Apart from high-quality care, personalization, and transparency, patients are eager to have more control over their time and day-to-day health activities with easy access to accurate medical information. 

A healthcare mobile app is a perfect tool to satisfy all these needs. mHealth apps don’t aim to replace doctors and medical devices but to revolutionize the healthcare system by improving healthcare delivery. 

The revolution in digital health development can potentially exceed customers’ expectations and help attain a higher level of clinical engagement. 

As wearable technology and mobile devices have already created a new tone of connectivity within the patients-HCPs-pharma triangle, the demand for mobile applications in pharma has become immense. 

In this article, you’ll find more about mobile health app development, its enormous role in HCP engagement, and the principal outcomes of including mHealth apps in your multichannel or omnichannel marketing strategy. 

What Is an App in Healthcare? 

Healthcare apps, or healthcare applications, are software designed to provide users with health-related services, such as online consultations, live chats, appointment scheduling, and more. mHealth apps help professionals deliver more personalized treatment, assist patients worldwide, and collaborate with other experts. Due to the increasing demand and technological advancements, the mHealth market is projected to surpass $269.31 billion by 2032. 

Healthcare Mobile Apps: A Brief Statistics Overview 

• The number of healthcare apps downloaded worldwide is expected to reach 8.6 billion by 2025. 
• According to Statista, more than 52,000 healthcare and medical apps are available on the Google Play Store worldwide, and over 53,000 mHealth apps are available on the Apple App Store; 
• By 2023, nearly 30% of American adults regularly utilized a health-tracking or management app multiple times daily; 
• The global mHealth app market will reach $68.77 billion in 2024. 

How mHealth Apps Are Changing Healthcare 

Hospital in a pocket 

Patients can take advantage of healthcare services while staying home. With the help of a mobile device, they can get consultations and prescriptions and even send payments. 

Entire workflow in a mobile device 

Mobile apps can help healthcare workers remember their daily tasks, browse the documentation, and optimize communication within their teams. Healthcare professionals can conduct quick online checks, access information about their patients within seconds, monitor their health, prescribe medicine, and so on. 

Mobile platform for pharma 

Pharma companies can develop a healthcare mobile app where their staff can send propositions, close deals, and do other business activities with partners and clients. 

Personalized care 

Users can receive personalized treatment plans, answers to their questions, and medical advice through healthcare apps within a few clicks. This decreases the time needed to contact a doctor and makes healthcare resources more accessible. 

AI-powered assistance 

AI-enhanced technology has completely changed the course of the pharmaceutical industry. Apps with AI technology integration offer instant assistance with various patients’ requests, providing them with around-the-clock support. Moreover, AI-driven algorithms can help healthcare organizations analyze patient data, find more effective ways to assist them, and offer better treatment. 

Benefits of Mobile Apps in Healthcare 

More powerful brands 

Revolution in mHealth has stepped ahead. Assistant apps are helping pharma brands boost awareness by approaching the maximum number of smartphone customers. 

It means pharma brands can quickly improve their marketing campaigns with intuitive navigation to company data such as contacts or other first-hand details, which are always available, accessible, and visible on apps. 

Improved time management 

Due to constant direct contact with the audience, applications in healthcare can help physicians save plenty of time and effort. It will streamline HCPs’ workflows, improve productivity, and maintain patient communication agility. Not to mention that people who need medical assistance can schedule or cancel an appointment with a nearby physician using the app. 

Patient loyalty 

Mobile medical apps significantly increase transparency with the help of constant remote monitoring, support, and online interactions. It keeps users engaged and involved in each step of their healthcare journey. 

Data harvesting 

Mobile health apps can work as a single hub for all medical information — from numerical data to their preferences, emotional reactions, and current behavior patterns. It provides professionals with a complete pack of insights valuable for further care and treatment enhancements. 

Real-time response 

Doctors can respond to people who receive medical treatment proactively using mHealth apps while providing effective treatment anytime and anywhere. Patients can request assistance whenever they need it, and an available doctor can consult them immediately. Moreover, mobile app users can avoid going to the doctor over minor problems or questions and just receive all the answers they need right in the app. 

Main Types of Mobile Healthcare Applications

Many types of apps help patients manage and improve their health independently and assist healthcare professionals with multiple tasks. Here are some mobile health applications examples: 

Patients’ apps 

• Symptom checkers; 
• Reminders and alerts; 
• Applications for remote monitoring; 
• Support for patients with chronic diseases; 
• Health plus applications; 
• Health insurance apps; 
• Mental health apps; 
• Fitness apps; 
• Diet apps. 

