MarketFlash

Choosing a Best-in-Class Digital Marketing Partner: What You Need to Know

The environment of pharmaceutical marketing is rapidly evolving. Increasingly, some 175 million US healthcare consumers are turning to the internet to manage their personal health.¹ Even physicians are using digital media to access electronic health records (EHRs), ePrescribing solutions and mobile reference tools at the point-of-care (POC).

With more digital marketing tools exploding onto the scene, physicians feel they spend more time than they’d like searching for the information they need, when they need it. More than ever, pharma’s need to partner with an digital marketer who knows how to harness the right balance of multichannel, online tools in a way that maximizes profit and targets specific physicians needs without overwhelming them.

But What Makes an Effective Digital Marketer?

Lead Management:
Building a Well-Established Physician Database

Having a well-established physician database that is actively built and maintained should remain the heart of a digital marketing business. The most valuable databases are built upon loyalty and trust in the delivery of consistently relevant information.

Physicians want to receive valuable, useful information from a source they know is reliable, in a manner that doesn’t disrupt their workflow.

• 12% of specialists and 14% of PCPs in a June 2010 survey anticipated spending even less time with pharmaceutical reps in the coming months, due to increasing time restraints.⁶
• Academic medical centers are establishing policies that limit their interaction with pharmaceutical rep-delivered samples.²

Optimized, organized tactics are crucial when it comes to cutting through the online clutter that may drive HCPs away. The right timing and frequency in respect to your target’s habits is crucial to a successful marketing strategy. “Timing triggers” track, measure and analyze shifts between touch points on an ongoing basis. Proven monitoring methods enhance the ability to make changes and optimize results.

Content Strategy:
Optimized Digital Marketing

With emerging technologies and online marketing vehicles, pharmaceutical brand marketers can now reach physicians and consumers in more targeted ways.

While each pharmaceutical brand presents its own challenges and opportunities, a product-based marketing strategy isn’t enough. Digital marketers need to consider the behaviors of different specialties to create a customized, integrated package in order to respond to how and why individual clinicians access the internet.

For example, psychiatrists are more likely to be involved in social media, while nearly 75-80% of surgeons are more likely to watch video procedures online. PCPs are interested in accessing relevant information to educate their patients at the POC, while oncologists are more likely to take advantage of cutting-edge technology.⁵

Analytics and Metrics:
What Defines and Drives Success?

A leading digital marketing partner doesn’t measure success merely on completions, but looks to track and measure results based on every component of the “touch”, from open rates to click-throughs.

Mobile and digital marketing initiatives allow for a continuous tracking of consumer interactions with pharma brands. Consistent messaging, extended interactions and tangible metrics make it clear which channels resonate best with which target audience. Well-established physician relationships, in conjunction, provide a seamless connection between online and offline activities, and keep pharma brands at the forefront of physicians’ attention.⁴

For more information please contact us at 800-794-6757 or info@physiciansinteractive.com.

1. Medical Marketing & Media, Pharma Poised to Up Online Ad Spend, April 2011.
2. Pharma Marketing Blog, New Big Pharma Economies of Scale: Less Patients Needed to Reach Blockbuster Sales, August 2011
3. eMarketer.com, DTC Pharmaceutical Marketing Online: A Slow Shift to Digital, August 2010
4. PM 360,CRM Insights: Burnish Your Brand”, September 2011
5. PM 360, Turning Competitive Intelligence into a Winning Strategy, September 2011
6. Fierce Healthcare, Study on Physicians Consulting Network Includes Two-year Trends for Specialists, PCPs, July 2010