Digital Pharma

Prior to booking an appointment:

• 77% of patients used search

• 83% used hospital websites

• 54% used health insurance company sites

• 50% used health information sites

• 26% used consumer-generated reviews

( Source: Google’s Report on The Digital Journey to Wellness: Hospital Selection )

Digital Marketing should now be part of your overall marketing strategy, no matter which industry you are in. As you might have guessed from above, it is true for Pharma Industry as well. Digital marketing in pharma industry has already picked up and starting to transform the Pharma and Healthcare industry in the ways it has already transformed retail, media, banking, airline, telecom and education industries.

Pharma companies and its executives have realized the potential and the disruption it can bring-in the pharma sector and have already started making use of and experimenting with the wide range of armaments available in Digital Marketing.

Trends that make Digital Marketing Imperative for Pharma Companies

Today’s generation turns to internet and social media for almost everything in their lives, health topics would be no surprise. However, there are certain trends which are acting as driving force to make Digital Marketing for Pharma companies a must-have.

Let’s look at such key trends:

• Patients are becoming more aware, more engaged and have more expectations

Historically, the patients have had a much passive role when it comes to their own health treatments. They would simply go and meet the doctor and rely on the medicines prescribed by her and start the treatment. This is because they have very little to no information about the treatment options, drugs on the market and the experience of other patients.

With digitization, before meeting a doctor, the patient researches everything about the disease – its symptoms, diagnosis, possible cures etc and has already interacted with other patients. Patients are also more and more aware of their rights and have high expectations from the service providers and the product companies alike.

• More information is available about product performance and even the process

Traditionally, pharma companies controlled all the information regarding their products – and they would also control release of this information. They usually used to release this information on need basis (e.g. required by regulators).

The digitization has weakened the control that pharma companies had on information. There is abundance of information available online – people search online for solutions to all of their daily problems. Health problems are no exceptions. Patients share their experiences with drugs, doctors and companies online, which are available for other patients to see. Therefore, in this digital age, patients are increasingly less dependant on their doctors for advices. Instead they rely on plethora of information available online, on mobile apps and they use monitoring devices (e.g. fitbit) and monitoring apps too.

“Two-thirds of people believe they could be making more decisions about personal health and wellness on their own.”

– A survey conducted by Ipsos in collaboration with the National Council on Patient Information and Education and Pfizer, 2015, multivu.com.

This number would only have gone up since 2015. Patients are increasingly turning to internet and social media not for supplemental information to add to what they got from doctors and pharma companies but as first source of information.

• Process efficiency is improving exponentially

Process efficiency is going up across industries with data analytics and automation of complex decisions, in turn improving agility, responsiveness, accuracy and quality of business processes. Pharma industry is no exception, they would also need to apply next-generation technologies to stay in the game.

• Tailored personalized care

With increased expectations from the whole eco-system, users not only want but rightfully expect personalized care. They are able to get personalized solutions – be it grocery shopping, electronics shopping, spa – salons, banking services, online trading services, telecom services, airline companies and a lot more.

Users expect the same from pharma companies as well. “Patient First” has become the war cry for pharma and healthcare companies, in line with Customer First for other traditional sectors.

Pharma companies can provide personalized care through the right usage of digital services, sensors, tech-enabled devices and through processing the data collected by these. This makes a really strong case for digital marketing in pharma industry.

• Multi-channel engagement between patients and doctors

The patients are already starting to use online portals to access their medical records and to interact with their doctors. Patients are starting to use apps to fill forms online and engage with other patients in the online communities.

All of this opens up a whole new set of mediums for pharma and healthcare companies to interact with patients and other users. Using these mediums, the pharma and healthcare companies, through their sales representatives, patient-services teams and other teams, can monitor and influence patients, doctors and other healthcare professionals online through apps, social media, mobile phone messages/notifications and even in person.

Going forward, 24/7 anytime anywhere virtual healthcare is going to become a norm. Leading indicators of such norms can be seen by the developments in the early adopters of technologies.

The US Department of Defense is testing robots to engage and screen soldiers for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) –

“The military is building brain chips to treat PTSD,” Defense One, May 28, 2014, defenseone.com.

United kingdom has ambitious plans to halve the number of outpatient appointments with use of skype consultations. Follow-up advice and prescription would be sent by email.

We believe that these futuristic steps may face some teething problems, but these are definitely the way of times to come.

Image: Digital Marketing in Pharma and Healthcare Sector

• Don’t just provide drugs, provide full service and better sales practices

A pharma or a healthcare company, like any other profit making business, would want their customers to come back to them whenever they need these services. The companies have to go the extra mile and provide full service support – before (decision making process), during and after sale of product/ service. The idea is to engage the customer during the full process and keep her engaged afterwards, like a personalized healthcare solution provider. Digital marketing is poised to play key role in this arena for the pharma and healthcare sector.

