Biopharma CRO Website Design for Avastus PS
Contract Research Organization in Cambridge, MA gets bespoke website, custom icons and video.
Website project overview
Biotechnology, Biopharma
Client
Avastus Preclinical Services
Solution
Website Design, Illustrations + Icons
When it comes to biopharma CRO website design and marketing, contract research organizations are unique birds.
Especially the smaller ones.
In a lot of ways, they’re like every other biotech in that they really benefit when they work with niche-specific (biotech) design agencies. On the other hand, they often need a full compliment of services beyond just a website makeover. That requires an agency that can provide things like:
- organic SEO or paid search to help them show up in local Google searches
- custom photos or videos to make their facilities look squeaky clean
- integrated collateral projects like email blasts and custom directions to get people to swing by and check out the facilities
And the most important thing a smaller CRO needs is an experienced creative director – someone who’s successfully coordinated creative teams and managed complex integrated digital marketing campaigns.
Biopharma CRO
Website Redesign
Challenges
Avastus PS is located just outside of the Cambridge, MA biotech/biopharma hub. Being Cambridge-adjacent gives them a tremendous advantage over other Cambridge-based CROs: they aren’t saddled with the exorbitant rent of one of the most expensive zip codes in the U.S.!
On the flip side, they compete with overseas CROs. Many of the Cambridge-based pharmas ship their testing overseas to China.
But when it came to the biopharma CRO website design itself, there were two challenges.
Their biggest challenge was awareness. Nobody knew they existed. For Cambridge-based biotechs and biopharmas that wanted to babysit their testing, Avastus needed to show up in local searches.
Second, they needed an instantly attractive site. The ultimate objective was to encourage site visitors to request a personal tour, but their current site was neither attractive, nor did it have a clear call-to-action.
Biopharma CRO
Website Redesign
Solution
As with all biopharma website redesign projects, everything starts with the kickoff call.
The kickoff is when we do a deep dive into the client’s problem. In this case, Robbie Moore – creative director overseeing this project – realized very early on that he’d have to manage a bigger team. In addition to the core team of project manager, designer and developer, the client would need:
- a local SEO expert to make sure the pages were optimized for local searches
- a video/photo team to shoot ‘day in the life’ shots of the CRO
- a designer to create custom icons and make tiny logo modifications
It’s common on projects with big teams for the client to lose their “voice.” But Robbie made sure the client was involved throughout the entire process, from selecting and tweaking the initial mockups to providing strategy and direction for the on-site video shoot to training the client on how to make updates to the site post-launch.
Fortunately, since the team members worked together on prior projects, Robbie was able to synchronize activities so that all the creative parts came together on schedule. Photos were started early on in the process so that when the website developer was done with the custom website, he could just drop in the pictures. Likewise with the video; a placeholder was kept on the Home page so that the video could be dropped in at the last minute.
Interestingly, the site was launched six months prior to the COVID outbreak. By investing in the new site, Avastus was in the ideal position when many of the big pharmas started to reconsider shipping their tests to China.
Stellar has the ability to handle complex projects with an on-demand creative team. Contact us if you’re in the market for integrated biopharma CRO website design services.
