The Role of Advanced Portals in Modern Healthcare Posted on May 29, 2024November 14, 2024 by Andrii Nikulin Healthcare providers (HCPs) must stay up to date on the latest research, clinical trials, and innovative medications to deliver high-quality, safe patient care. The main challenge, however, is finding time for self-education. On average, a physician sees 20 patients a day. Add electronic health records keeping, administrative tasks, and personal obligations, and the time crunch for learning becomes evident. HCP portals were designed to address this issue. These platforms offer personalized summaries of the most critical findings in the field, freeing up time for professionals to focus on what matters most: their patients. In this blog post, the Viseven team will explore the benefits of HCP portals in healthcare and offer real-world examples of how they make a difference. What Are HCP Portals? HCP portals are digital solutions that allow healthcare professionals to stay abreast of current trends and news relevant to their specialty or area of interest. These tools often provide personalized online health information on clinical trial updates, medication releases, upcoming conferences, and networking events. Healthcare portals can also serve as platforms for communication with industry peers and have additional features such as patient data management and analytics. Biggest challenges HCPs currently face Today, HCPs face many challenges, from administrative burdens to a need for more informed decision-making. Let’s discuss them in more detail. Administrative burden: HCPs are overwhelmed with paperwork and bureaucratic tasks. According to the latest findings, professionals spend approximately 4.5 hours daily on electronic health records (EHRs). Unsurprisingly, this workload reduces their time for direct patient care and impacts the quality of healthcare services. Being unable to spend sufficient time with patients, they often experience a lack of fulfillment, chronic fatigue, and burnout. Staying up-to-date with the latest research: HCPs are drowning in to-do lists; unfortunately, continuing education often stays on the back burner. Instead of being exposed to targeted updates on what is relevant to them, they are bombarded with irrelevant studies, events, sales pitches, and invitations. The HCPs need relevant info on the latest discoveries in their fields, drug developments, and relevant patient-doctor cooperation techniques. Medical web portals have the potential to resolve this challenge for HCPs and help them improve the quality of medical services. Communication security: HCPs often share patient information with their peers to seek second opinions or offer their perspectives. However, this data is highly sensitive and vulnerable to hacker attacks. Providers face the challenge of finding compliant communication platforms that ensure fully secure communication. Lack of informed decisions: The sheer volume of data, like demographics, medical history, and treatment plans, makes it hard for HCPs to see their patients’ overall health status. Because they cannot easily spot patterns in the data, specialists may not arrive at the optimal evidence-based care for a patient. Role of Advanced Portals in Modern Healthcare We brought up all these challenges for a good reason. Now, we want to show you how advanced medical portals can mitigate them successfully: Enhancing HCP productivity An advanced health portal often streamlines HCPs’ workflows by automating routine tasks, like sending reminders or scheduling appointments. Integrations with billing platforms or EHR systems allow them to manage administrative tasks more accurately and efficiently. This means they no longer have to manually create invoices, track payments, or update patient health records. Automation enhances their productivity while lowering the error rate to almost zero. Making self-education easy Health portals provide centralized platforms with valuable content, such as clinical guidelines, articles, news, online courses, and references. By storing highly personalized information in one place, health professionals save time when conducting research. Safeguarding health information exchange Compliant HCP portals enable specialists to communicate without compromising patient confidentiality. Health care portals or employee health portals must comply with relevant regulatory legislations such as HIPAA or GDPR. That is why developing web portals in healthcare requires technical expertise and full compliance on the software vendor’s side. Professionals can message their senior peers to consult on complex cases or rare diseases and share lab results. At the same time, experienced and knowledgeable HCPs can offer expert advice when needed. Supporting data-driven decision-making A siloed patient care, where HCPs are unaware of medical histories or prior treatments, can lead to poor clinical outcomes. With HCP portals, all pieces of the puzzle come together, allowing healthcare professionals to view relevant patient data and take a holistic approach to therapy. This helps identify correlations and trends that might otherwise be overlooked, predict the course of the disease, and find the most effective treatment based on the patient’s unique needs. Advanced portals may also offer data visualization features. A single dashboard or graph can convey more than a thousand figures and words. By simplifying complex information, HCPs can effectively communicate insights with industry peers. Things to Consider When Developing an HCP Portal To make your portal truly valuable to HCPs, it is essential to pay attention to the following aspects: Data Security Data security is pivotal, and the statistics prove it. Over 500 healthcare facilities suffered data breaches in the past year, affecting more than 112 million patients. On average, it takes 236 days to recover from a breach, not to mention the $500 cost per compromised health record. Your HCP portal must comply with HIPAA or GDPR to prevent authorized access to sensitive patient data. In other words, you must implement robust security measures, like encryption and authentication, to ensure that only HCPs access private information. Access controls are important in controlling who accesses what information. User Experience Pharmaceutical businesses can alienate HCPs with designs that are cumbersome and difficult to navigate. User-unfriendly elements, such as poorly placed icons or verbose language, can overwhelm HCPs and drive them to abandon the portal. As noted, HCPs are occupied with patient care and EHR-related tasks. They do not have time to learn how to use a complex portal. That is why it is essential to have intuitive navigation and concise language that mimics natural conversation. Besides, a user-friendly portal must be adaptable to HCPs’ unique accessibility needs, like adjustable fonts, high contrast settings, or multilingual support. Relevant Content Consumers tend to get annoyed when companies bombard them with marketing-centric content. This creates an impression that profits are the major motivator rather than customer satisfaction. A recent study reveals that 62% of HCPs believe pharmaceutical marketing materials consist solely of advertisements. This finding highlights the HCPs’ frustration and wish for more personalized information that brings value to their practice. Data analytics and AI help life sciences brands craft engaging, tailored content for HCPs. AI algorithms shed light on complex data patterns and trends, letting them capitalize on HCP preferences for content type or format. On top of that, the omnichannel approach to marketing helps businesses to liberate their content from the constraints of platforms and formats and focus on a hyper-personalized experience for the audiences. For instance, businesses can now publish purely informative content on healthcare platforms for HCPs and then supplement it with more marketing-oriented materials across other media. Such an approach is at the core of Viseven vision for the future of content marketing in Pharma. Real Life Healthcare Portal Examples that Improve the HCP Experience The Viseven team has spent more than a decade developing robust HCP portals, and now we want to share some of their success stories: Medical Portal for Boosting HCP Loyalty Our client, a global biopharmaceutical brand, approached us to help build an HCP portal showcasing its unique expertise. The portal had to feature valuable content on the latest research, training, and events. One key goal was strengthening the brand’s position as a trusted resource. To achieve this ambitious goal, we had to ensure their content was safe and evidence-based. Our experts integrated the portal with one of the leading content management systems (CMS) for easy online access to Medical Legal Regulatory (MLR)– approved materials. Additionally, we implemented Google Analytics to understand how HCPs engaged with the platform: how long they stayed on the page, what links they clicked, and which articles had high bounce rates. These insights helped us tailor content specifically to the HCPs’ areas of interest and needs. As a result, the pharmaceutical company saw enhanced engagement among HCPs, who would value access to valuable scientific content over intrusive advertising. This way, the HCPs should come to trust the company more and become loyal customers over time. Healthcare Portal to Drive Higher HCP Engagement Our client, an international pharmaceutical company with a presence in over 140 countries, wanted to build a web portal to deliver engaging content for HCPs. They also needed consolidated storage where marketers could easily find materials that have already undergone the MLR process. We created a secure portal that integrates with both a CRM system and a CMS, providing easy access to MLR-approved content. Additionally, we provided marketers with a custom analytics tool for deeper insights into HCP preferences. For local administrators, we ensured a user-friendly WordPress interface for adding podcasts, videos, articles, and even managing events. The company saw significant improvements thanks to this approach to HCP portal development. Storing approved assets became much easier, saving both time and effort in creating quality content. Powerful analytics tools helped them not only increase engagement with HCPs but also build stronger, lasting relationships. It is no surprise that more than 20,000 HCPs became loyal portal users. Build a Robust HCP Portal with Viseven Today’s HCPs want easy access to relevant content without worrying about data security. Therefore, pharmaceutical companies that deliver secure, user-friendly HCP portals stand apart from competitors, position themselves as thought leaders, and foster strong customer relationships. As a leading MarTech service provider with over 14 years of experience in life sciences and pharma, we have helped numerous clients launch robust HCP portals. Our dedication to client satisfaction is reflected in their consistent 95% positive feedback rate. Viseven has assisted over 100 world-renowned brands in navigating marketing transformation, driving engagement, and enhancing brand recognition. If you also need help, feel free to reach out to us, and we will discuss the ways to empower your digital transformation.
