Category: Pharma Marketing

Take a moment to think of how your health behavior has changed over 2020. Can it be measured exclusively by the number of thoughts about hygiene and clean hands? Or was there something more to it?

The positive impact of coronavirus (strange though it might sound) is in the change of mindset concerning our health. Some of us have started thinking more about our chronic diseases; some have been just evaluating the possible outcomes in case of infection. The truth is – we all did that. 

It means only that awareness has grown, that the management of our own health is above all in our hands whatever they are clean or not.

Let’s discuss the role of the modern post-covid patients in the pharmaceutical industry and figure out why it’s a good time to spread value with pharma content far beyond HCPs.

Set value with pharma content – cover all the touchpoints

Something important in pharma has changed for good. It’s not simply customers’ expectations – the patient’s mindset has changed.

The reasons for this were both the growing role of digital technologies in healthcare and the pandemic that has become a powerful impetus for change.

As per most surveys, close to 25 percent of the consumers today are driven by health and hygiene choices. – Gaurav Sharma, Investcorp India

Modern patients no longer want to surrender their health to the doctor’s hands, they want to be actively involved in the process of treatment. This new type of patient requires something more than just product information, they strive for assistance in aspiration to manage their own health.

Thus, modern patients need personalized, interconnected, engaging, and even entertaining interaction with a healthcare provider.

Meanwhile, 81% of pharma manufacturers still rely on healthcare providers to educate patients on their services. That’s why, in a big way, they target content primarily on HCPs, investing very little in patient and pharmacists’ awareness.

What can pharma do now?

We caught probably the most appropriate time to finally change our mindset as well and realize that our engagement shouldn’t be limited to HCP, it shouldn’t have boundaries.

How to expand the dialog with healthcare professionals

Pharmaceutical content for patients, in the traditional sense, is 100% valuable. At the same time, it’s not engaging, it’s not personalized, and it’s not even entertaining.

You might say that it’s not supposed to be ‘entertaining’  the purpose is different, BUT your target audience might have a different opinion.

• 80% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services
• 57% of customers have stopped buying from a company because a competitor provided a better experience

If even these percentages are not convincing enough, then just think of billions of dollars spent on promotional materials when desired outcomes were never achieved.

Patients lose loyalty when they don’t feel that the brand cares enough about their treatment outcomes. Moreover, this leads to patients’ nonadherence which is every year responsible for the loss of between 100-300 billion dollars in the US alone.

Sometimes people do not follow a treatment or are unable to cope with side effects because they have little knowledge about their condition and treatment.

It’s about time to invest more effort and creativity in content for patients and pharmacists.

More pharma content for pharmacists and patients: Benefits

Pharmaceutical content enjoying success among patients

The goal of any doctor is to create a clearer picture of the disease and engage patients in active treatment. That’s why, above all, from a med rep, HCPs need corresponding materials that would help them complete their mission. Such content should be valuable, well structured, interactive, and contain the right message about your pharma brand. Concerted efforts, when pharmaceutical companies would provide HCP with corresponding materials, and further HCP deliver it to the patients could be referred to as «cascade sharing». These efforts have a strong potential to elevate patients’/HCPs’ engagement and fit well into the picture of modern healthcare. Health applications, websites, landing pages, portals, videos, and many other materials can perform this mission and explain all aspects of the disease to patients. Let’s dive deep into the characteristics and capabilities of such materials.

mHealth Apps

In the era when being healthy isn’t simply vital but greatly trendy, it’s important to stay focused on patients. With 67% of the world’s population being mobile phone users, the most feasible way to stay patient-centered is mobile applications – offering truly engaging, gamified experiences, communication and information –and above all, psychologically calculated ways to support the patient in their journey.

Moreover, these apps are great facilitators of patient adherence, providing beyond-the-pill value with its pill reminders, information on products, patient leaflets, calculators, symptom diary module (shareable to chat), information and articles on diseases. They may also contain video tutorials, quizzes, surveys, rewards and live chat 24/7 with the option to schedule calls with the HCP – offering a truly gamified patient experience.

Web portals, websites and landing pages

Today patients’ path to treatment begins online as over 70% have researched a prescription medication or medical device online in the past year. A brand’s websites, web portals, and landing pages have become a critical resource of true for patients. Therefore, they act as a critical entry point to access treatment and help patients improve adherence. 52% of patients rely on brand websites to research prescription information. 88.3% want pharma brand websites to connect them to providers. Thus, you can note that patients feel certain power being able to find the right information to manage their condition better.

