Pharma Content Localization: Best Tactics Posted on April 22, 2022March 4, 2025 by Andrii Nikulin Global pharma companies seem to be in a position of advantage when it comes to entering emerging markets (now also dubbed “pharmerging countries”). Why, with bigger R&D possibilities, more advanced digital maturity stages and communication strategies, it seems fulfilling the mission of drug accessibility is as easy as pushing a button at the corporate HQ. At the same time, there are nuances to observe besides translating global content into target language – and at many organizations, the current processes of localizing content simply don’t allow to plug in the additional expertise. This leads to inefficiencies along the way, from internal constraints at local level to inexplicably lower-than-projected ROI. Here, we analyze the benefits of a well-thought content localization strategy – and localization management tools that can help. Global companies, local markets Spending on medicines is growing unequally across the world. According to prognoses, the US share will increase from $485 bln in 2018 to $625 bln by 2023, while the pharmerging countries are expected to spend up to $385 bln, rising from the 2018 baseline of 286 – growing by almost 1/3. Now, these are pre-COVID estimates, but the pandemic has not removed the underlying factors (such as aging populations and consumer awareness) to a considerable extent everywhere. Some more recent research has found the emerging markets will yield CAGR of 10.4% in the half-decade from 2021-26. At the same time, while COVID has not disrupted this growth, it has changed things a lot when it comes to actually penetrating these markets. Traditionally, the use of conventional (but costly) channels of communication like medical reps, has been low in many regions, or field force were insufficiently furnished with visual and other promotional aids. The push toward digital that occurred in Q2-Q3 2020 has given the potential to level the capacities here. Granted, global companies still have the advantage of more mature omnichannel engagement strategies – but simply importing them along with content would be a major mistake. Regional specifics are crucial to make these subtle customer journeys work properly. Meanwhile, the established local markets are growing, too (somewhere in the middle by CAGR), but also much more saturated both with products and communication. Treating these like secondary to global markets by underlocalizing the communications is becoming unacceptable. What is this ‘underlocalizing’, then? Localizing content vs. Localizing strategies While agencies collaborating with pharma have long emphasized that localization does not equal translation, adding the extra parts (like content transcreation, more sophisticated local campaigns) has been reserved to the more conscientious marketers within pharmas themselves. In many cases, operationally, “localization” was a term only applied to content – and content translation, while local affiliates were either copying the global directives, or ignoring the best practices from HQ to go on doing things in the way it had always worked on the spot. Ideally, though, there is a difference between localizing content – and localizing entire strategies. In a particular country, content types and even entire channels preferred may differ from what is expected at HQ, socially acceptable touchpoint frequency may vary from culture to culture, etc. What’s more, even when there is understanding of these two “localizations”, the strategic one invariably influences the content localized. Failing to establish a firm link between them results in squandering opportunities. This is the case of a company localizing wrong content, or a really energetic local manager with a genius strategy being bound to use only partly suitable (but shiny) materials. Establishing this link requires understanding of what content there is already plus the local specifics. In some cases, this leads decision makers to establish local content hubs (or appoint special local liaisons at their Content Factories). Localization besides translation No matter how proficient a translator is, there are things they simply cannot do with words to provide the native look and feel. Someone will have to dive into design and code to fully adapt these. So, what exactly is it that requires content to be transcreated, and not just translated? Visuals. This umbrella term encompasses a lot of factors: what is the visual to text ratio that the customers are comfortable with? What are the preferred data visualization types? For example, while most countries accept the traditional pie charts, graphs, bar charts, etc., the more recent infographic designs are not universally considered aesthetic. Also, do the visuals correspond to the local realities? This has been a pitfall for some AVOD advertisers in Latin America, where 70% users feel underrepresented in the content. Psychology. This includes things like casual attention span (the amount of time a person is willing to dedicate to information before deciding whether to get invested in it). Further down the list are common attention or reaction triggers, as well as perceptions of tone of voice. Some cases are really like an extension of the linguistic T/V phenomenon (like tú vs. Usted in Spanish). This atmosphere of (in)formality exists even beyond words, when HCPs sometimes consider the tone of voice unacceptable or slightly off. Objective regional specifics. Epidemiology of the target condition(s), dominant patient profiles, official guidelines and which are recognized more, affordability, insurance policies – all of these impact the phrasing and choice of key messages. If some material layout proudly presents a box with text saying, “recommended by [association]”, and you have to remove it, what will go there? Coding it all. Supposing you have found the necessary expertise to truly localize the content in all details, who is going to work with all the code? This is the place where the “give-it-to-an-agency-once” model may prove inefficient, because the coders and project managers will perform better when immersed in the context. Additionally, for some content types, it is better to code (and test) with the dominant target platform and device in mind. Making content localization more efficient All of this influences the efficiency of any localization strategy. Needless to say, no matter how developed a strategy can be in the marketer’s mind, the end implementation ultimately can be thwarted by something as simple as ineffective workflows and blown budgets. But how exactly to fix the issue? In practice, whenever Viseven experts are approaching the global content localization solution issue (be it within a Digital Content Factory project or an omnichannel campaign scaled to multiple countries), there are two efficiency factors: internal and external. In the basic ROI equation, you can increase the return by either reducing the initial investment or making sure the net return figure is higher. The “internal” factor is the bottom of the equation, the initial allocation of costs, time, effort (we’re being multidimensional here). You can reduce this by eliminating the “waste” byproducts and processes in something like a Lean approach. This means providing more convenient virtual workplace, establishing better workflows, and so on. On the other hand, the “external” factor in localization efficiency addresses the net return – that is, how much this localized strategy or content yields in the field. To raise this figure, one needs to go beyond localizing content to localizing strategy and tactics (that is why we talked about it earlier), as well as account for local realities. So what would the recommended to-do list look like? Actionable steps Provide convenient UX for translators. Even in cases where localization does equal translating things, there are plenty of nuances that only translators know about. For example, it is often necessary to see where a string of text fits into the visual layout provided by the creative. On the other hand, simply commenting on a PDF file is also inconvenient, especially if the PDF is of a pharmaceutical eDetailing presentation loaded with small print and subscript/superscript figures. When a translator is working, their speed is limited by small distractions like having to format the text or checking the contextual placement. Even when each individual moment of such actions only takes up 2-3 seconds, they add up to much more in the process. This is why we enabled several localization modes in our eWizard content authoring platform to provide a convenient interface. Provide a content authoring platform to implement visual changes. For changes besides translation, the visual design component is important. Even when it’s simply the question of removing a text box or changing the amount of text, such alterations impact the layout. When such changes accumulate (and they do once you want to localize in earnest), giving each and every one of such edits to a developer team as a separate request is no longer feasible. Implementing a low code/no-code content editing platform allows to be flexible on this sort of issues and minimize the investment in paid time and effort. Provide possibility for fast pre-MLR review by local experts (and streamline collaboration between them and project management). There are things that MLR review turns into edits, but which could possibly be nipped in the bud if only someone had a look before submitting the material. Informally, many specialists already do address their colleagues in the know before passing assets to MLR: “hey there, what do you think of it.” This spares time, as the correction loop before MLR is often shorter than after it. Making this practice the norm, and facilitating it with proper tools can help reduce localization time and effort. We even integrated a functionality for pre-MLR review into eWizard platform with interactive preview and commenting mode, notifications, and so on. Provide a platform for content reuse (not to code or recode from scratch) + single standard and access to well-arranged DAM. This is a practice that allows to address both internal and external efficiency factors. Content reuse approaches (from block-based to modular) allow not only to save costs and time on development itself, but also to cover a larger amount of smaller segments with personalized messaging. Instead of a presentation or two plus an email or two, you can enter a local market with a truly personalized campaign (or at least a personalizable one), where you recombine pre-approved modules to deliver messages the way it’s already being envisioned in global offices across companies. Organizationally, to enable this, you need a platform to work with modules, a DAM system that supports them (Veeva Vault PromoMats), integration between the two, and expertise in onboarding the local markets to work in this paradigm. Conclusions At the first glance, ensuring proper localization at all stages may seem a daunting task – but ensuring efficiency with several pinpointed tactics will result in less troubles than continuing to work in the conventional ways. To make this transformation as easy as possible, we at Viseven have supplied the necessary functionalities inside eWizard content authoring platform. This allows us to provide localization services for our customers much more efficiently than before – and also helps many companies to streamline localization themselves. Learn more about how this works and book a free demo, where you can also ask our expert about other available options to facilitate localization. Fill out the form below to request a consultation from Viseven’s expert!
