Category: Pharma Marketing

The situation with the COVID-19 outbreak is influencing all business areas, including Pharma. Changes are now inevitable. We need to be ready to face those new challenges ahead. We’re all witnessing a big marketing shift in the Pharma industry, and no one knows when we can go back to the regular life. The type of content that matters has completely shifted. Remote lines of communication have become more important than ever before. Creative Agencies must be quick to adjust to the “new normal” brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic – or be left behind. Let’s talk about how to adapt your agency to the shift in channel usage, effectively accept new challenges, and stay on top.

Market Situation and Pharma’s Trends in 2020

It’s not yet time to look back on 2020, but it can already be said that it is one of the most challenging years for pharmaceutical companies. The conventional way of doing business has disappeared. Pharma companies and Life Sciences are being put under significant pressure related to cancelation of medical congresses, business trips, and remote working. However, sales reps are probably affected the most. The routine of med sales that were driving from one hospital to another, shaking hands with physicians has flipped on its head. Nearly 60% of the larger companies are already considering the possibilities to roll-out/upgrade and implement new technologies to engage HCPs. The relatively limited use of “online” industry communication models in the past has now proven to be a problem. Let’s take a look at the major challenges that have become more apparent since the coronavirus outbreak.

Shift in channels usage as the latest trend in pharma marketing (F2F vs remote)

Face-to-face visits are ruled out from the daily routine without a date. The question arose: how to keep HCPs with med reps? We are starting to realize the importance of digitalization for the pharmaceutical industry. The shift toward remote visits (remote detailing) has become a very digital way out, enabling close cooperation with physicians at a safe distance. In the end, the pandemic may shift pharma sales to remote detailing permanently because of the flexibility of this solution.
However, the shift to remote communication channels may become a bumpy ride for some agencies. So, where is the complexity? This is a completely different type of content, requiring a completely different approach. First, customize your process of content production to remote communication channels. It means that agencies should not focus on manual technical work, but rather bring content solutions to the table. Flexible modular content can become your selling point in this case. It can be easily adapted to remote communication and can be later reused in other channels – embodying the true essence of cross-channel marketing.

To learn about the ultimate concept of modular approach in about 3 minutes – download our free PDF.

Diminishing resources

Pharmaceutical companies are busy evaluating the long-term effects of the coronavirus. Experts are racking their brains about how it will eventually affect their business model and operational processes. According to a survey, cash flow and financing problems are the main concern for 50% of companies. 20% of the respondents believe that sales will drop somewhere up to 20%. Accordingly, live sciences companies will not squander their marketing budgets in 2020. Pharma will invest its resources, including financial, into easily deployable and cost-effective digital solutions. Digital agencies need to provide the initiatives to cut the marketing resource consumption. In an increasingly competitive environment, the victory will get those who can deliver advanced and high-quality solutions to the market.

Content that matters now. Top digital channels in 2020

In light of the shift to remote means of communication, Pharma’s requests will center on digital content to reach out to HCPs remotely. That will be websites, emails, and banners that can be easily launched and deployed. In 2020, omnichannel customer-centricity is front and center of any marketing campaign. Accordingly, pharmaceutical companies will try to coordinate across their cross-functional teams and apply all their digital talents to make the patient-centric approach work.

·         Remote eDetailer presentations

Presentations for remote communication will become a top priority. In the situations when in-person meetings are forbidden or HCPs are in a hard to reach territory, or simply can’t be approached during their working hours – remote eDetailer is your option. It will help the brand manager to represent a pharma company like that one that HCPs can trust. This is also an option to build a trusted brand name, organize successful HCP digital engagement regardless of the situation now.

• Localization

Pharma is looking for a cost-effective solution for content localization (eDetailers, approved and broadcast emails, landing pages, etc.). It’s important for Life Science companies to speak to their target audience across all channels of communication in a consistent language. It displays the pharma company’s respect and care of any country where the brand is promoted. Above all, Pharma managers need special content authoring solutions to create and publish digital assets. That’s the reason why a powerful integration with Veeva Vault can help you with content localization, updating, publishing, storage and approval.

·         Online ads

Pharma companies are also increasing digital advertising spend since print materials will not be so effective when people are stay at home. It’s also a way out to compensate for leads they would pick up at events and conferences. In this context, digital banner ads can provide as significant return on your marketing investment.  A recent report found that 74% of marketers believe their banner ads are relevant to their target audience.

·         Landing pages

We observe a demand for landing pages creation that is a powerful instrument for the much-talked-of patient-centricity trend. To create to provide a more customer-friendly web experience, an individual page is created for each product. Pharma’s organic search is directed not to complex corporate sites, but to simple and clear webpages, where which medication has its own place. This is a powerful pharma marketing tool with clickable CTA buttons which help to achieve a positive, long-lasting impression.