Interactive Email Marketing Benefits: How to Win the Race in the Pharma Industry Posted on July 29, 2022November 19, 2024 by Andrii Nikulin Email is one of the core channels for building and developing communication between pharma brands, patients, and HCPs. As a marketing tool, email allows delivering well-targeted messages to the recipients, highlighting the key point of your emails and it is a fast and simple way to communicate with your target audience. Thoughtfully designed email campaigns may benefit pharma brand image in multiple ways: Increase brand awareness Increase sales Develop trust Increase traffic Communication automation Today pharma email marketing has the capacity to reach patients, clients, and HCPs on a personal level, giving brand sales the opportunity to create a close connection with the audience. At the same time, large-scale email campaigns designed for reaching more generalized target audiences, allow marketers to work with customers on an international level. Modern marketing practices in pharma and life sciences industries show that email marketing is not only a powerful standalone tool but also has to serve as a vital part of the omnichannel approach as well. However, many marketing specialists working in the pharma sphere nowadays face multiple obstacles when it comes to a better understanding of the effect of email communication. As well, many marketing practices and tools frequently turn out to be task-irrelevant or simply obsolete. And when it comes to international campaigns, the quality of communication can be compromised due to the large target audience volumes and the lack of data which may result in complete entropy for email marketing managers. All these major concerns witness that pharma companies require a powerful email platform, that will allow its users to make informed decisions. The modern pharma market requires an approach reaching above “universal”, above non-industry-specific tools and pre-omnichannel marketing conventions. Nowadays it is not a question of whether it will be a benefit to use AI and ML-based algorithms for reaching high personalization in mail targeting, but a necessity recognized by both pharma brands and top MarTech companies working in the field. In the present blog, we will highlight some of the top obstacles that stand before sales representatives in pharma and will focus on the major directions of marketing innovations that help break through the noise and make thoughtful analytics-motivated solutions. But let’s start with some of the key specifics of email marketing for pharmaceuticals, so we can understand the challenges better. What is interactive email? Interactive email is, basically, an approach in digital marketing that allows creating complex digital letters featuring such interactive elements as dynamic templates and AMP elements. The other important element of the interactive email ecosystem is the analytical tools suite that helps gather relevant data, process, segment and employ it for better personalization of your email campaigns and customer behavior prediction. For businesses, interactive email is a great opportunity to boost email marketing and contribute to the digital maturity of the brand. Email marketing in Pharma: Channel-specific features Marketing approach and, namely, email marketing codes are, of course, not the same for all industries. When we are talking about the pharma and life sciences field, it is important to understand the smallest nuances, to get a clear understanding of how the workflow can be optimized. MLR requirements Every piece of content and information provided by pharma marketers has to go through a legal audit before the information can be published. This requirement adds a certain complexity to the production of big volumes of content, increasing its value and time required for production. However, with the help of advanced digital content practices like module and reusable content approaches, the marketing team can save resources by smartly dividing content into semantic modules that can be used multiple times across different channels. Hybrid marketing approach When we are talking about marketing in pharma companies it is also important to keep in mind that conventional, face-to-face marketing methods are still playing an important role in communication between different stakeholders. Hence, all digital marketing efforts should stay in line with the non-digital activities, complementing each other within an omnichannel approach. This means that effective marketing strategies imply the integration of all related activities and all marketing agents, whether they communicate with customers via digital channels or in person. Various stakeholders in the patient journey Sometimes the sales funnel can be a little bit complex when it comes to marketing services and goods in the pharma industry – multiple HCPs like doctors and pharmacists are important agents that may influence the decision made by the patient. This means that each valuable groups of influence have to be targeted at various levels, to build and support effective communication with all stakeholders involved in the process. Privacy matters Quite often the most valuable information that can be used by the marketing team to draw up a roadmap and better understand the market is classified. When we are talking about the healthcare industry, we face multiple information-protective legislations aimed at concealing patients’ personal data and other sensitive information. However, modern AI-based algorithms are frequently applied to get a better understanding of the market and the audience based on information collected by your system. This means that valuable data is not unreachable, still, it requires some special solutions to be extracted. Interactive Email Campaigns by Viseven Interactive Emails Solution is a specialized tools kit designed for building effective strategies. With more than 12 years of experience in the MarTech sphere, Viseven has built numerous omnichannel marketing strategies, utilizing all advanced marketing automation platforms and essential analytics. Interactive Emails functionality can be integrated with the eWizard content development ecosystem opening opportunities for automation of the content production process, implementation of a modular approach, and achieving cost and time reduction. So, let’s have a sneak peek at some of the key Interactive Emails features and find out how they help marketers to break through the noise and deliver the key ideas to the users in a most engaging way. Analytics and performance metrics As we already mentioned, advanced analytics is crucial for the pharma industry, since the spere has numerous legislations aimed at the protection of the personal data of the patient. However, it does not mean that marketers have to stay completely “blind”, once they can rely on advanced behavioral data collected by AI-powered algorithms. Interactive Emails solution allows collecting basic metrics like delivery rate or click-to-open rate, processing large volumes of behavioral data, and coming up with a better understanding of the target audience. Dynamic Email Theme Template Dynamic Templates is a technology that, foremost, helps to save time and resources spent on the production of email content. The major benefits of this approach are: Reduced number of template archives Single email master template The production time is reduced by 20% The present Interactive Emails feature is very much rooted in the modular approach to content production. It means that you will be able to use multiple reusable content modules like MLR-approved segments or you can make edits to the master email, automatically editing all the subordinate emails at once. This interactive email approach facilitates email content production and helps pharma businesses to free time for a creative part. AMP Emails (Interactive elements) AMP Email (Accelerated Mobile Pages Emails) – is a feature that helps to add dynamic elements to the email design. AMP features primarily serve two major purposes – to make your pharmaceutical emails more engaging and to organize visual information and written content in a more appealing and structured manner. With the help of AMP, the designers can add interactive visual elements, action buttons, gamification elements, mini-applications, etc. Also, an interactive email service allows inserting a customer survey. For example, surveys on user experience or a personalized questionnaire for clients and long-time subscribers. Nowadays, email marketing is almost unthinkable without advanced design elements that help you to add interactivity to your design, break through the noise and make a strong impression on the recipients. Email automation This important module allows sending automated interactive emails triggered by some of the actions made by the subscribers. It is an essential feature that is crucial for providing fast and relevant feedback to the clients who are already engaged in their journey. Automated emails also serve for client retention, informing about policy changes or events. Automated emails also allow personalizing email content, with the help of user data collected by your system. AI and Machine Learning Algorithms Interactive Emails Solution help marketers take the personalization of communication to the next level, being able to collect essential behavioral data which also contributes a lot towards the automation of all processes. For example, ML algorithms help analyze the attributes of each subscriber for better management of the customer journey. In this case, every next channel of communication can vary in each next journey, depending on system recommendations. Also, AI and ML-based algorithms may help set the best sending time for each subscriber, which helps maximize the efficiency of the email campaign. And with a reliable database, the marketing team can implement the omnichannel approach to its furthest extent, introducing prediction models and personalization on a scale of each individual subscriber. Interactive Emails within an omnichannel approach As you can see, Interactive Email is a powerful tool that can be used for building a solid email marketing strategy based on an innovative approach to email marketing. However, you can get even more out of your digital campaigns, once you learn to orchestrate all channels and manage the content according to the omnichannel approach, which implies the unification of all marketing channels into a single ecosystem. The great advantages of this level of system integrity are the ability to assemble the global marketing data and to create marketing campaigns that use several channels of communication which allows reaching higher engagement rates among your audience. The omnichannel approach is proven to provide a 20% higher click-through rate and a 250% higher engagement rate in the pharma industry. One of the main conceptual points of the approach is that unified channels create more customer journey opportunities, while the well-targeted, personalized content also helps reduce the cost of each contact acquired. The Interactive Emails by Viseven are fully integrated within the eWizard Platform, which allows marketers to build global omnichannel campaigns, orchestrating multiple digital and non-digital channels via a single management ecosystem. Remember that content is king Interactive Email Solution can do a lot to help you optimize email strategy, boost your omnichannel marketing efforts and provide you with relevant data. However, the content still remains the key element of the success of your email marketing. No matter how well-targeted and aesthetically sophisticated your mail is, how good it is in terms of interactivity if the subject line does not resonate with the interests and needs of the receiver. That’s why we also included several essential tips for content production you may find helpful. Goal and task of pharmaceutical email marketing: Email is not a blog, neither it is a white paper or a complex guide. That’s why you need to define the main goal and task of the email, so you will have a clear vision of what exact information you want to communicate. The major goal of a marketing team is to lead the customers through the journey and reach the expected results. At the same time, the task of the email can be far narrower. It is defined by the key influence that the message is expected to make. We can designate the following key tasks of email in the pharma: Awareness Engagement Registration Acquisition Retention Special The key influence, in other words, the task of the email, will define the style and tone of content you provide. Also, a clear understanding of the email marketing objectives helps to manage your content according to the mission it serves, segment and store your content according to its major purpose. Content testing There is no other universal way in email marketing to find out if your headline is really killing it, rather than to test it in the field. When planning a large-scale campaign, it is important to test your content – define the most clickable headlines, engaging core text, eye-catching interactive elements and define the most effective letter from the point of your strategies and goals. Simple A/B testing will help to increase the efficiency of the headline and express the main point of the letter in a clear manner. When your digital reaches a certain level of maturity, the data acquired during testing will also contribute to your global research data assets. Overview Nowadays it is no longer the question of whether pharma and life sciences industries need to boost their digital presence or not since it is becoming obvious that the role of digital is growing faster than many businesses manage to understand it. Since conventional door-to-door marketing can’t offer solutions for all the challenges the pharma sphere faces today, the importance of digital communication grows dramatically. Viseven interactive digital solutions designed specifically for carrying out marketing efforts in the sphere can offer all the required tools for building an effective marketing strategy for your pharma brand. Learn more about Viseven MarTech solutions for pharma and life sciences industries and how your business can benefit from them. If you have any questions about interactive email marketing for pharmaceuticals, in particular, fill out the form below and our representative will contact you with more information about Viseven products and solutions.
