CRO Lead Generation: Where Clients Really Come From

Biotech is high-risk, high-trust.

A project manager choosing a CRO risks months of regulatory delays, lost time, and wasted resources if the results turn out unreliable.

Decisions aren’t made impulsively, they rely on credibility, validation, and proven expertise (nothing new by now).

That’s why the channels that signal trust earliest dominate pipeline creation: referrals, reputation, and conferences.

Let’s dive deeper into lead generation. Imagine you’re a CRO producing custom mRNA for research labs or pharma. Here’s where your clients would come from:

1. Referrals and Word of Mouth (40–50%)

Referrals are the main growth engine for CROs. In biotech, trust equals risk reduction, and clients prefer to work with teams already validated by colleagues.

Common sources of referrals:

• Scientists who’ve worked with you before and moved to new companies
• Repeat clients who recommend you to colleagues
• Partner CROs, CDMOs, or KOLs who refer you

There are many things a company can do to improve referrals.

But they fall more into the BD department than marketing.

These include:

• Providing exceptional customer service (duh!)
• Sending thank-you notes, discounts, exclusive access to products, follow-ups for a progress check, etc
• Providing summaries of the project (which they might even use to send to their peers).

How marketing can help CRO lead generation:

When somebody arrives to your website form a referral, you already have their trust, but that doesn’t mean the sale is guaranteed.

Now you need to show them you’re the right choice, and for that, you need content (that’s why content marketing is so important)

• Keep your website and social media active and aligned with your brand tone
• Create specific websites pages or blog posts that help visitors see themselves in your content (the more specific, the better)
• Showcase your expertise with case studies, flyers, and brochures that clearly explain your capabilities

Extra tip to keep the referrals coming: 

Send email updates to customers with new case studies or publications to stay on top of their mind

2. Direct Traffic and Branded Search (20–30%)

People who’ve seen you at conferences or heard about your work will search for you directly (“Company X mRNA synthesis”).

How marketing helps:

• Speak at events and share insights to keep your name circulating
• Encourage partners to link to your site in collaborations or press releases
• Maintain a consistent visual identity (logo, templates, tone)
• Keep a social media strategy focused on awareness, make sure they know where to go when they need a CRO

3. Organic Search (15–25%)

Organic traffic brings in new clients who haven’t heard of you yet but arrived to you because seems you have the answer to their problems.

This is one of the most scalable channels for CRO lead generation and where content matter the most.

How marketing helps:

• Build detailed pillar pages with keywords (“custom IVT synthesis,” “mRNA purification CRO”) so people can find you when searching for solutions
• Optimize paragraphs to the max. Here are a few tips on copywriting to get started
• Post articles addressing common client challenges
• Include client and employee testimonials to earn the trust of new visitors
• Keep site speed, structure, and metadata optimized so people don’t bounce back immediately 
• Make it easy for visitors to reach out using call to actions
• Gain backlinks from partners, suppliers, and relevant directories to show higher in Google search

4. Conferences, Partnerships, and BD Outreach (15–25%)

At the end of the day… we are animals. We love real-life interactions.

How marketing helps:

• Choose conferences based on the audience, not on the topic: go where your ideal clients are
• Create branded visuals, flyers, and QR codes linking to your services
• Announce attendance and share takeaways online
• Repurpose event content (photos, insights, interviews) for digital use.

Of course, after conferences, you should keep track of leads in a CRM and schedule personalized follow-ups, but that’s the sales team’s job

5. Paid Media and Retargeting (5–10%)

Paid media is a fantastic opportunity to go beyond your network or to retarget those that already know you.

But it’s a small percentage and the most expensive one. You can easily spend 1.000 USD/month on Google Ads and not even get a decent lead.

If you want to read more about it, here are four ways to use Google Ads in the life sciences industry.