2023: The Year of OCE — Crucial for Pharma’s Success
2023: The Year of OCE—Crucial for Pharma’s Success
HCP satisfaction with biopharma digital offerings is slowly increasing. That’s the good news.
The bad news? More than half of HCPs remain dissatisfied or neutral with pharma’s digital offerings. A recent Across Health survey found a strong pandemic-related increase in satisfaction in 2020, followed by a much smaller increase in the years after. Currently, more than 50% of HCPs remain dissatisfied or neutral with biopharma’s digital efforts and continue to want more innovative tactics.
There is room for improvement. Omnichannel engagement (OCE) can help.
Why OCE? Launching new drugs is more challenging
Launches are harder now, due in part to changes in our economy and major shifts in access and reimbursement. When you factor in data in graph above, it’s no wonder the first 12 months of a launch are increasingly more challenging.
Pharma needs to think radically differently, engaging with audiences quicker with the content they desire. Brands must strike the right balance between telling the story they want to tell with the story their audiences want to hear. Leveraging OCE helps create personalized experiences for audiences and allows for data collection across preferred channels, with the goal of continually optimizing and learning.
Building a data-driven framework
For pharma to succeed, it is key to have a sophisticated understanding of the customer journey and reliable data to discern which tactics to deploy. There must be coordination that strategically moves HCPs down marketing funnels, meets HCPs where they are, and evolves as HCPs progress to the next phase. Integrate the reps into this journey and suddenly old multichannel programs with lots of tactics in circulation are replaced by a focused, connected ecosystem. The intent is for HCPs to have unique experiences with varied content across preferred channels.
It begins with thinking through behavior and understanding what triggers lead to action. That action could be big (e.g., attending a webinar) or small (opening a disease-focused email), but it sets in motion a newfound, tailored experience. Activity on a website (e.g., data download) indicates a desire to learn more, which prompts an invite to a scheduled event from a rep focused on that action. The goal is a seamless experience that feels unique to the individual. Depending on what you understand from this HCP’s engagement, each message is personalized to ensure they continually move through the funnel—from “awareness” to “consideration” to “conversion” and “loyalty.”
OCE Building Blocks
Creating an OCE framework requires answering questions to create building blocks, which are:
- Strategy and segmentation
The goal is to develop differentiated positioning and personalized messaging for each segment. How are we defining/prioritizing target segments? What should behavioral goals be in each segment? What is the journey we want people to take?
- Modular content
Modular content gives marketers the opportunity to make decisions and optimize tactics to audiences based on what they are looking for at a moment in time. At what points do we engage target segments? What behavior triggers action? What content is then offered? - Channel selection
The idea is to meet people where they are. Where do we target them? Do we know their preferences? What is the right mix to get them and keep them on their journey?
- Marketing technology
Sales and marketing teams must be in close contact and up to date on audience preferences to convert users into customers. Bridging gaps involves investing time and money in technology (tools or systems) to successfully move to an OCE approach where data gets shared, creating a seamless experience.
Benefits of reaching HCPs more effectively and authentically through OCE
- Increased personalization
You cannot build an orchestrated suite of marketing tactics without understanding what motivates your audience, what information they need, what channels they prefer, and when they are the most receptive to seeing tailored messages. Additionally, these tactics create data, which inform the future as well as the present.
This research can be resource-intensive, but brands that do so can better tailor tactics to each audience. This creates a greater customer experience and builds goodwill that creates long-term brand loyalty and engagement.
- Greater efficiency and return on investment
Blasting one message across all channels requires fewer resources, but it leads to wasted time and budget—and alienates HCPs. Without segmentation and tactic orchestration, it’s difficult to discern which specific channels or messaging generate meaningful results. Many teams can find themselves continuing to invest in media that don’t serve them or restructuring campaigns when a fine-tuning is all that is needed.
- Real-time measurement and optimization
When each tactic is aligned with a specific key performance indicator, marketers quickly see which tactics work and which fall short. If paid media fails to deliver on lead generation, teams can swiftly pivot to new messaging or tactics. This ability to quickly shift allows real-time adjustments that keep campaigns moving towards desired end goals.
It’s OCE’s time
Building better HCP experiences is about creating authenticity and sharing, so we make connections between HCPs and brands that are more informed, authentic, and helpful to them and their patients. With an OCE approach, the industry can finally meet customers halfway and reduce the digital divide between pharma and HCPs.
John Fitzpatrick is senior vice president, omnichannel engagement, at PRECISIONeffect. |