MM+M’s 2024 Healthcare Marketers Trend Report reveals that AI and tech are top of mind for healthcare marketers. In this recent #TrendTalks session titled “The Ideal Customer Experience Across the Healthcare Journey,” sponsored by Swoop, a leader in precision healthcare targeting and engagement, a panel of industry experts discussed how they are using technology to drive bottom-of-funnel engagement, help patients get answers to their care needs and make the most of their marketing dollars through valuable conversation analytics.
When it comes to channel usage, The Healthcare Marketers Trend Survey results show that newer tactics, such as non-linear video and streaming audio, are growing faster than more traditional channels. Video and non-linear TV usage nearly doubled year over year, reaching 53.4% in 2023 versus 36.3% the previous year and streaming audio’s usage grew by more than a third, reaching 37.6% last year compared to 27.4% in 2022.
Peter Kane, VP of marketing, Swoop, explained that these targeted channels are allowing marketers to reach patients and physicians at critical junctures in the diagnosis and treatment journey. Panelists cited examples of how they are using data to target patients at opportune moments and personalize messaging to specific audiences.
For instance, Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) is investing in ways to identify friction points that may be opportunities to drive engagement. “We’ve focused our time and budgets on the places we think media will be most impactful,” said Bill Veltre, (formerly) director, digital engagement and channel planning (patient), BMS. “We’ve spent a lot of time doing tests against different data partners to see who’s generating the most engagement, the most conversion and also who has the best quality data so we can build on that platform.”
Data offers insights into key audiences
BMS works with data partners to define and measure “opportunistic audiences,” meaning, not patients already being treated, but those about to be treated. “We’re driving modeling to be as close to diagnosis and treatment as possible, then differentiating the messaging based on specific subsets,” said Veltre.
Veltre said his team at BMS is also looking at how marketing can harness extensive HCP segmentation and value-scores data developed by the sales team to “build a better understanding of patient flow data to physicians who are high value.”
The team looks at touchpoint data (HCPs’ prescription-writing habits or loyalty to competitive brands) from many sources, such as direct APIs from partners and data collected through agencies. This is treated as one holistic data set to pinpoint correlations and determine which next action or piece of content is most appropriate to serve. “It’s very situational, but the leaners are the ones that we’re trying to touch,” said Veltre.
Increased audience segmentation can be valuable even in the arena of rare diseases. For example, approximately 30-33,000 people are living with Hemophilia A in the U.S. Patients with Hemophilia A are usually diagnosed very early in life and require lifelong treatment, the administration of which ranges from every other day, to once or twice a month, so the barriers to changing treatment are relatively high. “There have to be pretty significant drivers for patients to want to change a treatment they know so well and rely so closely on,” explained David Murawski, director, digital strategy and operations, Bayer. “Even for this relatively small patient cohort,” he continued, “we are always analyzing prior and evolving engagement data to identify patients who may be better suited to some products versus others, as well as to predict which patients are more likely to be considering a treatment switch for various reasons.”
Marketers are also attempting to reach undiagnosed patients to capitalize on the white space before diagnosis or to identify potential non-adherence junctures in treatment. “Reaching someone pre-diagnosis is critical for what we’re doing,” said Jared Shechtman, marketing leader, Eisai. “We’re approaching the total patient journey, plus caregivers, physicians and pre-diagnosis testing as well to understand how we can get to patient prediction models.”
Increased personalization of websites
Brand.com websites remain one of the most commonly employed endpoints of marketing, with websites/microsites included in 70% of HCP and DTC marketing plans last year. Panelists discussed how they are balancing the cost of enhancing websites with the need to provide a traditional service-oriented value exchange through those platforms.
“It’s our job to keep them engaged and we don’t do enough of that. We have to make an investment in that person that expressed interest and take it to the next level,” added Elaine Gamble, former director, digital and omnichannel strategy, Otsuka Pharmaceutical Companies.
An effective website, said Rusty Rahmer, U.S. head of marketing operations, customer experience and digital innovation solutions, GSK, can serve as “the hub to get people to the right value exchange. Knowing the intent of anonymous traffic and getting them on the right path to exchange that value is a huge service.”
Exeltis USA is positioning its website as a hub for patients. “We are consistently looking for ways of enhancing SEO and improving the overall website experience,” said Randi Rievman, VP, marketing and strategic communications, Exeltis USA.
Because Exeltis’ Slynd, a progestin-only birth control pill, has focused on including more high BMI women in its studies, Rievman wants to make sure the brand is reaching that critical audience. “We’re trying to create a very personalized experience on our website with curated content that is appropriate to high BMI women, so they are seeing women who look like them and content that is relevant to them,” she said.
The challenges and costs associated with building a personalized website component, proving it can work, then translating it to other brands and across global markets can be daunting. “It takes a lot of money and a lot of time and effort to put that content up because of the approval process, so keeping it fresh is very difficult,” added Veltre.
Julia Helms, former associate director, omnichannel strategy, BMS, described her frustration with trying to work within the framework of an HCP oncology website that could not have a search box or AI-driven chat functionality due to strict internal regulations and data privacy concerns. However, this trend is already changing. In a recent survey conducted by Swoop and MM+M, 33% of pharma marketers said they were exploring adding a virtual agent to a branded webpage, marking a potential shift in conversational AI’s adoption.
The internal content review process has been a roadblock for Jen Yip, associate director, digital trials and patient engagement, Novartis. “Brand teams can only get out exactly what they’ve done before by relabeling it, otherwise they don’t stand a chance,” she said.
Panelists also discussed metrics they use to measure website success and how they are using data outputs from campaigns and web engagement to inform future strategy. “We look at return on engagement, how it led to another engagement and what the interdependencies across touchpoints in digital and omnichannel resulted in,” said Gamble.
Rahmer takes a matrixed approach that tracks the payoff achieved from the website and the reps and pinpoints the overlap. “Based on predictive analysis, we can optimize the journey over and over again and personalize it,” he said. “Someday in the future, you can imagine subdividing that journey into specific outcomes, but in the meantime, we can put them on the evidence journey.”
New technologies gain favor
The Healthcare Marketers Trend Report also found that while only a small percentage of respondents (18.7%) had dedicated a budget for virtual agents, there is growing interest in using IVAs. Shechtman said that Eisai was in the process of exploring the technology.
Rievman started a hotline staffed by nurses to provide a “warm listening ear” to respond to consumer and HCP questions. “We’ve learned that the initial hormonal adjustment period isn’t being emphasized enough with patients by their providers,” she said.
Rahmer credited virtual reps with uncovering potential subscribers and service issues that would never have been discovered through the sales channel. One was a physician who had a new patient using a drug that an HCP needed information about; another was an HCP who was looking for a just-in-time delivery situation for an expensive injectable. “You never get that through the sales channel. This is human interaction through digital channels,” he said. Likewise, using data from virtual agent technology, such as conversational AI, can be an invaluable source of first-party data which captures the true voice of the customer in real time; this can be utilized to inform future marketing strategies with messages more likely to resonate.
