Top 7 AI Mistakes Pharma Companies Make

AI can do all sorts of marvelous things these days. It can create beautiful images, craft excellent articles, and even write great songs. Even though the technology is capable of many things, it definitely cannot prevent its users from making bad decisions and huge mistakes.

From Google’s Bard AI chatbot making accusations about Big Four consulting firms to deep fakes about famous singers and politicians flooding the internet, many controversial AI incidents impact our society. So, who is to blame: the AI or its user? Our guide will tell you more about AI failures and mistakes and what you can do to resolve these issues and make the most out of artificial intelligence in the pharma industry.

What Are AI Mistakes?

Artificial intelligence is a truly revolutionizing technology, but it is not flawless: its mistakes can take many shapes and forms. It’s not just about AI giving you the wrong output; it can be any type of error, from biased information to data leaks. It’s sometimes hard to say who’s responsible for some mistakes: a company that implemented AI incorrectly, a developer of a particular AI-powered solution, or just a coincidence that led to big problems. No matter the answer, AI incidents, and mistakes can happen at any time with both small and large language models.

Even big corporations might suffer from poor AI decisions: Microsoft had to cancel the launch of CoPilot+ Recall due to backlash over users’ data being continuously recorded and archived, and Netflix was accused of using AI-generated images in a true crime documentary. It seems like almost every other big company has faced negative reactions from society because of AI, and most of the time, it’s poor decision-making to blame.

Understanding AI Errors and Incorrect Answers

AI, just like any other technology, is far from flawless. Many things about it can make it a dangerous tool, especially in the wrong hands. Let’s take a look at the nature of AI errors and why they happen.

Why mistakes occur

Even though there are many types of AI failures, we can generally divide them into two categories: mistakes made by machines and mistakes made by humans. We’ll discuss the later ones in another section, but what about the situation where the AI system fails? The reason behind every AI failure is rooted in many limitations and challenges in AI development and deployment.

For instance, AI systems trained on poor-quality data will carry over those errors, leading to consistently inaccurate results. Other factors, such as overfitting/underfitting, explainability issues, and the complexity of the tasks, also increase the risk of mistakes or incidents occurring. To understand why something might go wrong, it’s important to understand what types of AI errors there might be, which we will discuss next.

Types of AI errors

This list will go over some of the most common mistakes. Keep in mind that this list is not exhaustive, and your unique workflows might have other problems and vulnerabilities.

Bias

AI is capable of being biased, all because it is often trained on biased data. For example, a study by The Conversation exposes how Midjourney, a generative artificial intelligence tool, displays bias in the different types of images it creates. In some pictures, women were mostly shown younger than men and had fewer wrinkles; all images were conservative in how they portrayed different people, showing no tattoos, piercings, etc.

Lack of common sense

Common sense is innate to human beings, and it is not found anywhere else in either the natural or human-made world. It’s common sense for us that it’s dark at night and light during the day. But is it the same for AI? It does not “think” the way people do, meaning that it doesn’t have common sense. It’s trained on certain sets of data, which can be of bad quality, causing AI to sometimes spur out nonsensical information and untrue facts.

AI hallucination

Have you ever asked an AI chatbot, like ChatGPT, a question only to receive an answer that sounded both adequate and inadequate at the same time? If that happened to you, it’s okay: things like that occur more often than you might imagine. This type of error happens due to the AI’s ability to generate content even when it does not know the right answer. Its response might sound coherent, but the factual part of it will be far from the correct answer. This is an especially important mistake to remember since many users believe that AI, since it’s trained on large datasets, will never give you faulty information.

Catastrophic interference

Neural networks, inspired by the human brain, help machines learn and understand information and make predictions based on that knowledge. Unlike the human brain, a neural network may struggle to connect new information with previously learned data. This is a so-called catastrophic interference or catastrophic forgetting, and because of it, it might be harder to train some AI models.

While humans can retain previous knowledge even as they learn new information (e.g., knowing that 1 + 1 = 2 or that the sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening), many neural networks struggle to connect all the information they learn after being updated. However, methods such as meta-learning, regularization techniques, parameter isolation, and other approaches can help mitigate catastrophic interference.

TOP AI Mistakes Companies Make That Are Worth Your Attention

Mistakes are not only about errors in how machines think and operate; many failures and incidents also occur due to human factors. Let’s take a look at some of these and discuss how they can be overcome.

The shiny object syndrome 

When any type of technology becomes popular, sooner or later, everyone tries to integrate it into their workflows. Right now, numerous pharmaceutical companies are investing in AI tools that don’t align with their goals, and they do that without even realizing the problem behind this investment. AI is great, and everyone uses it to stay ahead of the competition, right? Well, this is only true if artificial intelligence is used correctly. Your company doesn’t need another expensive software if it’s not clear what kind of value it will bring.

So, how can you leverage the capabilities of AI without making unnecessary investments? Know your goals. Define what you’re trying to achieve with the help of AI, and seek the right tools that will help you meet your goals. Based on the proven results, scale gradually and expand AI integration.

Data dilemmas 

So many businesses rush into AI implementation that they forget to assess the risks the technology poses, including concerns regarding data access and safety. There is still a lot of bias towards the use of AI in many industries, and for a good reason: AI-based projects might go in a completely wrong direction due to inaccurate and incomplete data, and all of this can happen just because of one simple mistake that can go unnoticed just because the companies trust AI too much.

Of course, the described situation sounds a little bit too dramatic. However, let’s not forget that whenever there is a new tech, there are many worries about data safety. If you want to make the most of AI and mitigate all possible risks, invest not only in AI-powered software but also in some security measures and data governance.

AI-generated content risks

According to the reports, 73% of marketers these days use AI to create different types of content. Almost everyone in the marketing field utilized artificial intelligence to some degree. For sure, AI-generated content has many benefits, such as faster content delivery, increased efficiency, and reduced content production costs. Still, there are many issues AI-generated content entails, such as factual inaccuracies, ethical and compliance concerns, lack of emotional connection, and plagiarism. GenAI is excellent at assisting content creators, but it is not yet a perfect solution for standalone content generation.

To avoid creating and distributing misleading content that might cause reputation damage, focus on the usage of specialized AI models and maintain human oversight of all processes delegated to AI. Remember that there are no AI systems capable of fully replacing humans, nor should you do as well.

Navigating regulatory minefields with custom tools 

Artificial intelligence can assist companies in the early detection of safety risks and other issues related to compliance. Everything sounds great on paper until the benefits of AI turn into disadvantages. Many custom solutions, especially made by third parties, can result in validation, compliance, and transparency challenges, putting companies at risk of data leaks and breaches.

AI-based projects might be delayed or even derailed due to regulatory problems, often tied to unsafe utilization of technology. To prevent anything like this from happening, it’s important to work with regulatory agencies and follow industry guidelines, even if it sometimes seems too much.

The talent gap

Many companies are having difficulty attracting and retaining experts in the current competitive market due to talent shortages. In 2024, the hiring gap for all AI positions was estimated to be around 50%. Moreover, according to Deloitte, only 17% of organizations are looking for solutions to the problem. Both junior-level workers and seniors in many industries are experiencing difficulties getting used to the new technology, and for some, it is especially hard to adjust to the changes.

The scarcity of experts in the new technology is a common problem. This happened many years ago when computers were first introduced to the general public. The first companies to solve this problem were those willing to invest in training their staff rather than solely searching for newly educated experts. If you’re dealing with the same problem, consider partnering with reliable technology vendors instead of seeking new people outside of your organization.

Lack of change management

The world never stands still. New technologies emerge, and old traditions go away. It’s important to always remember that and change your ways as the world evolves. Many companies are now making the same mistake again: instead of preparing their organization for AI adoption, they choose to either completely ignore it or force their employees to figure out everything by themselves. AI is here to stay, and the sooner you develop a comprehensive change management plan that covers all aspects of staff training and support, the better.

Misaligned incentives

Many businesses rush into AI implementation without even considering their goals. As a result, they don’t get any long-term value from the AI tools and solutions they choose and focus on short-term gains instead. For example, some companies deploy AI too quickly, which is already a huge problem itself, and don’t create any training programs for the employees. Even though organizations still receive the desired solution as soon as possible, in this case, without adequate staff training, it is impossible to achieve high-quality, long-term outcomes.

Here is another example. Let’s say a clinic decided to implement a facial recognition system. Immediately, the establishment would improve their safety and increase patient identification. Also, such a system would save the clinic a lot of money. But is it everything a facial recognition system can do? In the long term, it can provide data-driven insights that can help the clinic personalize its greetings and services, which would definitely increase patient satisfaction and loyalty.

No matter what type of AI solution you decide to implement, aligning it with patient-centric goals and considering the broader impact on your patients is crucial. With AI-powered analytics, organizations can learn more about their customers and deepen their relationships. Keep your patients and their needs in mind every time you consider introducing a new strategy or integrating different tools into your workflows, as all of it will have just as much impact on your customers as it has on your employees.

Closing Thoughts

Don’t underestimate human capabilities, and don’t overestimate AI’s. This technology is still evolving, and even when it does reach its peak, it will still need us, humans, to fully unleash its potential. You should not only embrace AI but also learn its strengths and weaknesses.

Hundreds of thousands of businesses are looking for the best AI solutions right now. If you are ready to implement artificial intelligence into your workflows, contact us today to start your transformational journey. Our experts are always ready to provide you with detailed information on all AI-driven solutions we offer.

