search engines will recognize your website as an authority in your field.
Example: Optimizing an eBook on Clinical Diagnostics
If your eBook is focused on the latest advances in clinical diagnostics, you can:
- Create blog posts: Break down the eBook into multiple blog posts, each targeting specific keywords related to diagnostics (e.g. ‘point-of-care testing’, ‘molecular diagnostic trends’).
- Generate backlinks: Encourage backlinks by collaborating with influencers or industry partners to share your derivative content, such as infographics or guest blogs on their platforms.
- Leverage long-tail keywords: Use long-tail keywords specific to your field (e.g. ‘advancements in next-gen sequencing for diagnostics’) to improve the chances of your content being found by niche audiences.
Each piece of derivative content enhances your website’s search visibility, increasing traffic, and ultimately, conversions.
3. Establishing thought leadership and brand authority
In Life Science, establishing your brand as a thought leader is crucial for building trust and credibility. By consistently producing valuable, insightful content, you position yourselves as an expert in the field. Derivative content allows you to showcase this expertise in multiple formats, making it easier to reach a wider audience who might consume content in different ways. For instance, podcasts are great for those people who like to catch up with the latest industry information while exercising. Infographics are perfect for those who prefer consuming visual content.
Regardless of how your audience consumes content, by varying the format and length, you’re able to communicate consistently, in a variety of ways, reinforcing your brand’s position as a knowledgeable and trustworthy source.
Example: Thought leadership from an eBook on personalized medicine
Let’s say your company has produced an eBook on personalized medicine. To establish your brand as a thought leader, you could:
- Host webinars: Host a series of webinars that explore the topics covered in your eBook in greater detail, featuring guest speakers and Q&A sessions.
- Create video content: Produce short video interviews with experts discussing key themes from the eBook, such as patient-tailored treatments or advancements in biomarker research.
- Publish case studies or customer editorials: Use real-world examples from the eBook to create case studies or customer editorials showcasing the successful applications of personalized medicine.
- Engage on social media: Share expert insights from the eBook on platforms like LinkedIn or Twitter, sparking conversations within the industry. Don’t forget to tag the experts, so you’re engaging with their network too.
By consistently sharing insights from your eBook in different formats, your brand will become known as a thought leader in personalized medicine, and you will build a loyal following of industry professionals and stakeholders.
4. Maximizing ROI and content efficiency
Creating an eBook takes significant time, effort and resources – from research and writing to design and promotion. By transforming this long-form content into multiple derivative pieces, you maximize your return on investment and stretch your content budget.
By repurposing your existing content into multiple new formats, you get more mileage from your original research, reducing the need to constantly generate new ideas. Derivative content allows you to extend the lifespan of your one big content piece, repurposing and repackaging what you’ve already produced, making your marketing efforts more efficient and cost-effective.
Example: Repurposing an eBook on Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing
Let’s suppose your company has developed an eBook on biopharmaceutical manufacturing. To maximize your ROI, you could:
- Launch a newsletter series: Break the eBook into smaller sections and send them out as a weekly or monthly email newsletter series, keeping your audience engaged over time.
- Offer downloadable resources: Use the eBook content to create downloadable resources, such as checklists, templates, or cheat sheets, that can be gated to capture leads.
- Develop sales collateral: Repurpose the eBook into a presentation that the sales team can use during webinars or conferences.
- Create quizzes and interactive content: Develop quizzes or interactive content based on the eBook’s themes to engage your audience in a more dynamic way and generate leads.
Repurposing your eBook into lots of derivative content allows you to make the most of your initial investment and paves the way for your marketing team to focus on other things, ensuring that it continues to deliver value long after its initial publication. If your ROI is being questioned, get tips on how to win leadership support for your content strategy in our blog on that subject.
It’s your secret sauce …
For busy science marketers, focused on balancing scientific accuracy with audience engagement, derivative content is your secret sauce. It allows you to maximize the value of your original content, expand your reach, enhance your SEO, build thought leadership and stretch your marketing budget.
When creating next year’s content strategy, aim to create at least one piece of long-form content and use that as the springboard for loads of derivate content. Because ultimately, derivative content will allow you to connect with your audience on their terms, delivering the right information, at the right time in a format that best suits their needs. By leveraging the full potential of your one ‘big piece’ of content, you’re not just creating content, you’re building a multi-channel marketing strategy that drives results and keeps your brand at the forefront of your target audience.
For more information on how to create a content strategy, read our blog here. And if you need help or support creating that one ‘big piece’ of content, or with your content strategy, get in touch with us at Qincade via: hello@qincade.com