·         Emails

The switch to remote communication automatically creates enormous demand for emails. It was and remains an important part of remote communication with HCPs. Email is a good channel to announce products updates, reach HCPs which can’t be covered by F2F visits, and drive website traffic. This is a type of interaction providing targeted communication and delivering key messages easily and quickly.

Email as a channel empowers marketing communication. Combined with other channels – remote visits, webinars, messengers, websites – it ensures consistent brand performance and seamless customer experience. Pharma’s priority is to find a solution that will help to avoid manual work and publish ready-made emails automatically to the selected target system. That’s why we found it necessary to provide eWizard with an opportunity of one-click publishing to Veeva Vault, review, approval, then export and distribute to Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

What’s Your Reaction? Develop Clear Strategy to Help Your Business Grow

Thinking through digital content strategy, creative agencies should consider that the content production process should be suitable for the COVID situation and also speaking long-term. In other words, create content that will be easily adapted to any communication channels and face-to-face visits further on.

eWizard: Your Solution to Make it Through the Storm and Beyond

To thrive even in difficult market conditions creative agencies are turning to partnership with other digital providers. The right partnership opens up the possibilities and fuels greater achievement to augment your own capabilities. Besides, focusing on new processes that help generate creative strategies and messaging, agencies need to promote innovative, effective solutions for content management. This will favor the agencies that can act quickly to provide qualified people and efficient services to fill in the gaps, in addition to creative leadership.

Viseven Group’s flexible approach to partnership empowers creative agencies to develop any type of content for any communication channel. In-built platform integration to the leading systems like Veeva Multichannel Suite, IQVIA OCE, Adobe Experience Manager, Salesforce Marketing Cloud put our content partners in a strong competitive position on all fronts. They can create omnichannel content in entirely new ways and automate common tasks across the content supply chain.

We cater to healthcare communication agencies majorly through our platform, also with our expertise in building end-to-end content delivery models embodying the true essence of cross-channel marketing. eWizard is our number one digital omnichannel content authoring solution for pharmaceutical companies. Using eWizard you can easily create, update, and deliver omnichannel content: eDetailing, emails, microsites, remote calls.

Our core mission is to pioneer an innovative approach to content production, where flexible modules can be created once and then published into multiple channels. It’s not a digital fairy tale, this is the ultimate modular approach that will make your content creation practice more comprehensive, traceable and reusable. This content, existing beyond devices, channels, and campaigns, enables marketers to create content once and publish to many systems.

Quicker than a storm, coronavirus has left our lives and pharma industry in a black hole of uncertainty. No one knows when the pandemic will stop and what an effect it eventually will have on the industry. The way out is to adjust your agency so you won’t be afraid of any storm. With a proper content authoring solution providing for flexible, reusable content, that fits any channel, system or device – you’ll always feel confident about your agency regardless of any marine forecast. Contact and explore the universal approach to creating content.

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.

Here’s a table of available channels and their limitations:

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.

Fill out the form below to request a consultation from Viseven’s omnichannel expert!

The beginning of the new decade is marked by rapid change and digital transformations in the pharmaceutical industry. At Viseven, we believe that cutting-edge technologies in this area will lead to better outcomes for patients in the future. Pharmaceutical companies are trying to keep pace with digital technologies and put forward their own groundbreaking solutions. In 2020, Pharma will focus on developing alternative digital solutions that would elevate patient care. Naturally, pharmaceutical companies will have a growing number of requests for Creative Agencies to deliver the information about treatment to patients. With the demand rising, digital agencies cannot do everything by themselves anymore. Sometimes partnership with another pharma digital agency is an option that has several benefits for both. Let’s talk about how concerted partnership between digital agencies is helping to achieve short-term and long-term goals.

Services Pharma Will Request from Digital Agencies

1. Patient centricity

In 2020, pharmaceutical companies are more than ever focused on getting feedback from HCPs to have a thorough understanding of patients’ needs. To make a patient-centric approach work, pharmaceutical companies will try to coordinate across their cross-functional teams and apply all their digital talents.

2. Building of the Customer Journey

It will be increasingly important in 2020 to map patient customer journeys and identify pain points to improve.  The map can show the weaknesses of each marketing strategy, as well as help analyze the target audience, and understand what needs to be improved. Moreover, such an approach deepens the customer’s relationship with your brand within their journey and develops brand loyalty.