Pharmaceutical Digital Marketing Strategies for OTC Brands

According to the FDA, there are up to 300,000 OTC drugs marketed in the U.S. alone. Without a solid digital marketing strategy in place, how can you expect to stand out from such a massive crowd, drive sales, build brand awareness, and cultivate long-term customer loyalty?

Consumers are increasingly turning to digital channels for research, purchases, and engagement with brands. Rising healthcare costs have led to a surge in self-medication, with 27% of patients across 17 international markets choosing OTC drugs over prescription drugs due to expense, as revealed by a YouGov survey. This trend presents opportunities for OTC brands to connect with consumers through tailored digital experiences.

Source: YouGov

To stand out in this highly saturated OTC market, you must embrace digital transformation, harness data-driven insights, and deliver personalized, omnichannel experiences that resonate with modern consumers’ needs and tastes. 

In this article, you will discover digital marketing strategies for your OTC brand to help you establish meaningful relationships with your target audiences.

What is a Digital Marketing Strategy?

In the past, businesses used to communicate with their target audience through marketing channels like television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and outdoor advertising.

Digital marketing strategy refers to using online channels (such as your website, social media, organic search, paid ads, and other platforms) to improve your online presence and reach your marketing goals, like enhancing your business’ visibility and gaining new customers.

Let’s explore the topic further with this digital marketing strategy example. Imagine you want to increase traffic to your website by 25% in the next 12 months. First, you would define your target audience analyzing everything from their demographics to interests. Then you should pick the digital channels you’re going to involve. For instance, paid social media advertising, Google search ads, and content marketing. Your key strategies would be:

  • Paid social and Google ads to drive website traffic for high commercial intent searches
  • Use social media posts and videos to nurture the audience and showcase products
  • Create high-quality blog content optimized for SEO to build organic traffic

You can test social media ad creatives and audiences, multivariate landing page optimization, monitor top organic traffic sources, and put an emphasis on what works best. To help you launch and successfully run omnichannel campaigns while having a strategic overview, you can employ content experience platforms like eWizard.

Importance of Digital Marketing for OTC Brands

OTC drugs are essential for public health as they provide accessible solutions for common health problems. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the eCommerce sales of OTC drugs spiked, with people giving preference to shopping online over going to physical stores due to its convenience and competitive pricing. With the consumers’ tendency to search for information online before making purchasing decisions, OTC brands must leverage digital marketing to reach customers where they spend their time to educate them on their products.

Digital marketing enables you to build closer relationships with your customers through multiple channels like your website and social media. Moreover, you can precisely target specific consumer segments, based on demographics, behavior, and interests using digital marketing tools. They allow to create personalized messaging and product suggestions, enhancing relevance and engagement. On top of that, with robust analytics OTC brands can accurately measure engagement, conversions, and ROI, as well as continuously optimize their strategy based on their performance data.

As eCommerce disrupts traditional retail, OTC brands must differentiate themselves from the competition through compelling digital brand experiences, content, and consumer value-adds their competitors may lack.

Besides, digital marketing can be highly cost-efficient compared to traditional channels while enabling OTC brands to reach a much larger audience through organic, paid, owned, and earned media strategies.

Main Components of Digital Marketing Strategy

An effective digital marketing strategy should consist of well-thought-out paid advertising, social media marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and web analytics. Let’s discuss them one by one.

Paid Advertising

Numerous platforms can be utilized for paid advertising. Each of the platforms may have different ad types available, like search ads, display ads, native ads, video ads, and others. This diverse range of paid advertising formats enables brands to develop integrated strategies that span several platforms in order to meet awareness, engagement, and conversion goals.

Social Media

As of 2022, it was estimated that over 4.59 billion people were using social media worldwide, and spending almost 2.5 hours there daily. This is why OTC brands have to leverage social media in their marketing efforts. They can reach a wide audience there and raise awareness about their products and their benefits. Moreover, social media provides a channel for direct interaction and customer engagement.

SEO

Search engine visibility is paramount for success in today’s digital landscape. Google Health Vice President reports that an estimated 7% of Google’s daily searches are health-related, equivalent to 70,000 every minute. Both patients and doctors look up and research products, symptoms, treatments, and insurance questions using search engines.

Web Analytics

Web analytics provide quantitative insights that OTC brands need to refine their digital presence, enhance user engagement, and drive conversions. Analytics tools such as Google Analytics show how people interact with the brand’s website and content, which includes metrics like traffic sources, popular pages, conversion paths, and bounce rates. In addition, analytics can reveal where your visitors tend to abandon the website or purchase process which will let you know where optimization is needed. 

How to Create a Digital Marketing Strategy

Creating a proper digital marketing strategy takes experience and expertise, so be ready to test your theories, and don’t get discouraged if your first campaign doesn’t get the traffic you wish. With so many other brands competing for customers’ attention, it’s crucial to consider what can set your product apart and highlight it in your marketing content. And if you want to involve experts to create your digital marketing strategy, drop a message to Viseven.

Let’s go through the key steps to creating a pharma digital marketing strategy.

Determine your target audience

Digital marketing allows you to reach new audiences. However, not all of them are going to be interested in what you have to offer. You need to conduct market research to identify your buyer personas whose interests and preferences match your offerings. Personalization is a big trend with consumers now, so you also have to think about segmenting your target audience into smaller groups to customize your messaging for each of them.

Engage and educate through content

Content marketing is essential for your brand for a few reasons. First, well-optimized content can bring you organic traffic from search engines, spreading the word about your brand and products. Secondly, both providers and patients use the internet to find information about symptoms, treatments, and products. By providing them with interesting and educational content targeted to various groups, you can not only address their pain points and concerns but also establish your brand as a thought leader.

In-depth blog articles, innovative email marketing campaigns, and engaging social media posts can all play a crucial role in your content strategy. Additionally, high-quality content helps build trust and credibility with your audience, positioning your brand as a reliable source of information. Moreover, content marketing can support your lead generation efforts by attracting and nurturing potential customers through the sales funnel. Finally, it allows you to showcase your expertise, differentiate your brand, and foster stronger connections with your target audience, ultimately driving better brand awareness, loyalty, and conversions.

Gather and utilize data

The beauty of digital marketing for OTC brands lies in the wealth of data it generates. Website analytics reveal traffic sources, user behavior, content performance, and audience insights vital for optimization. Search data displays consumer intent and common queries to guide content strategy. Social media listening unlocks brand sentiment, product perceptions, and messaging opportunities.

During marketing campaigns creation, OTC marketers can leverage this data to shape targeting, develop resonant messaging, enhance user experiences, plan digital marketing tactics, and measure performance. An insights-driven approach fueled by tangible consumer data allows continual campaign refinement and improvement over time.

Current Landscape of the OTC Pharma Market

The OTC drugs market size is estimated at $137.39 billion in 2024, and is expected to hit $163.10 billion by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 3.49% during the forecast period. 

The OTC drug market is witnessing substantial growth, primarily driven by the escalating costs of prescription medications. As healthcare expenses continue to soar, consumers are increasingly turning to self-medication with OTC drugs as a more affordable alternative.

According to Bloomberg, the average American spends an astounding $1,300 per person annually on prescription drugs, with the launch price of a new drug in the US reaching an average of $180,000 for a year’s supply in 2021. This massive rise in Rx drug prices is fueling the demand for self-care solutions through OTC medications.

Self-medication with OTC drugs is becoming a global phenomenon, with prevalence rates ranging from 11.2% to 93.7% across different countries and target populations. This growing trend towards self-care is further propelling the growth of the OTC drug market.

As the cost of prescription medications continues to rise, consumers are embracing the accessibility and cost-effectiveness of OTC drugs, enabling them to manage minor illnesses and maintain their overall well-being without breaking the bank. This shift in consumer behavior, coupled with the increasing approval of new OTC drug options, presents a significant growth opportunity for the industry.

Furthermore, online sales of OTC medicines through e-pharmacies, retailer websites, and marketplaces like Amazon are booming, necessitating an omnichannel marketing approach for brands. 

To remain competitive in this landscape, OTC pharma brands must leverage digital marketing capabilities, focus on consumer education, eCommerce enablement, and innovative product offerings aligned with self-care trends.

Best OTC Pharmaceutical Marketing Strategies

Here are several ideas that can help you map out and execute a more efficient digital marketing strategy.

Think Outside the Box with Mobile

56% of shoppers globally use their smartphones to shop or research items while in a store. The majority of pharma brands already provide mobile-optimized sites to boost their mobile presence. However, few utilize mobile in creative or innovative ways. This is your chance to set yourself apart from the competition. For instance, Pfizer offers a mobile app that allows patients to track their injections, log symptoms, set medication reminders, and access a wide range of resources to help them set and maintain goals throughout treatment.

Engage with Health Apps & Wearable Gadgets

The adoption of mobile health and fitness applications witnessed a surge in recent years, propelled by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, these apps were utilized by 23% of consumers in the United States. However, specific categories like health tracking, workout apps, and meditation apps saw broader adoption, reaching approximately 36% of the U.S. consumer base. 

When it comes to wearable tech, in 2021 it was estimated that about 526 million wearable devices were shipped globally, with more than 80% of consumers believing that wearables are beneficial to their health.