To choose the right treatment,  pharmacists also should be updated with the latest health-related information. Therefore, if there were more such sites, there would no doubt be matching demand for them.

A well-structured, user-friendly, and interactive website provides your pharma brand an enhanced online presence, the ability to be available for customers 24/7, and to gain consumer insights due to collected analytics.

Emails

Broadcast emails and approved emails are default facilitators of HCPs engagement. It is impossible to imagine a more personalized way to communicate with HCP, especially with all the interactive features users currently can enjoy.

The truth is that one personalized email can generate more reactions than any other content. HCPs are eager to receive emails and they enjoy great success with an 18.58% open rate throughout 2020.

Would it be equally interesting for patients and pharmacists?

Definitely, yes. It would be beneficial for all sides of treatment as it would stimulate a dialog and inspire tight collaboration between them.

Pharma can send specialized emails with information that the HCP could later forward to those patients who would benefit from it. The email with information from the HCP currently managing their condition will certainly enjoy great confidence and inspire more loyalty. Meanwhile, pharma can create more trust in their brand and be sure that patients receive the information they need at the moment.

This practice is also beneficial for pharmacists, who are likewise required to work in concert with patients and healthcare providers to promote health and deliver patient-oriented support.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTQ8jGqthvou0026amp;feature=emb_title

Self-detailing

Self-detailing is the practice when the medical rep invites the HCP to get familiar with an eDetailing presentation independently. Self-detailing has gained popularity among doctors because it is not tied to the doctors’ schedule, thereby giving them time and the opportunity to delve into the materials fundamentally. During the quarantine, the number of doctors interested in this practice was constantly growing. Also, the greatest value of Self-Detailing in the pharmaceutical market lies in its versatility and ability to complement any communication channel and any device.

This practice could also be favored by patients who might be able to learn more about their condition and the methods of treatment. The equally nonintrusive manner could inspire more patient loyalty and bring certain benefits for pharma companies as well. During self-detailing, the patients can look through the structure and key messages in the presentation at their own discretion. That way, this channel gives a better understanding of the target audience, and gives honest metrics for the campaign, as it is likely to see a different pattern of slides and time spent on each of them.

Parting thoughts

Now of all times those unique moments when patients are eager to take care of their health and cooperate with the pharma. Let us help them in their quest to be healthier. We hope that now you see that moving beyond the creation of pharma content just for HCP brings recognition and loyalty among modern health-oriented patients.

Finally, take a look at an example of a customer journey that reflects how all of these types of content can fit perfectly, complement each other and create value in pharma’s picture of customer engagement.

Imagine that you want to promote a special mobile application among patients with poor adherence. Here are two interaction models that reflect how these types of content can foster collaboration with the HCP and generate loyalty and success of your app among the patients.

An example of promoting a mobile application using content for a patient

You may have noticed that this model of interaction is rather multichannel, but note how the one piece of content that is valuable to both the HCP and patient complements the efforts of other materials and encourages the patient to download the app.

The next example shows how such content can encourage patients that have downloaded your application to fill the survey about the reasons for their non-adherence.

If you got interested in more details on all aspects of work with such content – contact our experts. We’ll help you to choose those options that will be right for you, develop promotional campaigns, and calculate the most reasonable ways of implementation to create value in the new era of healthcare and life sciences.

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

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

What is a Pharma Marketing Strategy?

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

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

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

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

What Kind of Content Will Win in the Pharmaceutical Industry?

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

• Inspirational;

• Relevant;
• ABM-friendly;
• Measurable;
• Closed Loop;
• Emotional;

• Adaptive at every stage of decision making.

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

What is a Pharma Marketing Plan?

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

• Content plan;

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

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

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

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

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

Explore Content Marketing Production: Veeva & Viseven Integration

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

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

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

A New Concept of Pharma Content Management

Truly multichannel content is channel-independent, limitless and timeless

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

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

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

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

• Focus on interactive content

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

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

• Analyze, Localize, and Measure

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

The Importance of Storytelling as a Pharma Content Marketing Tool

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

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

• Have all your assets constantly updated;
• Personalize each interaction;
• Use remote detailing for greater engagement;

• Deliver your content across all the digital channels instantly.

Where data is, matters

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

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

Get rid of content silos

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

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

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

When one message boosts the other

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Enter the new approaches to content creation.

“Smart content development” approaches

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

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

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

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

What are Email fragments and how they work

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

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

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

Practice 1. Going beyond eDetailing to provide more value

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

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

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

Practice 2. Having key message transported by transactional emails

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

Pharma promotion in the post-COVID-19 world

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

• fulfilling the promise.