• Timely and accurate feedback for R&D

Use of digital technologies provides real-time feedback from the whole value-chain including the end-consumer to pharma and healthcare companies. It cannot be stressed enough, how important is that to their research & development centers. In effect, what I am saying is, digital marketing is going to help pharma companies in their R&D, and in turn will lead to better products and solutions for all of us. Also, it is likely to make the R&D expenditure for the pharma companies much more efficient.

And the seamless information flow will help the supply chain management better as well (remember the beer game?). The pharma companies can better predict demand and supply, security of their drugs and vendor/partner performance.

• Better management of Risk and Compliance functions: Monitor risks and better allocation of resources to manage the same in real-time

The real time feedback from the whole supply chain and end-users, provides the pharma and healthcare companies the capabilities to monitor risks in real time. This in turn enables them to respond in real time by optimizing resource allocation to different activities.

• Tech-enabled Competitors are Marching in

There was a time when information and insights into clinical pathways and patient’s histories were available only in the traditional healthcare establishment – in the paper records of healthcare providers. These used to remain in the clutches of pharma companies.

Today, the big technology giants such as IBM, Apple and many new startups are making in-roads into the healthcare segment. These new players engage with the patient through digital mediums – apps, fitness and health devices, online forums, video channels, live sessions etc.

They continuously collect data from their users, such as health records, drug purchases, health insurance premiums and claims etc. Then they use advanced data analytics to deliver personalized and precise medical assistance.

Pharma companies will have to tackle the competition arising from these new players. They will either have to create these capabilities themselves or collaborate with some of the new players, or think out-of-box to maintain the leadership position.

Thus, both the customers and the healthcare value chain partners as a whole are moving towards digital – finding solutions/ options online, engaging with other patients/ doctors online. The traditional medical seminars, conferences, magazines and meet-up are evolving too with changing times.

Digital marketing is going to provide the edge required to stay ahead in the race, for pharma and healthcare companies.

La start-up axoise Geo Sentinel lance sa montre connectée pour les malades d’Alzheimer

With 2017 almost in the rear-view mirror, it is time to start thinking about how your healthcare marketing strategy will evolve in 2018. It is a wise thing to step back for a moment, analyze the success of last year’s digital marketing campaigns and consider ways to evolve your strategy in the year to come.

Overall, 2017 was a year filled with changes and advancements in the digital marketplace. We saw the growth of ephemeral content on Instagram, innovations in live streaming, Google algorithm updates and an increased focus on unique content marketing. While it is a lot to stay on top of, these advances mean there are still unexplored roads to get inspired to improve your healthcare marketing strategy and engage your patients on a deeper level.

Most marketers prefer to write and publish digital marketing strategy pieces at the beginning of the year when everything is new and fresh, and teams are full of enthusiasm. With just three months left in the year 2017, you need to look for cutting-edge digital marketing strategies that can reinvigorate your brand in the year 2018.

If you want to stay on top of a constantly evolving digital landscape and ensure that you do not fall behind your competition regarding growth and profitability, you need to keep up with a lot of changes. This is one of the many key reasons why healthcare providers choose to work with a digital marketing agency, such as Practice Builders.

Ever wondered what makes a digital marketing agency so effective at coming up with innovative digital marketing ideas? A digital marketing agency can simplify the process of planning and executing the right campaign because it knows which communication channels can be best leveraged by a medical practice.

As you put together plans on where to focus your efforts in 2018, here are 10 digital marketing trends that can take your practice to the next level.

1. Consider Influencer Marketing: The need for influencer marketing is more significant today than it has ever been. Going by the statistics, nearly 71 percent of patients are more likely to book an appointment based on a reference on social networks.
Influencer marketing is all about taking advantage of “word-of-mouth” posts. An influencer is someone who has already gained the attention and loyalty of your target audience. You can ask any celebrity or a popular brand to interact with the target audience and endorse your products and service. Influencer marketing allows you to build instant authority for your brand, even if you are a new entrant in the market. More engaged patients mean more appointments and increased referrals.

2. Create Smart Content: Smart content, also referred to as dynamic content or adaptive content, is the most powerful pillar of your digital marketing campaigns. However, chances are you are not either creating or leveraging smart content as much as you could. As a reminder, dynamic content “talks” to your target audience – as if you know them. The more you know your target audience, the more likely you will convert prospects into patients. For instance, just by building your list of contacts, you can accumulate a significant amount of information in your CRM. Dynamic email can deliver personalized content to your target audience based on the information your system is collecting. While it is possible to do all of this manually, why would you? This is where marketing automation comes into the picture.