OTC brands can tap into the health tech-savvy user base by leveraging targeted advertising within popular health and fitness apps, as well as forming partnerships with leading health tech companies and influencers in the digital wellness space.

Allocate Resources to Both Time-Specific & Ongoing Marketing Efforts

Undeniably, OTC medications are intrinsically linked to seasonal cycles as consumer needs fluctuate throughout the year. Flu, colds, allergies, and sports-related ailments resonate with different consumer segments during their respective peak seasons. To capitalize on these cyclical demands, OTC brands can implement ongoing marketing activities and tailored time-specific activations. These initiatives not only foster brand loyalty by addressing timely health concerns but also provide a strategic avenue to highlight the seasonal benefits of their OTC offerings. 

Ongoing marketing efforts can include subscription-based models or loyalty rewards that incentivize repeat purchases aligning with the ebb and flow of seasonal ailments. Targeted time-specific activations can consist of a multi-channel marketing blitz, spanning digital marketing campaigns, in-store promotions, influencer collaborations, and educational content tailored to the relevant health issues of that period.

Develop and Share Valuable Online Content

Content is king, and it’s vital for all industries, especially for pharma where people may rely on it to improve their well-being. With consumers’ tendency to research their symptoms and possible treatment online, it’s crucial to share valuable content about your products, what they do, and how and whom they help. Consider branching out from just full-blown blog articles to videos and infographics to bring variety and originality to your content. 

Your content distribution plan is of the same significance. It doesn’t matter how great your content is if your audience doesn’t see it, so make sure to think through your distribution and repurposing plan.

Utilize Social Media Platforms

With approximately 50% of users considering health information obtained from social media as reliable, OTC pharma brands have a prime opportunity to utilize this channel effectively. OTC brands can reach out to this large, health-conscious audience by sharing educational content on health conditions and self-care tips, highlighting product information and usage guidance, engaging with customers through responsive service, collaborating with influencers for credible endorsements, gathering consumer insights through social listening, running targeted advertising campaigns, and seamlessly integrating social efforts with their broader omnichannel strategy.

For instance, P&G’s Vicks and Metamucilt have vibrant presences on Twitter and Instagram. Vicks frequently shares cold/flu season remedies and collaborates with influencers, while Metamucil focuses on digestive health through recipes and expert advice on social.

Summing Up

At the end of the day, the digital world opens up a huge playing field for OTC pharma brands to really connect with their customers in new and innovative ways. But it’s not just about blasting promotions everywhere. It’s about using data and consumer insights to have totally relevant, engaging conversations across channels like search, social media, and eCommerce.

As consumers keep evolving, craving more personalized experiences, a focus on preventive wellness, and digital self-care solutions, the brands that truly tap into the digital marketing game will be the ones calling the shots. They’ll have built genuine relationships and empowered people to take control of their health journeys. The future belongs to the brands that can adapt quickly, get creative and innovative, while always putting the consumer first in their digital approach.

Self-detailing is the Augmented Reality of Approved Email

We’re all getting a bit tired of the words ‘remote communication’, aren’t we? However, in many places it is too early to say that the restrictions on in-person visits for HCP and medical representatives might be lifted shortly. Moreover, remote communication practices have shown their usefulness not only as a reaction to the coronavirus, but also independently of it. That’s why we observe the struggle of powers for the most diverse remote engagement techniques between pharma enterprises. This struggle has prompted marketers to turn their attention to a wide variety of remote communication tools, including those that were previously ignored. In much the same way, a growing number of experts have turned their attention to self-detailing and continue to explore its power in HCP engagement.

Now let’s focus on the distinctive feature of self-detailing as a versatile omnichannel tool that augments the reality of Approved Email and complements other communication channels and devices for maximum engagement.

Think of the evolution of eDetailing

Considering that eDetailing became an integral part of digital pharma marketing nearly 20 years ago, it’s time to pause and reflect on how it turned into one of the major channels for HCP engagement. The reason behind this is the convenience and ability to present your product from various angles. Besides, it is its versatility that has large importance, as the tool to provide HCP engagement here and now, when the doctor is ready.

Continuous development of interactive technologies like 3D animation and gamification elements that are now available in eDetailing are making the content even more interactive for the HCP.

How this all started and where everything goes  

The whole eDetailing thing started as the meetings that were tied to the doctor’s schedule. However, timid voices soon began to emerge, calling for the opportunity for doctors to watch content on their terms. With the advanced development of technologies, various derivations of eDetailing have appeared. Due to many obstacles to timely and structured communication between the doctor and med rep, self-detailing has not lost its relevance; however, it receded into the shadows for a long time.

Now, however, this long-neglected long-neglected “relic of the past’’ got a renaissance when remote communications became a priority.

The remote mode of HCP engagement has made pharma brand managers appreciate the flexibility, convenience, and unimpeded communication this solution provides. Moreover, attention was drawn to its ability to work in conjunction with other channels of communication, which got new appreciation in the era of omnichannel engagement.

This is how the story looped and self-detailing regained its former popularity in our troubled days when pharma marketing needs more mature strategies to engage HCPs.

Preferable marketing channels to engage HCPs, based on research

The turmoil began when the coronavirus pandemic banned face-to-face visits with HCPs. Pharmaceutical brands maintain a dialogue with their target audience through all means of communication. Although, now, in an effort to retain their target audience, numerous pharmas rushed to invest their efforts in remote communication channels. One of the most important insights is that HCPs show readiness to receive this information online (79%). Moreover, they signal that they want to receive this information through a mix of channels. For example, 43% of HCPs prefer to engage with reps through email versus remote engagement (12%).
This way, everyone turned to omnichannel for a reason. It has already been proven that marketers using three or more channels in their campaigns earn 90% higher customer retention than those using single-channel campaigns. Here are the top channels for HCPs engagement:

Going back to remote communications, it is worth saying that even the greatest of channels may become oversaturated eventually. This is what many marketers are seriously wary of today. When COVID broke out, pharmaceutical companies started bombarding doctors with thousands of emails and other messages from all quarters. Hence the fear of “digital oversaturation” began. HCP pharma emails may simply become alike… How to stop killing the email channel and stay on top?

The answer is to diversify your email practices and add:

  • Personalization with dynamic content
  • Flexibility and quick production with modular approach
  • Use of extra capacities such as email fragments in Veeva Approved Email

What is Self-Detailing?

Earlier in our blog, we talked about what self-detailing is and why it remained in shadow for a long time. During self-detailing HCP looks through all the materials independently. The ability to provide HCPs with valuable information respecting their schedule is one of the greatest features of this communication channel. Besides, the average duration of engagement increases to 25 minutes. This guarantees that the HCP will have time to carefully read all information. Let’s look at the process of self-detailing:

  1. The agency creates assets Detailing slides and Approved Email
  2. Then the content is uploaded in Veeva Vault (or other DAM system)
  3. Content gets approval in Veeva Vault (or other DAM system)
  4. Detailing slides published to eWizard content authoring solution
  5. Content published to the CRM
  6. Representative sends Approved Email to HCP
  7. HCP clicks the link and views the Detailing slides
  8. Detailing Session KPIs are synchronized back to the CRM

Self-detailing cannot be a substitute for all channels, but it indeed can become a great addition. The rep can share the information on products that were not detailed on remote call for any reason (poor internet connection, lack of time, etc) after both face-to- face or remote calls. Alternatively, self-detailing can be used as the follow-up to share additional information with HCP after a webinar or a regular F2F eDetailing session.

As 65% of younger-generation HCPs considered digital natives prefer a mix of face-to-face and digital channels, high target face-to-face calls frequency can be mixed with Self Detailing.

Sometimes marketers want to present more than one product during a meeting, which is difficult or even impossible due to the doctor’s lack of time, but more precisely because it is simply too much. Then, it is highly recommended to use self-detailing as the complementary tool to give profound information about each product. 3d or 4th product can be shared via Self Detailing.

This way, we come to understand that one of the greatest features of self-detailing is the ability to complement any communication channel and any device. In other words, the possibility to act as a complementary tool for the pharma multichannel and omnichannel approaches. This channel can a part of face-to-face, remote engagement, used in conjunction with email, webinar, or mobile and receive maximum engagement. Doesn’t it sound like a great promise in the future of omnichannel-oriented HCPs?

Self-detailing + Approved Emails

The key to self-detailing is email. The representative sends the HCPs an Approved Email with a link to view a presentation by themselves. Session KPIs, questionnaire answers, feedback are collected automatically and synchronized back to the CRM system. Thus, self-detailing is capable to supplement and diversify your email practices.

However, it’s anyone’s guess what happens to email when we send it to the HCP. Whether it was even opened, read, or immediately deleted? Slightly above, we found out that interactivity and a high level of personalization are the factors that will allow your emails to stand out. It is important, because according to statistics, 66% of HCPs want to be able to receive email from the med rep. If you’re a doctor and you receive an email with a self-detailing presentation inside, it is your chance to dive deep into fascinating interactive content. Something different from the usual eDetailing, as a full-screen interactive presentation with the voiceover/script with pronounced messages, subtitles, clear navigation, and self-guided flow.

Once physicians review the materials, they can fairly evaluate the content. This feature is called to reveal HCPs’ “unfiltered” opinion on presentation.