Guide to Strategic HCP Segmentation Posted on July 20, 2022November 8, 2024 by Andrii Nikulin Imagine you wake up an omnichannel marketer and ask: What does omnichannel strategy implementation start with? We bet you’ll say segmentation among the mumbled words. Any decent omnichannel strategy requires proper target audience segmentation; pharmaceutical marketing is no exception. And here’s the thing. Pharmaceutical marketing is a specific area where an omnichannel marketer cannot simply use best practices from other industries and hope they’ll work out. In this article, you’ll discover what’s unique about healthcare professional market segmentation. We’ll stress the main advantages, review the key criteria, and analyze current and future segmentation practices. Before getting started, let’s figure out: What Is HCP in Marketing? HCP’s meaning in pharma has different interpretations. HCPs stand for healthcare professionals, providers, or practitioners. HCPs can be individuals like physicians, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, or institutions like hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes. Healthcare professionals have diverse roles in the industry and engage with patients in various ways. It’s crucial to understand that not all HCPs can be your target audience, however, all HCPs are important when it comes to pharma marketing. What Is HCP Segmentation? (And What Is Not) HCPs segmentation refers to any practice of dividing a target audience into segments according to a set of relevant principles. On an intuitive level, all of us in marketing have that notion: you have a target audience that is a mixed crowd, but you want to be relevant and innovative to as many of them as you can. In other words, instead of offering everyone at a party a glass of wine and a steak, you want to cater to those who won’t go for that first option. In terms of a healthcare professional audience, physicians are different too. No one can reasonably expect that an eDetailing slide or other traditional content focused on patient challenges or costs will compel everyone to consider prescribing. If we take that analogy further, it may seem that the more segments there are, the better. In reality, though, it is not the case. First of all, there is content — if you have too many segments (carefully sliced up by your analysts based on a 12-dimensional matrix), each containing a handful of HCPs, there will be more of these categories than agencies available to craft all that content. Secondly, humans are highly complex. The account you find in one segment today may appear in a different one tomorrow. When done correctly, omnichannel approach is a powerful tool that can furnish monstrous amounts of customer data. Thus, it is crucial to remember what omnichannel audience segmentation is and is not: It is NOT segmenting based on anything you can think of, down to loads of tiny segments just because you can It IS segmenting based on the criteria relevant to your business, brand, and situation Main Benefits of Pharma HCP Segmentation The benefits of well-segmented campaigns are immense. Your tactics are more powerful, and they yield better results. With proper segmentation, you can identify more precise pharma HCP engagement moves. Based on actual needs, these moves are likely to involve HCPs. That impacts conversion even in a non-personal digital promotion channel like online ads. The conversion rate for targeted ads rises from 2.8% to 6.8% — more than twofold. The affinity between brand and customer increases, and it impacts loyalty. Essentially, it’s a principle similar to providing the beyond-the-pill value in pharmaceutical promotion. If life science professional feels there’s so much more to interacting with the brand than just listening to standard central messages, they’re more likely to perceive this value favorably and become loyal brand advocates. Quality leads. One of the best things about doing segmentation right is that once you have identified a segment, the audience within that segment that was under your radar suddenly becomes more accessible. You already have the content and methods to provide them the value they seek. Brand image and perception in the community. Customers form communities, and the power of reviews is enormous. That’s also true of the medical community, with key opinion leaders of different caliber swaying the fates of pharmaceutical products in entire regions. Segmenting your omnichannel campaigns will provide the life sciences professionals with targeted messaging and the reasons they personally need to refer to your brand as a trusted and valued one. Greater content personalization. Segmentation in Pharma allows companies to find the right audience and narrow it down only to those whose needs these businesses can meet. This strategy ensures that every service, piece of content, and even the smallest message or web banner is relatable to the consumers who encounter it. 80% of marketers consider personalization one of the biggest challenges, especially when integrating an omnichannel strategy, which makes segmentation one of the key ways to address this problem. Common Criteria for Pharmaceutical Market Segmentation A segmentation model or pattern is the combination of criteria you choose to segment a life sciences provider target. In some cases, it may be location, specialty, and the number of patients. In other cases, it may be the psychological type (see below), specialty, preferred channel, and beyond. Of course, these examples are too abstract because a more realistic combination is always focused on the brand, campaign, and many other specific factors. Here Are the Elements of Market Segmentation: Demographic data Age and gender Location For B2C: Income Ethnicity Family status For B2B: Industry Company size Position Translating this into the HCP-pharma market, we get: Age and gender Location Family status Specialty Employment at HCO Amount of patients Position in the community Behavioral data Purchasing habits Preferred channel of interaction History of interactions with the brand (frequency, proactivity, and beyond) In healthcare provider segmentation: Prescribing habits (open to innovation/experiment, traditionalist, and beyond) Preferred channel of interaction (rep calls, email, messengers, electronic health record) History of previous interactions (email open-rate, and beyond) Psychological data Personality (introvert/extravert, etc.) Values and priorities Interests For pharma marketing and HCPs, a similar list would apply as well. Geographical data What Is Special About Pharmaceutical Market Segmentation? For the most part, the segmentation components above have been developed in online campaigns, where the marketer is distant from the customer. But the pharma market lives in a different, much more individual reality with CRM and rep calls serving as a good launchpad. Pharmaceutical segmentation makes it possible for companies to find out what they should focus their marketing efforts on. It’s not just about understanding the problem and its solution, but also identifying who might need it and when. HCPs are busy, and usually, you have a window of just a few minutes per day to reach the right audience and make them interested in what you offer. The magic of pharma market segmentation lies in its ability to pinpoint the exact HCPs who would like to hear from you. Say you adopt more channels, each with its own metrics, and then start building a complete picture. How do you combine the two parts in your marketing strategy? It’s where it pays off to look closely at what the industry already has. Problem of Existing HCP Pharmaceutical Practices With the insight-collecting possibilities provided by CRM/CLM and the reps going from doctor to doctor, the market segmentation of the pharmaceutical industry would be more sophisticated for the F2F channel. However, it only seems that. In reality, most companies stick with a simplified segmentation pattern based on their immediate commercial goals. While reps may be instructed (ultimately by the global office) to collect data in the CRM, the actual decision-making for the cycle still often relies on two criteria: Loyalty Prescription potential The problem is that this is brand-centric, not a customer-centric model. Everything revolves around two questions: What can this account contribute to brand promotion, and is it worth it to sway their opinion? Of course, no marketer can escape these two factors, but this only tells how hard to try to engage, not how to engage. In this situation, the representatives possess insights into each healthcare professional, their preferences and psychological traits. However, representatives don’t decide what content to generate, at least directly. And it’s not too helpful with other channels than sales rep calls. By now, a big number of organizations use entire sets of digital channels with email segmentation often existing in a specific universe. Meanwhile, a smarter take on rep-collected metrics involves psychology. Psychographic Market Segmentation Nothing can be more beneficial in crafting high-ROI targeted campaigns than knowledge about the target audience’s psychology. In B2C and FMCG where omnichannel practices first emerged, things are less complicated than in pharma HCP marketing. Regulations don’t overshadow customers’ choices while making prescriptions requires a hefty dose of scientific evidence. However, as noted above, experienced and high-performing reps still use psychology in communications during their calls, if only to establish that famed personal connection with the provider. When you want to expand to multichannel and then omnichannel approach, the last thing you want to lose is that connection. Besides, being aware of what moves this or that segment of physicians to favor the product over others helps create innovative content that performs. That’s why companies are starting to include psychological data into their segmentation models, providing a further dimension. Some CRM systems have fields configured for this data. Currently, not many marketers use them in commercial operations planning, though. The trick here is to define what psychological traits will be helpful outside the CRM and in the global world of omnichannel HCP engagement. That which lies on the surface — introversion/extraversion, Myers-Briggs types, empathy scales — is not very helpful per se. That is until you find combinations that serve to determine common psychological types. For example, you may notice that the more pragmatic, cost-aware physicians are also patient-centric in their values. They’re generally more open to communications with pharmaceuticals regardless of their introversion/extraversion score. Such psychological typing helps develop and generate fragments for rep-triggered email campaigns that reps could combine before sending to HCPs. The same logic can be extended to HCP targeting strategies that include other digital channels. These channels influence healthcare professionals’ choices (and the choice of key messages) and behavior when building omnichannel customer journeys. Emerging Data Layers and Discrepancies As pharmaceuticals are embracing ever more channels, management boards come across targeting principles and models that are traditional to those channels. Take email (mass mailing, not the rep-triggered email). This channel comes with a targeting pattern that includes browser/device use and even habits when the customers open the emails (impacting sending time). The web has targeting practices too involving geolocation and other things tracked with click maps and SEO-related research. Do these models have life in pharmaceuticals? No doubt. Do they have value outside the channels they were developed for? Sometimes. What is the issue to solve? Few people take time to put these multiple models together and filter out what criteria are relevant everywhere, regardless of the channel. Instead of a brand-centric segmentation pattern we covered earlier, multichannel brings about a channel-centric one. This needs to be broken, and this break is part of the transition to the omnichannel experience. Integrating data from different channel-specific platforms is the tech side of the question and is already being implemented at many companies across the market. The next stage is a shift towards a truly customer-centric mindset. New HCP Targeting Practices in Omnichannel Marketing What is the future of HCP targeting and segmentation? What practices are sustainable in an omnichannel model? Various organizations are working on their models, tactics, and methods, but here are some common findings that our expertise at Viseven confirms. Implementation Process Thankfully, there is no need to start from scratch. A good practice is to build upon what your business has aggregated throughout the years: the customer base, CRM data, pharma HCP insights identified by reps, email metrics, and questionnaires. As you add more channels, find out whether the targeting segmentation that seems evident contributes to the overall ROI of the omnichannel campaign, not its channel-bound part. Another essential thing to remember is that segmentation is an ongoing process rather than a once-and-for-all initial step. Omnichannel approach starts with a segmentation process not chronologically but logically. You harvest additional data in the course of an omnichannel campaign. In a recent study, we described a case when the HCPs’ reaction to an automated email resulted in them either moving to the next step, the management changing the key message, or changing the channel to a messenger. It is natural to use the data on a message or channel preferences obtained in this way to segment the audience further along the way, refining the approach. Common Mistake We have briefly alluded to it when talking about the approximation analogy. It’s crucial not to make segmentation a goal in itself — refining here is not about creating an array of categories that multiply to produce a host of additional small segments of a target. It’s the message that matters. One should start thinking about the message (or messages) they want to convey. It’s in connection with the messages you want to get through that you can define what insights are relevant for segmentation solutions. Integrate at Every Step Finally, the most important point is that there should be one governing segmentation pattern above any channel, even above the CRM. That’s what makes the omnichannel approach different from extended multichannel solutions. It’s all about HCPs with their needs and the value your brand brings, not the possibilities of a single channel, however efficient. It requires a common data pool across channels and integration of the corresponding platforms that underlies it. With a robust, integrated omnichannel architecture, you can not only put together the data from CRM, email, web, or social, but make decisions based on the extended picture of customers you have. Currently, only 15% of pharmaceutical companies believe their approach to HCP engagement is omnichannel. This figure is expected to change in the coming years. However, many pharmaceutical organizations continue to grapple with numerous challenges that make their transition to omnichannel marketing impossible, including budget constraints and limited resources. With experience in setting up omnichannel architectures and campaigns based on the customer’s existing infrastructure and behavior, our experts know how to make your current technical and data capacities work to their maximum. Our team will create a new successful omnichannel mindset which you can then extend and scale. If you want to get more practical and actionable information, professional advice, and technical expertise on building a segmentable and segmented omnichannel strategy, contact our experts or fill the form below. We’ll get back to you shortly!