Apps for healthcare professionals 

• Medical calculators; 
• Prescription management; 
• Appointment reminders; 
• Pharma guides and surveys for eLearning. 

Medical salesforce apps 

• Remote communications; 
• eDetailing scripts and guides; 
• Informational materials. 

Most In-Demand Patient Engagement Healthcare Apps 

Medical education 

Patient engagement healthcare apps support and strengthen learning processes. Instead of wasting time on long-turning educational sessions, these apps give permanent access to up-to-date medical materials, prescription guidelines, diagnostics, and more. 

Apps for clinical communications 

Apps of this type simplify interactions between healthcare providers and facilitate quick responses with virtual functionalities, such as voice calling, video conferences, messaging, and beyond. 

Calculators 

Such healthcare mobile apps for patients can calculate dosage or offer dosing suggestions based on multiple complex formulas and individual medical parameters. 

Disease management and diagnostics 

Various symptom checkers are among the most popular apps used in healthcare. Doctors and other HCPs can stay in touch with their patients to keep track of their drug adherence and lab results, check current health conditions, and coach them in their health journey. 

For example, doctors use the SkinVision app to identify skin cancer in its early stages. It reveals the diagnosis immediately. 

Drug reference 

Such healthcare apps for doctors provide health information about medicine, pharmacology, indications, dosages, interactions, contraindications, costs, and beyond. 

Patient education and engagement 

mHealth apps designed specifically for patients can include educational content such as treatment options, health issues, prevention methods, and more. It results in a better experience and a higher satisfaction rate. 

For example, TalkLife is one of the healthcare apps that help patients talk to people with the same symptoms or illnesses. They can ask for advice or exchange their experiences if they need it. 

Mobile telemedicine 

Another great feature in mHealth apps is an implemented video service technology that can provide remote patient monitoring. Doctors and other healthcare professionals can deliver real-time medical assistance to patients through remote video functions. It concerns those who cannot access their healthcare providers directly or get needed care due to remote location or physical disorders. 

For example, Dr. Now is one of the best healthcare apps for patients to make a video call and reach their physicians anywhere they want. 

Top Use Cases of Mobile Apps by Viseven 

Here are some of the best health apps for patients and healthcare professionals Viseven has developed: 

1. Dosage calculator for children’s caregivers. The app can calculate dosage and the frequency of pill or suspension administration. All the medical data is based on the criteria of disease as well as on the little patient’s weight; 
2. Dosage calculator for parents and HCPs. This app provides instant access to medicine instructions and allows parents or physicians to calculate the accurate dosage; 
3. Offline application. This app provides patient care recommendations for specialists in the oncology sphere (adjuvant, neoadjuvant, and surgical therapy); 
4. Versatile medical reference app for pharmacists. The app offers diagnostic possibilities and helps users identify a type of pain depending on its location, duration, or intensity. Osteohelp also allows choosing among the best treatment alternatives, investigating its pharmacological properties, route of medical administration, and beyond; 
5. Pharmacist’s guide. This app offers a wide range of up-to-date medical education materials for HCPs with various reference videos for clinical procedures; 
6. Health app for tracking health. Based on PhoneGap, this hybrid app has a built-in video module and BMI Calculator technology. The mHealth app provides users with the needed medical records regarding their disease, sets up custom pill reminders, and allows them to keep track of their current health situation; 
7. Life Plus App. This mHealth app allows program members and pharmacists to share offers with clients. It includes various options such as promotions for top products, redeems and redemptions, and eVouchers. Users receive the latest information continuously and always stay updated. 

Core Usability Principles for Healthcare Apps

The best healthcare apps for patients and HCPs have the following features: 

• Intuitive user experience (UI) and excellent user experience (UX); 
• Simple installation and flawless functioning; 
• Synchronization of data across devices; 

• Safety and security of personal information. 

Innovations in digital mHealth technologies help augment clinical efficiency, provide accurate diagnoses, and help pharmaceutical brands stand out. 

mHealth application development includes business analysis, UI/UX design, backend, app development, and quality assurance. 

As for operating systems, Android and iOS are still at the top. However, Android remains the lead platform for mobile health application development. 

Need a mHealth app? Viseven is an app healthcare provider that can develop a hybrid, native, or web app for your pharma, healthcare, or life sciences brand, considering your marketing strategy and the needs of your target audience. 

Download our case study or fill out the form below for more information. We’ll get back to you shortly! 

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: 

1. Loyalty
2. 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!

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.