Besides, the combination of Approved Email and Self-Detailing allows you to cover doctors in remote areas where they usually cannot be reached. Thus, you can expand the coverage of HCPs in any location, at the peak of remote communication boom and in the future.

The final thought

In the era of hybrid communication, it is difficult to choose the right channel to engage HCPs. The gradual changes in quarantine measures continue to undermine the ever more precarious position of the marketers. For this reason, they are in search of reliable solutions that will provide stability in relationships with HCPs. The self-detailing module carefully designed and improved by Viseven enables unprecedented HCPs coverage and considerable savings. Add self-detailing in your campaign to get the most honest metrics and gain a better understanding of HCPs’ true behavior and interests during the pandemic, and further. Contact us to get a demo and reach out to HCP through the ideally personalized communication channel.

Pharma Content Marketing: How to Create once and Deliver your Content across Channels

The way your brand is presented matters. It’s crucial for pharma and life sciences to build new connective “tissues” between their brand and the audience. This new stage requires from pharma not just delivering their brand stories but making them valuable – if pharma ambassadors want to be “value providers” (not just product promoters, or data deliverers). When it comes to a more in-depth definition of this new approach, the quantity of the content matters less, while quality ultimately goes first.

The multichannel way of thinking in pharma content marketing is consistently spreading: promotional messages become channelless; they are tied, thoroughly mixed, and ready to provide relevant information to healthcare professionals (or other audience) in the moment of search. That’s the new promise of multichannel, and, consequently, the new promise of pharma content marketing: creating and distributing relevant content with consistent messages across channels to attract the target audience and earn its loyalty. In a nutshell, there are two alternatives for pharma marketing leaders how to meet an ever-increasing demand from tech-savvy consumers: to care about the content only or to care about the customer first. In our guide, we will tell you more about content marketing production, explain what any given marketing strategy of pharmaceutical companies is, and share some pharmaceutical marketing tips with you.

What is a Pharma Marketing Strategy?

A marketing strategy for pharmaceutical products is a detailed plan for reaching the company’s target audience and converting it into its customers. A pharma marketing strategy is about understanding who might be interested in your services and what might motivate them to choose your company as a service provider. Effective marketing strategies in the pharmaceutical industry should include the following elements:

  • Market analysis;
  • Company vision;
  • Assessment of the company’s target audience;
  • Branding & messaging;
  • Risk evaluation.

The chosen pharma go-to market strategy must not only help your team determine the target audience but also be aligned with the overall company’s goals and objectives. The development of strategies for pharma marketing requires a lot of time and effort, and it involves high-level planning of all the necessary steps in order to achieve the desired results. An effective digital marketing strategy for pharmaceuticals should consist of defining priorities, identifying the target audience, allocating resources, and managing the implementation of all the stages that were determined beforehand.

And don’t forget that often pharmaceutical strategy works in tandem with other processes and tactics, such as a marketing plan or a sales strategy. Even though marketers are not responsible for pharmaceutical sales strategies, they should work with sales representatives to ensure their marketing strategies are aligned with the objectives of other teams. Collaboration is key to success, and without it, both strategies won’t be as successful as they could be.

What Kind of Content Will Win in the Pharmaceutical Industry?

There are many types of pharmaceutical marketing strategies, but the one that is likely to be winning has to include the kind of content that’s both engaging and useful. That is the so-called true multichannel content, which is:

  • Inspirational;
  • Relevant;
  • ABM-friendly;
  • Measurable;
  • Closed Loop;
  • Emotional;
  • Adaptive at every stage of decision making.

To succeed in marketing strategies for pharma, the chosen type of content should address the concerns of a multichannel customer, and multichannel content is just the right choice in this case.

What is a Pharma Marketing Plan?

A marketing plan is a roadmap, meant to guide you through all the hurdles and ordeals on the path to the implementation of a chosen pharmaceutical digital marketing strategy. In other words, pharmaceutical strategies can be served as a high-level overview, while a marketing plan is an outline of all your marketing objectives, tactics, and efforts needed to achieve your goals. Here are some of the components a marketing plan typically includes:

  • Content plan;
  • KPIs;
  • Situation analysis;
  • Timeline;
  • Budget;
  • Team roles.

Your pharmaceutical marketing plan should come next after your strategy, meaning that first you come up with the latter one, and only then you devise a marketing plan and use it to execute your ideas. The marketing plan is supposed to support your strategy and help you answer such questions as “Why? Where? When?”. Pharmaceutical companies’ marketing strategies and plans should come together, since implementing just one will not have such a positive effect as having both of them in use.

How to Get Started with a Top-notch Pharma Marketing Strategy?

Whatever marketing strategy was chosen, it needs to deliver the right content to the right audience. Thus, it’s worth relying on an account-based pharmaceutical marketing strategy (ABM) that allows targeting specific groups at the right time, place, and in the manner they expect pharma to reach them. How to switch your content marketing flow to the next level of quality, and make your content a trusted source? Before implementing a content strategy into a marketing campaign, do deeper research on your audience, using automated marketing tools such as content management systems, advanced web analytics, search engine optimization (SEO), etc. A platform for content creation can take over all the stages of your content marketing campaign. Such a solution helps to keep brand identity, maintain recognition on both global and local levels, and avoid redundant costly operations.

Good pharma content should be based on strong customer insights from prior interactions (how HCPs/patients are interacting with your content; how much time they spend on each content piece; what actions are taken upon the initial interaction, etc.). By reviewing all past activities, your customers have with your pharma content, you can easily identify the types/formats of data which they better respond to, or what content was turned down. This is how an account-based content strategy works: it helps to create targeted messages that will impress and engage customers.

Explore Content Marketing Production: Veeva & Viseven Integration

Over the years, Veeva has been supporting global life sciences and pharmaceutical enterprises helping to bring their products to market faster and in compliance with all regulatory requirements. A powerful integration of Viseven’s deep expertise in omnichannel content creation and the full pack of Veeva products and services guarantees streamlined workflows and advanced digital content development and distribution – that, in turn, ensures the highest level of brand awareness. You can easily create the best-in-class interactive content from scratch, localize or approve your content in a few clicks – and distribute it across channels assuring a genuine omnichannel customer experience.

A strong tool for multichannel content management is a must-have for every pharma professional. There’re countless capabilities incorporated into the eWizard platform to boost your content creation productivity. Thanks to the customizable integration of eWizard with Veeva Vault PromoMats, users gain a vast array of opportunities to skyrocket their content management to a whole new level: access global repository, find or leverage approved digital assets, publish them across multiple channels, and speed up time to market.

When you have your eDetailing created in eWizard, you can open it in your Veeva Vault account, and get a deeper view on the exported PDF or any initial materials as well as find all the details of related modules.

A New Concept of Pharma Content Management

Truly multichannel content is channel-independent, limitless and timeless

Viseven team has recently introduced its new concept of such a type of content creation to the digital pharma universe. A clear message is created once, and then distributed via channels to which that message perfectly fits. Don’t get it wrong, the channel matters; however, it cannot have the same power as the content behind the channel – that matters much more. The channel should become rather a means, not an end. To stay on the new level of content creation, pharma has to think of the message first.

Based on these principles, here are some marketing strategy tips on possible steps to be taken:

  • Forget about the one-size-fits-all market approaches

The point here is to look through customer’s point of view, to feel their emotions. Let’s say, at what time, through what channel, and what content type they prefer to consume.

  • Focus on interactive content

Find a shortcut from static PDF presentation to create multichannel content for an excellent eDetailing; it would be perceived as an engaging story with a wide array of interactive visual aids. Such presentations are working in the most engaging way, especially when it comes to HCPs-pharma reps’ interactions.

If you already have a PDF file, you can convert it into an interactive, Veeva compatible format as well as add navigation or any interactivity to your eDetailing if needed, and automatically publish it to the Veeva environment in a single click.

  • Analyze, Localize, and Measure

A quality measurement system is a stepping-stone for future success. Measure the time spent on the page, the number of downloads, shares on social networks, etc. – to calculate your return on investment. In such a turbulent pharma environment, it will be a tough task to sustain success in the long run if your assets are not updated regularly and adapted to local needs.

The Importance of Storytelling as a Pharma Content Marketing Tool

Storytelling in healthcare and pharma matters no less than in any other industry. Let’s make it clear, a good, uplifting story helps to tailor your content to customers’ needs. Initially, it comes from analyzing the pieces of content that are stronger than others; in other words, the ones that better resonate with physicians’ needs. Healthcare and pharma enterprises should tap into these particular emotions with whatever content type is chosen (engaging IVAs, videos, blogs, triggered email campaigns, messengers, etc.), and make effective use of them in the marketing. Your content should be able to affect, motivate, encourage, and inspire physicians to take the needed actions around your brand. No matter how well-structured your content is – it won’t work if it doesn’t stir emotions. This way the loyalty to your pharma brand won’t be lost.

4 basic practices that are of crucial importance to pharma professionals: 

  • Have all your assets constantly updated;
  • Personalize each interaction;
  • Use remote detailing for greater engagement;
  • Deliver your content across all the digital channels instantly.

Where data is, matters

Let’s face it: the HCP audience has different needs at different stages. The initial stage (this is the so-called awareness stage) is where physicians gather data for early diagnostics. Then goes the consideration phase – HCPs focus on a myriad of pharma products; choose the brand that resonates with their needs. The last phase is the evaluation phase when the product is chosen, and it’s time to justify the ROI, gather analysis or get a more in-depth understanding of the brand.

