Introduction
Big Data has changed the landscape of pharma marketing in the US.
With the availability of patient data, predictive models and accurate ad placement, Healthcare Professionals (HCPs) can be dynamically targeted with messaging relevant to every stage of their patient’s journey—stretching from initial symptoms to treatment, and beyond.
Blending data and relevant creative communications is the new way to market pharma.
Data Data Data
Digital pharma marketing traditionally followed some basic tactics. Marketing a gene-therapy? Place some ads on a popular genetics journal. Need to raise awareness of a rare disease? Promote it on social media. Want to retain HCPs and patients? Pray you get them on your email list.
These techniques still have a place in a modern campaign strategy but pharma marketing has shifted investment from mass-market to a target-market approach, and for good reason. Pharma marketers in the US now have the tools to accurately target HCPs by their patient’s journey and give them highly relevant and specific content.
US patient data (anonymizing the patient but identifying the HCP by their National Provider Identifier, NPI) can be mined and analyzed. It’s now possible to find out if a HCP’s patient has a disease your product treats, or if they’ve been tested for that disease. Machine learning and predictive analytics can even be used to identify patient characteristics that may indicate the disease your product treats. This can all be used to identify HCPs with patients who may need your treatment.
Increasingly precise ad placement platforms can take this list of HCPs, show them tailored ads, and record if they’ve clicked. Link this up to your website analytics and you can see the level of HCP engagement on your website. Retargeting cookies on your website can then record what pages that HCP visited and follow up with further ads specific to what they viewed. At every stage of their journey, HCPs can be shown content that is relevant and useful to their patients.
This approach doesn’t just favor the pharma marketer, but the patient as well. For instance, if a HCP’s patient exhibits symptoms or behavior that may indicate a disease, pharma marketers can raise awareness by targeting that HCP with an ad linking those symptoms with that disease. For many patients, particularly those with rare diseases, this approach could greatly reduce the time it takes to receive a diagnosis and start treatment which in some cases could be life-saving.
Messaging, Creativity & Quality Content
But data alone isn’t enough. A comprehensive understanding of the patient diagnosis and treatment journey is essential. Marketing campaigns can then be segmented to a very high degree, with HCPs receiving personalized content.
Has their patient recorded symptoms that might indicate the disease your product treats? Show an ad that links these symptoms with that disease. Has their patient tested for the disease? Show an ad promoting the benefits of treatment. Is their patient already on your medication? Build confidence in your brand by showing an ad reinforcing your brand.
Creative and engaging content is also crucial. No matter how targeted a campaign is, ad space is competitive. In many cases multiple pharma companies are vying for the attention of the same HCPs, meaning the space can come at a premium, and ineffective messaging can get lost in the noise.
Analyzing The Campaign
This data also allows return on investment to be measured like never before. Previous digital pharma marketing campaigns may have counted an ad click or a website visit as a conversion. Linking a click to a patient starting a treatment was impossible, but now HCP journeys can be tracked all the way from initial awareness to starting treatment.
If a HCP has clicked on one of your ads, engaged with your website, and subsequently starts their patient on your treatment, this conversion is then counted. Pharma marketing campaigns can now be measured in dollars, not just by clicks.
Conclusion
Privacy laws mean this patient data-driven approach is only possible in a few countries, like the US, and privacy concerns are certainly valid. Nonetheless, in the modern US pharma marketing industry, companies that avoid a hyper-targeted approach, blending data and relevant creative communications, run the risk of being left behind.
If you’d like to know more about how TVF Communications can help you implement a hyper-targeted digital marketing campaign in the US market, please get in touch.
By Morgan Burley