Healthcare Content Marketing Essentials: Channels and Strategies Posted on July 12, 2022November 12, 2024 by Andrii Nikulin Content is king. You’ve probably heard these three words many times. But only a few know that it’s the title of Bill Gates’ essay published on the Microsoft website in 1996. Here’s a little excerpt from it: The Internet also allows information to be distributed worldwide at basically zero marginal cost to the publisher. Opportunities are remarkable, and many companies plan to create content for the Internet. Now, it’s finally true for healthcare and life sciences. In digital marketing, medical content is experiencing groundbreaking changes. Having gotten through the COVID-19 pandemic, we realized the pivotal role of technology in human interaction and business engagement. The Clinician of the Future 2023 report made by Ipsos reflects these significant changes: 73% of respondents see it as favorable for doctors to possess digital expertise, while 71% hold the same view for nurses; 48% consider it desirable for physicians to incorporate AI into clinical decision-making; 55% of clinicians view telehealth as favorable for serving as the primary method for routine checkups in the next 2-3 years, whereas 28% regard it unfavorably. More patients consider themselves customers. More healthcare professionals (HCPs) naturally require the same customer-focused attitude, where face-to-face visits are only the tip of the iceberg. It means that one of the healthcare marketers’ top priorities is to reconsider how they create and provide their medical content. Content management in Pharma has become more than just looking for the target audience and publishing suitable content; it now encompasses a holistic approach that integrates collaboration, data security, compliance, and many other elements. According to the State of Content Marketing 2022 report by Semrush, healthcare content marketing is in the top ten trending searches related to content marketing, with a volume of more than 40,000. If you regularly google the equivalent topics to become a medical content ninja, you’re in the right place. Regardless of your target audience — patients, doctors, pharmacists, or any other group of HCPs — this tutorial will help you: discover the channels that are most necessary in medical content marketing; learn the tips to get started with these channels; grasp the practices to optimize your content strategy in healthcare and make it successful. Prepare a cup of your favorite beverage, and let’s begin! Most Vital Channels for Medical Content Creation A customer-first paradigm has widened the boundaries of medical content, its creation, and its marketing. With that in mind, we highlighted the most vital channels for medical content marketers so far: Medical Websites; Medical Blogs; Landing Pages; mHealth Apps; SMS; Messaging Apps; Social Media; Email; Video. Let’s analyze every channel and see how you can use them within your content strategy. Optimize your medical website content A website is a primary channel for any non-commercial institution or business in healthcare and life sciences. Most of the website traffic comes from search engines. That’s why when you create medical website content, you should optimize it according to the search engine optimization (SEO) practice called on-page SEO or on-site SEO. Also, any specialist who creates medical content for websites should comply with three factors that affect the website quality: User experience (UX) is a set of practices applied to make websites more convenient to visit. In other words, UX is how people feel when engaging with a website and its content. Medical websites with better UX get more conversions; User interface (UI) is the way people interact with a website. The typical UI elements of a medical website are menus, fields, tabs, buttons, and beyond. This specific type of medical website content requires in-depth analysis and research before creating. The level of UX mostly depends on UI; Customer experience (CX) is an overall impression of customers over a business. In other words, CX is how a medical brand engages with its clients. Here’s where website content plays a crucial role, along with customer support. A medical website should have enough content resources to generate traffic and constantly increase it. There are three main types of medical website content resources you can use for that: Webinars. Generate leads by inviting professionals and non-experts to online events to discuss various topics and trends; Events. Tell how your team participates in offline healthcare events such as conferences and presentations; Blog. Post about your business and niche using multiple kinds of healthcare content. Become an authority with an SEO-friendly blog Blogging is the best way to grow a medical website organically. If you regularly fill a medical blog with organic healthcare content, you’ll get the most influential source for increasing your website audience. At a proper pace, website traffic will increase, leading to more readers and conversions. More conversions result in higher profit. Here’s how to produce relevant, captivating, and high-quality healthcare content for this channel: Master SEO techniques. Learn how search engines work to improve the content writing process and boost the positions of your medical content on search engine page results (SERPs). Start with search engine optimization basics such as crawling, indexing, ranking, keyword research, competitor analysis, and link building; Write on multiple topics. Divide your content into a few categories to make it varied and engaging. These categories can include short articles about news and updates in your company (its services and products), research-based long reads, infographics about industry trends, and beyond; Provide unique insights. Publish information that no one posted before to become an industry influencer. Google loves it when content writing on health has real value. It can be case studies about clinical research, articles that contain statistics, interviews with clients (or patients), and beyond; Post regularly. Create content plans and schedule articles every month. The more you post, the more traffic you can generate; Share content via social media and email. That’s how you’ll facilitate the growth of each channel; Be patient. Keep posting no matter what. Blogging brings benefits in the long run. Create landing pages to convert your leads A medical landing page is a single-page website where your leads land after you engage them with your medical content on any other marketing channel. The goal of a medical landing page is to convert a lead into a customer. A medical landing page content depends on its marketing objective. Must-have content elements for a medical landing page: A catchy headline that shows the value; A simple copy that evokes interest; An image that reflects the landing page goal; The lead form for filling the lead’s personal information; A call-to-action button for collecting the lead’s personal information. Develop a mobile app to increase the target audience As of 2024, the global smartphone user base is expected to reach 7.1 billion. In the United States alone, more than 90% of the population owns a smartphone. mHealth apps span various categories among the top five funded digital health sectors in 2023, with consumer demand steadily increasing. The mHealth market size is forecasted to reach $861.40 billion by 2030. Medical content development in mobile apps can increase the target audience of any institution or business that belongs to healthcare: Health apps can be helpful to users who want to improve their health conditions; Healthcare marketing apps can help marketers optimize their daily activities, such as task organization, team communication, customer engagement, results tracking, and beyond; Doctor apps can streamline the medical affairs of healthcare professionals of any kind. In such an app, doctors can store documentation, track patient visits, provide instructions, etc.; Patient apps can assist users in a clinic or hospital with health monitoring, medication reminders, and other features. Note: Viseven can develop a mobile health app of any type according to your requirements and needs. Use SMS as notifications Short Message Service or SMS is a traditional medical content channel used by HCPs to send: Critical information like health alerts or test results; Educational information like diet or pregnancy tips; Reminders about appointments or prescription refills; Feedback collection requests. SMS sending recommendations: Choose the best sending time; Send only the information that has value. Boost customer experience with messaging apps As a decent alternative to SMS, messengers or messaging apps are an effective medical content channel to generate high-quality leads and make customer communication more personal. Here are a few tips to help your company connect with customers in conversation: Develop live chat with a chatbot for your medical website. Boost customer experience and optimize the communication for visitors searching for simple answers for basic information; Enable live chat widgets on your medical website. Allow customers to chat via the platforms they like. For instance, you can add Messenger and WhatsApp chat widgets to your medical website; Test messaging ads. Launch targeted advertising campaigns as an alternative to social media ads. Targeting online ads via messengers can be a profitable opportunity to boost marketing results. For example, Messenger ads can have 61% higher message-per-reach than photo ads on Facebook. When creating content for your messaging ads: Keep a copy short; Use visuals that attract attention. When answering your customers in messaging apps, don’t forget to: Respond quickly to gain their trust; Keep the conversation personal and friendly. Boost social media to build stronger connections Social media is an extraordinary tool that allows medical marketers to re-establish relationships with their audiences using a variety of content formats on multiple platforms. Three factors determine any medical social media strategy: Social media platforms. Before creating medical content for social media, figure out which platforms are the most important for your clients (or patients); Content formats. You’ll need to find the formats to bring more likes and impressions to your accounts. It can be anything from a text publication with a visual to an audio podcast; The type of content. In addition to creating organic posts for free, you can use an advertising platform like Google Ads or Facebook Ads Manager to target different audiences with online ads based on particular advertising objectives. If you want to succeed in creating social media content for healthcare, always listen to the feedback you get in the form of comments and messages, use a positive tone of voice, and be simple and precise. Here are a few important content touchpoints: Inform. Tell the news, schedule events, and do everything for everyone to stay up to date; Educate. Provide professional tips on the topics related to your healthcare niche; Inspire. Share reviews of satisfied clients (or patients), write human behind-the-scenes stories about your business and beyond; Support. Answer people who contact your profiles directly. Have a plan for medical content sent via email Email has always been a tried-and-tested channel in the medical world. However, the laws that worked a few years back have no power anymore. Even die-hard marketing professionals should accept that the email creation process in healthcare has become more consumer-centric. If you’re a rookie in sending such emails, here are a few basic practices to get started: Learn email marketing metrics. They’ll help you measure the success of your email campaigns. The primary metrics are open rate, click rate, bounce rate, conversion rate, spam score, return on investment (ROI), customer lifetime value (CLV), and cost per acquisition (CPA); Choose an email marketing platform. That’s the place where you’ll create and optimize your email campaigns; Segment your audience. It’s the first practice you should exercise once you choose your platform and set your goals. Email segmentation is necessary to send more relevant information and more specific offers; Experiment all the time. This practice is called A/B testing. Test different audiences and content to improve your results. A newsletter is the backbone of the medical content you send via email. Before sending your newsletter, you must have a comprehensive content plan that should conform to three things: Content. Plan the content to send valuable and attractive offers. The main thing here is to learn how to balance information and benefits in your content marketing for healthcare; Time. Choose the best days of the week and time of the day to send your medical content. If you don’t know when to do it, A/B test it; Frequency. Experiment with your emails to know the number of sending days. When creating your medical email, take into account the following: Subject line. Keep it relevant, engaging, straightforward, and short; Preheader. Find the golden middle between its length and the information you need to send; Body text. Pick ready-made email templates from your platform. To get better results, test different templates to find the best option. Shoot videos with best solutions for content (for medical video) Video marketing is one of the most powerful methods to promote healthcare products and services. It’s a perfect alternative to television which has been a traditional patient engagement channel for years. According to HubSpot: 86% of businesses use videos as a marketing tool; 92% of marketers claim videos are an essential part of their strategy. Unless you want to launch advertising campaigns, video is a must-use healthcare marketing practice because it doesn’t require a budget. All you need is a smartphone with a last-generation camera and imagination. It’s okay to focus on several platforms, considering the information above. It depends on your goals, the time you’re ready to spend, and your brand voice. Here’s how content practices on the major platforms differ from each other: YouTube — longer content that reveals the subject with lots of facts and details; Instagram — Stories adorned with text and stickers or tiktokish Reels; TikTok — concise, amusing videos. Here are a few golden rules you need to know before getting started: Viewers got used to watching tons of content every day. Lure their attention within three seconds; Viewers love storytelling. Create stories, not promotions; Test live streaming as an alternative to short and longer videos; Watch the content of your competitors and other creators to get more expertise. Watch a lot. How to Optimize a Medical Content Strategy Medical content can have an immense impact when created and targeted right. But here’s the question. What is medical content writing, designing, and targeting in its essence? It’s a lot of conscious efforts and hard work because marketers must simultaneously engage with multiple channels and hundreds and even thousands of customers. However, two advanced techniques can significantly simplify everything. Build an omnichannel environment Omnichannel marketing is a set of activities that provide customers