The peculiarities of these stages should be mapped to your marketing strategy. However, a multichannel marketing for pharmaceutical companies is often as good as the technology that powers it. To keep up with channel diversity, tech-savvy physicians, or Big Data splash you need to have an automated instrument at hand that is enriched with actionable insights.

Get rid of content silos

To jumpstart the launch of your multichannel campaign, consider using a content management system that will make your content creation flow fast and easy, and align your internal teams around a single, centralized data repository. The Viseven team has proven experience in transforming messages into channelless, flexible modules. This smart approach allows you to create content once – and reuse/republish it everywhere, from email to CLM presentation to the system of your choice.

Our unique solution eWizard is integrated with Veeva Vault PromoMats, Adobe Experience Manager and IQVIA for easy access or distribution of content and modules. This is how pharma can meet any specific need and keep high-quality content lifecycle that’s digestible for HCPs’ audience to consume. Here, at Viseven, our pharma professionals can provide you with full support in executing a truly winning content marketing campaign. Fill out the form below and start creating winning multichannel strategies that will surpass your expectations!

How to make pharma brand messages reinforce one another with email fragments (2 practices)

The tactics then work like this: providing the type of content the HCP finds most valuable and diluting it with the messaging that the company needs to make them aware of. For example, an HCP mostly interested in a cost-efficient treatment option can be engaged with a calculator, accompanied with information on prescription. Without this information, they would require a second step to consider prescribing the product – namely, searching for that information online. Making that step easier helps stimulate the dialogue.

When one message boosts the other

What’s important here is that each interaction presents real value for the HCP. Instead of engaging the physician at one touchpoint to capture their attention and then hoping to “push the agenda” on the next one, the two are combined whenever possible within one interaction – e.g. one email.

While this was more or less what field reps were trying to achieve in F2F calls, in remote engagement this becomes more important. A rep’s own experience and empathic skills allow them to sense when to say this or that, but with things like remote calls, emails and the web, without “seeing the eyes”, maintaining attention is trickier. No matter how great your previous email performed, there is always the chance (however small in the best case) that the next one will go unopened because the subject line did not engage enough.

And this is where the “digital oversaturation” starts to matter. With many a marketer freaking out at the start of national lockdowns, customers experienced a storm of messaging – and pharma recognized the dangers. With email, this is especially easily trackable – after a tipping point, the open rate starts falling down and unsubscribes get more frequent.

The good thing is that the solution was found quite fast – being twofold:

  1. more value
  2. think intensive, not extensive engagement

This is, in many situations, perceived as a matter of common respect to the HCP audience. A characteristic quote from an expert (in an interview to pharmaphorum) goes:

It’s time for the pharma industry to treat physicians as professionals, not as marketing targets. HCPs don’t prescribe something because someone says it’s a nice product. They want the good of their patient and offer them the most appropriate treatment. We need to have real discussions and move toward ‘augmented representatives’, who can use authorised sources on the internet or elsewhere to inform physicians and deliver better customer experience.

Florent Edouard, SVP, Global Head of Commercial Excellence, Grünenthal group

How difficult is it to implement this, though? Practices vary, and in many cases, this boils down to content. One does not simply launch the production of hundreds of, say, email templates to engage anyone in any possible combination of circumstances along the omnichannel journey.

Enter the new approaches to content creation.

“Smart content development” approaches

According to statistics, as many as 58% of pharma spent over $50 million on content annually – and only 13% of marketers in pharma/biotech thought they were efficient in leveraging content. This was several years ago, and now the situation is starting to improve gradually for some players (although the measurable impact is now only noticeable individually for each enterprise or affiliate).

The tactics that help improve are somewhat alike. Instead of “feeding the beast” and struggling to get the budgeting for evermore, pharma is adopting smarter material development approaches based on content reuse.

This means that instead of having to create a lot of similar (but a bit different) content items – email templates, CLM presentations, etc. – marketers first work to single out the “recurrent”, reusable elements in them. For example, telling the doctor about the results of a recent clinical outcome in digital content typically means the lines of code (and designs, and layout, and concept) that should look the same in different emails. However, traditionally, they were developed separately by different agencies, creating duplicates and making the company essentially pay for the same thing twice.

In the new approaches, these fragments are developed once to be reused across as many content items as possible. This is especially easy to illustrate with email templates: a fragment represents an entire block that can be inserted into an email template anywhere between the header and footer whenever needed.

HCP Webmail

What are Email fragments and how they work

As of now, there are two practical implementations of this strategy when it comes to email, and we at Viseven are now experiencing a surge of interest from different customers to both of them. The difference boils down to when exactly the predeveloped fragments are added to the template:

  • In the office at the final production stage. This is also called Modular content, and the flow is like that: initially, email modules and templates are developed. The “dirty” work of coding and testing is done when there is time enough, and when the right moment comes to unleash the content to the market – the office (marketers, in-house teams) use a content authoring tool to simply combine these blocks into whatever final form they want. In a recent case, it took a company only 3 days to produce and approve fully functional emails for urgent communication.
  • By the end users in the CRM/CLM system. This is as ad hoc as it gets, and this is an option that Veeva CRM The templates are produced with “slots” for a fragment to be inserted, and the fragments are published in Veeva Vault by themselves (and approved each one by one). The field rep can then send an Approved Email, to with they “drop” the fragment with which they decide to engage the HCP, making a lightspeed decision on the spot.

For a practical case with the former of these variants, look at this case study. Here below, we will focus on the practices with Veeva. What you will read is a summary of several cases into just two that generalize the trends.

Practice 1. Going beyond eDetailing to provide more value

As a reaction to coronavirus-related restrictions, many companies adopted remote eDetailing practices to keep HCPs and reps in touch with one another. Remote Detailing, as a channel, typically gets supplemented with email activity – namely invitation and confirmation emails, as well as follow up Approved Email from reps. This spelled opportunity for the users of fragments. A “standard” follow up email for a remote call typically thanks the doctor for taking the time to engage and provides a way to give feedback on the interaction. It is only natural, though, to include additional information that can interest the account. Some organizations practiced profiling their account database according to preferences and psychological types, some left this to individual reps. Suppose we have three types of HCPs:

  1. those who value RWE and clinical trial data, and are interested in the scientific part of information about any product
  2. the patient-centric thinkers who peruse profiles and want examples of how the product will actually solve particular issues and complaints
  3. the HCPs with a strong sense of community, relying on guidelines and key opinion leaders.

A generic email template is first created: This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is fragm04.png Then, the fragments are developed as soon as the general need for them is identified. In each individual case, then, it takes minutes to complete the Approved Email with additional valuable information: This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is fragm05-1024x1024.png In this way, the field engagement tactics get more flexible, the HCPs receive more value from each interaction, the marketers can instruct reps on prioritizing fragments to give more emphasis on particular key messages, all the while content production itself gets rid of repetitive load and becomes more cost-efficient.

Practice 2. Having key message transported by transactional emails

In the previous case, it was one template, several fragments with different information/key messages. In this one, it’s reversed: one and the same fragment dedicated to driving home a particular message, is used across a number of email templates. The particular key messages used in this case may vary; for the demonstration purposes, we can assume it is an upcoming virtual event. A fragment is developed to promote it, providing information and a link to register: This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is fragm06-1200x673-1-1024x574.png Then it can be inserted into the invisible vacant slot in different email templates: This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is fragm07.png In this way, the promotion of the event does not require an additional touchpoint with the HCP, instead relying on the engagement and interest sparked by the email that hosts the fragment. The overall touchpoints reduce, eliminating the oversaturation risk, but their intensity rises. In both cases, the content was created and managed using eWizard content authoring solution by Viseven team – integrated with Veeva Suite and covering a broad range of functionalities useful for pharma content creation and management.

Pharma promotion in the post-COVID-19 world

COVID-19 may go away some day. The large push towards innovation that came with the quarantines will yield results that likely won’t. If one could summarize what is happening with pharmaceutical companies’ communication to HCPs now in 1 point, that would be

  • fulfilling the promise.

While the industry has long promised – and to a considerable extent delivered – value-driven interaction, this was considered a long-term transformation that would take decades until the ideal would be reached. Under the present circumstances, though, this has become an imperative for here and now, ASAP. It is safe to assume that tomorrow’s HCP engagement will be exponentially increasing in personalization, infinitely attentive to the HCP’s needs and preferences – and much more efficient, flexible, with ROI expectations rising. Email fragment and modular content practices are just some practical steps on this way – but also among the first to take. Viseven is currently experiencing a rising interest for these practices and approaches. Our professionals engaged in such projects will be glad to share the insights and experience with you – as well as demonstrate the platform that enables them. Do not hesitate to request more information and a free demo here.

Pharma’s communication with HCPs can be an odd phenomenon. Strategically, it is a mission of bringing value to physicians; on a tactical level, it’s a complicated game of smart, creative approaches. The pandemic situation worldwide pushed ever more life sciences marketers and brand managers to emphasize engagement via digital channels. However, the fear of “digital oversaturation” (i.e. HCPs getting spammed and fed up) stimulated smarter takes on making communication more intensive at each touchpoint. In this article, we discuss 2 variants of an interesting approach to reinforcing brand messages – based on Veeva Approved Email fragments.