Pharma Consent Management Based on Omnichannel Approach Posted on April 7, 2022March 4, 2025 by Andrii Nikulin Looking at the night sky, we might think about the horizons that technologies open for customer interaction and what lies ahead. Today the variety of channels available for customer interaction captures the imagination, however, without a sufficient amount of data, we can compare our audience to distant stars that we try to reach in the dark. Thus, the way organizations are collecting, managing, and utilizing users’ data in the era of digital omnichannel technologies has become a serious competitive advantage allowing them to provide something extra to the customers. How is it for pharma companies that have followed the path of digitalization but remain especially burdened in terms of different regulations? Let’s talk about how omnichannel technologies address these issues, introducing the secure basis for pharma communication in terms of regulatory compliance. What is the HCP consent management in pharma? Pharma’s regular operations are closely related to the procedure of consent collection. This is an obligatory practice as the data they possess is under the label ‘sensitive.’ Thus, at all times, the biggest possible threat to the pharma company’s reputation was the disclosure of confidential information. Under consent collection, we mean the generally accepted procedure when a physician or patient provides a legal basis for further communication with a particular pharmaceutical brand, providing their personal information like gender, age, location, email address, interests, etc. The marketers use this information to provide them with targeted ads and commit to processing and storing the obtained data properly, providing the correct operation of systems and tools that collect this data. This process is supported by General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR. This remarkable regulation obliges all brands you interact with to first ask consent before processing your data. Another urgent regulation is California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA that is aimed at protecting your right as a consumer enabling you to opt out of further communication and use of your data at any time. The consent policy may vary in complexity depending on the regulatory bodies of different countries. Usually, the compliance departments in pharma companies are responsible for ensuring that all the activities of the company are clearly regulated and comply with all laws, and regulations. However, despite that, pharmaceutical companies annually pay billions of dollars in fines for violations of rules or regulations. Consent can exist in several forms: Partial communication consent that allows communicating to HCP only via a channel where the consent was collected Holistic communication consent that allows communicating to HCP via all channels – emails, SMS, etc.) Consent to process personal data Consent for tracking a CLM activity for an account The rise of omnichannel communication has offered a wide range of opportunities for improved customer experience, however, at the same time, it comes along with many challenges of consent collection for numerous pharma companies. What’s wrong with pharma consent management? Making the transition from in-personal interaction to digital, we have inherited a huge amount of data that, if used correctly, allows us to deliver HCPs the ever-personalized content. We got an extra bunch of channels to deliver the right message to the HCPs, however, their newly acquired digital consuming habits have migrated from ordinary life to professional activities, and now they spend much of their working time balancing between devices. Now half of the HCPs said they want to receive promotional content on their mobile or tablet. Another 62% of HCPs and 57% of HCPs opt to get clinical and medical content on computers/laptops. This causes problems for pharma companies as it damages the environment in which they are accustomed to living. In the days when communication with a doctor was based mainly on personal communication, the process of gaining consent was strikingly different from what it is today. With the splash of digital activities, there was a need to manage huge amounts of data across multiple channels. For pharma, it has become a real challenge as there is still a huge gap in how to set up consent collection via digital channels. On the other hand, there is a tangled mess of regulatory measures in the industry that have no right to be violated. Are you aware of these problems? There is no centralized place for managing consents. The data is gathered through many different systems significantly complicating the tracking of the consent’s status. It’s hard to put together the customers’ data and align different types of activities. It all results in a time-consuming process requiring the intervention of many professionals. According to statistics, about 30% of data loss occur when connecting the data from one platform to the next. The other obstacle is the absence of valid customer data to start with or the availability of incorrect data that contains errors or typos in names or addresses. And the most common issue is when we simply have no idea what to introduce to the doctor and have a lack of content that would potentially interest the HCP. How the process of consent collection looks like? The consent collection process depends on the type of interaction, whether it is face-to-face or virtual interaction. As you may understand, it also depends on the Customer’s requirements, country legislation, and regulations. As, for example, certain countries require reps to send confirmation to HCPs for capturing consent. This can also be done via email. Other countries have regulations requiring HCPs to verify their email addresses when giving consent to receive email communications. In simply regulated countries, only 1 checkbox is required in the form to receive consent and communicate via all channels. In countries with more complicated regulations, 2 checkboxes are required. The difference in the number of channels that will be engaged in a communication. Usually, the subdivision is as follows: 1st checkbox – a consent to communicate via the current channel 2nd checkbox – a consent to communicate via other channels Also, the variety of tools that can be utilized for consent capturing. During the face-to-face meeting, consent is usually gathered with CLM (mobile part of the CRM). During virtual interaction, we can reinforce it with emails, landing pages, webinar registration, or filling out a form to download any materials which always results in better HCP engagement rate (43% of HCPs agree). In the end of the journey, customer data is transmitted to a customer’s CRM or consent management system. Prerequisites of Consent Collection Today, buyers are happy to provide their data in exchange for personalization to the brands they trust. However, in the pursuit of personalization, we should not forget about the importance of following all the rules of customer data management for HCPs. According to the GDPR, subscribers must have full control over the information they share and have easily searchable access to documents explaining the purposes for which their data will be used. The process of consent collecting should be transparent The main rule of CCPA must be observed that implies that before users consent to the processing of their data, they have the right to be informed that at any time they may refuse to communicate further. The right to be forgotten All materials and language you use to gather consent should be clear, understandable, and should not include vague, difficult-to-understand forms, wording, and terms. The process must be clear and eligible Earlier, in the article ‘Ensuring data security and compliance in pharma’s digital transformation’, we talked a lot about how to achieve security in personal data management and derived a golden rule for working with customer data, which read as follows: The customer should always be provided with transparency on what their data is used for, what channels will be engaged, and see what’s behind each tick they put into a checkbox. Omnichannel consent journey Earlier the routine communication of pharmaceutical companies with their target audience is based on personal communication. This was the case until the surge in digital activity and companies began to communicate with doctors through digital communication channels. This way of communication has settled in and turned out to be the preferred mode of communication to both parties. Pharma companies have reaped the benefits in terms of significantly higher engagement rates, while HCPs have found the optimal way to communicate with pharma brands without significant damage to their schedule. This can be traced in numbers saying that 50% of HCPs would like to engage digitally and remotely given their tight schedule. On the long road to obtaining a doctor’s consent, the biggest obstacle for a medical representative is primarily to get to this doctor, fit into the schedule and persuade them to give consent. Note that the last HCPs do without much enthusiasm. Thus, the most justifiable method is to collect consent through at least several channels. It turned out that the easiest way to get to the HCP is through their daily habits. The wide range of channels they use every day provides various opportunities to show up on their radar. It takes is qualitative content and an understanding of where to sell it. 61% of HCPs said they want pharma sales reps to have a better understanding of their needs and the needs of their patients. This is where the omnichannel stepped in and thrived introducing the new look at targeted digital HCP engagement. The ability to build a detailed customer journey allows to capture each interaction and consent in detail and provide the customer with the rights information through the right channel. For pharma companies, this means a large financial investment in terms of change management and the involvement of professionals who understand the specifics of the pharma industry and the process of collecting consents as well. A million-dollar issue? Not really since annual fines paid by pharmaceutical companies for non-compliance reach $9.6 million. How does it work? Becoming a trusted service provider takes compliance with certain communication rules, among them, are: The engaging content The trust and transparency The right time and channel The modern customer got used to the convenience of communication and independent choice of the appropriate format. The main idea is to communicate via social media, context, and target ads to the potential audience and provide some useful materials relating to their therapeutic area. Emails are the preferred channel for many HCPs. We can use them to introduce many types of content like webinar recording, presentation, and other useful materials. The engagement may also occur through landing pages, social media, posts, and many others. For example, pharma may develop a webinar involving KOL to expose the depth of the problem and build trust in the product showing its expertise. It would be a good piece of scientific content. To make it saleable on the market, it is crucial to present it to the right segment of HCPs through the channel they use. When in a certain country, we may have one checkbox, the flow is relatively simple. When there are two, the information in the customer’s account in the marketing automation system must be collected in separate fields. This, in turn, requires expert intervention, a specialist who can reconfigure these two fields in the automation system’s code, avoiding critical errors in the account. In some cases, companies reaping the benefits of the omnichannel approach may immediately define the target segment of HCPs and create the interactive content to satisfy their basic request a priori; conduct A/B testing, set the right targeting, and create the highly personalized social media marketing campaign. The advanced agencies on the market are distinguished by combining the technical and marketing expertise when it comes to omnichannel. This is especially graphical when it comes to consent. As a global provider of omnichannel services, Viseven implements Consent Collection and Management projects for global pharma companies considering their specifics and marketing goals. Fill out the form below to get a personal expertise and reap the benefits of digital communication in the most compliant manner.
How to Create Patient Journey Mapping for Better Healthcare Experiences? Posted on March 28, 2022January 31, 2025 by Andrii Nikulin Now is the best time to time to implement patient journey mapping in healthcare. According to a survey of 30 US-based health system leaders conducted by Deloitte, 77% of executives said they are actively reimagining their customer journey planning, switching from treatment to achieving and maintaining health and well-being. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the transformations most stakeholders in the global healthcare system have been waiting for years. In a time of record burnout and intent to leave the job across most healthcare roles, healthcare providers and professionals have access to data-driven solutions that have moved healthcare services beyond physical facilities. Today, the care process is not only about an in-person visit to a medical facility but omnichannel experiences, automation, applications, call centers, and wearables. Hence more healthcare providers and professionals have started to embrace the benefits of patient journey mapping. In this article, we’ll explore the importance of a customer journey in pharma, determine why an organization needs a pharmaceutical customer journey, and discover how to do patient journey mapping according to the latest practices and trends. What is a Patient Journey Map? Also called a healthcare customer journey map, a patient journey map is a plan that allows healthcare providers, payers, and public organizations to improve the patient experience and develop a holistic approach to delivering personalized care based on understanding patients’ lifestyles, preferences, and needs. What is Patient Journey Mapping? Patient journey mapping is the process of creating a patient journey map that deals with each patient’s problems at each stage of their interaction with a healthcare organization. The Stages of Customer Journey in Healthcare Here’s how patients interact with care providers: Stage 1. Pre-Visit Research The customer engagement journey starts with a stage when the patient suspects they have some symptoms and goes to social media, forums, and other communities to search for a treatment that doesn’t require professional medical assistance. Stage 2. Getting in Touch At this stage, the patient realizes they can only do with professional medical care and addresses a healthcare provider directly via an available communication channel or stumble upon the provider’s website after they follow a pay-per-click (PPC) ad or engage with any other means of online or offline promotion. Stage 3. Care and Treatment After the initial contact, the patient visits the provider’s physical facility and goes through the assessment process with one or several healthcare professionals who provide the care and treatment necessary for the patient’s full recovery. Stage 4. Post-Visit Treatment and Retention The patient follows treatment recommendations and adjusts their lifestyle to recover from disease under the provider’s supervision. To provide professional care, the provider remains available 24/7 via phone and online. The provider may also engage with the patient via preferred channels in the treatment process to ask about the patient’s condition and provide extra information that would be useful and engaging for the patient to gain the patient’s trust and retain them. The Challenge of Patient Journey Mapping: Low Digital Maturity Healthcare has a big future where automation and technology will predominate. In 2021, the worth of artificial intelligence in the healthcare market amounted to $11 billion worldwide. Statista predicts the global AI healthcare market will face a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 37% from 2022, amounting to $188 billion by 2030. A substantial shift from traditional to digital is now forcing healthcare organizations to redefine how they provide patient experiences, which may be a significant problem due to low digital