with a personalized experience by integrating all online and non-digital channels into a single environment. It allows companies to use medical content and fulfill their objectives more effectively thanks to the ability to: Find out what content channels customers use and plan their journey in advance; Segment customers into multiple target groups; Tailor personalized information to customers at the right time and with no spam; Build consistent communication and strong connections with customers Automate omnichannel activities with the help of a single marketing platform. Master modular content creation The modular approach is a marketing practice that streamlines omnichannel pharmaceutical content creation by breaking down content into the tiniest possible semantic pieces called modules. A content creator can reuse, interchange, and customize modules across multiple channels and target audiences, which allows: Reduce content production period; Cut production costs and allocate smaller pharma content marketing budgets; Come up with large-scale personalized segmentation strategies; Accelerate the Medical, Legal, and Regulatory (MLR) review process for pharma content; Dedicate more time to other advertising affairs. Monitor the performance of your content Track how well your medical content performs. How can a marketer always ensure your audience genuinely enjoys your content? First, define the metrics you will track, such as conversions or tracking. Then, choose the tools suitable for the type of content you work with. You can also use various other methods to gather information about the performance of your content, such as polls, surveys, reviews, and more. Keep up with industry trends Every month, at least one trend arrives that everyone will be talking about. So, make the most of current trends to attract more customers and engage with your audience. From personalized medicine to artificial intelligence, a myriad of topics creates tons of discussions all over the internet, and it’s worth adding them to your content marketing ideas for healthcare. Reach out to the community According to The State of Influencer Marketing 2024, 85% of marketers believe that influencer marketing is one of the most effective forms of marketing. Collaborate with experts in the field as much as possible. From writing blog posts in tandem to conducting interviews, collaborating with influencers and experts can significantly boost engagement and enhance your content’s credibility. By partnering with healthcare bloggers and professionals, you can also increase reach thanks to content creators’ large number of followers. End-to-End Pharma Content Management Solution If you want to use omnichannel and modular approaches to accomplish your goals with medical content. In that case, Viseven can develop a custom end-to-end healthcare content management system based on your strategy. Send us an email or a message via a contact form to get a full consultation, and we’ll get back to you shortly. Also, you’re welcome to test eWizard — our content experience platform where you can create modular medical content for multiple channels. Want to learn more about medical content and pharmaceutical content management? Fill out the form below to get a consultation!
2021 in Pharma: What We Have Learned and Where We Have Won Posted on December 28, 2021November 19, 2024 by Andrii Nikulin Are you still processing 2020? Well, here is the news, 2022 is almost here. And while you are thinking about how it could happen; we can only assume that the last year was so intensive and eventful that no wonder it passed before we knew it. It may seem a bit chaotic at least because it frustrates the hopes of all humanity associated with an early end of the pandemic. But in fairness, we must give the credit to 2021 as the one that brought us one step closer to defeating covid and many other diseases. With ongoing digital transformation and the success of mRNA vaccines, we literally can observe how modern technologies shape the healthcare system of the future. As for pharma marketing, we made a huge step forward to deliver personalized experiences to customers with the widespread of a modular approach and current innovations in omnichannel marketing. Wrapping up this year, let’s look closer at the achievement, hopes, and fears we have for the year we step in and arm ourselves with the most recent data on the hottest topics of 2021: Building a successful communication mix with omnichannel approach The rise of modular content and its role in advanced personalization Balancing of customers’ expectations and data security Collaboration to save the day: Viseven is the part of Veeva’s Digital Factory Accelerator Program (DFAP) The current trends, challenges, and opportunities Searching for a balance between digital and virtual promotion Stepping into 2021, our biggest hope was to draw a line under the period of the coronavirus. The emergency vaccine invention suggested a chance to overcome the pandemic in record time, but the year started with news on new mutated strains. They rained down like a bolt from the blue and now, when the omicron has entered the scene, we realize that the covid period is now an era. What does it mean for pharma? In terms of communication, it prolonged the prevalence of digital communication, making pharma look closer to the mixed communication where face-to-face now is just one channel. New 2021 Veeva Pulse Report demonstrates stability in HCPs’ preferences towards digital with the sixfold growth of virtual meetings. At the same time, it poses the challenge for pharma that now is looking for a balance between offline and digital promotion. Resilience to changes Can we say that pharma’s digital moment has arrived? The digital transformation is on every corner, but the biggest challenge remains the resilience to becoming digital and the unevenness of transformation among regions. This can be explained by the growing complexity of content production and the difficulty of digital tools adoption across regions. Technology is changing and sometimes much faster than we are. Currently 1/3 of pharma believe they are poorly resourced for digital engagement. To win this competition, pharma should ensure that content development process is accelerated to the needed extent. With the introduction of smart content, however, it is easier to keep content creation at scale and navigate the complex digital landscape. The concept assumes content and data to be synchronized and supports supreme enterprise context management (taxonomy, claims, business rules, and tags). It is the whole new approach to content management with more features designed specifically to support rapid content development. Personalization The word of the year in pharma would likely be personalization. Now all the habits that we, as patients and customers, have acquired in 2020 have finally taken root. And pharma is rushing to introduce something extra to the customers as the main ingredient to win this competition. According to Smart Insights, 72% of consumers say they now only interact with marketing messages that are personalized and tailored to their interests. The number of channels has increased giving us additional opportunities to engage customers. However, we must admit that currently we use it blindly, bombarding HCPs with thousands of emails and other messages. To reach customers with the right message, it must be perfectly tailored to their needs. Only then, we can call it personalization. Where pharma won in 2021 Omnichannel to mix it up wisely A digital shift has turned healthcare to reach new heights in omnichannel. After two years, this approach has established its position as a key provider of flexible communication for generation covid who, above all, appreciate empathy, accuracy, and flexibility when it comes to interaction with a healthcare provider. In pharma, omnichannel covered the exposed gaps that were not that obvious before the pandemic. It turned out that besides being one the most expensive channel, according to data on Viseven’s projects, face-to-face visits cannot cover up to 80% of the database. It is especially painful for regions with a stable issue of low audience coverage. Thus, in 2021 pharma chooses to digitize and further actively spends an impressive part of its budget on digital tactics. However, not everything can be achieved by focusing only on digital activities. With HCPs who are still divided into tribes of digital natives and those who prefer in-person communication, face-to-face meetings do not get pale and remain especially important when it comes to product launches. Recovering from a pandemic, it is hard to predict where the channel mix will go further. However, in 2022 only 10% of pharma plan a big increase in budget allocations on-field force activities. And if recently the demand for a mix of virtual and hybrid interaction among HCPs was 85%. Now, this figure has grown to 87%. Top communication channels in 2021 A large number of omnichannel projects we were lucky to have this year allows us to share our internal observations regarding customer preferences and the channel that interest them the most. The email has confirmed its championship with 3x more demand among our pharma customers compared to the previous year. The second most relevant channel was SMS. And especially remarkable this year was for messengers that were in high demand among our customers. At their request, eWizard received a new feature, namely the support of messenger ad content creation for WeChat messenger. For us, these numbers and demands are just a confirmation of the industry’s ambition to move further towards digital and omnichannel excellence. Smart investment into digital The variety of channels, systems, and connections between them captures the imagination at first but later it creates some difficulties as the multiple means of communication make it difficult to track the performance of each activity in the campaign, leaving you in the dark about what you invest in and what you get in the end. Viseven’s experts in omnichannel suggest that pharma can easily drive efficient campaigning with a clear connection of how it influences HCPs’ loyalty and can measure and define the activities that spurge the decision of a particular client. The rise of modular content The widespread modular content has made the trend of personalization sound much louder. Over the years, content production in the pharmaceutical industry was considered a time-consuming process associated with many bottlenecks. The modular approach that was previously practiced exclusively by trailblazers is now entering the pharma mainstream. According to researchers, 54% of pharma use modular content, and a further 40% plan to start. These impressive numbers can be proved by the number of requests Viseven received this year. When we speak of our expertise in modular content, we mean a flexible and reusable digital asset living in the form of modular units that can be father used in various channel-specific templates, channels, and contexts. Modular approach of Viseven eliminates the need for affiliates to create content from scratch, but instead, successfully reuse (localize) global content and reap up to 65% of content development costs. The feature of auto-translation, in its turn, allows to translate only the needed assets that will by further reused. The use of pre-approved content modules can significantly accelerate content production, time to market and ensure rapid MLR approvals. But most importantly, it gives a green light to simplified content production that, in its turn, forces personalization and more creative work with content. Many of our great achievements in 2021 were marked by modular. Auto-tagging has become a feature the year with the ability to synchronize content and data (taxonomy, claims, business rules, and tags) within our Content Experience Platform. eWizard now embodies even more opportunities to sew various experiences together and create a unified, automated, and scalable content development standard for our pharma customers. This can be proved by Viseven’s experience on successful modular implementation in several leading pharmaceutical companies. Follow our updates to be among the first to reveal the details of these success cases. Establishing a secure hierarchy Today balancing between customers’ expectations and data security is the challenge for all who are actively digitizing. Digital technologies empower us to deliver more personalized content, tailored messages and cover the expectations of the target audience. At the same time, unfortunately, it rises data security and access management concerns. These are having a long history in life sciences. The tangled mess of countless laws and regulations don’t make it easier for pharma, posing the great challenge not to lose the customer’s trust, pursuing personalized experiences. 95% of customers say they are more likely to be loyal to a company they trust. Of the greatest features of meta-tags, except making it easier to find the information in the DAM is to provide accesses hierarchy, where each user role includes a certain level of access to certain information. Working with pharmaceutical content implies certain requirements and measures to be followed. The International Standards Organization (ISO) guarantees that the company works according to all required procedures, policies, and guidelines, protects, and has full authority over the Company’s assets. To confirm our determination to protect our customers’ data, Viseven has passed the supervisory audit ISO 27001 and regularly confirms its status and the ability to provide a secure environment for the pharma customers. Partnerships to save the day Partnerships has taken a new sense in pharma over the last year. Collaborative approaches and cross-enterprise collaboration are exactly what helped pharma to pass a rough test it has been put on. If you were reading comics, you know that even the coolest of superheroes cannot cope without trusting a partner on their side. The same goes for our partnership with Veeva aligned with greater achievement catalyzing our powers in aspiration to make healthcare invincible. Digital Factory Accelerator Program (DFAP) is designed and launched by Veeva initiative to provide additional support to narrow circle of Veeva’s customers that are building large-scale Digital Content Factories in place and using Veeva services. We are pleased to announce that Viseven Group is now among the first Veeva’s DFAP Partners. Parting thoughts 2021 was the consolidation of our habits as HCPs and patients and the ways we are consuming services. Agile and flexible communication is what pharma customers are striving for today. The current innovations in omnichannel marketing open up new horizons to meet customers’ needs and offer timely, sequential digital interactions in an appropriate format. The only MUST is the flexible content that will boost a content supply chain and will make it circulate through the omnichannel system. These two absolute prerequisites of today’s HCP engagement can fully be covered, regardless of your current level of digital maturity. Turn to us for assistance and help – Viseven’s mission is to enable digital transformation for businesses of all sizes and digital maturities.