Turning up the volume on remote communication in pharma

The spring of 2020 may become material for a chapter in marketing books for future generations. Because of COVID-19, pharma marketing experienced a more violent disruption than ever before, as F2F rep calls suddenly stopped being an option. In a survey by PM360, 63% of respondents confirmed rep access was “near zero at this time”. The rapid, hectic rethinking of entire marketing cycles, with the obligatory shift towards every other channel except in-person calls is starting to bear fruit right now.

Until recently, many an organization, especially regional affiliates, used to consider digital channels of communication as supplementary to the “true” F2F eDetailing. Now these are no longer the experiments for the digitally advanced – the “alternative” channels have gained their moment in the spotlight in everyone’s strategy.

These include, among others:

  • remote eDetailing sessions
  • rep-triggered email
  • mass mailing campaigns
  • social
  • messengers
  • web (sites, portals, landing pages)

Of these, of course, email has become the general favorite – understandably so: name an HCP who does not have a mailbox. However, exactly this channel was where anxieties and questions have started to arise. As early as April 2020, experts already warned that inconsiderate and abundant use of email would desensitize HCPs – with more and more emails even from famous and trusted brands landing in spam, and doctors unsubscribing en masse.

This is where the already digitally savvy managers saved the day for many a campaign – instead of playing the old game of who shouts louder, they started experimenting with approaches more empathic to the physician – emphasizing value and providing fewer but more intensive touchpoints.

By May, about 60-70% HCPs still wanted to continue the dialogue with pharma even in times of the coronavirus – so it’s definitely worth it to study how exactly life sciences managed to maintain attention.

Personalization: a horizon, an asymptote… a necessity

In mathematics, an asymptote is that imaginary straight line on the graph denoting a value to which the main trend is getting closer and closer without ever reaching it completely. Even if it seems the graph has crossed that line, you only zoom in to find there’s still some way towards it. In a way, this is what personalization is to marketing; the more of it brands provide, the higher and more refined the audiences’ expectations and standards. It’s a horizon to follow indefinitely, chasing the sunshine of customers’ attention.

Putting aside the philosophical question of whether 100% personalization will ever be achieved, “chasing the sun” is definitely a necessity. Marketers in numerous pharma companies are now adopting omnichannel customer journeys and rigorous database analytics, raising the plank for everyone. Approaches to personalizing the engagement for physicians vary and multiply.

Just one of these involves studying the psychology of the target HCPs and establishing a segmentation based on their preferences and “archetypes”. An example of this approach has been provided by McKinsey and Across Health even before the pandemic.

Viseven is a Salesforce Consulting Partner

TALLINN, Estonia, April 30, 2020 – Viseven Group is happy to announce its newly acquired status as a Salesforce Consulting Partner. Having an extensive history of mutually beneficial collaboration with Salesforce.com, the entire team is proud of involvement with the world’s most recognized business platform – and looking forward to the new opportunities of bringing genuine value to our customers in life sciences. The connection and integration of Viseven’s powerful eWizard multichannel pharma content authoring platform with Salesforce allows to elevate the benchmarks even further.

The entry to the Consulting Partner Program confirms the alignment of Viseven Group’s strategic goals with the values embodied in the Salesforce community. The program is focused on Customer Success, Innovation and Engagement – three core principles that resonate perfectly with what Viseven does for life sciences companies in the realm of digital transformation: attaining omnichannel excellence and value-driven brand communications based on tech solutions and impeccably personalized content. Working along the lines envisioned by the Program will allow to further expand Viseven’s own ecosystem of collaborations and offerings spectrum to drive that vision.

By now, Viseven has been providing expert assistance and content development services to global pharmaceutical companies for 10+ years along several lines:

  • multi- and omnichannel expertise
  • omnichannel content development (eDetailing, email templates, websites, mobile, VR and AR applications, CRM and CLM capacities)
  • transformation in the content supply chain with the unique eWizard platform

eWizard, an end-to-end multichannel content authoring solution for life sciences, provides an extended set of tools that cover pharma and agencies’ industry-specific needs in content creation, reuse, adaptation (including localization) and management. Throughout the history of the platform, this vast range of applications has called for a broad integration scope. Notably, eWizard is integrated with Veeva Suite (which features the Salesforce-based Veeva CRM).

To bridge the customers’ email strategy with the overall omnichannel excellence, Viseven has integrated the platform with Salesforce Marketing Cloud. This allows eWizard users to create and update high quality mobile-friendly email templates, while also enjoying automated publication to the Marketing Cloud for use. In this way, Viseven connects the pharma content world with the array of Salesforce business activities – a solution that many customers have specifically pointed out as a major win.

Viseven Group’s mission is firmly established: we help pharma companies provide omnichannel experiences for stakeholders, build value-based relationships and spread the word about innovation in their field. How do we achieve this? Expert-led digital transformation, professionally crafted content – and an innovative approach. Our collaboration with Salesforce is an essential driver of success along these lines, especially when you consider how firmly entrenched Salesforce.com-based solutions are in the business processes of our customers. Working to build upon these capabilities and provide for even higher achievements is a large part of what we do.

Nataliya Andreychuk, CEO

Currently, eWizard platform boasts a substantial set of integrations, covering the needs specific to the pharmaceutical industry. In terms of email, the solution allows pharma brands to:

  • Repurpose preapproved brand master email templates to be used in Veeva (Approved Email) and SFMC
  • Build email content modules to mix and match (header, image+text, etc.)
  • Automatically publish user-assembled email templates to Veeva Vault for review and approval
  • Export the approved email template to Salesforce Marketing Cloud for distribution

As a Salesforce Consulting Partner, Viseven provides a team of certified specialists and consultants who skillfully guide the customer through the entire process of implementing the new omnichannel approach, from developing a strategic roadmap and platform configuration to training and maintenance.

At the time of this writing, Viseven includes a number of Salesforce certified professionals holding the title of:

  • Salesforce Certified Platform Developer
  • Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Email Specialist
  • Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Consultant​

It is the company’s endeavor to extend the number of certified specialists as early as by the end of Q2 2020, as well as to work with Salesforce to provide more possibilities to life sciences customers.

Want to learn more about how to use the maximum potential of SFMC for your brand’s omnichannel success? Contact our experts to find out how the possibilities of Salesforce and eWizard platform can boost efficiency and fit your strategic objectives.

How to create Healthcare email templates in eWizard 

Oh no, email is not dying because of all the disruptive comm tech emerging, dear, especially if we are talking healthcare and pharmaceuticals. If anything, this channel has been thriving and evolving lately — to put it humbly — into a hyper-personalized occasion-based super healthcare email. Resistance is futile; don’t even try to dismiss that one! And to be completely fair, why should email be fading? Doctors prefer this communication channel to any other and love receiving personalized emails. And “personalized” here doesn’t mean inserting the correct name or sending dry birthday wishes. A sleek, well-designed, mobile-friendly, to-the-point-and-occasion message is what this audience is after.

And pharma marketers too! They know very well that a well-designed email is a source of clear KPIs, as it is often a steppingstone to deeper engagement. So, mass mailing? I ask that you never say those words again. The last thing marketers want is for their work to end up in the spam folder. So, to prevent this, email categorization becomes an a-la-mode approach — soft personalization. Pharma marketers are currently emailing HCPs for at least 4 reasons:

  • engaging new audiences
  • categorized emails on specialization
  • pre-meeting/follow-up emails
  • invitations to virtual/IRL events

eWizard template is the solution

The only thing is… it takes a lot of effort (read: time and budget) to create today’s medical email. Just imagine, with all the approval procedures inevitable in the healthcare industry and the amount of manual work involved in making each change, one email can take up to 4 hours. Therefore, solutions like healthcare email templates have become so popular.

Email templates come in many shapes and forms. But the main thing is that they solve many key problems of digital marketing. Just look at what businesses can achieve with ready-made templates:

  • harmonized design, structure and interactivity across brands and countries;
  • flexible structure for the email content;

Sounds easy, right? This list can become an illustration of your marketing campaign if you use templates made of blocks with components approved building blocks for switching and combining. The point of this “nesting doll” is getting pre-designed templates, which consist of blocks formed by components, all of which are available within a single content management and approval system. Templates can be adjusted to any screen (tablet, mobile phone, laptop), and all are available on eWizard platform. Let’s see how this magic works.

Workflow for creating and customizing the medical email template

To begin with, log in to your eWizard account. The first thing you see is eWizard Library, where you can create, store, and upload items.

In eWizard UP Library, you can add new items in the following ways:

  • create new items based on templates;
  • upload ZIP archives or files;
  • convert PDF and PPTX files into the eWizard-compatible format.

Also, you can organize items into folders.

To create a new email based on the template, click + ADD NEW at the upper left of your Library. Select the required item type.

medical email templates

eWizard allows users to incorporate business flows into their work with pharmaceutical emails of two types: rep-triggered (approved) and broadcast.

You can use a rep-triggered email (RTE) to send an invitation, a follow-up, or to perform other personalized activities. Rep-triggered emails let you interact with recipients more efficiently.

When you need to address many recipients at once, you use a broadcast email. It’s designed for mass mailing and provides common fact-finding or introductory information.

You can also create an email fragment. It is a reusable part of the email that provides updates or details to the information stated in the email. You can create one email and edit it with different ready-made email fragments.