maturity. On the other hand, fierce competition and continuously growing access to technology have already encouraged many healthcare organizations to understand their target audiences and engage with them on a personal level. In a world where patients have high medical awareness and demand patient-centric treatment, a patient journey map is essential for building a successful marketing strategy within a healthcare organization. The Benefits of Patient Journey Mapping Here’s why a healthcare organization needs a customer engagement journey map: The Culture of Innovation and Digital Maturity Patient journey mapping encourages healthcare providers to deploy an innovative vision as a part of their growth strategy and cultivate an interest in technology among multiple stakeholders, which increases the organization’s digital maturity and provides a standard for continuous improvements. The creation of a patient journey map involves the implementation of advanced technology. Chatbots personalize communication with patients. Artificial intelligence generates actionable insights. Automation accelerates data processing. Data Management and Consolidation in a Single Environment When a healthcare organization creates a patient journey map, it completely changes how they work with all available information, including patient data. Patient journey mapping fosters healthcare providers to implement a single ecosystem that integrates all the activity areas that affect patient care at all stages of engagement and interaction. A Complete View of Patients and Enhanced Teamwork An integrated ecosystem gives organizations a holistic view of their activities and optimizes connections among multiple teams where professionals with varied expertise cooperate to create a patient journey map. It eliminates misunderstanding, leverages resources, and streamlines patient care. Personalized Patient Care and Experience at Scale Patient journey mapping helps organizations quickly address the personal needs of each patient, modernize patient flow, design insight-driven predictive models to identify patterns and trends and prevent disease in the future, and make better decisions to create better outcomes and retain more patients. Improved Patient Retention After implementing patient journey mapping, providers can develop more effective patient retention strategies. A 360-degree view, personalized care, and advanced technical infrastructure lay a strong foundation for gaining patients’ trust, spreading the word about the organization, and solving business pain points. The Elimination of Business Pain Points Along with eliminating the pain points of patient engagement, patient journey maps also help identify pain points inside an organization and improve productivity, accountability, financing, and processes. High Standards for Marketing and Content Creation Patient journey mapping standardizes how an organization plans, produces, manages, distributes, and delivers content. Such standards improve the quality of content and the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, prompting an organization to keep an eye on the latest trends in healthcare services promotion and digital technology. How to Create a Seamless Patient Journey Map? Here are the actions necessary to implement customer journey mapping in healthcare: Track Existing Patient Journeys Before healthcare providers begin mapping patient journeys, they ask healthcare professionals to share information about the care journeys they usually go through with their patients. Such information is necessary to analyze the patient experience they currently provide and improve it in the future within a healthcare journey map designed by the care provider. Collect Patient Feedback Regularly After gathering input from healthcare professionals, care providers also collect patient feedback. It helps care providers improve their services by identifying gaps during healthcare journey mapping and discovering the information necessary to segment patients into a few target groups and create patient personas. Identify Patient Personas A patient persona is an image of a typical patient created using data and qualitative research. Personas are profiles that include all essential patient information, such as demographics, goals, habits, potential pain points, current problems, level of digital maturity, and other characteristics crucial for care providers. Patient personas give care providers a deep understanding of the actions necessary to expand its online presence and boost the current number of patients, discover the possibilities of patient retention, and improve coordination between stakeholders from different departments and teams. Patient personas allow care providers to know how to create an exceptional patient experience, specifically create the right content that helps solve patients’ problems, send personalized messages at the right moment via the preferred channels, and provide better services that meet specific needs. How many personas does a care provider need? The number of patient personas depends on the number of criteria the organization considers missing to view the big picture. Build the Patient Journey Funnel Also called the healthcare journey funnel, the patient journey funnel is a scheme to visualize the critical engagement stages between patients and a healthcare organization. There are four main stages within the patient journey funnel: Acquisition (Awareness). A patient knows that healthcare organizations provide different solutions and services. The main goal of a healthcare organization at this stage is to promote its solution and services on the official website, third-party websites, search engines, and social media using high-quality content at a large scale and the latest practices in digital marketing. Consideration (Interest). A patient with a health problem is looking for a solution. The main goal of a healthcare organization at this stage is to get the patient interested in the organization’s solution and services by highlighting unique benefits and advantages competitors don’t have. Conversion (Decision). After considering the services and solutions of a healthcare organization and its competitors, a patient persona with a health problem is ready to decide about treatment. At this stage, a healthcare organization’s goal is to encourage a patient to engage with a healthcare organization using any preferred communication channels, such as email, phone calls, messaging apps, online chats, PPC ads, SMS, and beyond. Retention (Loyalty). A patient uses the services and solutions of a healthcare organization. The main goal of the healthcare organization at this stage is to create long-standing and personalized relationships with the patient by establishing continuous communication that brings value so that the patient will address the organization as soon as a new medical issue occurs. The patient journey funnel helps healthcare providers identify gaps in marketing affairs, fulfill the needs of different groups of patients, and increase patient satisfaction. Consolidate All Patient Data in One Place Care providers can successfully implement patient journey mapping only in a single healthcare system that integrates data sources such as: Electronic health records (EHRs) include information about health issues, ongoing care, medications, and other clinical data. Engagement history includes patient feedback, information about patient touch points with a care provider, preferred communication channels, current needs, and other essential details that facilitate retention and increase loyalty. To build an integrated healthcare system, care providers use software that automates patient acquisition, improves patient flow, and streamlines post-visit patient experience. Build a Sufficient Digital Infrastructure A digital infrastructure plays a vital role in the patient journey mapping process. It helps internal stakeholders from multiple teams and departments connect, coordinate actions, and create personalized patient experiences at a large scale using a customer relationship management (CRM) platform. With custom CRM solutions, care providers use automation to personalize communication, get a 360 view of each patient to improve treatment and support, implement marketing campaigns and analyze their performance, and gather insights that help healthcare professionals continuously enhance patient journey maps. In the healthcare industry, mobile apps developed according to specific needs and integrated with CRM platforms are another software that can significantly improve interactions between care providers and patients within journey maps. Patient apps automate data collection, introduce telemedicine services, improve health outcomes, and personalize care. Create a Healthcare Customer Journey Map with Viseven With years of expertise in creating customer journeys in healthcare, the Viseven team can help your organization provide a unique patient experience by designing an efficient communication plan based on your brand strategy. Whatever the level of complexity and scale, our specialists can create a successful patient journey map and develop a digital infrastructure for it where your team will use automation, create personalized marketing campaigns, and analyze results using an effective KPI system. If your organization needs more details on healthcare journeys and their realization, please contact us now. Our patient journey mapping specialists will reply shortly and provide professional consultation on delivering an exceptional patient experience. Customer Journey Mapping in Healthcare: Case Study Viseven helped many organizations in the healthcare industry and many different enterprises in the life sciences industry with no experience create customer journeys based on unique goals and needs. As a result of cooperation with a top 50 pharmaceutical enterprise that needed a user journey map for multiple scenarios, the Viseven team reached: 98% goal accomplishment 196 new registrations Download this case study to read how an organization can triple the number of website registrations within 30 days using a combination of two communication channels and high-quality content within the omnichannel customer journey map. Good luck with creating your customer journey map in healthcare!
Wartime life and work: How an IT company with a large presence in Ukraine keeps operating during the Russian invasion Posted on March 11, 2022November 19, 2024 by Andrii Nikulin On February 24th, 2022, between 4 and 5 AM Kyiv time, Russia started bombing Ukrainian military infrastructure. Russian forces did not stop there, though. Putin’s regime launched a war against innocent Ukrainian civilians. The Russian army continues attacking Ukrainian schools, hospitals, maternity clinics, kindergartens — killing children, women, elderly people, leaving civilians with very few options to evacuate to safety. Viseven is a European company with offices across the world, including Ukraine. Up until Russia’s war against the country, Viseven also used to have an office in Moscow. The company terminated all ties with Russia and Belarus, as well as contracts involving both aggressor states’ clients. Since the onset of the war, Viseven started relocating its Ukrainian staff to safer cities within the country. The company’s CEO, Nataliya Andreychuk, says the safety of their employees is a top priority. Keeping that in mind, the company continues to run its daily operations, with most professionals working remotely. What are their experiences? How do the people behind the projects live? Here are some of their stories. Yevhen D, Chief People Officer: I was in Kyiv as the bombs hit. I did not evacuate the greater Kyiv area and am currently working from a village near the Ukrainian capital. I often hear heavy artillery fire, military planes flying overhead, and explosions as I log onto my computer. But I have to continue to join conference calls with the team, granted many of the typical work-day calls start with a simple “How are you, and was the night okay where you’re at?” I have to admit, it is hard to be productive, but keeping yourself occupied can also be helpful. My message to the world? I am angry at Russia… forever angry. Nataliia S, Office Manager: I am currently coordinating relocation efforts to the safer city of Ternopil in the western part of Ukraine. In fact, I was already in Ternopil researching potential office spaces in case of a Russian invasion when the rockets hit my beloved Kyiv. My son, whom I left with my parents, was with them when the bombs started falling from the sky. I had a phone call with my parents, who said something blew up fairly close by. I must be honest; there is no time to be sad. I have to remain strong for my child, family, and country, despite the panic, fear, and anger that continue to run through my mind. Currently, I am helping Viseven staff who have evacuated from cities under Russia’s massive attack. The typical office space no longer looks like it: mattresses, pillows, blankets – all to help people feel safer and more comfortable while trying to maintain some sense of normalcy during air raid sirens. Employees are scared and fearful. Everyone saw how rockets were flying into residential buildings, hitting civilian infrastructure, Russians are bombing hospitals and schools. So, keeping things running may be difficult, but it is necessary to keep going in times of war. Many of the professionals not directly involved in organizing the relocation effort had to make their own decisions in the first days. Yevhenii B, Content Author: In some incredibly horrible way, my first day at the company coincided with the first day of the war. The evening before now seems somewhat comical as I was so excited about how my first day at the office would go, how I’d introduce myself to the new team. All my dreams were to fit into a new team. That night I couldn’t sleep, countless times repeating various ways of presenting myself. I couldn’t sleep because of this feeling of some huge wave of changes that were coming into my life. With these thoughts and the pleasant anticipation of the future, I fell asleep. At 5 AM, there was a loud explosion. My life is now divided between BEFORE and AFTER: for me, my family, and my motherland Ukraine. On that very same day, I hastily packed my things and returned to the small town near Kyiv, where I’ve been living and working for the past 14 days of the war. Some days are “hotter”, some days, there is aggrieved silence – scary as it seems a beast is lurking. During these 2 weeks, invaders’ bombs have dramatically changed the city. The infrastructure continues to suffer much. I have somewhat limited access to the Internet. My new teammates turned out to be real enthusiasts who find great relief in our work, thereby contributing to our victory. While occupants are destroying our homes and trying to separate us, we are building bridges with each other and quickly becoming a real team. Yuliya S, Communications Manager: I joined the company on March 2nd, 2022. I was at home with my husband, 18-month-old son, and our family dog in Vasylkiv, one of the first cities hit by Russian rockets on February 24th. I will never forget the sound of the 5 explosions I heard. My brand-new two-story home shook, the windows shook, the doors rattled. Luckily, my great-grandmother, who survived the Second World War, left me an apartment in Ternopil decades ago. As a Canadian-Ukrainian, I choose to remain in Ukraine and help with volunteer efforts as much as possible. I am also actively doing TV interviews to convey that Russia is a terrorist state. The Russian army is attacking innocent people, bombing schools, hospitals, clinics, killing children, women, and the elderly. Russia needs to be stopped! Putin must be stopped! As far as working from home during the war – it is difficult but helpful at the same time. This is certainly not how I envisioned my first week at work. Since Russia viciously attacked Ukraine, most of our daily work meetings start with a conversation about the war, and today, a simple “How are you?” means so much more than ever. Since the Russian attack, some of Viseven’s Ukrainian employees have combined their daily work with volunteering efforts. Some have chosen to evacuate to other countries in Europe, while others have joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine or the Territorial defense. Viseven employees continue to work and deliver the best possible results while supporting Ukraine from different