Using omnichannel approach to achieve better HCP engagement: how does it work? Posted on November 22, 2021November 7, 2024 by Andrii Nikulin The pharmaceutical industry has talked about improving communication with HCPs for decades. While even several years ago, “closing the loop” was routinely equaled to traditional rep calls plus maybe a couple of emails, things have changed a lot recently. After the seismic shift of 2020, when the F2F variable temporarily left the equation, one thing became obvious: one-way communication (pharma speaks, HCPs listen) is no longer enough. Where is the guarantee the physicians do hear the message? Where is the value they are expecting? Establishing real, reciprocal HCP engagement is a challenge, yes. However, an increasing number of pharma organizations are using digital and omnichannel approach to resolve it – and successfully so. HCP engagement? Customer experience is the key To understand how to achieve genuine HCP engagement, it is helpful to define what it really is. Nodding at a representative or liking a pharma brand’s social media post – does this count? How far does the interaction really need to go to be considered significant for the overall communication funnel? In reality, it makes sense to define engagement as either a two-way interaction (HCP actively responding to pharma), or any event that can potentially lead to such an interaction (e.g., a physician downloading materials from a portal or subscribing to a service). From the HCP’s viewpoint, all of this happens within a certain “landscape” – their overall experience with the brand. At some point, when this customer experience attains a certain level of value to the HCP, they actively engage to get more. There are two prerequisites: The value already received from the experience (proof that the brand can offer more), e.g., a fruitful conversation with a rep or an interesting webinar The “promised” value – i.e., what the doctor can get if they only click that CTA button or ask the rep/MSL a question, etc. The effects of a well-constructed customer experience are hard to underestimate. In recent research by McKinsey (immunologists, n=600), the doctor’s satisfaction with “prescription journey” (in HCP-to-patient and HCP-to-pharma aspects) had the power to almost double the likelihood of prescribing the product. In other words, the overall experience interacting with the brand (in this case, via the representative) influenced the decision making roughly as much as the convenience factor while leading the patient. Interestingly, this refers to a “rep-only” or “rep-led” scenario. Seeing as how digital resources and channels are gaining more weight and credibility (for example, 46% HCPs reported to trust branded professional web resources in 2019), the power of a coordinated omnichannel experience would be even more impressive. But pharma already has a number of digital channels at disposal. Why is the problem still not obsolete? What could be improved? What areas of improvement are still active? Even though most organizations are, by now, using at least several forms of digital communication (tools, channels), there are factors that undermine the effort when it comes to HCP engagement. Drawing on Viseven’s experience, the most typical ones are as follows: Attempt to “squeeze” as much as possible into a single touchpoint. A tradition from F2F era, when the rep was supposed to deliver a list of obligatory messages within the 2-7 minutes of the call – and an unnecessary constraint in an omnichannel environment. With proper organization, the information to deliver can be split across touchpoints and delivered in the sequence most likely to get the HCP engaged. Lack of personalization. While a “one-size-fits-all” approach to messaging and content may sound temptingly simple, it no longer works well. Other industries, including retail, have raised the bar of expectations for customer experience. Siloed channels. The digital maturity stage immediately preceding omnichannel – “multichannel” really used to presuppose broadcasting the same messages across different channels without actual interconnection or traceability across them. However, this approach severely limits the marketer and only allows to operate in broad, crude segments. Addressing these three areas of improvement at once is the essence of the omnichannel approach as it has emerged lately. Omnichannel in pharma: what is it, actually? Compared to simply having multiple channels, an omnichannel approach presupposes integration and interconnection between these channels. This is the next stage of strategic development, empowered by modern technology to connect the once-separate online and offline platforms into a single, observable and manageable whole. From the HCP’s perspective, this connection between the channels means they are no longer “bombarded” by the same messages in different situations (reps, emails, messengers, web) but rather enjoy a cohesive, meaningful experience with the brand. For the marketer, this approach allows to truly coordinate the channels and touchpoints and arrange the experiences delivered to the HCP. By knowing what the certain physician (individual or group) has been exposed to prior to the next touchpoint, and what the feedback was, the marketer can provide the experience that will engage with more probability. Essentially, the integration of channels and cross-channel campaigning based on data, insights and automation provides the possibility of choice at multiple levels. By having a 360-degree outlook on the target audience, the brand can deliver the right message or information in the right context, and via the right channel at every touchpoint. For example, the understanding of where exactly in the adoption funnel the HCP is right now, the marketer can choose to offer them the information they need at this stage. At the same time, the HCP make choices of their own, based on their interests, needs, and other individual characteristics. These choices contribute to the pool of data that the marketer can then use to provide even better experiences, further reinforcing the connection. Technology and mindset The omnichannel approach is powered by technology, which includes integrated digital tools, Marketing Automation System, and (increasingly) even ML-based tools to account for large amounts of data. At the same time, using omnichannel is also linked to a change in mindset when it comes to operating the entire system. Omnichannel pharma marketing requires the ability to think in terms of customer journeys – and making them automated. Tools help in this process; marketing automation platforms offer journey planners that allow creating of automated flows, where the HCP’s decisions (clicks, reactions, subscribes, etc.) serve as disambiguations in the flow. A certain event (triggered by the HCP) essentially “tells” the algorithm to offer the next touchpoint. Of course, it is best at least at the initial stage of implementation to have a skilled professional arrange the journeys for maximum efficiency. How to increase engagement rate in HCP audience (3 aspects) So how does a pharmaceutical brand use all of this in practice to increase HCP engagement? What to look at? Here is a short checklist. #1 Personalized communication With the advent of digital, the demand for personalized communication has increased. An HCP will not have the time to listen to a rep detailing “obligatory” slides when they are interested in other information they can find online. Is this a problem? Not really, once an omnichannel system is functioning around the brand. Arranging touchpoints across channels, the marketer can ensure that the messages get through, while the HCP retains their right to choose according to their real individual needs. Personalization can be delivered in terms of content, tone of voice, channel mix, and even timing of the touchpoints. #2 Logically crafted Customer Journeys A good customer journey is one that looks good from the HCP’s side, so for building it, the professional has to keep in mind both the campaign goals and the perspective of the customer. For example, a chain of touchpoints that starts as emails, can be programmed to cross over to messengers with the same content if the emails are simply not opened. The same journey can “behave” differently if the HCP opened the email but did not engage with it, switching the tone of voice, supporting material, etc. #3 Using digital to reinforce F2F Digital channels can be used to reinforce the traditional F2F interactions within the same context. For example, a rep call can be followed up by an email or message, further inviting the HCP to engage with content on a portal, website or landing page. Where to start Adopting an omnichannel communication model gives a considerable competitive edge and allows to engage HCPs in meaningful dialogues. Of course, to make it work, an organization will want to account for all the aspects, including technology, mindset, workflows, and even elements of psychology, not to mention the work on data management. As of now, though, this has become easier since pharma does not need to “transplant” best practices from other industries and risk every time. Engaging experts who have overseen omnichannel implementation with industry leaders is the most feasible solution. Viseven Group offers this expertise in all aspects, drawing on dozens of projects for TOP 50 pharmaceutical and Life Sciences enterprises. Learn more about how professional teams can help boost HCP engagement for your brand.
