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When launching clinical trials, promoting over-the-counter medications, or raising awareness, you will likely focus on reaching patients directly. One of your key goals will be to ensure you can engage and retain your existing patient base.
Every pharmaceutical marketer strives to build loyalty — patients who return to their brand and feel a genuine connection. These patients stick with the company when new competitors enter the space and even when prices rise steeply.
The Viseven team will explore essential patient retention strategies for pharma companies in this article. But first, let’s align on what patient retention means and why it is important.
Patient retention is the ability of a pharma company to keep patients engaged and motivated to choose their products or services over alternatives. It is often seen as synonymous with patient loyalty, reflecting not just one-time patient satisfaction but a meaningful, ongoing relationship with the brand.
Building patient retention requires earning customer trust. This trust comes from consistently delivering patient-centered, personalized experiences. The word consistently is key, as building trust and running a successful patient retention campaign is never an overnight process.
Retaining patients is far easier and more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. The evidence shows that gaining a new customer can cost five times more than keeping an existing patient satisfied.
Customer acquisition vs customer retention vs customer satisfaction
This is because current patients already realize the value of your products and services. They do not need as much convincing to make a purchase and are more likely to recommend your brand to family and friends, bringing in new customers at no cost to you. With all the trust in your brand, promoting new products becomes easier, as patients are more likely to consider your new offerings.
On the other hand, acquiring new customers is far from smooth sailing. They tend to weigh the pros and cons and compare your offerings to competitors. If something does not live up to their expectations, they may walk away without ever experiencing your brand.
Measuring patient retention provides clarity and lays the groundwork for your future goals. While there may not be specific patient retention rates available, you can measure it by focusing on these key areas:
There are two main ways to gather patient feedback. The first and most straightforward method is to ask directly through patient satisfaction surveys. Key areas of interest might include barriers to compliance and the Net Promoter Score (NPS).
When measuring NPS, ask patients how likely they are to recommend your products or services to others on a scale from 1 to 10. To calculate the score, categorize respondents into detractors (scores 0–6), passives (7–8), and promoters (9–10). Then, subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters to arrive at your NPS. It is best to avoid asking this question too early. Patients need time to experience and appreciate the value of your product.
Another way to amplify your patients’ voices is through social listening tools. Analyzing what customers say about you on social media helps you get a clear picture of how your brand is truly perceived.
Take social media feedback seriously. People talk about brands mainly when they have either had an amazing experience or a terrible one. Both types of feedback are valuable for evaluating whether you are on the right track. Before purchasing, potential customers tend to read reviews and friends’ comments on social media first rather than exploring your website or case studies.
An effective way to understand customer loyalty and the frequency of use is by measuring refill rates. Specifically, you should calculate the number of repeat purchases of your product, divide it by the total number of purchases, and multiply by 100.
This percentage will provide insight into how well patients adhere to their therapy. You can use this data to enhance patient compliance, minimize side effects, or improve patient education.
If you create a mobile health app for progress tracking, reminders, and educational materials, its analytics can help you understand how many patients use the solution regularly. You can also track your churn rate to identify how many users have stopped using the app.
Your website analytics can offer similar insights if you do not have a branded app. Look at how many visitors return to your educational content. This can indicate ongoing interest and trust in your brand and resources.
Patients consistently liking, commenting, and sharing your content is something you should not take for granted. It shows that, out of all the content available, they choose to spend their time with you. While social media engagement does not directly translate to patient retention, it does suggest that many of them are repeat customers who feel an emotional connection to your brand.
To measure social media engagement, divide the number of interactions by the reach, then multiply by 100. Why not divide by the number of followers instead? The truth is if the platform’s algorithm does not favor your post, even your most loyal patients might not see it. Using reach in the equation helps determine if your audience is active and values your content.
