In pharma marketing, omnichannel refers to the integrated and seamless coordination of engagement across various communication channels, both online and offline, to cater to the preferences and behaviours of healthcare professionals (HCPs) and, by extension, patients. This approach aims to provide a consistent and personalised experience, regardless of the channel used for interaction.
Key aspects of omnichannel in pharma marketing, drawing from the sources, include:
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Seamless Integration of Online and Offline Interactions:
- Biopharma companies are facing a new reality where they need to evolve their customer engagement models, moving away from a historical reliance on in-person engagement.
- This involves radically accelerating virtual engagement with MDs while integrating online and offline journeys in preparation for less in-person contact in the future.
- The aim is to ensure that communications seamlessly straddle offline and online experiences, even though this can be challenging due to the need for collaboration across different organisational areas.
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Personalised Customer Engagement:
- Personalised customer engagement is becoming a key driver of success.
- This means leveraging analytics and data to understand the right content, right channel, and right timing of delivery to optimise outreach and engagement.
- Marketers need to invest in customer data and analytics foundations, including systems to pool and analyse data, algorithms to identify behaviour patterns, and analytical capabilities.
- The goal is to respond quickly to customer signals with relevant "trigger" messages, which can be tailored combinations of images, copy, titles, or offers.
- An example of successful personalisation in a retail context (Sephora) demonstrates a truly omnichannel experience, linking online and in-store interactions, such as booking in-store makeovers via a mobile app and logging product use into customer profiles. This concept of connecting physical and digital experiences is also relevant for pharma.
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Responding to Changing Preferences:
- Doctors anticipate long-term changes in how they interact with biopharma companies, with over 75% stating they want to maintain or increase virtual contact, even if a vaccine is broadly available.
- The perceived effectiveness of virtual engagement has dramatically increased, with four out of five of the most effective engagement channels now being virtual.
- However, the preferred ways to engage vary across specialties and geographic areas, and even at a doctor-by-doctor level. An omnichannel strategy allows for this variability.
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Technology and Data as Enablers:
- Digital and other technologies, including virtual call technologies, webinars, and HCP support platforms, are key to enabling accelerated virtual engagement.
- Leveraging analytics and data to understand physician preferences for topics, channels, and content is critical.
- To scale personalisation (and thus omnichannel), data needs to be centralised and made available so that activity in one channel can immediately support engagement in another, ideally in real-time. Integrated channels are necessary to coordinate communications and react to customer actions effectively.
In essence, omnichannel pharma marketing means moving beyond isolated interactions to create a cohesive and adaptive engagement ecosystem where every touchpoint, whether a virtual training session, an in-person visit, an email, or a digital tool, contributes to a continuous and personalised relationship with HCPs.