locations across the country and the world. Viseven specialists are arranging their work in different ways according to their (very different) physical locations. The prevailing sentiment is working as hard as possible to ensure things keep functioning in this difficult time. Hanna S, SMM Manager: I stayed in Kyiv, Ukraine, till March 1st and managed my routine workflow under ballistic missiles, sleeping at ground zero in the garage for five nights. I decided to evacuate my kids spontaneously as the explosions became too close to my house, though the day before, I stuffed my fridge with food for the nearest time. Being on my way to Berlin, the most challenging thing was to stay calm. What’s more, there were no charges or sockets for smartphones/laptops in random trains, only those I took beforehand. Staying in the info flow and in touch with parents who decided to stay in Kyiv and teammates to cover daily tasks are extremely important no matter what. My message to the world is clear – stand with Ukraine, help Ukrainians get rid of the evil that Putin’s regime brought upon the whole world; otherwise, the butterfly effect may be the size of a tsunami… Denys M, Product Manager: I am currently in the city of Zhytomyr, where the Russian armed forces targeted both military and civilian infrastructure. Russian missiles recently destroyed a local school, an oil depot was also hit nearby, and air raid sirens go on and off. Despite the obvious dangers, I try to focus on the positive. I manage to attend online meetings and calls even from the corridor where my family shelters when the air raid sirens go off. I also do my best to find time to volunteer and assist people in need during the war. I was also instrumental in coordinating the company’s message to foreign governments about Russia’s attack on Ukraine. As far as work goes, it’s important to hang in there and envision a brighter future ahead. Please keep doing what you do best, commit as much time as possible to your job to maintain the processes already in place, and of course, believe in Ukraine and its incredible people. Ukraine will stand! Some have stories that could fit into action movies – and would really prefer them to be just that: movies. Nevertheless, they keep on working. Dmitry Sokolov, Brand Manager It started early in the morning on February 24th: I was lying in bed and heard an explosion. After a few hours, I was at my sister’s apartment at the other end of Kyiv. We decided to move to the Rivne region with her husband and toddler son on the following day. We encountered a Ukrainian tank at a crossing several kilometers outside of Kyiv. When it was right in front of our car, some sort of projectile came out flying from the wood nearby, exploding next to the tank. We were only 7 meters away from it. The nights in Kyiv afterward were unnaturally silent, with the only sounds being the trembling window glasses and the creaking swings at children’s playgrounds. The days were divided between remote work (through secure systems) and getting each other to calm down. Later on, there was no running water. The bombings got even more intense, so we got back on the road. We made it. I am now working in full mode; at least the routines were not disrupted. Alla Manokhina, Head of Design : On February 24th, I woke up early to make some breakfast for kids, going to school the first time after the quarantine. Suddenly my mother-in-law called saying – “What are doing? What school? THE WAR HAS STARTED. Kharkiv, Kyiv, Zhytomyr and others were bombed this night.” I told the kids that no one was going anywhere, and our lives changed that day. The first days were rather calm in Zhytomyr. Every day, we met with the teams to check if everyone was alright and who could work. Some of the guys volunteered from the first days, while others stayed in place to work even during air raid sirens. I decided to relocate with my kids and pets once the shelling intensified. I drove to the other side of the country to stay at the apartment of my teammate. These days we all try to pitch in and help each other as much as possible. I chose to go to Poland to keep my children safe. To be honest, I keep thinking about the people left in Ukraine – parents, relatives, friends, colleagues; checking the news, calling at night after the news of ongoing air raids to make sure that everyone is okay. And hoping that it will be over soon. Russia’s war on Ukraine is not only a local problem. It is a global disaster with horrific consequences for the world. The war that Russia started will go down in history as one of the darkest moments for humanity. Putin’s regime is killing innocent children, women, and men, threatening the very foundations of democracy and human rights. Viseven is a global company that has offices in many countries, but our Ukrainian staff is an integral part of the company’s success. We call upon the world to stop Russia’s war against innocent people. We urge you to speak out, protest, write to your leaders, ask NATO to close the sky over Ukraine, supporting the people that are courageous enough to stand up to the Russian aggression.
Digital Transformation in Pharma: Barriers and Impact Posted on February 22, 2022February 4, 2025 by Andrii Nikulin Over time, pharma gets under fire due to its excessive talks about ‘digital transformation.’ It needs to be clarified what these words refer to and whether these grandiloquent statements work for actual doctors and patients. How many healthcare professionals and patients have yet to see the impact of digital technologies in the healthcare industry? Has it already improved pharma’s daily operations? Let’s figure out where the pharma sector is on the road to the digital age, how this process is changing how they do business, and how it affects the HCPs and patient engagement. What is Digital Transformation for Pharma companies? “Every digital transformation is going to begin and end with the customer, and I can see that in the minds of every CEO I talk to.” Marc Benioff, Chairman, and Co-CEO, Salesforce. Digital Technology in the pharmaceutical industry pushes us to change, poses challenges we don’t want to take, and makes us move forward. These changes may be dramatic. But when life wants us to grow, it makes us change to remain competitive. The problem is that digital technologies are changing faster than we are, leaving us with no choice but to keep pace. When we speak of digital transformation reshaping, we mean the natural evolution of existing processes with new technologies, introducing patterns and strategies that enhance customer experience, and building a genuine dialogue with the customer. In the pharmaceutical sector, this process was launched three years ago, when the pandemic, without much readiness, forced life sciences to increase their digital innovation culture drastically or, in particular cases, grow it from scratch. Looking back, we may go through all cliches of that period, but the digital shift declared a standard of communication with customers. Digital Transformation Barriers: where are we? Where are we now on the road to digital success? Despite being spurred by the pandemic, the digitalization process runs slowly. In terms of pharma digitalization, there are still many regions on the map where companies’ digital development level is consistently low. This map shows how pharmaceutical companies assess their readiness to become digital organizations. According to this map, the digitalization process among countries remains uneven. This is primarily associated with the poor scalability of implemented solutions among the regions and resilience to changes. Now, 1/3 of pharmaceutical companies believe they need to be better resourced for digital engagement. The other 40% report a need for more talent and the right technology for transformation. It’s important to understand that each industry has its own specifics and digitalization in pharma won’t be as smooth as anywhere else. However, this process highlights the areas where the mindset change should happen and what soft spots digital business processes transformation is designed to cover. How does Digital Transformation reshape the Pharma industry? Digital innovation in the pharma sector can help companies perform better by increasing productivity and reducing costs through collaboration, digital technology centralization to optimize delivery, and empowering a company or department. supply chain A global pharmaceutical company is experimenting with VR in its manufacturing operations. Managers can cut training time in half by creating virtual training programs that render production environments and speed up the path to excellence. streamline processes and marketing efforts Another biopharmaceutical company reduced its marketing spending by 20% by building a global system. The move followed a duplication analysis, in which the company found that up to 60% of localized asset-creation activities were duplicative. The company now has a centralized content center to deliver standardized marketing materials in flexible formats to more than 40 local markets. acquiring talent more efficiently The medical company double-checked the licenses of applicants for a nursing license during the interview. This included visiting the verification website, taking a snapshot of the applicant’s license, and storing the information in the applicant’s file. The HR bot was able to automate 80% of the process. Robotic process automation resulted in a 65% reduction in labor costs and a reduced risk of errors. This freed up the equivalent of one full-time job, allowing employees to focus on more critical activities. Disruptive Technologies and Market Dynamics Digital technologies can help companies deliver a competitive, digitally enabled, engaging, impactful experience to customers, the workforce, and ecosystem external partners. Key disruptive technologies include using digital tools to engage patients and other stakeholders remotely, involving social and other community networks, and personalizing experiences with user data to deliver excellent value. Creating a platform for customer experience.The Patient Service and Care Management Platform delivers consistent patient experiences across all channels and enables treatment adherence and care coordination with an entire network of healthcare providers for each patient. Through connected apps and devices, it supports digital therapy, helps improve patient outcomes, and helps health professionals coordinate patient care management. The platform analyzes internal and external data to gain insight into patient care and interactions and can integrate with the platform to analyze real-world data. Connecting patients, biopharma, caregivers, health care providers, and other stakeholders. The platform helps biopharma companies build partnerships with advocacy groups and providers to enhance patients’ experience with complex, chronic, and terminal diseases. It supports a next-generation digital healthcare network focused on patient support and digital engagement. Patients who consent to share their data receive information and updates from the sponsoring organization (typically biopharma companies and patient advocacy groups) to help navigate their disease. Optimizing the content provided to health care practitioners. A large global biopharmaceutical company has created a self-service portal for more than 30,000 practitioners across Europe to access digital marketing and sales materials in various media. The content shared with each practitioner differs based on previous browsing habits, allowing for custom targeting and enhancing the effectiveness of the marketing approach. Artificial Intelligence in the Pharma Transformation Over the past few years, the use of Artificial Intelligence in the Pharma industry and Life Sciences has become a trending topic. Many pharmaceutical companies are progressively implementing more efficient automated processes that include data-driven decisions and use predictive advanced analytics tools. The next step of this advanced data analytics approach will consist of artificial Intelligence and machine learning. Some of the ways AI is being applied in the pharmaceutical sector today include the following: Manufacturing process improvement Drug development Processing biomedical and clinical data Rare diseases and personalized medicine Identifying clinical trial candidates Predictive forecasting Drug adherence and dosage From early-stage drug discovery to prescribing options, the use of Artificial Intelligence is growing steadily within the pharma industry, with an estimated market volume reaching $10 billions by 2024 (including diagnostics, AI-based medical imaging, personal AI assistants, genomics, and drug discovery). Can we hold the digital transformations back? Remember your life before the pandemic; now, it seems like a dream to you, right? Like no other, these two years greatly impacted our lives, habits, and priorities. In 2019, marketers expected a quick end to the pandemic and a return to routine communication with customers. After three years, again like a dream, the pandemic is slowly receding (at minor restrictions). It begs the question: do we need to digitalize further? And will this process be slowed down now? No. Because the digital shift catalyzed some fundamental changes. Pharma marketing has always been a complicated environment characterized by complex relationships with its target audience. However, the shift towards digital innovation in pharma has exposed many problems that previously needed to be tracked. Searching through the old reports is like getting into a time machine that can take us back to changes that have taken place. The retrospective looks as follows: In 2019, 77% of pharma companies reported issues with content localization/translation. Only 28% could repurpose their content with a little manual effort. Back then, 62% say their organization has yet to make plans for using AI-driven content technologies. The most significant impact of digital technology in the pharmaceutical industry was on HCP engagement. Before COVID-19, 64% of meetings with pharma sales reps were held in person. During the pandemic, this shifted to 65% of meetings being held virtually. The old patters revolve primarily around internal content production issues in the pharmaceutical industry and don’t consider the main factor – HCP’s experiences. Today, searching for personalized experiences for the customer is the cornerstone of all companies that want to withstand competition in the market and have a serious competitive advantage. In the end, we should remember that technology exists to make our life easier. In life sciences, the ultimate goal of Digital Transformation is to introduce new technologies that will allow space and time for more strategic decisions on customers. These technologies should solve the long-standing issues of MLR optimization, content and taxonomy management, and multivendor environment support. Transformation in the Pharmaceutical sector: what it refers to Pharma often speaks clichés, but most critics are associated with a lack of clarification of what it refers to. The pandemic exposed many problems in pharma that, in the new era of communication, cannot remain unresolved. We’ve tried to highlight them all for you to see that Digital Transformation usually touches people, processes, tools, and content, areas where innovations are needed to simplify the internal processes that often hinder the natural evolution of companies toward strategic marketing. Why do we need it? In communicating with our customers, we should remember that the biggest shift occurred in patients’ mindsets. Not speaking their language, we can compare our audience to distant stars we try to reach in the dark. The main driver of prescriptions in the pharma industry is loyalty. The main factor that affects loyalty is the message your brand translates. Feel free to learn about it by checking our pharma digital transformation case study. Companies that help with pharma digital transformation Such professional services companies as Mckinsey, Vaimo, and Viseven are driving Digital Transformation by offering an end-to-end content operating model that is aligned with strategy, and ready for scale and innovation adoption. Viseven combines technology and marketing expertise mastering the entire chain of enablers to deliver a best-in-class digital experience. Contact us to learn more about how we enable digital transformation for pharma businesses of all sizes and maturity levels.