In today’s highly competitive landscape, where digitalization has reduced barriers to entering the pharma market, how can you retain patients and foster loyalty? Below, we explore some effective patient retention strategies:
Before deciding how to approach patient retention, take a moment to calculate the CLV for each customer segment. This will show you which patient groups add the most value to your business and should be your major focus.
Figuring out CLV for new patients, though, can be tricky. There is a lot of uncertainty –– how long will they stay? What are they looking for? Still, even rough numbers can help craft effective strategies for email marketing, social media, content marketing, you name it.
You probably heard that one before, but personalization is key to patient retention. You need to know your patients’ stories –– what motivates them, what challenges they face, and what influences their choices.
When you understand their stage in the treatment journey, therapy preferences, and disease history, you can reach them earlier and more meaningfully. Patients respond best to content that is relevant, timely, and considerate of their emotional state.
For example, knowing that patients diagnosed with cancer generally dislike being referred to as ‘victims’ or ‘sufferers’ can help shape not just your word choice but also your tone of voice and the type of content that will resonate with them. By providing this kind of support, you can help them make healthier choices, improve their well-being, and, in some cases, even save lives.
Understanding your customers often involves two key steps. Begin with extensive research to explore market trends and monitor your competitors’ moves. Then, use data analytics tools to process and visualize data, making it easier for teams to make informed decisions.
Campaign dashboards example
Patient retention is critical to the success of clinical trials. Storytelling can reduce dropout rates while enhancing the overall patient experience.
In her TED Talk, game designer Jane McGonigal introduced the concept of ‘Epic Meaning,’ the intrinsic human desire to contribute to society and help others. This sense of purpose creates a surge of oxytocin, motivating people to persist in their efforts.
In the context of clinical trials, you can incorporate ‘Epic Meaning’ not only by presenting evidence and statistics but also through compelling storytelling. Use creative visuals to help patients see how their participation directly benefits others facing the same condition.
Gamification enhances patients’ sense of accomplishment and empowerment, making it an effective strategy for retaining participants in clinical trials. For example, awarding badges and certificates for reaching milestones reinforces the feeling of ‘Epic Meaning.’ Progress bars, showing how much patients have achieved, highlight their efforts and create a sunk cost effect, reducing the likelihood of dropout.
Compliance bars, which track task completion, boost confidence and motivation. Meanwhile, trial journey maps can outline the next steps, which ease uncertainty and address the fear of the unknown.
The patient’s journey starts long before their visit to the doctor’s office. Patients are self-educated, turning to resources as soon as they notice their first symptoms. The global pandemic only cemented this habit when face-to-face communication became challenging.
Meeting patients where they are and engaging with them early is crucial to keep your brand top of mind. A customer relationship management (CRM) system is essential for effectively connecting across touchpoints and gaining a complete view of patient data. Pair this with a marketing automation tool to enable accurate segmentation and personalization.
To complete your omnichannel ecosystem, consider incorporating an AI-driven content experience platform. For example, Viseven’s content platform eWizard facilitates planning, creating, localizing, and distributing content, trimming time-to-market. With AI and pre-designed channel templates, it is simple to create and publish user-friendly, marketing-effective content tailored for various channels.
eWizard functionality
The mission of pharma companies is to heal patients, not to ensure they keep coming back. However, millions of people live with chronic conditions requiring ongoing care. That is why building a loyal patient base should remain a priority. It not only boosts your ROI but also solidifies your reputation as an industry leader.
Patient retention works best when it is personalized and patient-centered. Whether you want to retain participants for clinical trials or help patients stick to their treatment plans, the Viseven team has the expertise to support you. For over 15 years, we have helped 50 pharma companies increase patient retention and enhance consumer trust.
Our data analytics experts can help you uncover insights from your internal and external systems, turn them into clear visualizations, and make smarter business decisions. We can guide you in building a robust omnichannel ecosystem and provide our content experience platform, eWizard, to create content that strikes a chord with patients and helps you build lasting customer relationships.
Contact us if you are ready to focus on patient retention but do not know where to start.