3. Focus on Market Automation: The rise of marketing automation platforms has simplified digital marketing tasks for medical practices. This is mainly because practices can now organize repetitive tasks across social networks and emails. This trend is very likely to deliver quick and measurable ROI. In addition, marketing automation platforms are beneficial to marketers in many ways. Firstly, they allow practices to see the relation between lead generation and digital strategies. Secondly, these platforms come with trigger-based systems that facilitate regular communication with potential and existing patients. Initially, these platforms were expensive and only large practices had access to them. However, over time, they have become affordable and scalable.

4. Think Beyond SEO: Until last year, gaining and maintaining website traffic was as easy as speeding up your SEO game. In 2018, entirely relying on SEO for improving your website traffic is a recipe for failure. Throughout 2017, Google has continued with algorithm update techniques. From Panda Mobilegeddon, the list is never-ending. A good number of reliable sites with useful content have suffered in the process. This does not mean you should forget all the SEO skills you have acquired over the years. Just keep them and improve them. It is essential to think beyond basic SEO techniques. However, do not hide from the fact that attracting patients in 2018 will demand more than just SEO.

5. Strengthen Social Media Presence: You can market and promote your practice until the cows come home, but if your approach is lacking, patients are going to scurry off somewhere else. Now more than ever, modern patients prefer to have easy access to the help and services they need. They do not want to make a phone call and stay on hold or send an email and wait for hours in a queue. Your patients want to post a comment on Facebook or send out a Tweet and get the help they need. Most medical practices have some amount of social media presence, but a handful of them leverage it for attracting patients.

6. Invest in Live Video: 2018 is said to be the year of video, with businesses of all kinds, including the healthcare sector, turning to video content to gain their target audience’s attention. Out of the various types of video, live video is said to attract the most attention so far. According to a study, long-form content and live video deliver the highest rates of ad completion. Another study expects the live video market to grow to $70.05 billion in 2021, up from $30.29 billion in 2016.

How can medical practices get on board with live video? There is a wide range of live video platforms available, which show the booming popularity of live streaming. Facebook Live is probably the most popular, but other social media networks including YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr and Periscope also support live video. You can use live video for streaming events, interviews, broadcasting a launch or reaching out to a broader audience.

7. Build a Responsive Website: You can start the new year by increasing the effectiveness of your website. The primary purpose of your practice website is to attract and inform patients. Some of the most effective elements of a high-converting healthcare website sites are: simple layout and basic design, easy navigation, contact forms with necessary information fields, social media links, patient reviews page and a media gallery for images and videos of practice and staff. Carefully building your healthcare website around the needs of your patients will help you achieve business objectives.

8. Paid Marketing Strategies a Necessity: For healthcare marketers relying solely on social networks, a lot more than just posting updates on your social media profile will be required to win your target audience. According to Forrester Research, an average patient only gets to see 16 percent of Facebook posts of their doctors and only 10 percent of tweets. We are entering an era in which marketers will have to pay to have their content distributed appropriately. For many healthcare marketers, it may mean loosening their budget to accommodate extra costs. If you want to have a lasting impact, you will have to pay for the premium services.

9. Gather More Patient Reviews: Social proof is essential for any healthcare practice trying to gain trust with potential patients. Social proof includes patient reviews, testimonials and case studies. According to a report, one in four patients check online reviews before choosing a healthcare provider. The good part is, acquiring reviews requires little effort.

One way to market your medical practice is by getting positive reviews on popular third-party sites such as Healthgrades.com and Vitals.com. Your patients can also post reviews on social media sites like Facebook, Yelp and Google+. If the majority of your reviews are negative, or if you do not have any reviews at all, the chances are that the new patient will choose another practice.

Encouraging patients to post reviews of your practice is simple. A good way to encourage patients to post reviews is through automated emails after each visit or by including a link to the third-party review website in your satisfaction surveys.

10. Extensive Blogging: Medical practices are highly likely to take control of their content by creating their own blogs. Topics like office updates, patient-centric useful content and featured guest posts will allow healthcare marketers to nurture their brand and connect with more patients. According to industry experts, 2018 is going to be another exciting year for innovative ways to reach patients and increase brand awareness. Rapid development in communication technology is making it increasingly challenging, and marketers will need to experiment and adapt in order to keep up.

Final Words

Incorporating these tips into your healthcare marketing strategy can help you connect with existing and potential patients. As hectic as running a practice may get, it is important for healthcare providers to appear as approachable as possible. Marketing your medical practice in a welcoming manner will draw in more patients while encouraging them to stay with your practice for a long time.

This makes it critical to find a healthcare marketing agency that can help you build your practice while you focus on caring for your patients. At Practice Builders, we offer a unique blend of reputation management as well as digital marketing that will help bring in new patients and strengthen your brand.

If your current marketing efforts do not include online reputation management and digital marketing, we are here to help. Implementing these strategies will drive more patient referrals, improve patient retention and keep your practice’s reputation strong.
For help with building your brand and executing digital marketing ideas for your practice, contact a Practice Builders representative today.

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