Making the Most of Your Marketing for Pharma
Multi-channel marketing (MCM) is becoming the standard in the world of pharma and is seeing a surge in popularity as brands continue to recognize its value. Being that it’s a relatively new application for the industry, some issues are bound to arise. So, how can your brand benefit the most from its multi-channel pharma marketing?
Before You Do Anything Else: Who is Your Audience?
Any successful marketer knows that different audiences require different strategies, so the first step for successful multi-channel marketing is to know who it is you are marketing to: is it payers? Physicians? Patients? Other HCPs? You don’t have to choose just one, but for whichever you choose, you need to make sure you have the logistics down to cover the full customer journey.
Once you know who your target audience is, you’ll need to discover what problems they are having that you can help solve with your product. Is your audience already familiar with your brand? If so, to what extent? Find out what their preferences are as far as devices, channels they use, and the like.
But how do you know your multi-channel pharma marketing needs improving? Here are six keys to successful pharma marketing using multiple channels:
- Track, Track, Track
It makes sense to say that with just about anything, if you’re not able to measure it, you’re not able to improve it. It’s vital that you keep track of successes and setbacks. The best way to do so is to set some key performance indicators, or KPIs, and record how the numbers change over time. Even better, set a goal with a time frame, and see how your brand performance does.
- Track your brand’s reach: What is your average position in search results online? How much traffic are you receiving across channels? Keep track of open rate, click-through rate, email metrics, and list growth rates.
- Track conversions: If visitors, subscribers, and followers don’t turn into buyers, it doesn’t matter how many people you’re able to attract to your website, social profiles, and landing pages. Conversion tracks data like cost per visitor, cost per visit, and cost per conversion.
- Track acquisitions: How many visitors interacting with your content actually go through and connect? Track bounce rates for your main pages, click-throughs from search results, and more.
- Quick Engagement with Stakeholders
“Nowism” is the term used to describe the instant engagement and personalized content and messaging people want when they interact with brands. Your pharma brand must have the means to engage visitors quickly – or they’ll find a competitor who will. Implement chatbots, live chat, email responders, mobile apps, and social media messaging to encourage customers to share their data. Don’t be afraid that they won’t share it – people know that in exchange for their data they’ll receive better messaging and better content – and better service overall when they share.
- Channel Integration
Following new trends in global marketing and embracing digital is only part of the task – pharma brands must also make sure that all channels are interconnected in order to lead the audience in any direction they want to go. For example, have your blog posts lead the reader to a subscription box, which then goes to a newsletter, which contains links to landing pages. Your channels need to naturally connect with one another and never lead visitors to dead ends with no invitation to visit another channel.
- Patient Focus
Patients are becoming an enormous influence in pharma, and brands need to not only be aware of this fact, but also use it to their benefit. Patient centricity is a huge buzzword in pharma marketing; brands must be aware of the needs of patients who rely on their products and remain available during the patient journey in order to keep up with the changing demands and needs of the very people pharma is meant to help. If you don’t know what patients need, how will you ever be able to offer products they will be excited about?
- Sales Rep Involvement
One of the biggest driving forces in multi-channel pharma marketing is the pharma sales rep, who needs to be involved in all aspects of the process. When reps are left out of the loop, they are also often left in the dark when it comes to crucial information. This could mean the difference between HCPs and patients gaining faith in your product or brand and leaving it altogether.
Be aware that reps’ opinions and statements do hold weight with audiences. In fact, a good example of this involves emails, which get opened more often when they are sent by pharma reps, rather than sent by pharma officials. It pays big to have reps be acquainted with all aspects of the brand’s marketing strategy to avoid being “caught off guard” when questions arise.
- Keep Up with Digital Change
There are very few surprises when it comes to traditional marketing channels like radio ads and TV commercials. However, this is hardly the case with digital marketing, where it can take just a couple of months for pharma brands to lose touch and fall out of date with current digital marketing trends.
Brands must realize that the only way to stay up to date with changes is to adapt and change. The ability to track data and learn from it is crucial. Who is visiting your website? Are there enough physicians visiting? Can patients find the information they are searching for when they send your brand a message on social media? As times change, you must learn from data and adapt your multi-channel marketing strategies accordingly.
Successful pharma marketing requires diligence, tracking, adaptation, and a never-ending drive to ultimately provide solutions that physicians, patients, and other stakeholders are needing.
Keep up to date with the latest trends in pharma marketing by attending our upcoming digital pharma summit. Reserve your spot today; seating is limited!
