Why you can’t rely on organic social posts to reach your target audience
In our experience, life science companies invest significant time and effort in creating content to post organically on their social media platforms, particularly LinkedIn. However, relying solely on organic posts to publicise medical content to your target audience is a strategy that rarely delivers meaningful results.
Here's why...
Organic reach is limited by the LinkedIn algorithm
LinkedIn's algorithm significantly limits the reach of company page organic posts. This is the case even for companies with high volumes of followers.
SparkLife research shows that:
- On average only 9% of your company page followers will see each of your organic company posts. The reach of organic posts will vary depending on the content type, but, whatever you post, LinkedIn is notoriously mean at distributing organic content from company pages.
- Only approximately 10% of your company page followers are your target customers. The majority of company followers are employees, competitors, and job seekers.
For life science companies aiming to reach clinicians
or other important stakeholders, the total number of their
target audience seeing a company post is equivalent to just
1%
of their followers
Posting on your company page is a bit like posting your company updates in the office reception. While employees will notice, potential customers outside won’t.
Paid LinkedIn targeted advertising: A solution worth considering
LinkedIn-targeted advertising offers an effective way to ensure your content reaches the right audience. While LinkedIn ads have a reputation for being costly, they can be highly cost-effective when executed well.
- Advanced targeting features allow you to reach specific roles, regions, and even hospital groups.
- New LinkedIn ad formats and effective bidding strategies can deliver reach and engagement at highly cost-efficient levels.
What else should life science companies do to reach their target audience more effectively?
LinkedIn advertising is a truly great solution when done well but there’s much you can do to optimise your organic activity too.
Engage your company employees
Use organic posts to engage current employees. Employee accounts get much better reach than company accounts so use them to push your content further.
Engage Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs)
Having KOLs post about your medical educational content, which you then sponsor, is an excellent way of engaging your target audience.
Ensure your content engages your audience
Do you understand the needs of your target audience? Are you writing posts that they’d want to re-post? If you post content your audience wants to share, your reach will go through the roof.
By combining thoughtful organic content with strategically targeted advertising, life science companies can significantly enhance their reach and impact. Publicising medical content to the right audience requires more than posting it on your company page—it requires a plan.
If you've enjoyed this content, sign up to our weekly newsletter by filling in the form below.
SparkLife, founded by John Perkins and Carolyn Kelday, offers a proven marketing system designed to help life science companies navigate these challenges and reach their target audiences effectively. Their approach, which leverages digital expertise and strategic insights, has already demonstrated significant improvements in marketing performance.
©2025 SparkLife Marketing Ltd. All rights reserved.