In the Create new pop-up, you can select one of the available templates. To find the required template faster, use the search box or apply filters.

Once you select the template, you can view it with the play button on the template card. Some metadata fields are automatically filled out with the values of the selected template, for example, name, brand, and language. You can change them if needed.

Fill in the rest of the mandatory fields with the asterisk (*) and click CREATE. As a result, your newly-created Approved email template appears in the My library space.

Now, it is high time to customize your template according to your needs and requirements. For this, click the pencil icon on the item card.

As a result, your item opens in eWizard Editor.

pharma email template

eWizard Editor is a multifunctional service that allows you to organize the content within your email with the help of components [1], blocks [2], and placeholders [3]. Also, you can customize the styling [4] and properties [5] of email components, modify the layout with its settings [6], translate [7] your email, and preview [8] all your modifications on the fly.

On the left sidebar, you can find tabs with the available components, blocks, and placeholders. You can open any of these tabs and drag available elements to the layout for your content organization in email.

You can fill the added to the layout components with assets from My library, Veeva Vault, or your device and then replace the selected assets, if required.

With the tabs on the right sidebar, you can do the following:

  • The Styling tab [1]: Customize the background color, opacity, borders, and paddings of the selected component or block on the item layout.
  • The Properties tab [2]: Configure values that determine the component content and view on the layout.
  • The Settings tab [3]: Set the layout width and background color, and align the item layout.

After your email is ready, you can launch eWizard Quality Assurance toolset with the TEST button.

Here, you can select the following:

  • Send a test email.
  • Preview your emails and email fragments display in various email clients with Device simulator.
  • Compare different versions of the same item or different items available in Library.

Our workflow wouldn’t be complete without email exporting for or publishing to the best content management systems.

With eWizard Publisher, you can send items created in eWizard to different target systems. Although the final result is almost the same as with eWizard Export service — the item appears in the specified target system — the processes differ. Thanks to secure and configurable integrations of eWizard with target systems, publication cuts the likelihood of a human mistake.

eWizard Export is a service that allows you to transform eWizard items into formats compatible with target systems: documents, standalone (mobile) applications, or ZIP archives. After a successful export, you receive an email notification with a unique link to download the resulting file.

eWizard templates will provide you with infinite ways to create new Approved and broadcast email templates. You can leverage creativity while retaining your brand identity, consistency and afford personalized messages.

If you want to see the complete picture of how it works, fill in the form below to get your full version of this demo!

The Role of Digital Content Authoring in Omnichannel Pharma Marketing

HCPs meet your brand at all hours, across all channels and touchpoints. Today physicians and patients expect more consistency while engaging with a pharma brand (with content, messaging and offers provided), and no less they anticipate variability in each interaction as it occurs. As artificial intelligence, virtual technologies and the Internet of Things enter healthcare and pharma so rapidly, a huge portion of omnichannel efforts must be undertaken. Omnichannel marketing is all about connecting and creating such co-coordinated experiences among channels; experiences that are interchangeableAfter all, an omnichannel approach is the one that should be rewarding not only to perfectly harmonized customer journeys but to company wellbeing as well.It has led pharma to develop a new approach in terms of content creation. Eager to learn how does this approach look now? Strap up to see: 

When Modules come – Consistency follows 

 Fragmented interactions do not work anymore. There should be no “space” between customer experiences – they should exist in harmony and be cohesive. The customer journey needs to be mapped as one whole, but not as shattered bits that were split up. The one-size-fits-all approach to content creation is overaged, and it is no longer working. The content delivered to HCPs or patients should be universal and at the same time a bit of exclusive; it should fit whatever needs arise. Let’s say, “predictive content”, just as though. Here is the solution that can put together suchprevision, universality, and ability to match individual requirements – the Modular Content. 

The Traditional vs Modular way   

Whatever content is created by life sciences companies it should be medically, legally and regulatory approved, repeatedly, and no matter that this content might often contain just the same messaging and data. Ittime consuming, redundant, burdensome, and expensive process. Well, how can pharma keep up with today’s ever-changing demands for varied content across channels? Modular content came for pharma marketers as a means to master customer journeys. The idea behind Modularity lies in developing blocks (content blocks) which could be effortlessly reused, updated, and could exist in multiple locations, channels, and contexts. The approach drives both global and local consistency, reducing rounds of review and approval while decreasing time to market. 

Ready to take up the challenge and change the way you think of content creation? 

  find the digital content authoring solution that supports the omnichannel approach! 

eWizard is the omnichannel solution that offers seamless content management, driven by cost-effectiveness, Modular Approach for content reuse covering all channels, and aligned with main Digital content production principles in Pharma. As a content authoring solution, eWizard enables the user to createmanage, update and localize key messages in a fast and cost-effective way across all channels of your omnichannel strategy. It presents content in the form of reusable blocks – ModulesThese modules can be automatically updated and approved in every channel and installed into templates with no changes for MLR approvals. 

How does a Digital Content Authoring Solution work? 

 Cross-channel connected modules are created – that is a core claim (message) with all references that support it (+ media, graphs, images, videos, etc.) approved to be used and reused through multiple channels (e.g. eDetailing, websites, emails)eWizard is integrated with Veeva Vault for easy access and content management, including modules. They arefunctioning within a connected content framework and are updated automatically in all channels. For further distribution of your content eWizard is integrated with Adobe Experience Manager, Veeva Vault PromoMats and IQVIA.  

The basis for a successful modular content program is end-to-end digital asset management, a “DAM” solution.

Digital agencies or brand teams can access these approved modules using a DAM system. You’ll become more efficient in terms of time, budget, resources while remaining high quality in creation, localization and content distribution to channels. 

Let’s look at the key capabilities of eWizard platform: 

For those companies that are going to design and implement an outstanding omnichannel strategy –  

  • modular content framework enables to create, update, and reuse cross-channel modules; 
  • eWizard omnichannel content Builder, Localizer, and Converter makes it easy toassemble cross-channel and channel-specific content; 
  • integrations with corporate ecosystem helppublish modules for approval and distribute final content to all channels and systems automatically; 
  • faster MLR approval process in eWizard ensures digital content is compliant, accessible and responsive to the entire needs of marketing strategy as well as accelerated review process and rapid changes. 
  • up to 80 percent of digital content reusealong with converting your PDF or InDesign formats into CLM-friendly eDetailing. Get completely editable and ready HTML5 presentations where you can set dynamic navigation and add interactive elements; 
  • easier content management system whereomnichannel content migrates via multiple channels easily (a full content delivery lifecycle); 
  • higher brand awareness in fewer resources’ involvement with 100% content reuse and localization in one click. Your brand performance increases because of outstanding commercial content quality and better adoption by the company sales representatives, as well as the end customers. 
  • increased alignment as your contentis completely aligned to local market needs.

eWizard platform gives limitless opportunities for editing, reusing and creation of interactive content with automatic publishing to Veeva Vault environment. Using eWizard you can design and create the journey in which the Global Master Version for various digital channels (emails, websites, eDetailers, etc.) means further reuse of its assets at the highest quality eliminating the need for additional agencies’ work, coding manipulations, and re-creation of content. In turn, you get ready-made digital assets for a pharma brand product that can be quickly reviewed and approved. By selecting the right content authoring solution, you’ll save your time, costs, resources while receiving beneficial outcomes with a guarantee of high quality and superior value. 

 eWizard platform, as a powerful digital solution, will help pharma brand managers and marketers augment customer experience and maintain aomnichannel strategic approach. To see eWizard in action right away, drop our experts a line and request a free demo. Get ready to level up your omnichannel marketing strategy! 

Adobe Experience Manager integration with eWizard Platform for new-gen pharma content management

In another move to create a world of truly interconnected digital ecosystems for life sciences, Viseven Group is happy to introduce the integration of eWizard Platform with Adobe Experience Manager! This powerful solution, already claimed to be in use by 7643 companies, presents new opportunities to cater to pharma marketing’s long standing needs.

Here, we will dive into the whats and hows of these changes. We will look at how you can connect your existing systems, including Veeva, with AEM using eWizard, craft and reuse websites that fit AEM, while tracking their performance in Veeva/Salesforce, as well as how content approval processes and data integrity can be improved.

Data Integrity and the need for integrated pharma content solutions

The current business landscape is infused and intersected with data… Wait, it consists of data. With the most recent concerns about its quality, no wonder that the entire pharma industry is searching for ways to get things as neat as possible. Over the course of the last several years, FDA has had to issue quite a number of 483 warning letters concerning data integrity deficits in life sciences industry. For the most part, these have to do with regulations, electronic signatures, etc.

Now, pharma marketing is, in turn, affected. After all, brand reputation is part of the goal in the movement for data integrity, not just the regulatory confidence.

If we look close enough at the so-called ALCOA principles of data quality, we can see why:

Attributable – If you see materials in your DAM that you could and would possible reuse, it will surely help to see who uploaded them, when and why – and maybe how they performed.

Legible – it goes without saying that no marketer will ever reuse content that fails to interest them; unintelligibility is a putoff.

Contemporaneous – “just a file” is not an asset, but simply an object. How long since it was last used? Besides that, documenting the performance of content in real-time is something that begged for automation – and now has been automated.

Original – no one would like to get globally approved templates for, say, an ad, website or email in a version that has already been localized several times, with Gujarati text over a picture clearly destined for Russian market.