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

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

Turning up the volume on remote communication in pharma

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

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

These include, among others:

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

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

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

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

Personalization: a horizon, an asymptote… a necessity

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

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

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

Marketing is no longer about promoting and selling products and services. It’s about providing  an exceptional and continuous customer experience.

According to the State of the Connected Customer research conducted by Salesforce with the participation of nearly 17.000 people:

• 88% say that customer experiences provided by businesses are as crucial as their products and services;
• 73% anticipate companies to understand their unique needs and expectations;
• 56% always expect offers to be personalized;
• 43% prefer non-digital channels to engage with businesses.

Digital and non-digital have emerged into a unified hybrid environment where healthcare professionals (HCPs) and patients consume and generate terabytes of diverse data across multiple channels using multiple devices.

The pharmaceutical multichannel approach has become a tried-and-tested technique for many companies that are still hesitant about adopting the latest customer engagement techniques. Time proved that even being multichannel isn’t enough for a pharma business to create caring and unsuspicious relationships with customers.

The overwhelming success of creating personalized customer experiences in omnichannel e-commerce retail led to the adoption of this practice by pharma businesses of all sizes. Each asked the same question: “What is the difference between omnichannel and multichannel?”

If you want to compare omnichannel vs. multichannel, read this guide until the end.

What Is Omnichannel vs Multichannel?

The omnichannel approach is a marketing method that unifies different channels companies use to reach out to customers and fosters a consistent brand voice and messaging across all platforms and devices. Omnichannel is a customer-centric approach, meaning that all marketing efforts evolve around ensuring that users have a seamless customer experience every time they interact with a brand.

The multichannel approach also uses various channels to communicate with customers and promote products or services, but it does not necessarily integrate all channels into a unified customer journey. For example, a promotion sent by email might be completely different from an ad a customer sees on Instagram.

Omnichannel Marketing vs Multichannel Marketing: What’s the Difference in Pharma?

The main difference between omnichannel and multichannel marketing strategies in Pharma is in the focus of the company’s strategy.

A multichannel strategy focuses on the product or service by promoting it with the same static message across multiple channels that act separately.

An omnichannel strategy focuses on the healthcare professional who gets a seamless experience with consistent brand messaging across all the channels integrated into a single communication environment.

Another important distinction between the two strategies lies in their levels of personalization. It’s true that for both approaches, personalization plays a significant role. However, when it comes to omnichannel marketing, there are many more opportunities to personalize customer journeys and create a unique experience. Based on the information marketers receive about their target audience, it becomes possible to deliver specific content that meets individual customer needs.

How Does Pharmaceutical Multichannel Marketing Work in Pharma?

Search engines and social media revolutionized the way pharma customers consume content.

Patients have more data about their healthcare than ever before. According to Clinician of the Future: A 2022 report by Ipsos, 56% of clinicians worldwide agreed that patients have become more empowered to manage their conditions over the last decade.

HCPs can find feedback on any pharma product or a company that produced it in a wink (of course, if the company has a website or active social media profiles).

In addition to search engines and social media, representatives of multiple communities across pharma and life sciences use many other channels for communication with colleagues and businesses.

They receive messages via email, messaging apps, and SMS. They visit websites and download mobile apps. They attend events, visit websites, participate in webinars, and have face-to-face meetings and video calls.

Multichannel communication has spread marketing boundaries significantly. In the new world where businesses can no longer dictate anything to customers who have more control over their choices, specialists in pharma communications get an unprecedented opportunity to reach target audiences anywhere they want and need.

Along with that, there are a few other key advantages.

Main Advantages of the Pharma Multichannel Approach

A multichannel strategy allows pharma companies to upgrade their marketing on all sides: planning, management, analysis, and execution.

Absolute audience reach and strong brand awareness

When using multiple channels, a pharma business increases the maximum number of customers it can reach, which enhances brand awareness among prospects.

Multichannel distribution of content improves the level of customer engagement. In other words, the more marketing channels a pharma business uses, the more touchpoints current and potential customers can create. More touchpoints make customers remember the pharma or life sciences brand.

And more touchpoints mean more insights that would be useful for future campaigns.

More data & tools for analytics

The success of multichannel pharma marketing is all about data.

Implementing a multichannel approach to pharma marketing is the first step to systematizing customer information and its management. It is the first attempt to focus on the big picture by increasing digital maturity.

Which channels does a target audience like, and which doesn’t? Which channels are effective, and which benefits do they have? What multichannel content methods and formats do competitors use? The multichannel approach can answer these and many other questions through a customer relationship management (CRM) platform.

