The answer comes from how well Pharma and Health Care professionals understand each other and can work with their needs so that engagement is appreciated, valuable and on their terms. It would be fair to say that the basics of this have generally been unchanged for years, with the need to inform, educate and support healthcare professionals a core requirement of the pharmaceutical industry.

But what has changed is the way in which life sciences companies interact with their audiences, with an increasing array of digital channels to contend with, including websites, email, social media, messaging and even voice-activated technology. And technology doesn’t stand still. The use of data, insights, AI and machine learning has made great strides in progress in recent years, but whether pharmaceutical marketing has kept up with it is less certain.

Digital is often viewed in isolation from the rest of the marketing mix but the key to good multichannel engagement is to integrate digital channels with offline channels such as symposiums, meetings, print and sales force. Digital channels bring Pharma and Health Care closer. Healthcare engagement professionals do research and help develop treatment choices for patients. It’s crucial to support their efforts with online content to establish greater connections with consumers.
When sales representatives share these insights, the digital and marketing teams can build and weave interactive content across multiple channels. This reinforces that the company is ready to provide 24/7 support.

Remote engagements can sieve out the best and worst of the pharmaceutical commercial force. Pre-COVID, during short face-to-face interactions, some representatives would have repeated the same brand messages multiple times to a doctor to ensure high brand recall. That doesn’t make sense anymore. Telling the doctor the same thing over and over again, is a quick way to get frozen out.