Using omnichannel approach to achieve better HCP engagement: how does it work? Posted on November 22, 2021January 31, 2025 by Andrii Nikulin The pharmaceutical industry has talked about improving communication with HCPs for decades. While even several years ago, “closing the loop” was routinely equaled to traditional rep calls plus maybe a couple of emails, things have changed a lot recently. After the seismic shift of 2020, when the F2F variable temporarily left the equation, one thing became obvious: one-way communication (pharma speaks, HCPs listen) is no longer enough. Where is the guarantee the physicians do hear the message? Where is the value they are expecting? Establishing real, reciprocal HCP engagement is a challenge, yes. However, an increasing number of pharma organizations are using digital and omnichannel approach to resolve it – and successfully so. HCP engagement? Customer experience is the key To understand how to achieve genuine HCP engagement, it is helpful to define what it really is. Nodding at a representative or liking a pharma brand’s social media post – does this count? How far does the interaction really need to go to be considered significant for the overall communication funnel? In reality, it makes sense to define engagement as either a two-way interaction (HCP actively responding to pharma), or any event that can potentially lead to such an interaction (e.g., a physician downloading materials from a portal or subscribing to a service). From the HCP’s viewpoint, all of this happens within a certain “landscape” – their overall experience with the brand. At some point, when this customer experience attains a certain level of value to the HCP, they actively engage to get more. There are two prerequisites: The value already received from the experience (proof that the brand can offer more), e.g., a fruitful conversation with a rep or an interesting webinar The “promised” value – i.e., what the doctor can get if they only click that CTA button or ask the rep/MSL a question, etc. The effects of a well-constructed customer experience are hard to underestimate. In recent research by McKinsey (immunologists, n=600), the doctor’s satisfaction with “prescription journey” (in HCP-to-patient and HCP-to-pharma aspects) had the power to almost double the likelihood of prescribing the product. In other words, the overall experience interacting with the brand (in this case, via the representative) influenced the decision making roughly as much as the convenience factor while leading the patient. Interestingly, this refers to a “rep-only” or “rep-led” scenario. Seeing as how digital resources and channels are gaining more weight and credibility (for example, 46% HCPs reported to trust branded professional web resources in 2019), the power of a coordinated omnichannel experience would be even more impressive. But pharma already has a number of digital channels at disposal. Why is the problem still not obsolete? What could be improved? What areas of improvement are still active? Even though most organizations are, by now, using at least several forms of digital communication (tools, channels), there are factors that undermine the effort when it comes to HCP engagement. Drawing on Viseven’s experience, the most typical ones are as follows: Attempt to “squeeze” as much as possible into a single touchpoint. A tradition from F2F era, when the rep was supposed to deliver a list of obligatory messages within the 2-7 minutes of the call – and an unnecessary constraint in an omnichannel environment. With proper organization, the information to deliver can be split across touchpoints and delivered in the sequence most likely to get the HCP engaged. Lack of personalization. While a “one-size-fits-all” approach to messaging and content may sound temptingly simple, it no longer works well. Other industries, including retail, have raised the bar of expectations for customer experience. Siloed channels. The digital maturity stage immediately preceding omnichannel – “multichannel” really used to presuppose broadcasting the same messages across different channels without actual interconnection or traceability across them. However, this approach severely limits the marketer and only allows to operate in broad, crude segments. Addressing these three areas of improvement at once is the essence of the omnichannel approach as it has emerged lately. Omnichannel in pharma: what is it, actually? Compared to simply having multiple channels, an omnichannel approach presupposes integration and interconnection between these channels. This is the next stage of strategic development, empowered by modern technology to connect the once-separate online and offline platforms into a single, observable and manageable whole. From the HCP’s perspective, this connection between the channels means they are no longer “bombarded” by the same messages in different situations (reps, emails, messengers, web) but rather enjoy a cohesive, meaningful experience with the brand. For the marketer, this approach allows to truly coordinate the channels and touchpoints and arrange the experiences delivered to the HCP. By knowing what the certain physician (individual or group) has been exposed to prior to the next touchpoint, and what the feedback was, the marketer can provide the experience that will engage with more probability. Essentially, the integration of channels and cross-channel campaigning based on data, insights and automation provides the possibility of choice at multiple levels. By having a 360-degree outlook on the target audience, the brand can deliver the right message or information in the right context, and via the right channel at every touchpoint. For example, the understanding of where exactly in the adoption funnel the HCP is right now, the marketer can choose to offer them the information they need at this stage. At the same time, the HCP make choices of their own, based on their interests, needs, and other individual characteristics. These choices contribute to the pool of data that the marketer can then use to provide even better experiences, further reinforcing the connection. Technology and mindset The omnichannel approach is powered by technology, which includes integrated digital tools, Marketing Automation System, and (increasingly) even ML-based tools to account for large amounts of data. At the same time, using omnichannel is also linked to a change in mindset when it comes to operating the entire system. Omnichannel pharma marketing requires the ability to think in terms of customer journeys – and making them automated. Tools help in this process; marketing automation platforms offer journey planners that allow creating of automated flows, where the HCP’s decisions (clicks, reactions, subscribes, etc.) serve as disambiguations in the flow. A certain event (triggered by the HCP) essentially “tells” the algorithm to offer the next touchpoint. Of course, it is best at least at the initial stage of implementation to have a skilled professional arrange the journeys for maximum efficiency. How to increase engagement rate in HCP audience (3 aspects) So how does a pharmaceutical brand use all of this in practice to increase HCP engagement? What to look at? Here is a short checklist. #1 Personalized communication With the advent of digital, the demand for personalized communication has increased. An HCP will not have the time to listen to a rep detailing “obligatory” slides when they are interested in other information they can find online. Is this a problem? Not really, once an omnichannel system is functioning around the brand. Arranging touchpoints across channels, the marketer can ensure that the messages get through, while the HCP retains their right to choose according to their real individual needs. Personalization can be delivered in terms of content, tone of voice, channel mix, and even timing of the touchpoints. #2 Logically crafted Customer Journeys A good customer journey is one that looks good from the HCP’s side, so for building it, the professional has to keep in mind both the campaign goals and the perspective of the customer. For example, a chain of touchpoints that starts as emails, can be programmed to cross over to messengers with the same content if the emails are simply not opened. The same journey can “behave” differently if the HCP opened the email but did not engage with it, switching the tone of voice, supporting material, etc. #3 Using digital to reinforce F2F Digital channels can be used to reinforce the traditional F2F interactions within the same context. For example, a rep call can be followed up by an email or message, further inviting the HCP to engage with content on a portal, website or landing page. Where to start Adopting an omnichannel communication model gives a considerable competitive edge and allows to engage HCPs in meaningful dialogues. Of course, to make it work, an organization will want to account for all the aspects, including technology, mindset, workflows, and even elements of psychology, not to mention the work on data management. As of now, though, this has become easier since pharma does not need to “transplant” best practices from other industries and risk every time. Engaging experts who have overseen omnichannel implementation with industry leaders is the most feasible solution. Viseven Group offers this expertise in all aspects, drawing on dozens of projects for TOP 50 pharmaceutical and Life Sciences enterprises. Learn more about how professional teams can help boost HCP engagement for your brand.
