Clinical Research Organization Achieves Record-Breaking Revenue

Introduction

IMARC Research is a full-service global clinical research organization that helps companies conduct well-controlled, compliant clinical trials and achieve approval with the FDA. The company has contributed to many advancements in life-saving medical devices. IMARC has expertise in a wide range of therapeutic areas and provides objective oversight of studies through monitoring, auditing, consulting, training, project management and more.

The Challenge

Because of the complex and highly regulated nature of clinical research, it can take 12 months or more for IMARC to close a deal with a client. In many cases, study sponsors work with pre-approved vendors, which can make it difficult to build new partnerships. IMARC’s leadership wanted to improve its business development efforts so it would have a more consistent pipeline of prospects and a shorter sales cycle.

The Strategy

IMARC has a long relationship with Kuno Creative, dating back to its rebranding and development of a new website nearly a decade ago.

IMARC’s team members had extensive knowledge they were eager to share, but they were so busy in the field that they didn’t always have time to consistently publish whitepapers, blogs and other resources. They needed a marketing partner who understood the complexities of their industry and could guide them in content creation and distribution while allowing their team’s expertise to shine through, making the process as efficient as possible.

Kuno helped IMARC build a vast library of digital resources over several years.

The company became known as a leading voice in the clinical research industry.

Once IMARC had established authority, the leadership team worked with Kuno to set more specific goals that aligned with its business development efforts.

Content Marketing Efforts

In the past year, IMARC identified four key initiatives they wanted to promote that could help them close more deals. The team enlisted the help of Kuno to develop a content marketing campaign that would support each of these initiatives. Kuno also worked closely with the IMARC team to develop the content.

For instance, one of the campaigns focused on promoting remote audits to review clinical research trial documents before these documents were submitted to the FDA. Conducting this type of audit in person can cost upward of $10,000 when you factor in the travel costs of sending several IMARC team members to the site to review documents. Doing this work remotely reduces these costs by as much as half.

To educate customers and prospects about the advantages and cost savings of an electronic trial master file audit, Kuno developed a campaign that included a video, infographic and checklist, as well as related blog posts and emails. Kuno optimized blog posts for search terms related to trial master file reviews, which brought new visitors to the IMARC website who were searching for best practices. More than 5,000 of IMARC’s existing contacts also interacted with these resources. One was a $50 million global neurovascular company that enlisted IMARC for several audits, including a trial master file audit.

Boosted Business Development Efforts

As a result of its ongoing business development and marketing efforts, IMARC achieved the highest revenue in its 19-year history. In that time, it has grown from a single consultant to a team of almost 60 employees. It has added a new office in Minneapolis—a hub for clinical research—and has expanded its reach to include global clients. Much of that growth has occurred within the past five years. IMARC’s director of business development said a majority of the company’s leads now come from its content marketing efforts. This has allowed him to shift his focus from prospecting to closing deals and building upon existing client relationships.