The Horizons of Omnichannel Excellence in Life Sciences Posted on May 6, 2021November 20, 2024 by Andrii Nikulin COVID-19 has shaped a new type of customer. In retail, we have greatly changed our buying habits, evolving from a customer who opt in-store purchases to a customer who questions in-store experience if there is no apparent reason for this. The same goes for HCPs and patients who have rethought their interaction with healthcare providers in the same manner. Thus emerges a new customer that pharma should take into consideration. Read on about promising innovations in omnichannel technologies that open up new horizons to satisfy the needs the new type of post-covid customer. The new stage in customer service Think of a pandemic without all the technologies and capabilities that we enjoy these days. They didn’t make us forget about queues and trips to the store, however, we have to face how greatly they simplified our life in a pandemic. Now almost a half, 49% of consumers shop online more now than they did pre-COVID-19. Telemedicine, remote care, no queue for a cool t-shirt, and many other things – today seem to be obvious. But if a pandemic happened at least 20 years ago, everything might look different. A global crisis made us think about the horizons that technologies open up and what lies ahead. What was the role of omnichannel technologies in a pandemic? A rapid transition to remote communication has turned all businesses, including healthcare, to reach new heights in omnichannel. Both doctors and patients have appreciated the benefits of digital engagement and will not give up on it in the near future. This has led to a significant shift in promotional value by channel. Moreover, not only the channels have changed, under a growing pandemic pressure, the patients changed themselves. Thus, both post-covid patients and doctors share the same features and now want the same thing from interaction healthcare providers: To have an interconnected conversation with a healthcare provider Self-services and interaction that better fits into their schedule Interaction that complements face-to-face interaction To be able to better concentrate on information Have the information available online Actively participate in the process of treatment Mixed communication that includes as many channels as possible This kind of communication, focused primarily on the desires and needs of pharma’s target audience today is fully covered by omnichannel. This is already working and will work long after the pandemic is over. Because now true customer experience isn’t meant to have as many channels and systems as possible – it replicates the HCP’s path in the real world. Omnichannel technologies are offering that personal touch and taking into account all aspects of disease management. Thereby being relevant for a modern type of patient who no longer wants to surrender their health into the doctor’s hands but strives to actively participate in the process of treatment. The question is… What’s next? Omnichannel technologies are progressing in leaps and bounds. Innovations are waiting just around the corner. AI and ML are already opening even greater horizons for patients and healthcare professionals. Therefore, we invite you to have a look at the list of the most recent innovations in omnichannel technologies. Some of them are already partially available, some can become a reality very soon. Predictive analytics In the nearest future it is expected that predictive analytics will be able to calculate the result of each customer interaction. For example, today the ML model is able to calculate the probability of engagement in different actions (open, click, unsubscribe, registration, engagement, web conversion, etc.). It means that soon enough there will be even more possibilities to engage each group of customers differently. Thus, a med rep’s personal plan could not only show a visit to an HCP but actually calculate that right now, the impact would be higher when sending an email or vice versa. AI-based web and email recommendations Recently we reviewed Salesforce’s latest State of Service Report, there we found out that 46% of high-performing decision-makers say their teams use AI. Smart AI algorithms are able to choose the next best action, best send time, best channel during the whole customer’s journey. Thus, soon these algorithms will be able to suggest the manager the best time for a visit, email, etc. It may also suggest semantic analysis of texts with recommendations on which words and phrases work best (primarily in topics and headings). For example, you can analyze email subject lines and uncover insights to craft the best message. With this module, you can find word and phrase combinations that would potentially drive better engagement. Using natural language processing, the model predicts how copy contributes to the engagement of messages. Similarly, email recommendations can observe customer behavior to build preference profiles and deliver the next-best content or product via email. Dynamic message formation Dynamic content is now the whole world of personalized customer engagement in marketing. Substitution of the most suitable block, module, banner in messages individually for each subscriber can maximize the engagement. These technologies can dynamically restructure individual pages of the website depending on the visitor parameters (where they came from, what interests, whether they were before, what they have already viewed, etc.). Thus, for each identified visitor, the website looks as personalized as possible. For example: With this technology, a doctor can prescribe a medication being armed with additional information about the dosage and use in certain groups of patients, benefits, or guidelines. Automated creation of the customer journey Omnichannel is opening new vistas. It means that no less exciting innovations are waiting for us just around the corner. Earlier the creation of customer journey map could take a few weeks of work with manual tools to collect all the necessary information. In the nearest future, we expect to enjoy the automated formation of the entire journey individually for each subscriber depending on their behavior, characteristics and external factors. Through such a journey, each subscriber is assigned its own type of content, the best send-time, the optimal channel and type of communication. An ML model will monitor the engagement rate of each subscriber. If the communication load for the subscribers begins to increase, and their level of engagement decreases, the model makes recommendations for limiting. Then the only critical messages will be sent to this subscriber. This will also include, automated adding/exclusion of subscribers to individual journey at a certain stage of the customer cycle. Automated assets creation Earlier to create a brief, a brand manager had to go through many time-consuming stages. From searching everything needed in the DAM system (pictures, pieces of approved texts, videos, etc.) to thinking over the structure, transferring to the agency, MLR approvals, and many more. Pharma will move beyond this as the soon modules will be ready to generate almost ready-made content, give it to MLR (and it will be many times faster) – and drastically reduce time for content creation. Automatic creation of assets will be available for different channels from the initial set of modules (text and a set of images at the input, email, message in messenger, web page, etc.). A range of customer service evolves as rapidly as technologies. We at Viseven choose not just to keep pace with innovations but to create them here and now. If you want to know more about our expertise and innovations in omnichannel – book a meeting with our experts by filling out the form below.
Stuck in the middle of the road to omnichannel? Here’s what to look at Posted on January 14, 2021November 20, 2024 by Andrii Nikulin The “good old days” in pharma are gone. Over the last year, the concept of pharma digitalization has drastically changed. A couple of eDetailing presentations on tablets and a dozen email templates – this is no longer enough to impress and engage. Leaders of industries are growing omnichannel as a living organism that makes the content circulate and deliver top-notch experiences to their customers. Experiences they expect to receive. The pharmaceutical industry has taken up the challenge, and by trial and error, by risk and courage, started implementing elements of omnichannel into their strategies. How to make omnichannel live and function, though? How do you grow this ecosystem correctly? Let’s answer this question. Why pharma is taking the omnichannel path Look at the HCP audiences beyond the metrics. Beyond the figures and graphs. Something very important has changed, and that is the expectations. For the moment, 67% of all customers say their standard for good experiences is higher than ever. Modern customers, be it a doctor or anyone else, no longer interact with the brand through one platform. Instead, they expect a connection between digital and in-person experiences, devices and service, consistent and contextualized interactions across every channel. In other words, they demand a seemingly uncanny level of personalization and multiple means to connect with their companies of choice. That’s why major players in the pharmaceutical market are trying to keep pace with the customers’ expectations. They are growing their own omnichannel ecosystem to not just to keep pace but thrive on the market. The industry has encountered an entire science, where different competencies are intertwined: solution architecture, content, psychology, strategy, people, workflows, and tech. To manage all of this, you need expertise, and up to this day, many are bound to scrape for it piece by piece. Fork on the omnichannel trail. Which path is yours now? There is no single truth about how to become omnichannel. Pharma companies have to be a little more creative when it comes to giving customers what they want. Nevertheless, those who have already set foot on the omnichannel path have a solid foundation in the form of a good Marketing Automation system, CRM system, or content strategy. See why it is important. If omnichannel had a trunk, it would be the CRM system. Omnichannel is contextual marketing that should be data-rich. CRM generates the needed amount of information from multiple channels, tracks information in real-time, and represents a real center for their response. It allows to apply analytics “on the fly” and record, in detail, each customer’s journey to make a customer engagement more than ‘strictly business.’ At the core of every omnichannel success story is a powerful automation system that orchestrates a large amount of data and helps to segment the target audience. It is the platform to automate and manage various crucial campaign processes (build customer journeys, and conduct social media management and broadcast emails, manage customer experiences) in one place. It gives a single view of the customer across channels. A lot of channels sprout from the omnichannel system to make the content circulate and fill the strategy with meaning. Content is the king, the essence, the most important thing you can share with your target audience. With its help, you can hit the sensitive strings responsible for your customers’ needs; express who you really are and what differentiates you from the competition. To make this a reality, you need a content platform tailored specially for creating flexible omnichannel content. Regarding this, eWizard platform offers Modular Content – the future of omnichannel marketing. Omnichannel is a complex ecosystem where many components come together. A technological basis alone can’t make you omnichannel. Now the question is how to transform the sophisticated technical & organizational system into a living organism that reacts and adjusts its functions to the reality around it? Of course, there exists no single right way to become omnichannel. Every organization is different and has different elements in place. The company may have everything that is fundamental for growing omnichannel (CRM, email service, marketing automation system) and, at the same time, face choice paralysis when looking for the next steps. What to do next? While having a bunch of channels to engage HCPs is a great thing, there is still a question of how to convert them to success and achieve actual ROI. Why do some companies get real profits from the introduction of omnichannel, while others stagnate at some stage and don’t get the promised outcomes? It’s all about the perception of omnichannel, which has long been imposed as nothing more but a buzzword. When many realized that it is not a perk but a foundation of tomorrow’s HCP engagement, they rushed to cultivate omnichannel by plugging as many systems and channels as it is possible. In an ideal world, all the technologies needed for omnichannel customer service would be plugged-in, but the reality is far different. Organizations are typically set up around specific channels and systems that are not integrated and do not necessarily have the same goals. The lack of a clear strategy that would consider the missing pieces of the puzzle prevents them from harmonious cultivation of the omnichannel system instead of imposing it. A true customer experience isn’t’ meant to have as many channels and systems as possible – it replicates the HCP’s path in the real world. As pharma started grasping the concepts behind omnichannel, it became clear how integration and interconnection could bring something you could never achieve with just a conglomeration of channels and tools. Having a good Marketing Automation system in place is a prerequisite. Once it is there, we have to sew the various experiences together. Believe it or not, you can always start growing omnichannel with what you already have. You don’t have to give up what you already have, you just need to identify the gaps or missing pieces and consider the paths you can take now. At this stage, you can: Why choose Viseven At Viseven, we have the expertise to grow your ecosystem organically from what you already have. Gently providing the missing links, systems, breaking silos, and establishing agile workflows, from architecture to content to mindset, we help our customers move in the direction that benefits them the most, yielding high ROI. No need to risk and build. Evolve and grow your omnichannel capacities organically instead, step by step. Take your place at the forefront of dialogue with HCPs. Because they deserve to hear your voice. Holistic approach from the very start: systems, content, and people. The trial and error phase of omnichannel has just ended. Confidence you are moving in the right direction Be sure of every bit of your investment, in the effort, costs, and focus. Take small, reasonable steps toward the big goal. We know your organization is unique, and tailor our expertise and offers to match your requirements with precision. It may be that you have already taken the omnichannel path but have no idea what direction to take next. If you want to grow further and transfer the efforts of growing omnichannel into real income – book a meeting with experts. They align journeys, content, architecture, and workflows together and transform this sophisticated technical & organizational system into breeding grounds for your growth.
