Pharmaceutical companies are always looking for innovative methods to interact with their patients and healthcare professionals (HCPs). One strategy that has attracted a lot of Life Sciences companies’ interest recently is omnichannel interaction. Omnichannel engagement means using multiple channels to achieve a unified and consistent experience for your target audience across all touchpoints. But why do you need an omnichannel approach?
According to Google research, 90% of users with multiple devices switch their devices daily for work and personal use. This makes it complicated to track their behaviour across all the touchpoints. Prohibiting you from providing a personalised experience to your target audience.
In this article, we will discuss the importance of omnichannel in the pharmaceutical business and give an example of omnichannel approach in action. Furthermore,we will provide advice for implementing an effective omnichannel strategy and its challenges.
Why is Omnichannel Important in Pharma Industry?
The pharmaceutical industry has always been an industry that requires a high level of trust and credibility. Patients, healthcare professionals (HCPs), and other stakeholders rely heavily on the accuracy and transparency of information provided by pharmaceutical companies.
With the rise of digital technology, patients and HCPs expect more from the pharma industry regarding personalised engagement and communication. In this context, omnichannel engagement became a critical strategy for pharma companies to meet their target audience evolving needs and expectations. Here are some reasons why omnichannel is important in the pharma industry:
Personalised Digital Experience of Patients and HCPs
Offering patients and HCPs a personalised online experience is one of the main advantages of omnichannel interaction. In the modern digital age, consumers anticipate being able to access information and services through a variety of channels. By offering different touchpoints, such as digital channels (website, apps, chatbots, webcalling, etc.), pharma companies can give patients and HCPs a more complete and helpful experience.
Increased Sales
Increased sales are a result of the omnichannel engagement, which is another advantage. Pharma companies can increase customer loyalty and trust by providing a more seamless and consistent experience. This can lead to higher sales. According to Mckinsey pharma, companies can uplift 5-10% of revenue annually using an omnichannel approach.
Additionally, businesses can reach a larger audience and draw in new customers.
Improved Customer Insights
Pharma companies may benefit from omnichannel engagement’s useful consumer data. Companies can better comprehend consumer behaviour and preferences by monitoring customer engagement across different platforms. In order to better meet their target audience needs, businesses can use this information to adjust their marketing and sales strategies.
Better Targeting
Omnichannel interaction can result in more precise targeting. Pharma companies can determine which platforms work best for their target audience by monitoring web visitor activity across multiple interactions. This can assist in better targeting a particular target audience persona with their marketing and sales strategies.
What is an Example of Omnichannel in Pharma?
The launch of the PfizerPro platform is an example of Pfizer’s dedication to helping healthcare professionals (HCPs) through an omnichannel strategy. With the help of this extensive online platform, HCPs can access a customised dashboard. This dashboard has content tailored to their interests and needs, such as product details, clinical studies, and patient education materials.
For the purpose of keeping HCPs up to date on the most recent clinical data and best practices, PfizerPro offers a vast library of educational content, including webinars, articles, videos, and interactive case studies. Additionally, it has a dedicated support system. This system has a live chat, email, and phone support. This ensures quick access to assistance if needed. PfizerPro also updates HCPs on relevant upcoming conferences, seminars, and workshops.
Pfizer created a mobile app version of PfizerPro so HCPs could access information while they were on the go. The app is a crucial component of Pfizer’s omnichannel strategy for effectively engaging healthcare professionals. This app provides offline access to crucial content, push notifications for updates, and seamless synchronisation with the web platform.
How Pharma Companies Can Implement Omnichannel
The healthcare industry is changing quickly, and using digital channels is more important than ever. Pharma companies can use omnichannel strategies to improve their interactions with patients and healthcare professionals. As a result, it will help companies boost their sales, better understand customers, and better target at the right moment. Here are five important steps pharma companies can take to implement an omnichannel approach.
Identify Touchpoints
The first step in putting together an omnichannel strategy is to figure out where patients and HCPs interact with your business. This could include your website, mobile app, social media, email, in-person events, etc. By figuring out these points of contact, you can start to make a plan that meets all of your customers’ needs across all channels.
Develop Customer Journey and Personas
Once you have identified your touchpoints, the next step is to develop a customer journey and personas. A customer journey is a map of the various touchpoints that describes how a patient or HCP interacts with your brand, from initial awareness to post-purchase follow-up. It will also help you understand the difference between the customer journey of each persona type.
Personas are fictional characters representing the different types of patients or HCPs with whom you interact. Each with its own unique needs and preferences. By understanding the customer journey and developing personas, you can create tailored content and experiences that resonate with your audience.
Develop a Consistent Brand Voice
It’s important to build a consistent brand voice so that customers have the same experience across all touchpoints. This means coming up with a brand’s tone of voice, message, and look that is the same across all mediums. A consistent brand voice makes it easier for your customers to remember and interact with your brand. It also helps to build trust and confidence with your customers.
Integrate Systems
Integrate your various systems, such as customer relationship management (CRM) systems and communication platforms like phone calls, SMS, emails, query tickets, reputation score, etc., to ensure a seamless flow of information between channels. Integrating the system helps access centralised information of every interaction with each user (HCP or patient).
Personalise the Experience
Personalisation is the key to giving customers a smooth and interesting experience. By using customer data like past purchases and browsing habits, you can tailor your messages and content to each patient’s or HCP’s needs and preferences. Personalisation can take many forms, from targeted email campaigns to personalised product suggestions, and it can help to improve engagement and drive sales.
Monitor, Evaluate and Optimise
Finally, it’s important to keep an eye on and evaluate how well your omnichannel approach is working so you can optimise your strategy accordingly. This includes keeping track of open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and customer comments and sentiments. By looking at this data on a regular basis, you can identify areas for optimising your plan over time to give your customers the best experience possible.
Challenges of omnichannel marketing
In the pharmacy industry, adopting an omnichannel strategy has many advantages, but businesses must also address a number of issues. Some of these issues include:
Data Management
One of the toughest aspects of an omnichannel approach is managing the enormous amounts of data generated by the various touchpoints. In order to learn valuable information about how and why customers behave in the ways that they do, pharma businesses must be able to strategically collect, store, and analyse this data.
Integration
Creating an effective omnichannel experience requires the integration of various systems and platforms. Investing in technology and resources can take a lot of money, time, and resources to ensure that all interactions are integrated and in sync.
Regulatory Compliance:
The pharmaceutical industry is heavily regulated, which can be challenging while implementing an omnichannel approach. Businesses must ensure they comply with all laws governing data protection, marketing, and sales techniques.
Cultural Shift
Adopting an omnichannel strategy often requires an organisation to make a cultural shift. In order to ensure that all teams are working together toward the same objective of providing customers with a seamless experience at all touchpoints. It may be necessary to make changes to the organisation’s structure, processes, and way of thinking.
Allocating Resources
Using a multichannel strategy may require a significant investment in time, personnel, and other resources. Companies must carefully consider their spending plans and resource allocation if they are to maximise the benefits of their multichannel strategy.
Despite the fact that it can be challenging, pharma companies must adopt an omnichannel strategy if they want to remain competitive in the digital era. Pharma businesses can increase customer satisfaction, increase sales, and learn a great deal about how customers behave and why they behave like such.
