8 Video Ideas for Content Marketing in the Pharmaceutical industry

Video marketing isn’t limited to consumer products and lifestyle brands anymore.

If anything, more and more industries are tapping into the power of video as part of their digital marketing strategy. With 82% of all the internet traffic coming from video, this makes perfect sense.

To add, viewers retain 95% of the video message as compared with 10% of what they read.

It’s no wonder more traditional industries like eCommerce, healthcare, finance, law, and education among others are adopting video media marketing. The pharmaceutical industry, in particular, is actually adopting video marketing at an impressive rate. It's proving to be an effective method to help pharma brands grow brand awareness and educate their audience.

Still not convinced? Let's take a look at some numbers:

• 86% of businesses across industries use video
• 89% of video marketers agree video delivers good ROI (they see improvement in lead generation, traffic – even sales)
• Consumers watch 16 hours of online video per week, and 84% of them end up buying a product or service after watching a brand's video(s)

In short, video can be a powerful asset for any content marketer and bring in good ROI, viewer demand, and popularity.

The only question now: what sort of videos should you be creating as part of your pharmaceutical marketing efforts?

Let's go through into 8 video ideas for your pharmaceutical company. We’ll also look at how video can help improve your marketing activities and overcome challenges that pharmaceutical companies face when it comes to content creation.

Why video helps combat the main challenges of the pharmaceutical industry

Essentially, marketers in the pharmaceutical industry have extra troubles when it comes to video creation.

To begin with, there are the standard challenges:

• Difficulty in differentiating your brand in a competitive market.
• Challenges with aligning results and business goals while tying them all together into a viable content strategy.
• Uncertainty about how to create good content that not just attracts your potential customers’ attention throughout the funnel but also retains and, ultimately, converts them.

On top of that, a pharmaceutical marketing team also faces the following hurdles:

• Difficulty in managing public perception of pharmaceutical brands: many consumers have a negative image of the pharmaceutical industry and believe that it is more interested in profit than helping people.
• Challenges in fighting the social stigma that surrounds some health conditions, making it hard to discuss solutions to those health concerns.
• Struggles with finding the right stories to tell as many people aren’t open to sharing their health problems – even with fellow sufferers. Keeping stories private is another concern that can impact your messaging’s authenticity.
• Always ensuring all messaging is consistent with FDA-approved messaging.

How video helps combat marketing challenges of the pharmaceutical industry

Fortunately, adding video content to your online marketing plan helps. Here’s how:

1. Video can help with consistent messaging. You can always run a disclaimer on your product messaging. With interactive links in your video content, you can also get viewers to read more about rare or misunderstood health conditions.
2. Video helps with authentic storytelling. The video format can articulate your brand’s value and services in a more engaging way. Seeing your principles and values in action on screen goes a long way in building trust, rather than a long text document that loses the reader after a few lines.
3. Video content marketing is also more relatable and consumers love it. With a powerful message at its core, potential customers can see that you understand their condition and are here to help. The same message can also help educate a wider target market. Hence, you can spread awareness about little-discussed health conditions – even clarifying what’s misunderstood about some health problems.
4. Videos are easy to distribute. Share them on the social networks your audience uses, for example. Push them out on social and search engines, using paid advertising too. If you're focused on offering solutions to a particular disease, you can go niche with your marketing plans. For example, take to social media channels and create support communities for patients, using video to educate them in the process.

8 video ideas to tap into for your pharmaceutical content marketing strategy

Before we go on, it’s important to note that videos can be more expensive to produce than with other content types.

In-house efforts can often lead to poor-quality videos, which can aggravate your problems by damaging brand credibility.

The solution? Hire a video marketing agency with an in-depth understanding of the caution to exercise as they create content for you – finding one is easier said than done though and this solution is the by far the most expensive.

The best solution? Empower your marketing team to produce their own high-quality videos with a video creation tool, such as PlayPlay.

Now for pharmaceutical video ideas to explore:

1. Explainer videos

Explainer videos are bite-sized videos that break down a concept step-by-step, with the added benefit of a visual format. Here is a an example of an explainer video that provides important information about Covid-19 — making it more easily understandable for a wide audience.