Omnichannel: Digital and Face-to-Face Activity Alignment Posted on December 23, 2020November 20, 2024 by Andrii Nikulin HCP engagement models are getting ever more complex and diverse. It is a time-driven tendency reshaped by the ultimate impact of COVID-19 on the pharmaceutical industry. Customer needs are also getting more vagarious, and an overwhelming flow of information retouch the way it should be presented to the HCP. For all of these reasons, pharma сompanies are struggling to find the right balance between face-to-face and virtual promotion. Let’s talk about what caused these changes and how to blend these two experiences for the HCPs. HCPs engagement must be redefined… Again? COVID-19 has changed the picture of HCP engagement for good. During the pandemic, everyone from doctors to patients has appreciated the flexibility of virtual engagement, and a decline in using remote working tools shortly is not expected. Accordingly, these models will still be in the post-COVID future. The industry hardly had time to adapt to the first shift in channels usage, and here we go again… The mix of channels preferred by HCPs is changing all the time, so it takes some effort to predict where it will go in the future. Meanwhile, 85% of HCPs said they would like digital engagement to complement face-to-face. Therefore, pharma companies look closer to hybrid communication models to strengthen their presence and have a greater impact on the audience. Face-to-face and digital cannot exist without each other because in tandem, they provide a higher level of satisfaction and a better return on investment. Segment Sales 2016 2017 Growth Rep only 121 132 9% Digital only 32 33 3% Rep + digital 46 52 15% Source: Veeva Guide to Digital HCP engagement Sometimes the connection established on a face-to-face visit cannot be replaced. It is crucial when it comes to product launches that require frequent interaction with healthcare providers. Something is easier to achieve with virtual engagement, especially when access to HCPs is limited. It is important to blend face-to-face and digital activities correctly, depending on the objectives of your campaign. HCP engagement of the past: Face-to-face One-size-fits-all approach Disconnected and siloed One-way communication The more the better approach HCP engagement of the future: Omnichannel Customer-centric Connected Relationship-driven promotion Strategic investment What is driving hybrid communication with HCPs Today in pharma, digital campaigns are almost entirely separated from personal visits. Medical reps are actively triggering emails but unaware if additional digital activities occur. SFE managers are focused on a face-to-face channel having little experience with digital. There are also multichannel managers who, as a rule, synchronize all activities, but even they may not be aware of how the touchpoints across channels interact and fit together in a single picture. Technical flaws and the fact that data on face-to-face visits are not transferred to the marketing automation system are to blame. Also, desynchronization occurs when the data from the marketing automation system is not distributed in the CRM. The objective is to ensure that the flow of information from different channels does not turn the communication strategy into a complete mess. However, every challenge creates an opportunity. The challenge is now to grow robust, flexible, and agile commercial capabilities that will work long after the pandemic is over. Pharma has to build communication with HCPs focusing primarily on their desires and needs. That’s why large pharma enterprises are adopting flexible omnichannel solutions that enable them to engage with HCPs in the way they would like. Our interest in this topic is mostly driven by the number of such requests from clients. One of our major international pharma clients was once interested in a smart sequencing of face-to-face visits and virtual to make the most of face-to-face interactions and deliver the right message to the right customer at the right time. The integration of digital and traditional channels is challenging— but the reward is multiple. Omnichannel technologies develop a deep understanding of the customer journey that helps to synthesize the insights about HCP preferences and be ready to respond to them appropriately at the right time and in the right format. Omnichannel technologies inspire a frank, value-based dialog with the customer by: Establishing two-way communication with HCPs Providing a single, unified experience for the customer Delivering relevant content to the target audience Supplying personalized experiences for HCPs Blending the digital and the personal activities to get the best from each Mix it up wisely The ultimate goal is to develop an intelligent feedback system that can identify the best content for a particular doctor. It is rather challenging to achieve such flexible, responsive commercial capabilities. First, you have to overcome some barriers like: Shortage of content Siloed system Luck of data on customer needs. Legal restrictions on the content Appropriate professionals What your company really needs is the right technology and personalized content to fit these new channels in agile ways. Get the capacities of the leading omnichannel solution firmly integrated into your Veeva ecosystem. eWizard platform breaks silos and combines content authoring, asset management, and distribution with omnichannel campaign execution. It establishes seamless workflows, drives digital transformation and culture. eWizard supports the innovative modular approach and allows flexible work and reuse of various digital assets. Omnichannel technologies provide data that helps to identify the optimal mix of channels and organize a successful alignment of all activities inside the campaign by: Transferring data between the CRM and the marketing automation system Planning of the customer journey taking into account the activities of the medical representative Enabling a rep-triggered journey for a representative to see the whole journey, launch it, and see the result of this journey in the CPM – this is the first option of alignment. Providing an opportunity to rationalize the share of personal and digital activities in those segments and those regions where it is appropriate – as the second option. Face-to-face is a key channel for pharma, but it also the most expensive one. Sometimes it is more practical to use more digital activities for the doctor who prefers it or increase the number of personal visits for those segments where digital activity drops. We believe that any communication model must be omnichannel, where face-to-face promotion is just one channel. Stop concentrating on the constraints of one-way communication and see more opportunities to bring consumer preferences to life. Turn to our experts for insights and guidance and expand the dialog with your target audience.
Dynamic Content and Advanced Personalization in Omnichannel Communication Posted on October 7, 2020November 20, 2024 by Andrii Nikulin Isn’t it great when someone knows exactly what you want at this moment? Dynamic content adds a personal touch needed to attract a customer and foster brand loyalty. Moreover, it sets a much deeper level of personalization that is currently under-proposed by pharma. Email remains one of the most effective tools for HCP engagement, so marketers are currently employing their best efforts to personalize this communication channel. In this article, we’ll try to investigate the power of dynamic content in personalization and HCP engagement and identify how it affects the email open rate. Why personalization matters The old one-size-fits-all strategy is no longer effective in customer engagement. A successful marketing campaign should make every customer feel an exceptional. Now simply entering the username in an email template and considering it personalized is like swimming in shallow water. So, the more personalized content you create – the more loyalty you get. It should take priority when you build an omnichannel strategy because the word ‘omnichannel’, above all, means personalization across channels. Personalization is meant to improve communication with HCPs across all channels and at every touchpoint. 74% of marketers say customer engagement is increased by targeted personalization. One of the key ingredients of omnichannel personalization is the adaptive content, which facilitates personalized interactions across all channels. What is dynamic content? Have you ever wondered why the video recommendations in your YouTube account match your preferences so perfectly? It’s all about dynamically generated recommendations based on your user behavior. Can users enjoy it in emails? Dynamic content opens up more possibilities for deep personalization of this communication channel. Dynamic content allows to create a general template for communication, that can be modified during the distribution process according to the customer segmentation (specialization, geography, age, gender, etc.) and attributes of their actions. This data is supplied by the users and collected from landing pages, forms, etc. Therefore, dynamic algorithms can change the format and placement of the content on a website or blog. The static content is much easier to implement, however, the difference is that dynamic content is applicable almost everywhere. You can use it on email marketing campaigns, social media ads, websites, etc. Dynamic content in email marketing Marketers use dynamic content at each stage of the customer journey because it greatly encourages their personalization efforts. In email campaigns, using dynamic content, you can create a single template that can be customized according to users’ data and preferences. Your subscribers will get the same email but with the separate images, call-to-actions and many other components. According to statistics, the click-through rate is improved by an average of 14% when using personalized email messages. Traditional personalization methods cannot provide such a personalized experience for your customers, and therefore they are less relevant today. Moreover, traditional email personalization methods require more customer data and segments, while dynamic content saves money and time spent on crafting hundreds of emails. Dynamic content in omnichannnel strategy Personalization in pharma is more in short supply rather than in excess. That’s why, there are plenty of reasons to start introducing dynamic content in your campaigns. The benefits of using it are obvious – it makes our messages more focused, personalized, interesting, and tailored for each user. At Viseven, we have conducted a series of A/B tests on different projects and tried to calculate how much personalization increases engagement and how it affects emails’ opening rate. One of the factors was the mention of the city in the email body. As a result, the open rate in our campaigns increased up to 34%. What does it take to make your content dynamic? From a technical point of view, many advanced automation platforms (Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Oracle Eloqua, Adobe Campaign) make this a reality. However, the key points to successfully apply this approach are: 1) Availability of certain data about HCPs Relevant emails must be of value to the target HCP recipient. Good segmentation of your target audience (existing accounts in CRM, prospective accounts or database records, or even the populations you’re targeting) will give you a clear idea of your potential customer. Creating personas allows you to single out a hypothetical persona that shares common characteristics for one group of your customers. The steps for creating a customer persona and segmentation are the same. This is the first step to the content that is relevant to the recipients. 2) The correct use of the data It is important to make sure that this data is organically integrated with the content and perfectly aligned to specific customers’ needs. If necessary make the required changes to keep the content engaging to subscribers. A group of brand managers and omnichannel specialists must also identify how physicians want to engage with that content and in which format. 3) The content itself Above all, you must provide HCPs with the content they want and that adds value to HCPs’ practice. Each HCP segment needs specialized content and wants to receive it in customized engaging formats. Even two endocrinologists will not necessarily be interested in the same content, because they may have different patient profiles as typical/predominant. Dynamic and personalized content should contain news or insight, and take into account the user’s previous interactions with the brand. Moreover, this message should engage users in further intense interactions with the brand. When it comes to effective email marketing, the marketer armed with the right data and delivering relevant content knows no boundaries. Dynamic content is a way to increase your exposure and click-through rate. What’s more, it saves your time, increases engagement, and improves customer experience. Today this approach assumes its rightful place in omnichannel campaigns as a powerful catalyst for comprehensive personalization. eWizard platform and the team of omnichannel experts create dynamic email content that turns your messages into an interactive and dynamic story. Fill out the form below to learn more about our expertise in the development of dynamic email content and get as much personalization you want.
