Engaging with health providers has been a notoriously difficult task. As mentioned in our previous blog, Covid-19’s impact has transformed the Pharmaceutical marketing landscape. From face-to-face interactions to fully digital efforts, the key objective is to reimagine how marketers engage with providers.
This means focusing on reliably targeting and connecting with the right HCPs and providing informative and relevant content. Creating the best plan for your long-term success begins with developing the right strategy. In this post, we will explore some of the ways to engage with providers to help you do so.
Maximize Engagement with Distinct Media Preferences
To reach healthcare providers where they are and engage them digitally, pharma companies need to create digital experiences that empower them. But how can pharmaceutical companies best reach and engage HCPs? The answer lies in understanding providers’ media preferences. By understanding where HCPs spend most of their time, pharma companies can develop a compelling marketing mix to engage providers effectively.
HCPs are using social media for professional purposes more than ever. Studies have shown that providers are using social media for open conversations about clinical trial results, the latest treatment options, public health, and patient care. With providers now open to professional and product messages on social media channels, making the most out of multiple channels will help reinforce your messaging and encourage more engagement.
Most HCPs use social media as a place to create communities with their peers on platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Pharma marketers can deliver credible, concise, and educational content including infographics, charts, and short messages with visuals via social channels to best reach providers. Making the most out of these channels is essential when effectively engaging with providers
Make the Most out of Email Marketing
Email is the number one preferred marketing tool by HCPs. According to HealthLink Annual Report results, HCPs prefer to be reached via email for industry-related interactions. As HCPs have a greater demand for educational resources, it’s crucial for pharmaceutical companies to provide them with valuable materials. With this in mind, pharma marketers must implement the following three steps when creating an email for maximum engagement:
- Think creatively. Focusing on visual design will help reinforce brand recognition and increase the visual appeal of the message. This will encourage healthcare professionals to take action.
- Focus on responsive design. Take into account where HCPs view emails. For the most part, this includes mobile devices. If there is an extended load this may lead to decreased response rates negatively impacting your message.
- Customize your content. HCPs are not one generic audience. Promoting irrelevant content to HCPs negatively impacts any potential revenue and decrease brand trust. Personalized subject lines yield higher open rates resulting and personalized messages yield increased engagement.
Focus on Niche Content
Physicians are most likely to engage with condition-specific or disease-state content and value information from trusted medical and regulatory resources. In addition, HCPs have been shown to value content that helps them better serve their patients. However, in a report conducted by Accenture, 64% of HCPs said they’re getting too much digital content, and 65% say digital marketers spam them. How can marketers avoid poorly programmed campaigns, irrelevant content, and spam-like behavior? Simple, build trust with personalized content.
As providers increase expectations, pharma companies are venturing out to gain time, trust, and influence with HCPs and their patients. Niche content can be packaged as blog posts, e-books, Infographics webinars, white papers, podcasts, case studies, videos, and more. And include medical education, patient education, and disease state information. Making sure you have specific content that delivers value is key to improved engagement.
Engagement & Retention
The number of information physicians have to keep up with combined with the time constraints they face throughout the workday has a significant impact. Digital marketing allows pharmaceutical companies to reach physicians where they spend most of their time – online. However, an online presence is not enough to guarantee engagement and retention.
- Reading has a 10% retention at 2 weeks
- Hearing words has a 20% retention at 2 weeks
- Looking at pictures has a 30% retention at 2 weeks
- Watching a movie/demo has a 50% retention at two weeks
- Short-form videos are over 8x more efficient than long videos.
Regarding engagement and retention, pharmaceutical digital marketing is most effective when it uses short-form videos. Learn more about short-form video in one of our previous blog posts. Short-form videos are more efficient at engaging and retaining an audience than long videos. So, if you want to ensure that your target audience sees and remembers your message, focus on creating short, value-driven, and engaging videos.
Key Takeaways
By now you should have a better understanding of some of the key tenets of engaging providers intelligently. Whether through maximizing engagement with distinct media preferences or making the most out of email marketing’s popularity, focusing on delivering niche content, or making sure to explore the best avenue for provider engagement & retention. HCPs want value and for maximized engagement, pharma companies must cater to the increased demand for content that matters. In the final part of this Pharma B2B Marketing series, we will explore why influencer marketing works in Pharma B2B digital marketing.