Explainer videos can also be used to boost your pharmaceutical company's online presence, present what the company it stands for, and how it can help potential customers.

Similarly, you can create explainer videos about your products to educate your audience on how the products work — helping patients to understand the treatment and, consequently, be more open to taking it. Here’s an example:

2. Testimonial videos

Testimonial videos are a great way to convince and convert customers using social proof.

When prospects see other people praising your solution, they’re more likely to trust you and buy your product or service.

Here’s an example of a testimonial video that tells an authentic story:

For a video testimonial to be effective, it should evoke viewers’ emotions. Feature real-life stories of patients and you'll be sure to have a story that tugs at the heartstrings.

Use the before/after storytelling technique in your videos to show viewers exactly how your product helped a patient. If you need some more inspiration, here are more ideas for creating compelling testimonial videos.

3. Disease awareness videos

While you can create explainer videos around disease awareness, you can also create other story-based videos that drill home a powerful message as this video on teenage smoking does:

You can also feature struggling patients in your content, to drive home the real stories of people living with particular diseases. Or, create an awareness video talking about the rising numbers of a disease.

Finally, you can get experts to talk about a disease to spread awareness of it.

This example is a winning piece of content that features experts on how mental illness impacts life. The video producer, Johnson & Johnson, then shares what they’re doing to help.

4. Solution awareness videos

Often solutions to a health concern are in the testing stage. Again, in cases like these, videos can help your marketing campaigns by better explaining how participating in the trial can help the wider public.

To add to the authenticity of such a video, try to feature early participants explaining their reasoning for joining the trial.

Alternatively, feature medical experts talking about the trial and how it can help in the development of the solution. Abbot does the same in this video:

5. Expert interview videos

Another idea to add to your content roadmap is an expert interview. These videos bring expertise and authority to the table — helping you create credible, trustworthy content.

If your strategist plans to do regular expert interviews, you can easily stand out from your competitors. Positioning yourself as the go-to authority for questions that your target audience has related to various illnesses.

Expert interview videos like these are also a great way to get on your audience’s trust radar without being overly promotional.

Have a video featuring a team member or a high-level in the company giving an interview, like the example below:

Share it on your site and marketing channels. You can also repurpose it to create small videos for the social media platforms you use.

6. Collaboration videos

This could be a collaboration with industry influencers or someone serving the same target audience as yourself. You can also pair up with a name that can get your brand exposure. If you want to get to know some content marketing influencers - whether in terms of getting inspiration or teaming up with them - check out this blog post.

This is a great example of digital content produced by a collaboration between Pharma giant, Pfizer, and National Geographic, educating people on the coronavirus vaccine.

The interviews with experts show the human side of your company and its expertise, helping to gain your audience’s trust.

If you’re creating colloboration videos, you can always repurpose them and share the content on various social media channels for better reach. For example, create a 'highlights reel' of the full-length video and post on social media to encourage viewers to watch the full version. Content like this will also help your comopany's thought leadership status.

7. Company introduction videos

Such a video is a great tactic to get your audience to know you better.

In particular, featuring friendly faces from your team is a quick and effective way to come off as a pharmaceutical company that’s not a faceless, profit-first organization.

For this type of video, write a video script that narrates your values and what you stand for. Choose a couple of your best speakers to deliver the introduction!

8. Documentary films

This last one’s a big budget idea, but one that’ll significantly help conversions.

Here’s a page from Argenx pharma who created a 3-part “A Mystery to Me,” their first documentary series featuring the lives of three patients living with myasthenia gravis (MG).

In each episode, the pharma company shows the patients’ everyday life — helping to educate viewers on the disease itself but also about the devastating effects it can have on people's lives.

They shared these episodes on their site but gated the content so that only subscribers could access it. This way, the company effectively brought email marketing into the picture by getting the emails of interested viewers — to move them down their sales funnel.

Ready to take your pharmaceutical content marketing to the next level?

With these video ideas, you can create a library of video content to connect, engage with, and convert your audience into paying customers – all while gaining their trust. Not enough ideas yet? Don't forget to check out the content marketing trends for inspiration!

Try PlayPlay for free to create your professional videos – it’s the best video creation solution for your team to get started today.