How to increase the coverage of HCPs with the Healthcare Omnichannel Communications Posted on October 20, 2021March 4, 2025 by Andrii Nikulin The way of reaching and targeting healthcare professionals and patients is transforming; it is mostly linked to the changing nature of their behaviors, preferences, and priorities. The pandemic has boosted the value of online engagement along with the focus shifted to remote means of communication (which are playing a key role). Pharma marketers are being challenged more than ever to promote pharmaceutical products, evaluate the right mix of channels, and increase the coverage of their audience. Remote, fast, and safe are now widely used adjectives added to the term “communication” (in the healthcare industry, in particular). They became ground words that portray the nature of any social activity across the pharmaceutical marketplace. With social distancing measures and restricted access for medical representatives, pharma executives need to refine their strategies and traditional techniques toward building a genuine marketing ecosystem that will suit changing demands, help reach the intended audience, hit business goals, improve key performance indicators and increase conversions at scale. With many hurdles on the rise, the promotion of pharmaceutical brands to HCPs might not be a quick fix in today’s digital-driven age. Redefine your Omnichannel Communication in Healthcare Engaging physicians across traditional marketing channels (aka F2F or physical patient visits) can lead to many drawbacks, not allowing healthcare workers to attain the desired audience retention rate or even frequency. It goes hand in hand with customers’ growing needs for on-demand content, personalized experiences, and more agile communication models (e.g., digital and non-digital channels). Relying too much on personal visits of medical representatives can now be not sufficient to cover the HCP audience to its fullest extent. “According to research on Viseven omnichannel customer data worldwide, up to 80% of the HCP database might not be covered by personal visits”. Still, healthcare organizations can increase the coverage of healthcare providers and patients, address any modifications in physicians’ priorities, and meet profile-specific needs. The shortcut to better Omnichannel Patient Engagement Let’s run through 3 core statements, and go more in-depth: Former pharma marketing models of patient engagement cannot operate in a modern, post-pandemic world (businesses are migrating to the online-driven scope of communication) Pharmaceutical marketers are prompted to employ a vast mix of physical and digital channels to create a coherent experience for the target audience Omnichannel acts as the solution that helps increase the coverage of the doctors and patients as well as boost the quality and frequency of communication – without any losses in the share of voice and sales volume Omnichannel Healthcare Strategy as the Answer By missing out on the opportunity to use a broader spectrum of channels, marketers might lack the brand force to effectively build brand awareness as well as have limited coverage of the target audience. However, they can become more nimble in their decision-making process, reach more audiences and develop meaningful relationships when adopting omnichannel tactics. “As per statistics, 65% of modern physicians use social media for professional purposes, and over 70% of HCPs search for scientific data online daily”. As one would expect, the trend is gaining momentum: physicians are becoming more educated outside of visits with med representatives. A medical representative is supposed to be more of an advisor, a supporter, someone who helps build loyalty and trust in pharmaceutical brands but not just sells. Besides, using personal visits as the core marketing touchpoint might result in high cost-per-contact or negatively impact your business ROI. The omnichannel healthcare strategy came as the solution to any concerns faced by marketers. Such a strategy enriches a communication mix (that used to rely on a single channel or isolated channels) with other means of engagement such as email, social media, digital advertising, webinars, online events, etc., in which HCPs can obtain information on demand at any particular time. You can build a single marketing ecosystem, improve patient satisfaction and increase the target audience coverage with communication frequency. What channels does a healthcare organization use to create an organic ecosystem? Here are some commonly used channels inside patient journey mapping: rep-triggered email mass mailing messengers paid advertising social media portals landing pages with SEO Here is how that channel interconnection might work inside the omnichannel healthcare model (from encountering the first message to making the decision). The company’s goal was, for example, to invite HCPs to a webinar through email invitation. Some part of the audience opened an invitation and registered through the link. While some physicians didn’t respond to the email (or “skipped” the part of filling up the registration form) since they prefer to use messenger as the main communication channel. In order to reach the registration goal, further communication was done through messenger, and so on. As one can see, omnichannel orchestration requires deep knowledge of HCP behaviors and needs within each segment. The ultimate benefit of omnichannel in healthcare is that the key message is always delivered in its entirety through multiple digital and non-digital means. It is a centralized model where all these touchpoints are unified together into coherent storytelling (based on audience preferences). Plus, a customer journey is designed and tailored with robust marketing automation to provide better patient outcomes with exactly what they need at a specific moment, time and place. “According to research, pharma companies that implemented Viseven omnichannel solution in 2020, managed, on average, to triple the frequency of communication with target physicians through the use of optimized channel mix”. So, let’s imagine a pharma company planned to increase its presence in a specific area and boost a market share. F2F visits were chosen as the main marketing channel. Medical representatives managed to capture contact details, but there was no perspective for more interactions. When digital channels can complement F2F visits and improve targeting: no opportunity for further visits in a specific area (due to restrictions, country-specific regulations, etc.) there is a perspective to engage but with a low frequency high-frequency engagements but with the need for follow-up communication or any promotional/medical materials delivery remote region or region with a low expected profitability “Viseven customer data revealed that pharmaceutical companies (from the Middle-East and Scandinavian countries), which implemented omnichannel tactics, covered 84% of the audience that have not been covered by F2F visits. Previously, the coverage rate was limited by the presence of contact details of physicians”. How to enhance your Omnichannel Engagement in Healthcare Even with the diversity of the channel “palette”, it turned out that the implementation of omnichannel transformation is not as easy as supposed: communication channels simply merging might be orchestrated as completely different focus areas. Still, a shortcut to omnichannel patient engagement exists. Viseven owns strong expertise in integrating digital and non-digital channels for pharma and healthcare companies across the globe. A true omnichannel experience is enabled by the marketing automation system that binds together various channel-specific platforms and tools. We work inside such automation systems, preparing and launching complex, non-linear, and personalized campaigns. You do not need to develop content from scratch each time for every single channel. At Viseven, we can grow an omnichannel ecosystem for a pharmaceutical company organically from any stage up. Contact us to expand your healthcare professionals’ coverage, create seamless and personalized experiences, and reap the tangible benefits of omnichannel healthcare strategy implementation.
eWizard Auto-Tagging for Content Operating Excellence Across Brands and Markets Posted on September 1, 2021March 4, 2025 by Andrii Nikulin None of our habits happened overnight, and almost none of them stay with us unaltered during our lifespan. This same postulate pertains to content experience. The way we used to consume content a couple of years ago is indeed not the same anymore. Hardly anyone can now imagine not having a smartphone at their fingertips, checking, answering, and gripping information on whatever data is required. Or let’s take social media as an example. The latter is no more a “nice-to-have” solution but a powerful means for customer-centric engagement (as this is where people are “hanging out”). These days brands can seize more opportunities than ever before to engage customers and create a meaningful dialogue along with more data and insights available. However, staying on top of the content evolution curve is crucial, and now we are off to dwell on the “essence” of life sciences content and its area of focus. When the whole industry is still under extreme uncertainty going through the challenging period, the digitalization process is showing no signals of slowing down. Still, it might be just the right time to bring innovations to light in order to serve customers even better whatever circumstances we are experiencing now. This tendency, though, entirely reflects our mission, which is to enable digital transformation (as it’s gaining momentum) and facilitate the best-in-class omnichannel customer experience for Pharma and Life Sciences. In 2023, being an effective pharma marketer refers to being enough tech-equipped, as digital-first strategies to engage physicians and patients have skyrocketed in the last few years. That shift also promises to bring more advancement and effectiveness into customer engagement, and quality data will play a crucial role in helping make that approach live and function. Well, the pain point we must draw attention to is how to keep content creation at pace with that shift? It’s obvious that the content development process must now be accelerated to the needed extent. Easier said than done, right? Here’s the way out. Main Business Challenges Pharmaceutical Companies Might Grapple with: Low (or no) consistency in brand strategic communication: local marketers need to readjust the global content or create their own from scratch No regular practice of modular content reuse (what content can be reused and how to control that process) MLR approval process can take too long and is often complicated with low cost-efficiency No single content development framework and centralized processes Creative and content development agencies might be operating their own flows for different pharmaceutical brands No proper content tagging and taxonomy support as a part of a strategy, etc. How can pharma marketers and brand managers surpass those burdens alongside the growing complexity of content and rising expectations of modern physicians? Modular content management will be key in enabling content creation at scale and helping navigate the complex digital landscape. What is Auto-Tagging? Before we explain auto-tagging, let’s answer the “What is content tagging?” question first. Content tagging is the process of organizing any type of content, such as images, videos, or texts, in a certain way that allows sorting it out into groups and categorizing it based on certain characteristics. To put it in simpler words, content tagging is the same thing as labeling items in order to describe them. Let’s take a look at some content tagging examples: Assigning tags like “Education”, “Technology”, or “News” to different blog articles to help readers quickly find relevant content; Labeling videos with descriptions like “Tutorial”, “Demo”, or “Interview” for quick identification of specific types of video content; Tagging content based on details, with tags that stand for products, services, partner names, target audience, etc. Content tags are what you can use to quickly organize all content items and mark the content to make it easier to search. Content tags can be easily customized to fit your business objectives and specifics, providing customers with a more personalized experience and improving the navigation through your website. Metadata tagging is similar to content tagging, but while the latter one focuses on tags visible to users, metadata tagging mostly involves adding descriptive metadata to the aforementioned content. By combining both metadata tagging and content tagging, you can enhance the discoverability of your content and make it easier to manage. Another term to keep in mind is content tagging taxonomy, which is used to organize and classify content. Without taxonomy, it would be much harder to deliver personalized content and optimize it for search. Content tagging taxonomy can ensure that your content finds the user at the right time in the right place, making your content more accessible and easier to find. Auto-tagging is just the same thing as content tagging, but automated, meaning that there is no need to spend a lot of time manually creating and assigning tags to your content. By using various auto-tagging tools and instruments like AWS auto-tagging, you can spare a lot of time that can be dedicated to other projects. When it comes to the auto-tagging vs manual tagging comparison, automated content tagging is a virtually error-free and consistent process that is resistant to potential mishaps, which is guaranteed to make marketing assets a lot easier to manage. Manual tagging, on the other hand, requires a lot of time and effort, and it could take a few days to sort out just one content category. Automation might be difficult to set up and get used to at first, but in the long run, it is definitely a worthy investment. What is AI Сontent Tagging and What are Its Benefits? AI content tagging is what many people think will soon become one of the best content tagging practices, and it uses Artificial Intelligence to analyze and tag content of any type. Most commonly, AI content tagging involves a number of related technologies, such as Machine Learning or Natural Language Processing. By delegating content tagging to AI, companies will be able to manage, search, retrieve, and share content on all sorts of platforms faster, without compromising the quality. AI can enhance content tagging strategy in numerous ways, such as: Increased efficiency. AI-driven content tagging is capable of handling large data volumes much faster compared to humans, making it a few times more effective and time-efficient. Real-time analysis of tags. Artificial Intelligence is capable of analyzing and tagging content in real-time, meaning that it will also stay up to date without a need to do it manually. Reduced errors. “To err is human”, everyone has heard that. Unfortunately, when it comes to something as scrupulous as content tagging, it becomes extremely easy to make a mistake. Moreover, many details are hard to catch for the human eye. Nothing can escape AI’s grasp though, and it is capable of capturing virtually everything. Availability in different languages. AI can create and process tags in various languages, which can help to reach consumers across the globe. AI auto-tagging also helps to keep tags in various languages more organized without the need to onboard multiple specialists who master respective languages. A better understanding of your content. Automated content tagging with the help of AI does not only label content and sort it out. It can also compare different documents, categories, or formats and find similarities humans might have missed. Artificial Intelligence can offer fresh insights into your content and audience. Remember that Artificial Intelligence is not an ultimate solution that will completely get rid of manual tasks, yet it is expected to demonstrate an annual growth rate of 37.3% from 2023 to 2030, and an increasing number of companies are already embracing the technology and integrating it into their workflows and processes. AI auto-tagging is a step toward automation, and it’s best to take this step as early as possible. eWizard Content Auto-Tagging Overview eWizard auto-tagging solution is an optional function to structure enterprise-level modular content and metadata with auto-tagging, auto-recognition, and taxonomy support. eWizard auto-tagging is aiming at two main goals: to process brand digital content, namely audit, auto-tag, visualize and analyze; to help optimize the workflows, such as brand content planning, MLR approval, content development, content distribution, and content performance analytics. eWizard AI-based auto-tagging can automatically extract and tag data from digital content, providing contextual navigation (smart search) and helping to implement a personalized customer experience. Simply put, the algorithm is trained to apply relevant and descriptive tags by “understanding” the content behind the asset. Auto-tagging solves the main challenge for users of finding the relevant content in a few clicks, removing the need for manual search. eWizard tagging solution automatically scans different content types and extracts key metadata as well as assigns tags to the new content types that pair with similar topics. To summarize, auto-tagging helps to optimize: content discovery; content reusability; metadata management; workflow automation. eWizard Auto-Tagging Types Standard content auto-tagging is a highly scalable solution that applies tags to imagery, video, and text-based digital assets. You can audit your brand’s digital content, identify objects, people, text, scenes, and activities. Besides, it can detect any inappropriate or legal risk data and supplement the content with additional information (metadata). Another type is custom auto-tagging. It allows distinguishing the objects and scenes in images specific to your business needs. Custom solutions offer a more personalized approach tailored to business-specific taxonomies (pharma and life sciences, in our case). Making Far-Reaching Changes to Your Content Production Model By reckoning on a robust technological stack, our company is helping Life Sciences and pharmaceutical companies worldwide accelerate content experience and deliver the best-in-class customer engagement techniques. We are pioneers of creating digital ecosystems that lead the way to agnostic content management, superior client experience, and data management. Our dedicated team is ready to cover all phases of your omnichannel project workflow: starting by developing and localizing a global brand communication strategy, preparing the operational foundation, orchestrating customer engagements, and finishing with measuring the results and performance of digital assets.
