Healthcare marketers have long been limited to vague approaches to targeting and targeting healthcare provider (HCP) and consumer (DTC) audiences — a practice that leads to wasted budget, fragmented messaging, and sub-optimal scenarios. Marketers are increasingly turning to ML/AI and real-world data to connect HCP and DTC interventions, target specific patient and related HCP audiences, increase engagement and improve outcomes.
In this Swoop-sponsored TrendTalks session, Breaking the Silos: Integrating HCP and DTC Marketing to Improve Results, attendees shared how they are using the new tactics to engage DTC and HCP audiences. Moderator Tim Callahan, VP of Sales at Swoop, explained that marketers not only build custom audiences, but also leverage patient and healthcare professional audiences to coordinate actions.
Panelists agreed that the increasing overlap between healthcare professionals and patient audiences creates new opportunities for these audiences to discover similarities in content, channels and messages. “Physicians and patients share many of the same environments,” says Jennifer Ryan, director of microbiome and patient marketing at Ferring Pharmaceuticals. "They spend as much time on Facebook as they do reading the New England Journal of Medicine ." High-performance computers are digital citizens, used to rapidly scrolling through headlines and interacting with media in five seconds. In such cases, "they are just consumers," he said.
This new perspective is prompting pharmaceutical marketers to take a more consumer-centric approach when working with healthcare professionals. Lynn Miller, Director of Customer Experience and Business Acceleration at Organon, as he rolled out peer-to-peer social programs with key online healthcare influencers across multiple social platforms, recognized that the message for certain conditions and brands could also affect patients or Healthcare consumers reached . . “We've found that many patients follow their doctors on Twitter or TikTok, which opens up tremendous opportunities for women's health. There's already a lot of organic conversations on TikTok," he said.
Amy McCann, former HCP customer marketing and experience director at Sunovion, used HCP targeting capabilities to create HCP-like audiences. "Attributes can help you find potential and valuable new hires," he said. “You use a known HCP audience to expand your audience to HCPs who might not otherwise get your messages.” Similarly, ML/AI and data can be used to refine target lists and reach high-priority medical workers . Examples include identifying healthcare professionals with strong social and managerial influence, and identifying primary care physicians and general practitioners who act as specialists but are less likely to appear on specialist lists.
McCann also had great success working with a vendor that focused solely on geo-messaging for healthcare providers. “When access messages are delivered to a target HCP, patients at that geolocation can receive messages about the treatment they can request from their doctors. On the other hand, the healthcare provider may receive special messages about his patient's insurance for that product. They are known for delivering exceptional returns. Indeed, Swoop has repeatedly seen campaigns delivering highly relevant, coordinated messages at the point of service, resulting in a significant increase in customer scenarios.
Participants agreed that the most successful strategies involve a combination of multiple channels. "Getting the mix of channels right is critical," said Laurie Holland-Hancock, Group Director of Channel Strategy and Engagement at Merck. "When you start harnessing the power of omnichannel and other possibilities, your marketing strategies are no longer one or the other, but how they work together."
Improved access to data allows marketers to better understand their audience's needs, allowing them to make more media strategy decisions in-house. Panelists agreed that agencies can be good partners, but Joyce Ercolino, chief digital officer at Harmony Biosciences, reminded the audience that they "need to constantly coordinate and communicate with each other."
It is important to convey key messages. "It's great to have collaborative partners, but ultimately the multi-channel team needs to be expert-focused," McCann said.
While panelists agreed that the goal is to provide a more personalized customer experience, they still struggle with sharing barriers. "Why can't sales reps and doctors share more information?" asked Sohni Daley, Director of Omnichannel Operations at Bristol Myers Squibb. "We have to start rethinking the old rules and pushing the boundaries a bit."
As the details of HCP evolve, brands are finding ways to get more bang for their buck by using marketing to shape their sales stories. Miller noted that while healthcare workers don't want to lose ties with their representatives, they're not always interested in talking unless there's something new to share, so we need to help find unique (and relevant) avenues to exchange information. In front of them.
While new technology can help salespeople find ways to maintain these important relationships with healthcare professionals in a post-Covid environment, participants said that retaining the support of salespeople is crucial. They discussed the challenges they face when working with digital tools and in sales. To increase your return on investment. .
Daly noted that "change management is forcing salespeople to use digital communications to improve in-person interactions and understand how it can help them get down to earth," participants said it was not always easy not to let go of the old school. an approach. complete.
Using real-world data as a trigger for endpoint diagnostics can generate personalized insights that sales reps and other engagement professionals, such as B. representatives of medical science can help to use their time more efficiently. find the most useful. "Our group has allocated a significant budget to a project focused on segmenting the behavior of healthcare workers," said Jan Yip, co-director of digital studies and patient engagement at Novartis. But in addition to creating this data, organizations must go through and create a full cycle of training and processes to ensure the data is being used properly. Otherwise, spending so much money and not having better data can be frustrating.
The most successful change management starts at the top. Ultimately, "you need consistent leadership at the highest level or it doesn't work," says Amy Turnquist, director of life sciences at North Highlands.
