James Woodland, COO, CMI/Compas
This is a much more complicated question than it seems and is at the core of why non-personal planning plays such a strategic and integral role in audience engagement — particularly in pharma. Audiences, messages, and media and promotional channels are fluid and may need to shift based on response, which applies not only to engagement data but also prescription and survey data. We preach the importance of multi-channel campaigns that are strategically built to serve the target audience. Equally important is to execute non-personal promotion programs in an agile fashion. This means knowing what types of communication and engagement you are having with each physician customer, and then adapting your approach based on their measured change in behavior. We live in a customer-centric world now and must design, execute, and measure NPP investments in the most personal, responsive ways possible.
David Reim, chief product officer, DMD
In the short run, the answer is email. It is highly targeted and if you use an authenticated list, the delivery rates are great and the channel is cost effective. Now pharma just has to start writing emails that don’t suck — we have the data that shows what happens with good content. The emerging opportunity is in identity-based digital marketing. This is where you know the identity of your online visitor without requiring them to log in to your website. We see clients using this for identity-driven content, event-triggered email, location-based content, accountable media, and many other applications. Identity-based marketing enables the brand to use the best parts of in-person sales within the NPP channel.
Anthony Manson, chief digital officer, MDalert.com
There will be no single type of non-personal promotion but rather an optimal mix of channels and strategies to effectively engage hard-to-reach physicians and influence their prescribing behavior. We have to look at building a “brand dialogue” with each individual physician or segment. Physicians want to learn about pharmaceutical products but want it to be relevant and timely. We now have digital marketing technology, which allows us to personalize messages by physician and measure results rapidly. It is not only important to rapidly push information out but also to drive deeper engagement that has more influence. Like our personal relationships, “brand dialogue” can be short and succinct or deeper and highly influential. It is this mix that will drive success in non-personal promotion.
Donald Langsdorf, director, digital solutions and strategy, eHealthcare Solutions
We continue to see healthcare professionals exhibit significant and lasting engagement with brand messaging using custom digital sponsorship program. By continually tracking and measuring behavior as they interact with the content, we have found HCPs tend to be both autodidactic and demonstrably competitive by nature. Programs that succeed will focus on providing timely, relevant, and original content that is both informative and interactive — this strengthens audience engagement and extends exposure to brand messaging. We also integrate custom programs directly with our publisher partners, establishing credibility in context and increasing participation. As brands evolve and adapt their efforts to reach an increasingly elusive professional audience, this form-follows-function approach will continue to be a highly effective means of delivering brand messaging.
From the February 01, 2017 Issue of MM+M - Medical Marketing and Media
