Effective Multi-Channel Pharma Marketing Strategies

Today in the pharma marketing world you can hear the term “multi-channel marketing” uttered frequently from one circle to the next. As the potential for this marketing strategy grows, more companies are choosing to use it – and for good reason. There are many different considerations when building your multi-channel marketing strategy to ensure that you are getting the most out of it.

Your first question might be: What are the benefits of using multi-channel marketing?

One of the most difficult aspects of pharma marketing is finding a method to effectively get key information out to physicians and patients about the brand and/or product you represent. Using multi-channel marketing allows you to reach your target audience in ways that are beneficial to you and HCPs and patients, including:

•   Allowing customers to have mobile-first viewpoints

This is huge. Many Internet searches today are done on mobile devices, so using more than one channel to deliver information grants potential customers convenience and flexibility in regard to how and when they view your information.

•         Allowing your company to gain customer data from an array of devices and delivery methods

With so many people using different sources to get their information, it is important to take as much data into consideration as possible to strengthen your marketing strategy. Keeping track of which channels are most successful in reaching HCPs and patients can help you focus on those to get the most bang for your marketing buck.

•         Moving companies away from email and towards different effective forms of passing along information

Although emails have been the main source of sharing information for quite some time for the pharma industry, looking past emails and towards other channels for information will help your brand keep up with competitors, expanding your reach through video marketing, social media, and more.

Tips for Creating Multi-Channel Marketing Strategies

Although multi-channel marketing can strengthen your brand and deliver the information needed to patients and physicians, just creating a strategy isn’t quite enough. It’s important to take the appropriate steps to ensure effective, powerful, profitable campaigns.

Following are tips for you to bear in mind to ensure that your brand reaches and converts as many viewers as possible:

Determine Your Target Audience

Knowing who exactly you want to focus on to give you information is the foundation for a successful multi-channel marketing strategy. Are you targeting physicians or patients, or both? How about other HCPs? There is no limit for how many different types of audiences you can target, but keep in mind that you must have the logistics to cover every target audience’s journey.

After deciding on who your target audience is, you can start to outline the information you have to provide to “hook” your audience. This means taking into consideration and using factors that influence the different audiences at hand, such as their geographic locations, cultures, device preferences, etc.

Stay Up to Date

Keep in mind the fact that the digital world advances and changes very quickly, especially regarding marketing. While print ads and TV ads have hardly changed in the last few years, digital marketing is quite the opposite; to meet the rapidly changing demands of HCPs and patients, marketers need to stay knowledgeable about the latest marketing trends in their industry to remain competitive.

One of the biggest advantages of using digital methods for marketing is that you’re able to gain and use data almost instantly. The data you collect can let you know how your patients feel about your information on your website, if physicians are actively engaging with your brand, and more. With these things in mind, you can make the appropriate changes to your marketing strategy.

Ensure All Channels are Integrated

It’s crucial for your selection of channels to work well with each other. It was discovered that social media, with the exception of DTC advertising, is not a popular choice for the pharma market. Finding channels that work for your company and work well together means having one channel lead viewers and visitors to one of your other channels – for example, by providing a link in emails that lead the reader to subscribe to a newsletter, then having the newsletter lead them to your website via a link.

Focus on the Patient

Patient centricity is becoming an influential concept in pharma, and it is crucial to keep this in mind. There are just as many patients seeking information from pharma brands as physicians, and they are equally important when considering your multi-channel marketing strategy. The idea here with patient centricity is to ensure that your main goal – your ultimate measure of success – is to benefit the patient.

Measure Your Multi-Channel Pharma Marketing Success

Keeping track of how well your multi-channel marketing is performing is absolutely necessary; the best way to do this is to use key performance indicators (KPIs), which track numbers and variables over time, presenting valuable, actionable data that reveals your channels’ successes and weaknesses. This ultimately will allow you to see what needs adjusting and what can be fine-tuned for better results.

Reach

You will need to track your reach, which is basically where you stand in average organic positioning inside of search results. This includes email as well, looking at click-through rates, open rates, and more.

Acquisition

In addition, you will want to look at your acquisition, which describes how many viewers/readers/visitors are interacting with your content. This includes bounce rates for your main page, along with metrics cost per visit.

Conversion

Conversion is one of the most valuable performance indicators. Conversion keeps track of data points like cost per visit, cost per conversation, and cost per visitor. You need to see how many visitors are “converting” to actual customers. The bottom line is that no matter how much traffic your content gets, however many subscribers or landing pages you are getting, if visitors aren’t buying in, they don’t mean much for your brand.

Start Small with Multi-Channel Marketing

Although eager to jump right in with giant multi-channel journeys, pharma companies just beginning should begin small in order to “test the waters” so to speak and see how their first strategy plan goes. As they see how their multi-channel strategy works, they can make adjustments as they see fit and improve their model before launching more expansive, expensive, larger campaigns and strategies.

Creating a multi-channel marketing strategy can be difficult, but it doesn’t have to be. Attending pharma marketing events can give you more insight into multi-channel marketing strategies and what they can do for your brand. Spots usually fill up quickly, so be sure to plan to attend well in advance to hone your skills in pharma marketing.