As a central multichannel data hub, a CRM platform can help a pharma or life sciences business automate and optimize key marketing activities. Optimization and automation dramatically reduce expenses and resources necessary for continuous growth and campaign performance improvement.

Enhanced performance measurement

Loads of data received across channels give room for maneuver. With new information continuously upgraded in real-time, multichannel marketers can create different experiments based on a closed-loop marketing approach that includes four stages:

1. Campaign launch;

1. Customer engagement;

1. Data collection;

1. Data analysis.

Such a cycle allows marketers to test different channel and content combinations repeatedly, which helps businesses make smarter decisions, generate better ideas, and increase the number of conversions and sales.

More conversions and sales

Let’s end this part of the article with the last and most important thing. The advantages we just recalled — a high level of engagement, more customer data, better data management, real-time analytics, and enhanced performance management of multichannel campaigns — lead to boosting sales force productivity and efficiency.

Main Disadvantages of the Pharma Multichannel

Even though pharma businesses have access to multiple channels where they can lure HCPs and patients, they pretty often don’t know how to do that accurately and efficiently. In these circumstances, multichannel interactions result in a few main drawbacks. Here they are:

· No Integrated Experience Across Channels

• Channels work separately;
• High Cost-per-Contact;
• No Holistic View of Customer Data;
• The Same Message Across Channels.

How Does Pharmaceutical Omnichannel Marketing Work in Pharma?

If multichannel aims to reach as many potential customers as possible, the omnichannel strategy requires a more tactical and on-point approach. A typical modern HCP is usually someone who highly values their time and has no wish to dig into a particular brand’s feed. As the average F2F visit between HCP and medical representative usually does not exceed 4 minutes (whether online or offline), these 4 minutes become a valuable moment to deliver the most important messages directly to the person.

But what is this message, and how do you fit the whole customer journey into a single presentation?

The answer is that you don’t have to.

The omnichannel approach builds communication across various marketing channels and uses highly personalized delivery methods to guide clients through all customer journey stages. This way, the customer gets a customized message required for engagement via various channels (like emails, messengers, F2F, or else) at each stage instead of wading through the flood of posts on Facebook.

According to a customer engagement survey by Axtria:

• Nearly 77% of businesses only take the first steps in implementing an omnichannel strategy.
• Around 66% of businesses are in the early stages of omnichannel data management maturity.
• About 64% of businesses work with a strategic development partner for omnichannel transformation.

Main Benefits of the Pharma Omnichannel Approach

Relevance and efficiency

The omnichannel strategy helps to achieve business goals most appropriately and efficiently because you always work with your target audience’s current reality. Instead of creating a bunch of materials, deploying them to the channels, and waiting for the best (this is what basically multichannel is about), your marketing efforts are concentrated on being “here and now,” providing your customers with what is interesting for them now the most comfortable way for them to engage.

Advanced personalization and deep customer understanding

Personalization is not a destination; it’s an ongoing process of gathering data, analyzing it, and applying it to subsequent marketing campaigns to improve the next communicational iteration. The more you interact with a target audience, the better you know the specifics of their engagement and what works best for them. Next time you design your strategy after analyzing the previous campaign, you may notice an increased number of touchpoints and some new ways to engage customers.

Detailed customer journey and content management

It’s much easier to track customer engagement during successful omnichannel campaigns as you always know the customer journey stage you’re on. The Omnichannel strategy can satisfy clients’ needs in the short term by providing them with appropriate content materials right in the moment of need (determined by the campaign stage). It helps to manage content production better, giving enough resources and understanding for development.

Data-driven decision-making

Omnichannel marketing allows companies to gain better insights about their customers and make decisions based on the data they receive. Instead of investing in another marketing campaign and taking a risk launching it without knowing whether it will meet the demand, pharma marketers can use data analytics to align with the customers’ needs and create campaigns that resonate with the target audience.

So, What’s the Outcome?

The outcome is quite simple: as global digitalization goes on and business needs become more complex, your approach is usually defined by your requirements. When it comes to multichannel vs omnichannel marketing strategies, you must understand the central concept of realizing what is best for your business.

Multichannel works with one channel independently from another, allowing it to target a broad audience at once. It requires stable content flow and works perfectly for newsfeeds, community activities, or crowd marketing. Meanwhile, omnichannel marketing focuses on providing clients with a personalized experience delivered on time by demand or spontaneously — although always personally via various channels. This makes omnichannel work perfectly for pharma and life sciences.