eLearning Solutions for Pharmaceutical Companies: Why Does it Matter? Posted on July 30, 2021March 4, 2025 by Andrii Nikulin A sharp surge of innovations in the pharmaceutical industry has created an environment where new tools and models of work appear every day, making difficult pharma concepts even more confusing and complex. Pharmaceutical companies are ridden with different strategies, while behind the scenes, there is an arms race of various tools and systems. However, the main ingredient to win this competition is people, of course. Thus, pharma does everything to grow their talented specialist pool, investing all in the most valuable assets. Let’s talk about how eLearning has become the first choice in the education and training of pharma teams, MedReps, managers, and many other specialists who play a hand in pharma’s continuous growth. Why Pharma Chooses eLearning? Being in the spotlight during the last year, life sciences seem to be on an unprecedented rise, any minute ready for breakthroughs in science. 86% of technology professionals think that the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries’ digital moment has arrived. Sure enough, it has arrived, but the one thing it requires is talent. Simple outsourcing of these talents is not enough – many understand it, and now opt to grow their own in-house specialists, primarily investing in their future. We came across a report where Deloitte surveyed pharma and MedTech companies about their plans for future investments and changes, and almost 80% of the market leaders stated they needed to be more aggressive in adopting digital technologies. However, only about 20% of pharma companies are currently digitally mature. One of the biggest areas for improvement right now is education, and more and more organizations are now exploring the transition to e-learning. Nothing stands still. The global pandemic has provoked a rapid surge of digital initiatives in healthcare but on the other hand, it greatly disrupted workplace practices inside pharmaceutical companies. Managing, training, and onboarding remote teams during the global pandemic is quite a burden, of course. The 5th edition of the Salesforce report was investigating how global customer service professionals were adapting to the realities of work in the pandemic. It turned out that 39% of high-performing companies were successfully organizing remote teams’ training to keep employees updated, a little less but still 19% and 11% of moderate-performing and underperforming companies were also investing in remote training for the staff. A competitive environment like this has forced companies to reconsider their workplace practices and look for an alternative way to provide mandatory educational training. eLearning provides an opportunity to meet some of those training needs as well as many others. eLearning solutions offer a better learning experience based on interactive technologies, such as audio, video, graphs, and animations, and allow pharma leaders to conduct mandatory training and share valuable knowledge with all members of the teams. 5 Reasons to Consider eLearning for Pharma A few reasons why eLearning has become a preferred mode of learning in the pharma industry come down to the various benefits it offers. According to statistics, LMS/SaaS models provide a more standardized education environment and make up over 29% of the total eLearning market share. A survey of 2,500 companies found that those with “comprehensive training programs” have 218% higher revenue per employee and 24% higher profit margins. On top of that, retention rates are also usually increasing by 25% to 60%. Excellent indicators, but these are mainly economic, and let’s see what the long-term benefits are: Keep the team updated & provide the necessary training Now practically all advanced pharma companies are mastering omnichannel. This approach has become an evolutionary link in the lifecycle of pharma’s digital transformations. But it is important to understand that the real evolution towards omnichannel takes place within. When a global pharmaceutical company is about to master and scale the right tools correctly – the desired aim is hard to achieve. For example, when your company is deploying certain omnichannel marketing tools they may simply not be suitable for all pharma’s affiliates. In fact, desynchronization occurs at different stages. Therefore, it is more convenient to master and learn how to use certain tools with the help of eLearning technologies that are proving a convenient learning environment that allows covering the entire team. Together with end users, you can create your own learning plan, update it gradually with new tools, translate content across all channels, and share valuable knowledge both globally and locally. Get analytics and track the progress Typically, an eLearning program contains a progress tracker that allows tracking the success of each learner. On top of that, organizers can also provide weekly email feedback to keep track of where the student is in the program and what comes next. The learning plan consists of thematic modules with chapters, new modules become available as the student progresses. This creates a clear picture of how many employees of the company have mastered the new technology or completed their mandatory training and with what results. Standardised approach to learning eLearning technology may save a lot of time and money for the company, as you will have a consistent, compliant plan at hand. A professional team may create content according to your recommendations, and the system will ensure fast delivery of content to learners across all channels. For example, when our team at Viseven creates content for our customers, the process is usually as follows: they provide an eLearning plan while we do the rest: create, design, localize, build a customer journey, and plan integrations. Personalized, interactive experiences Finally, give yourself the first good reason why you would consider eLearning. The transfer of interactive knowledge contributes to better perception, memorization of the necessary information, as well as providing inspiration to learn more. This is especially applicable to life sciences, where huge volumes of information that are not the easiest to memorize require proper structuring, bright design, and correct presentation. Better information retention After all, many people use eLearning because it helps them remember and process the received information much better. It is also facilitated by the fact that the learning process, as in the case of Viseven, can be organized not only around virtual training and quizzes but also around live training, creating an educational mix for better memorization of information. What is a Learning Management System (LMS)? Pharma learning management systems (LMS) represent a type of software that can be used to conduct pharma industry trainings or other learning activities and make it easier and more engaging for learners. Typically, LMS for pharma offers a wide range of interactive activities and opportunities for learning certain topics and subjects at a pace comfortable for those studying it. LMS can replace traditional learning models and help conduct internal training for pharma companies that will be both cost-efficient and effective. It is a chance for all pharma companies to not only foster a work environment where everybody gets a chance to refine their skills, but also to incorporate pharmaceutical eLearning programs and platforms into the daily routines of all employees. The global LMS market is expected to grow from $18.26 billion in 2022 to $47.47 billion by 2030. The demand is visibly escalating, and an increasing number of companies are already adopting learning management systems to train their staff. Let’s take a look at a few reasons why you should do it too. Reasons Why You Should Choose LMS LMS is an opportunity to have high-quality training for the pharmaceutical industry while working remotely The Covid-19 pandemic forced a whole new lifestyle upon many of us, and most companies, despite the pandemic being gone, have decided to keep remote work as one of the options for their workers. However, one of the downsides of remote work is the inability to participate in live educational events. This is where the learning management system for pharmaceutical companies truly shines, uniting all the study guides, games, events, books, and lectures in one place. LMS for the pharmaceutical industry is a very cost-effective solution We’ve touched on this before, but let’s elaborate. eLearning solutions for pharmaceutical companies can significantly lower the cost of staff training and re-training for one simple reason: such tools provide an accessible and easy-to-manage platform the support of which won’t cost a lot. Compared to instructor-led workshops and courses, which could often cost up to a few thousand dollars per event, companies can now completely switch to a pharmaceutical LMS at a very low cost. It becomes easier to keep up with the ever-changing market and update the content Pharmaceutical employee training must constantly be updated due to the dynamic nature of the industry. Unfortunately, offline training in the pharmaceutical industry is always a little bit outdated, since adding tweaks and changes to it often requires a lot of time and effort, and it is often done manually. When it comes to pharma eLearning, it becomes much easier to not only quicker update the pharma training program but automate some parts of this process. LMS is available across various platforms Thanks to LMS, pharmaceutical companies’ training programs can be accessed via any device, including laptops, mobile phones, and even tablets. This makes education possible from anywhere, making it easier for workers to complete internal training for pharma companies at their own pace, whenever they feel comfortable. E-learning fosters automation LMS is one of the best pharma internal training solutions for companies seeking ways to automate their workflows. With the help of a learning management system, companies can implement automation of the following processes: Notifications and reminders about certain courses and programs; Learning progress tracking; Feedback loop; Content updates; Assessment and quizzes. The importance of proper training in the pharmaceutical industry cannot be underestimated, and tools like LMS are what can greatly enhance the experience of both learners and educators and make it much better and more immersive. Learning management systems provide everyone in the pharma industry with an opportunity to become better professionals and obtain the desired education needed to advance in their careers. In addition, pharmaceutical companies can spend fewer resources on training and educating their staff, while also making sure that the education provided is of the highest quality. What is the Future of Pharmaceutical eLearning: What to Expect E-learning is rapidly changing the world, while also being transformed itself. There are many trends that are either already reshaping eLearning in the pharma industry or are about to do so. Here are some of the biggest upcoming trends in the pharma eLearning to keep an eye on: Augmented/Virtual Reality VR and AR can assist learners by creating simulations and scenarios where it is possible to practice and hone your skills in an environment that’s almost identical to the real world. It is also much cheaper and safer to train staff using VR/AR since there is no need to invest in a testing environment. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning AI and ML are set to change the world, and e-learning won’t be standing aside for sure. AI-driven tools and technologies will reshape the world of pharma e-learning and provide both students and educators with an opportunity to customize training programs, get real-time feedback, receive personalized recommendations, and even create online courses based on the learning style and habits of a learner. Gamification Gamification is about making the learning process more interesting and engaging by adding some elements that resemble games, such as scores, leadership boards, mini-games, competitions, etc. Many platforms for learning are now introducing game-based learning to their adult audience to provide them with a fun and educational experience, regardless of the chosen course and field of study. International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) found that eLearning participants learned five times more materials without having to increase the time spent studying and training. Pharma companies across the world are already investing in LMS and tools for online training to provide their teams with high-quality education and skills necessary to become better experts. Now is the best moment to embark on your eLearning journey and fully embrace the transformative innovation it offers. What we offer When the audience of our client says: I need professional internal training in the pharma industry to get valuable information about products and services at the right time and in the right place, thereby saving my patients’ time and making life easier for them. … or the representatives of our client’s team say: I want to have the simplest and most effective omnichannel tools at hand to make my job easier, increase communication flows with our target audience, and avoid time-consuming tasks. We create a comfortable interactive environment in our Virtual Academy. The process of learning is organized around a chain of people and first-class tools on the basis of an omnichannel platform. eLearning technology from Viseven is built around a specific customer journey that is tailored to the needs of each customer. Our professional team will create content according to your recommendations, while audit and contextual understanding help us take advantage of each ecosystem to reduce complexity and simplify the user journey. You can scale the process correctly, complying with unique corporate standards for eLearning content, and unite multiple teams and offices around the world. While your company can deliver the same content to all students, Viseven provides support at every stage of content development and implementation. We create content for various types of learning. The result is a ready-to-use package suitable for any type of self-study. While a complete ecosystem of channels will encourage learners to continue their learning. Our omnichannel eLearning services include: concept creation; technology development; visual and sound design; UI/UX design; custom application development; distribution of materials to end users. Viseven offers a combination of high technology and team play: We are changing the daily approach to health through virtual and digital communication channels and believe that this will shape the healthcare industry of the future. Contact and join us in our Virtual Academy to exceed expectations together.