3. Focus on the Omnichannel Communications

Nowadays pharma industry is rapidly getting more omnichannel-oriented. Omnichannel marketing ensures that no matter which channel the HCP will choose, the message will be seamless. This is exactly what pharmaceutical companies are focusing on today in collaboration with digital agencies. To learn more about how to implement an effective omnichannel communication strategy easily, check our playbook.

4. Channel Agnostic Future

The rise of ‘channel agnostic’ marketing is another forecast for the near future. This approach will pay for itself in the future since channel-agnostic, modular content can accelerate communication and speed up MLR approval, saving costs, and empowering customer user journeys. Modules ensure a more rapid process of creation and updating of presentations, emails, and websites. Moreover, powerful integrations with ecosystems allow to reuse modules in all channels. Learn about the much-discussed Channel-Agnostic Module in about 3 minutes.

5. Extension of Agencies Services Portfolio

A trend-setting digital marketing agency will never stop refining its services in order to be compatible with holistic strategies. The truth is, to ride high, the digital agency is supposed to provide a huge list of services like software creation, digital design, branding, content and video marketing, etc. Some of them are crucial for a marketing competition. The truth is that only a few Agencies have sufficient capacity to provide all of them at once. Referring to another agency and getting access to their services is a solution to this problem. Check out Viseven flexible partnership approaches.

The Right Type of Partnership to meet Pharma’s Requests

Digital agencies should address Parma’s needs and adjust to new realities as quickly as possible to attract new clients and generate bigger profits. A win-win partnership with a full-cycle digital agency can be an immense resource, especially for smaller businesses.  The question is how to choose the right partner who will go with you along the path of digital perfection? When you deal with a full-cycle digital marketing agency, you’ll have a seamless plan of your operational strategy. The key is to understand your business’s needs. A suitable agency partner comes with the most advanced technology and resources available for content creation, task automation, and analytics.

Viseven partnership approaches

Viseven is a full-cycle digital agency and multichannel content supplier for Life Sciences. Our comprehensive solution – eWizard – is an easy-to-use platform that enables seamless creation, update, and delivery of multichannel content: eDetailing, emails, microsites, remote calls. Our core mission is to pioneer an innovative approach to content production, where flexible modules can be created once and then published into multiple channels. We are the solution provider with more than 10 years of expertise in digital content production for Life Sciences. Our game-changing partnership programs will help you to boost your performance, save time, and budget and become one-stop-shop for pharma companies. eWizard is integrated with main CRM systems used by pharma: Veeva, iQVIA, Salesforce (+SFMC), AEM. You can choose the type of partnership that will meet the requirements of your business.

eWizard content authoring platform allows to:

• Provide end-to-end creation of all types of pharma marketing content: emails, eDetailers, apps, websites and much more
• Obtain convenient tools for crafting and reusing universal content across systems and channels, backed up with precise analytics
• All bets are off: unlimited access to develop as much content as you need
• Reduce production costs for HTML5 content development
• Save resources: create more content with less people

Reseller Partner Program

Our flexible and rewarding reseller partner program helps pharma and life science companies create the multichannel content in entirely new ways by offering Viseven Products and Services. Among our main solutions, they can resell are eWizard, eWizard Pulse, eWizard NaviGate, Viseven CLM, Viseven CRM, etc.
Our reseller partners are mainly consulting and marketing agencies who want to expand their service portfolio and become a one-stop-shop for pharma. They can provide your clients with access to a strong team of content creators with 10 years of expertise in the pharma field. There are no boundaries to entry, you start as a Reference Partner and grow to a Reseller. In short, you can choose the program that is right for your business and consistent with your desired level of investment. Become an authorized partner to sell Viseven products and gain support at all stages, including marketing materials, promotion, and technical support.

Content Partner Program

To increase revenue and boost customer experience, new software advancements are in demand. Our content partners get access to eWizard – convenient, fast, and cost-effective platform for content creation and are certified for innovative approaches to content crafting and management. In-build integration to the leading players like Veeva Multichannel Suite, IQVIA OCE, Adobe Experience Manager, Salesforce Marketing Cloud put our content partners in a strong competitive position on all fronts. Moreover, large pharma companies may require their agencies to be certified for content creation Viseven can provide eWizard certification on demand. Our content partners can create multichannel content in entirely new ways and automate common tasks across the content supply chain. Help pharma to reach customers in a timely and efficient manner – do not hesitate to contact our team of experts and discover more capabilities of our content authoring solution.

The right kind of partnership with the right type of partner is the key to success in a rapidly changing pharmaceutical world. It’s all about to choose the type of relationship that will meet your business’s needs. The partnership programs of Viseven Company are based on the principle of mutually profitable cooperation.