What J&J’s 2023 Digital Resolution should be
Dear Johnson & Johnson,
It’s not just you. It’s all of you, but I have a soft spot for you, and so I offer my unsolicited two cents. You might need to improve your digital marketing game.
BACKGROUND
I grew up with you around
The 2 to 10 year old me, loved your baby powder. The 16 year old me has used your Clean and Clear to help with acne. 20 year old me, wanted to work in your Bioinformatics division and the 21 year old me was thrilled to hop onto her first client meeting — with the R&D team of Janssen, just because they are a subsidiary of you.
I have stalked you on LinkedIn and also looked you up on Instagram. I know what content you have on your website and LinkedIn at the tip of my fingers.
RE-ASSURANCE
I mean no harm
Just like how many kids have a personal relationship of sorts with brands such as Disney or Coca Cola, I have weirdly had it with you. My relationship with you has evolved over the years. I went from merely being a consumer of the brand to an aspiring research member for your team and now a marketing professional who observers and learns from you.
You may or may not like the things I have to say next, but I come bearing peace. Before I even began my master’s in marketing, I worked at a pharmaceutical for 2 years — and focused on their digital marketing initiatives. And now? With a year’s worth of NYU Marketing knowledge in me, I would like to think I could offer suggestions as a pharmaceutical and a marketing professional.
WHAT I WANT YOU TO KNOW
1. Good News!
The SEO of your website looks great! You have better monthly organic traffic over your competition, a better response rate from your paid reach regions versus those targeted by your competitors like Pfizer and Merck.
Considering the keyword restrictions that Google and other search engines have on Pharmaceutical drug, you are doing great!
Your Social Media platforms are also doing much better than most of your competition, especially your Facebook Page. Your engagement rate on Facebook and Instagram is leaps ahead of other brands in the category.
But there is always room for improvement.
2. Building a Cohesive Brand Story
In my opinion, pharmaceuticals have never quite caught up with the current marketing standards, but the COVID-19 pandemic had suddenly put pharmaceuticals in the limelight. For an industry that was always associated with sickness and was struggling to be relatable, or has always had an evil and very ‘conglomerate-ish’ impression, the pandemic gave all of them the chance to be more approachable to their final consumers.
You should leverage that.
3. Different Digital Platforms Cater to Different Types of Audience
Leave the White Papers for LinkedIn!
Your LinkedIn should be for your investors, future bright recruits and talented scientists, but your Instagram should be for someone who has a terrible flu, and might walk in to the clinic tomorrow to ask their doctor for a prescription.
Let your B2B content remain for platforms like LinkedIn and the websites, and let your B2C content be on Instagram or Facebook. For instance, if your website can continue to mention various causes you believe in, your Instagram could have stories about the causes you support and your LinkedIn can be where you release a video of your scientists collaborating with others.
Don’t get me wrong. You are doing fantastic on LinkedIn, your approach to Facebook and Instagram can be altered.
4. Your content can be more engaging! Mix Science and Art.
Consumers like it when they get to interact with brands. J&J’s content tends to be more informational and educational data, but that does not mean it has to be as science intensive for generic consumers of the brand.
This can be leveraged and turned into something creative and more interactive. For instance — Pictures of what your researchers see under a microscope during a drug discovery phase or polls what over the counter medications do they want to know more about.
5. Optimization is Key
Nearly half of pharmaceutical companies (48%) admit their competitiveness suffers because they cannot extract or use insights from data they already have within their business. — Drug Discovery World
So it is clear that pharamceuticals sturggle with data managment and extracting value out of huge amount of data. As an industry, you already have access to large amount of SENSITIVE data. This information, with the right tools and some amount of automation, can be analyzed to provide crucial insights.
It can be used for better marketing tactics and optimizing your target audience for different products, or give you insights on how to increase your reach with different sets of target audience.
ENDING NOTE
A part of me always will want to see pharmaceuticals do better in marketing and I hope to see J&J be a pioneer in digital marketing for pharmaceuticals. There has already been an exponential tranformation in the industry but brands like J&J have better chances of making more meaningful and impactful brand stories and content.