AMP Emails in Pharma – How and Where to Use? Posted on May 31, 2021February 4, 2025 by Andrii Nikulin Have you ever thought about how great it would be if we could insert interactive elements into a regular static booklet? Carousels, purchase buttons, videos, gifs, animations… Imagine how it could diversify our promotional materials and which new horizons it can open for the pharmaceutical industry. Yes, we know it is currently impossible, but the future is near at hand… After all, a few years ago they thought the same thing about emails. Today an interactive email format known as Accelerated Mobile Page (AMP) is storming all business industries and has already got to the life sciences. What are AMP emails and how can they benefit your business? Let’s discuss the potential of AMP emails in pharma, how to work with them in practice, what are complexities and pitfalls, and decide if it is ultimately worth it. The interactivity matters. Trends of the new decade Ideas akin to that of the interactive booklets come into users’ heads because it is expected that interactive technologies will soon enough be able to literally peel our banana. 60% of customers say COVID-19 has changed their relationship with technology. Another 67% of customers say their expectations for good experiences are higher than ever. That sets the new standard of customer experience for marketers. High interactivity of marketing materials is what all marketers are working on. Thus, a channel like social media took the center stage in customer engagement strategies as it is much easier to catch customers in Instagram that they visit several times a day. Interactive quizzes and polls are now the third most popular story format. Another clear case is Buzzfeed which has conquered most of its audience, providing above all interactive, engaging content. In the same way, video used to be, and remains, your biggest opportunity. It conquers the market in the new decade as now we are looking for information on YouTube almost as often as on Google. Viewers say they retain 95% of a message when obtained via video. All the generated statistics is only intended that interactive content works and should be deployed. In fact, such tools are an integral part of many industries’ business strategies. 79% of marketers say they plan to increase the use of interactive content in the next 12 months. Will these channels be relevant in the pharma industry? Of course, you can split the messaging across different channels. For instance, effectively use email, which for many years has occupied the reigning position in communication with the HCPs. What is AMP? How to Use it in emails? Before you ask the “What is AMP for email?” question, you need to first learn what is it and why businesses put much effort into learning how to use it. AMP technology allows you to create dynamic content in the email body. This technology allows sending interactive content to HCPs. Email receivers can fill out surveys or order samples, respond to invitations, view carousels, and perform many other actions right in the email. An AMP email may include: Carousels and accordions; Surveys; Catalogues and leaflets; Feedback forms. Another benefit is that it allows to speed up the loading of web pages on mobile devices. This is important because, just as we do, physicians read emails primarily on their smartphones (60%). The mobile-friendliness of AMP emails plays a significant role in their marketability. AMP eliminates the need to open another web page to perform any actions. You can click on an element and the content appears right on the same page. You are not leaving the web page you’re on and email works like an autonomous web page. All actions may be performed right in the email body. Dynamic content also opens a new world for deeper personalization across all channels via the reuse of the content in question. 77% of marketers agree that interactive content has “reusable” value, resulting in decreased production times and multiple exposures. How to Use AMP in Pharma? Surely, the main value of AMP emails for pharma is in the development of email campaigns considering their interactive nature. It allows you to feature various types of content on your website within the email, reducing the need to recreate it. It may turn your static email into an appealing, user-driven story. Earlier, HCPs had to go directly to sample sites and leave their information there to order samples. The AMP technology removes this little inconvenience. AMP emails also complement other communication channels, allowing the creation of rep-triggered email campaigns containing eDetailing and self-detailing presentations for HCPs to examine on their own. In the email body, HCPs may also schedule a call with a medical rep, as well as evaluate the quality of the session. Can we add surveys to the email? Of course, a pharma company can send surveys of any length right within the email. Does AMP email support video? The answer is, yes. You can send promotional videos or video materials from your pharma webpage and add them to your mail. But perhaps the most common use of AMP emails is to invite doctors to participate in various conferences and events. AMP simplifies the process of registration for HCPs and eliminates the unnecessary bouncing between pages. How to Send AMP Emails? Sending an AMP email is not as easy as sending a regular email we all are used to, but it is definitely worth the effort. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to send this kind of email: Choose an email service provider (ESP) Not all email service providers support sending AMP emails, so first you should think about a platform that is suitable for your goals. Some of the platforms that do support it are Gmail and Yahoo. Validate your email To be able to create AMP for emails and send them, you need to make sure that your email address is authorized to do so. Most ESPs require you to authenticate all addresses that are meant for sending AMP emails, so check beforehand if you’ve met all the requirements. Incorporate all the necessary components into your email There are certain AMP-enabled elements that allow you to create any interactive email. There are three types of AMP components that can be added to your email: media, dynamic, and AMP layout. On the official website, you can find a full list of these components that can be included in your email. Add a fallback Not all email clients support AMP, meaning that you need to have an alternative version ready just in case. All the AMP elements should be substituted with HTML, which will make it possible for all recipients, even those that cannot view AMP emails, to see your message. Test your email Testing your emails before actually sending them is crucial, since you never know how your message might look in different browsers and target operating systems. By using AMP Playground or similar tools, you can easily preview and test your email to see if you’ve built it correctly. Send your email After testing your email, you can finally send it without any hesitation; and this is generally how a whole email campaign will unfold. However, remember that every ESP might have their specific guidelines regarding AMP emails, so ensure that you comply with the requirements and follow their instructions before you send anything. The process of creating and sending AMP in emails heavily depends on the chosen ESP, so before you start crafting your email, first consult the documentation for specific instructions on sending these types of emails on certain platforms. AMP: challenges and pitfalls Accelerated Mobile Page was first officially launched by Google in 2019 and has become a real boom in digital email marketing. However, the problem at that time was that Google remained the only platform that supported this format, which implied obvious technical limitations. And even though a few years have passed since then, there are still many limitations that make many marketers avoid AMP. Only a handful of ESPs support AMP Most email service providers don’t support the MIME type needed to create AMP emails. Outlook withdrew its support of AMP a few years ago, and Apple never even considered adding it. And even though the demand is rapidly growing, there is still no news regarding the support being added across Apple devices. It’s possible that due to the pressure and unwillingness to stay behind most ESPs will decide to finally allow their users to experience the full power of Accelerated Mobile Page, but not for now. Tracking the performance is much harder compared to the traditional email It is not enough to just check such metrics as “delivered”, “opened”, and “clicked”. AMP goes well beyond that. Many marketers are reluctant to use such emails due to the complexity of performance tracking, and the only way to tackle this issue is by acquiring other methods and tools for tracking performance metrics. AMP emails have an extremely short lifespan No more how great your coding is, or how well your email provider supports AMP, it will inevitably fail. There is nothing you can do about it other than to make sure you always include an HTML version of your email just to make sure that either way, the recipient will receive all the important info. AMP doesn’t always work on mobile devices Even though AMP renders on mobile devices in some situations, it is not always displayed correctly, or even displayed at all. The best way to deal with this problem is to include a plain text version in your email so that your clients will get it in any case, no matter what. At first look, it seems like AMP is not the most popular feature right now. However, it is still in development, and more features will emerge in the near future. Moreover, the state of AMP in 2023 is much better compared to the days when it first appeared on the market. It has noticeably improved, has better support, and is much easier to implement. And things will only keep getting better. Pulling off AMP emails might not be an easier task to tackle, but, just like any other tool for marketing, by putting some effort into it, you will enhance user experience and boost engagement. More and more platforms are now considering enabling the support of AMP, so it’s likely that in the future, we’ll see even more of it! See examples of AMP emails in eWizard The interactive capability of AMP is too great to be bypassed. Considering all challenges, we had passed the “testing” period and mastered all the subtleties of this format. Now our team of dedicated email marketing professionals have solid experience in the development of AMP email for pharma on the base of eWizard platform. In the future, we plan to extend this functionality to diversify the experiences for HCPs and patient engagement. Dynamic content inside eWizard mail templates offers a variety of ways to create interactive emails and improve: exposure and click-through rate; customer experience; your messages into an interactive and dynamic story; insert interactivity keeping your brand’s consistency. Would you like to hear more about our expertise in the development of dynamic email content and take a look at some AMP email examples? Fill out the form below and our experts will reach out to you!
