Part three
A short introduction to multichannel marketing in pharma
The benefits of multichannel for pharma and medtech
How multichannel helps pharma and medtech achieve marketing objectives
As we explored in the previous article, there are multiple benefits of multichannel for healthcare professionals (HCPs) – increased relevance, more flexible content delivery, better customer experiences etc. These clearly benefit the industry as well, but there are also unique multichannel advantages for pharma and medtech companies.
Summary:
- Continually improve marketing ROI by using multichannel data to adapt and refine your content and channel selection
- Empower customer teams to respond faster to HCPs and curate high value experiences
- Carefully select channels to match your market segmentation: providing the right experience for the right audience
Ready to start a multichannel project?
Check out Agnitio’s ‘multichannel kickstarter’ which gets you up and running in a simple, structured, and cost-effective way.
Increase marketing ROI
The desire to know what’s working in marketing is nothing new. A famous, often repeated, quote by the department store pioneer John Wanamaker sets out the problem: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half.”
Thankfully, things have changed.
A modern data-driven multichannel strategy allows you to measure the ROI of your marketing materials. Connecting channels not only connects your content, it also connects data streams. You can see what’s working and what’s not. And you can track how people use these channels in a very detailed way – seeing where they go, what times they visit, what parts of the content they look at most, what actions are prompted, and where they go next.
This data drives your marketing return on investment. It enables you to act. Because the data is continually being generated, you can make changes in an iterative way and quickly see results. It used to take a long time to get market feedback, now it happens almost immediately.
That means that you can see which content elements and channels are not performing and fix the problem early. The data that a multichannel approach provides drives a process of continual improvement – and therefore continual improvements of ROI on your marketing spend.
Empower reps
At Agnitio, we believe that multichannel isn’t just for marketing managers – it also empowers customer teams. Reps and MSLs can use these tools to curate individual experiences for their contacts and thereby deliver high levels of valuable service.
Powerful multichannel CLM software, like our Rainmaker solution, provides customer teams with many options to design connected experiences for their HCPs. Physical meetings, for example, can be supplemented with online ‘remote’ contacts and other forms of virtual engagement. And they can also enable HCPs to access other channels with on-demand content – often personalized to each contact’s specific needs. This makes it possible for reps to alternate between face-to-face meetings and purely digital communication to follow-up or speedily respond to requests for information.
Importantly, these tools not only provide more options for customer teams, they also enable them to work in new ways. As we discussed in the first article, a multichannel approach requires connecting and sequencing channels to deliver an experience for HCPs. With the right software and content, reps and MSLs can now both provide these experiences and tailor them to specific market segments or even individual HCP requirements.
For example: following an in-person e-detailing presentation, the rep could provide online material that answers an HCPs questions or concerns. This can then be followed by a remote meeting, which is followed by a video presentation. All this content prepares the HCP for a physical or online conference, later in the year.
What this means is that marketing and sales teams can now empower reps to use a multichannel approach to both respond to individual HCP needs and also work systematically and strategically – delivering a high value experience that unfolds over time.
Match your market segmentation
Many companies are taking a more segmented approach to their go-to-market strategy. A multichannel strategy can enable this by delivering different kinds of customer experience, depending on how you have decided to do your market segmentation.
In a key account strategy, for example, field forces are focusing on high-priority customers. In these cases, reps would want to emphasize direct contact with HCPs and demonstrate lots of personal service.
To achieve this, high value ‘one-to-one’ channels would likely be deployed with these priority targets. The channel combination would therefore include more in-person meetings and one-to-one remote sessions – supplemented with on-demand information, depending on your specific strategy and individual customer preferences.
For lower-potential accounts, more self-guided and on-demand channels can be used. This will maintain your marketing reach and may even expand it, as the widespread use of technology reduces the cost per contact.
However you choose to do your market segmentation, you can find a multichannel strategy that enables it. By selecting the right channels – and considering how they are connected to deliver the right kinds of experience – you focus your resources where they are most effective.
Thanks for reading
We hope this article was useful. The intention was to provide the foundations for you to explore multichannel technology further. You can find the other articles in the series here:
- Understanding multichannel marketing
- The benefits of multichannel for healthcare professionals
- The benefits of multichannel for pharma and medtech – and how it helps you achieve your marketing objectives
If you’re looking for support to explore how to take the first steps, deploying two or three channels and connecting them together. Or you want to know how mulitichannel CLM works in practice, do get in touch. We can either point you in the right direction or schedule a call to discuss your options. Just send us an email with any questions or comments.
What’s next?
Learn about e-detailing
It’s often central to any multichannel approach in pharma. This ebook gets you started.
Explore remote engagement
Learn the unique benefits of remote HCP engagement and how it can be used in your multichannel strategy.
See our multichannel solution
Discover how Rainmaker Multichannel works and how it can help kickstart or advance your multichannel journey.