Accurate – all about context and metadata, which implies proper tagging and linking of all digital assets per key message, market, campaign, etc.

Digital Asset Management and Content Approval Software – life sciences perspective

Of all industries, pharma arguably has the most complicated and branching content lifecycle. The layers of responsibility imposed on various stages, starting from agency and up to MLR, make the workflows mudded at times, especially so if different systems and transfer formats (PDF, documents, PPT, etc.) are used.

In general, we can usually distinguish between three such layers. Asset Management per se, done by agencies, can be put to order as a short-term objective. Typically what’s needed here is a single workspace with sufficient integrations, a pack of content authoring functionalities and a way to report on the outcomes.

Next is the marketing review and approval workflow, which requires not only a unified platform to work on the content (e.g. comment on the assets), but also some formal mechanism of approval endorsed by tech.

Finally, the compliance layer – medical, legal, regulatory – also requires a single “source of truth”, but with even more meta tagging, taxonomy and context, as well as more formal approval chain.

The needs that are more or less in common across all these levels are as follows:

  • clear approval nomenclature (think Zinc, which is already in use by many an entrerprise)
  • possibility to share content across affiliates and agencies to ensure compliance and cost-efficiency (content reuse is the best way to achieve this)
  • metadata and tagging for the available assets
  • permission control and customizable user roles
  • possibility to somehow plug all of this together with CRM to track the approved key message performance
  • bonus point – ability to think in terms of key messages and not content items separately. This is the new approach to multichannel that Viseven has been especially pioneering recently with the modular Connected Content.

Sewing together Veeva Vault PromoMats and AEM integration with eWizard

At the moment, these different needs are solved by means of multiple systems in place, each serving its own stretch of the content lifecycle. For example, Veeva Vault PromoMats serves for storage, meta connectivity, and review. Content authoring and distribution is done via channel-specific solutions: email platforms, development environments, CRM/CLM, and so forth.

The first step in achieving digital excellence is, of course, instilling digital culture and getting proficient in each of these systems. The logical next stage is creating clear workflows that transcend the systems and unify the processes. With the advent of Adobe Experience Manager, be it primarily as a powerful means of managing websites, we see this tendency in its mature stage, with attention to workflows built into the very concept.

In turn, eWizard Platform, too, transcends its original role of multichannel content authoring solution and can now connect Veeva systems and AEM into a single whole, building bridges wherever necessary for the corporate needs.

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The platform allows to take approved/validated digital assets from Veeva Vault (seamless integration, nothing except credentials at one point is needed), arrange them in a channel-specific template (eDetailer, email template, in case with AEM, as website), and then publish it to the target system. Everything that can be automated is automated, leaving no manual work to the user.

At the same time, the performance of the website published in Adobe can be tracked further, with the data available in Veeva via CDN.

Alongside this improvement, eWizard offers to use the new Modular Content approach, where content exists beyond channels in the form of flexible modules that can fit different types of channel-specific templates. A single module with key message can be inserted into a template for website or email, or eDetailer presentation, with further adaptation if necessary – all inside eWizard.

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As a result, the workflow that embraces Veeva systems and AEM via eWizard, “straightens” the multiple lines into a single, all-encompassing picture:
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Adobe Experience Manager examples in practice

Suppose you have an environment in Adobe Experience Manager where you want to place your company’s new website.

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At the same time, you want to be able to use assets from Veeva Vault to create a channel-specific content item (website) to be published in AEM. As a user of eWizard, you know where to look for the templates:

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You can edit your microsite as necessary, using the modules available. Since eWIzard has an extensibe capacity for metatagging, only the modules approved for use with the content under construction appear, as per business rules.

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Maybe you are required to update the patient profile on the website, and you already have the recommended assets in Vault. eWizard allows to use these assets without leaving the system, loading them from Veeva directly:

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After that, you can export the modified version of the website back into Vault as a PDF for validation and review, if your company’s workflows require it.

After validation, you can use the same built-in automated publishing functionality to get your brand new website across to AEM.

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In this way, you combine the benefits of both systems and enhance them further with the innovative possibilities offered by eWizard, making content workflows easier, faster and more efficient.

You can then track the performance of your content in Veeva:

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It is time to integrate all the efforts and chances of your marketing campaign to create focused interactions and build funnels and customer experiences that win the day! Try and see how it feels to have complete control over your digital assets – and you will be surprised at how, one day in 2019, so many things were resolved at once, leading to smart pharma marketing at the service of your brand.

Our dedicated experts are several clicks away, ready to help you learn more about the new possibilities you have.

Salesforce Email Marketing Automation with eWizard Integration

A while ago, we announced the strategic partnership with Salesforce.com, featuring a highly anticipated integration of eWizard platform and Salesforce eMarketing Cloud. The email marketing Salesforce integration covers all stages of an email campaign: from email creation to its distribution and analysis, offering a solid groundwork for mailing campaign optimization. And now we’d like to highlight key prerequisites and main outcomes this integration brings for digital pharma marketing.

Benefits of Email Marketing Integration with Salesforce

Let’s overview the key benefits of the integration and how it might be helpful for all pharma marketers across the industry:

  • Salesforce Email Analytics.

Integration enables tracking recipient behavior and using it to create better Salesforce email campaigns. You can see which emails were opened, which links were clicked, and which content was the most engaging.

  • Salesforce email marketing automation.

The email campaign integration with Salesforce Marketing Cloud reduces the risk of errors and time spent on many manual tasks, such as publishing and creating emails. Salesforce email automation streamlines various email-related processes, while also maintaining a high level of email personalization.

  • Efficient email marketing Salesforce campaigns.

With Salesforce email marketing integration, you don’t have to jump from one application to another to craft and send an email. You can just do it in a couple of clicks, making it easier to create high-quality engaging campaigns that don’t require a lot of time to kick off.

Email marketing automation with Salesforce responsibilities streamlines various tasks that used to require manual input. Now, you can easily get them done in just a couple of clicks.

What is Salesforce Marketing Cloud?

Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a platform marketers can use for a myriad of tasks and goals. And thanks to email automation with Salesforce integration, it becomes easier to create emails with a personalized touch. Here is what you can do with SFMC:

  • Create and manage content;
  • Send and monitor messages;
  • Find your target audience;
  • Design customer journeys;
  • Deliver personalized content based on user behavior;
  • Bring multiple channels together;
  • Centralize customer data;
  • Create 360-view of your customers;
  • Divide your customer base into segments.

With these features powered by the best email marketing integration with Salesforce, you can amplify your marketing campaigns and create them faster and of higher quality. Moreover, email integration can solve a few other problems, examples of which we’re about to discuss.

What are the Challenges the Integration and Content Experience Platform will help Overcome?

When it comes to localizing email campaigns, all marketers are confronted with a challenge –balancing between ensuring diversity and compliance. How do you diversify while remaining within branding requirements? How do you resonate with local needs while maintaining an easily recognizable brand identity?

And it might not be even worth all that hustle and expenses:

today, 260 bln emails/day toll a bell in mailboxes around the world, they’ve got something to tell the recipients. But open rates tell us a whole different story, ranging from 15% to 28%.

In other words,

across industries, only every 5th to 3rd email is opened.

A big part of those messages doesn’t even have a chance to appear in the inbox, as they go straight to the spam bin marked as “irrelevant info” by half of the email recipients.

However, these stats do not change the fact that email remains the main channel used to reach physicians. Many HCPs still prefer receiving personalized messages from pharma companies. But the problem is that personalized emails require lots of coding. Making a few tweaks would often mean hiring a trusted digital agency and investing significant time and financial resources. And let’s not forget about time-consuming approval procedures in pharma.

So, pharma marketers are facing a tough choice: either make an average email that has a high chance of being dumped as spam or make a great, localized one, but waste the monthly budget of a tiny country.

Luckily, with our content experience platform, eWizard, they no longer have to choose between these two options. Oksana Matviienko from Viseven admits:

“Capitalizing on a decade of working experience alongside global pharma actors, we developed a truly comprehensive solution that’s automating email campaign workflows at every stage of the email production process. Equipped with the eWizard platform, pharma marketers and sales reps have a powerful mix-and-match tool for creating and reusing approved email templates, which all have the same look and feel no matter the brand or market”.

Contrary to your average email template that’s rigid and inflexible, eWizard Email Templating Service contains a number of pre-designed content modules to mix and match for all that creative jazz. This model allows users to make an engaging email in minutes and eliminates the need to address an agency for localization or editing. With the adaptive templating approach that lies at the heart of eWizard-created emails and marketing email automation flows, marketers have creative freedom while adhering to budget constraints and branding guidelines.

Here are Some Benefits of eWizard Email Templates: 

  • The solution saves tons of time and budget resources by allowing users to endlessly reusing master templates that are created and pre-approved on a global level;
  • A template serves as the branding framework; all that’s left to do is to fill it up with localized content! Create a new unique email in no time by placing ready-made content fragments modules (footer, text with image, graph, etc.);
  • Forget manual or hired publishing! You can publish your email to Veeva Vault automatically as well as review, approve, export, and distribute to Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

If you’re an ambitious marketer aiming for a seamless Salesforce email marketing campaign workflow that delivers personalized emails, do not hesitate to contact our team of certified experts for details on the Salesforce integration with email marketing. You can also subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates in digital pharmaceutical content marketing.