How to increase the coverage of HCPs with the Healthcare Omnichannel Communications

PUBLISHED

October 20, 2021

Redefine your Omnichannel Communication in Healthcare

Engaging physicians across traditional marketing channels (aka F2F or physical patient visits) can lead to many drawbacks, not allowing healthcare workers to attain the desired audience retention rate or even frequency. It goes hand in hand with customers’ growing needs for on-demand content, personalized experiences, and more agile communication models (e.g., digital and non-digital channels). Relying too much on personal visits of medical representatives can now be not sufficient to cover the HCP audience to its fullest extent.

“According to research on Viseven omnichannel customer data worldwide, up to 80% of the HCP database might not be covered by personal visits”.

Still, healthcare organizations can increase the coverage of healthcare providers and patients, address any modifications in physicians’ priorities, and meet profile-specific needs.

The shortcut to better Omnichannel Patient Engagement

Let’s run through 3 core statements, and go more in-depth:

Former pharma marketing models of patient engagement cannot operate in a modern, post-pandemic world (businesses are migrating to the online-driven scope of communication)
Pharmaceutical marketers are prompted to employ a vast mix of physical and digital channels to create a coherent experience for the target audience
Omnichannel acts as the solution that helps increase the coverage of the doctors and patients as well as boost the quality and frequency of communication – without any losses in the share of voice and sales volume

Omnichannel Healthcare Strategy as the Answer

By missing out on the opportunity to use a broader spectrum of channels, marketers might lack the brand force to effectively build brand awareness as well as have limited coverage of the target audience. However, they can become more nimble in their decision-making process, reach more audiences and develop meaningful relationships when adopting omnichannel tactics.

“As per statistics, 65% of modern physicians use social media for professional purposes, and over 70% of HCPs search for scientific data online daily”.

As one would expect, the trend is gaining momentum: physicians are becoming more educated outside of visits with med representatives. A medical representative is supposed to be more of an advisor, a supporter, someone who helps build loyalty and trust in pharmaceutical brands but not just sells. Besides, using personal visits as the core marketing touchpoint might result in high cost-per-contact or negatively impact your business ROI.

The omnichannel healthcare strategy came as the solution to any concerns faced by marketers. Such a strategy enriches a communication mix (that used to rely on a single channel or isolated channels) with other means of engagement such as email, social media, digital advertising, webinars, online events, etc., in which HCPs can obtain information on demand at any particular time. You can build a single marketing ecosystem, improve patient satisfaction and increase the target audience coverage with communication frequency.

What channels does a healthcare organization use to create an organic ecosystem?

Here are some commonly used channels inside patient journey mapping:

rep-triggered email
mass mailing
messengers
paid advertising
social media
portals
landing pages with SEO

Here is how that channel interconnection might work inside the omnichannel healthcare model (from encountering the first message to making the decision). The company’s goal was, for example, to invite HCPs to a webinar through email invitation. Some part of the audience opened an invitation and registered through the link. While some physicians didn’t respond to the email (or “skipped” the part of filling up the registration form) since they prefer to use messenger as the main communication channel. In order to reach the registration goal, further communication was done through messenger, and so on.

As one can see, omnichannel orchestration requires deep knowledge of HCP behaviors and needs within each segment. The ultimate benefit of omnichannel in healthcare is that the key message is always delivered in its entirety through multiple digital and non-digital means. It is a centralized model where all these touchpoints are unified together into coherent storytelling (based on audience preferences). Plus, a customer journey is designed and tailored with robust marketing automation to provide better patient outcomes with exactly what they need at a specific moment, time and place.

“According to research, pharma companies that implemented Viseven omnichannel solution in 2020, managed, on average, to triple the frequency of communication with target physicians through the use of optimized channel mix”.

So, let’s imagine a pharma company planned to increase its presence in a specific area and boost a market share. F2F visits were chosen as the main marketing channel. Medical representatives managed to capture contact details, but there was no perspective for more interactions.

When digital channels can complement F2F visits and improve targeting:

no opportunity for further visits in a specific area (due to restrictions, country-specific regulations, etc.)
there is a perspective to engage but with a low frequency
high-frequency engagements but with the need for follow-up communication or any promotional/medical materials delivery
remote region or region with a low expected profitability

“Viseven customer data revealed that pharmaceutical companies (from the Middle-East and Scandinavian countries), which implemented omnichannel tactics, covered 84% of the audience that have not been covered by F2F visits. Previously, the coverage rate was limited by the presence of contact details of physicians”.