For today’s post, we collaborated with Casey Steffen, Founder and Director of Operations at Biologic Animation. Biologic Animation creates cinematic 3D medical animation and molecular visualizations for use in biotech and pharmaceutical marketing, continuing medical education, patient education, lead magnets generation and trial room exhibits.
Your website is the online hub for your target audience to visit when they want to learn more about your company, products, pipeline, and the science behind it all. It should engage visitors and make them feel like their time was well spent – but without leveraging the appropriate tactics and resources, that’s easier said than done.
With today’s fast paced lifestyle, you don’t have much time to catch a user’s attention. You also need to measure up to user expectations.
Luckily, the use of video on a biotech website (and in general) can help with both.
Why video on your website?
With ⅓ of all online activity being spent watching video, we know how important it is give people information in a format they’re already accustomed to. (Source: MWP)
Video has been proven to be a successful for various marketing purposes. According to Syndacast, 52% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with the best Return on Investment.
Including video on a biotech website can be beneficial for a number of reasons. One straightforward reason is that 60% of website visitors would rather watch a video when available, according to a Diode Digital report.
But, let’s dig deeper and look at why video works.
Video meets user expectations
Video on biotech websites assist in explaining how a drug works in a visual way, which appeals to user expectations. 59% of decision makers would rather watch video than read text (Source: Forbes).
Whether your target audience is investors, physicians, researchers, or potential partners, the majority of people would rather watch a video than sift through blocks of text to find what they’re looking for.
Video matches how we retain information
The high science nature of your work can be much easier to explain with video than with text. In fact, viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video, compared to only 10% when they read it in text (Source: Insivia).
Mechanism of Action (MOA) videos combine the different ways people retain new information and the channels people prefer to learn new information.
Some learn by reading, others might be audio visual or demonstration learners. While participatory learning methods – like group discussion and practice by doing – result in higher retention, audio visual and demonstration methods result in 20% and 30% retention rates. This is compared to lecture and reading methods which result in 5% and 10% retention rates respectively (Source: The Peak Performance Center).
Animated videos combine common learning methods into a single resource – an asset that should absolutely be featured on your website.
Video grabs the attention of busy physicians
One intended audience for your videos might be physicians and to address this audience, Casey and other medical animators focus on 3D printing and model making.
3D prints of proteins bound by drugs, for instance, are just like hand-held Mechanism of Action (MOA) depictions.
Hand-held models, used in conjunction with MOA video, create multiple layers of experience in the brain for viewers. This supercharges learning and improves the overall outcome.
In the marketing industry, the combination of hand-held models and videos also greatly improves memory recall, which is integral for improving marketing results.
Consider this visualization of PARP1 bound by Zejula, the first in class drug for women with recurrent ovarian cancer, regardless of BRCA mutation. PARP1 steps in to repair damaged DNA when its partner protein BRCA fails.
Most physicians, and even oncologists, don’t know what PARP1 is, or how it’s related to ovarian cancer. It’s a completely new pathway for ovarian cancer intervention. But, with the use of MOAs, complex scientific details can be condensed into shorter linear experiences, making new drugs (like Zejula) more memorable.
It’s worth mentioning that many physicians respond positively to these animated videos because many learned biology and pharmacology concepts in medical school through similar 3D animations. So, anytime they see a new animation it reminds them of medical school and leaves an impactful, lasting impression.
On your website these videos can live in a section dedicated to the science/technology and a video library. You can also put CTAs on relevant pages that link to a video, offering supplementary information in a different format. Consider designing your homepage to with real estate that features your video content to immediately attract visitors who prefer learning visually.
Video benefits your non-scientific audience
Let’s say you’re not speaking directly to physicians; but instead, to a non-scientific audience like potential investors. Although many have medical or scientific backgrounds, Investors might not be as familiar with the science behind it all. Explaining the technology and backing up your claims in a way that a non-scientific audience can comprehend is a challenge.
To get your first (or next) round of funding, for example, you’ll need to convey the significance of the need in the market, share how the technology works, and present key benefits and differentiators in a powerful, clear and concise way.
A well-done video that includes medical animations can effectively achieve this as opposed to text in a static PowerPoint presentation.
Let’s look at Cognition Therapeutics as an example. The new theories they’re investigating for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease isn’t well known yet simply because it’s brand new.
Investors weren’t understanding why Cognition Therapeutics’ therapy was different than anyone else’s. During presentations, investors were focused only on the old interpretation of Alzheimer’s disease and how it’s been treated in the past. What they didn’t know was that Cognition Therapeutics’ science had already surpassed that outdated, traditional treatment methodology.
So, animation was used as a backdrop for scientists to speak to the new science behind how Alzheimer’s disease should be viewed and treated. And once they started playing the video in investor meetings, it was immediately evident that they could finally show everybody how their therapy is different, instead of telling them.
With the use of video, Cognition Therapeutics was finally able to provide investors with the “Aha” moment they were hoping for. Imagine if you could repeatedly recreate that “Aha” moment for your website visitors.
How can videos enhance your biotech website?
No matter who your audience is, it’s evident that video enhances their experience, appeals to their expectations and can have a positive impact on your business.
If you’re investing in medical animation videos and taking the time to create a user-centric website, giving them a happy home on your website makes perfect sense. Make them easily accessible for when your audience is ready to watch or wants to refer to a specific video.
Plus, video can attract two to three times as many monthly visitors and has the power to double their time spent on your website. On top of all of that, you could see a 157% increase in organic traffic from search engines by including more video on your site (Source: MarketingSherpa).
So, what are you waiting for? Let’s talk about including your medical animation videos into your web design strategy.
