Marketing Automation: How Pharma Marketers Leverage Technology for Better Results

The patient experience with medications is not a linear one. A person may need pharmaceuticals during an emergency or require medications following a surgery or may require drug therapy later in life. With such diverse and occasional needs, how do you stay top-of-mind with healthcare professionals (HCPs) so they can recommend your solutions as patients need them?

The answer is marketing automation (MA).

Marketing automation leverages technology to help pharma brands build trust and increase engagement across provider segments. Pharma marketers can use automation to deliver timely, customized messaging to physicians before patient needs surface.

 

What is Marketing Automation?

Marketing automation is a platform capability that executes marketing campaigns automatically. Content and messages are triggered by a specified set of actions based on a lead’s profile, behaviors, and preferences. The technology is used to personalize and schedule touchpoints like email messages or digital ads.

For example, a pain clinic might send out an email campaign that includes a quiz to help patients assess their levels of pain. Based on the results, respondents can get different information sent to them. Patients that need immediate assistance can get relevant information about the clinic and intake processes, while those who indicate a lower need for immediate services can receive tips about lifestyle interventions that can reduce suffering. Others who opened the email but didn’t take the quiz can receive further messaging to seek help.

By using MA, you can hit multiple customer targets with different needs all at once. It also allows you to create a highly personalized journey that provides valuable, relevant content on a periodic basis.

 

Marketing Automation Offers Multiple Benefits

Marketing automation provides several benefits to brand managers and HCPs alike. Once content is created, campaigns can be set up at once and delivery can be scheduled over time. Beyond efficiency, MA supports the following objectives.

 

Long-Term Engagement

In order to be top-of-mind when a patient needs your product, you need to take a long-term view of HCP communications. A long-term strategy to reach relevant segments with periodic touchpoints will keep your brand at the top of a lead’s mind when the time is right. By automating valuable, targeted content, you can increase engagement with prospects over the long term while building trust and credibility. Marketing technology allows marketers and providers to automatically deliver this kind of content without constant effort from your marketing team.

 

Improved Customer Service

HCPs are extremely busy. And it may be difficult at times to extend your line visibility, so they are aware of all the beneficial products you produce at the right time. Marketing automation gives you a vehicle to consistently reach out and educate HCPs in a timely manner.

Physicians tend to appreciate it when drug makers structure marketing programs to accommodate their busy lives. By automating multiple touchpoints to keep them up-to-date, you can improve the service you provide to them. This helps elevate your brand beyond being a specific solution to a specific problem. Using well-timed messaging, your brand can establish a foothold if or when a future issue requires your product.

 

A Better Customer Journey

Not every HCP decision-making journey is the same. Through the long-term engagement approach, you have more opportunities to “hit the mark” when you automate communications. With MA, previous actions taken by an HCP can be rolled into a sequence that offers multiple chances to reconnect.

If the timing isn’t right for one message, a later message may arrive at just the right time for them to engage. MA allows you to adjust campaign delivery to match the individual journey with your brand an HCP may be on.

 

Marketing Automation for Better Audience Reach

Pharma marketers face such daunting challenges trying to reach healthcare professionals these days. Static, standalone campaigns won’t work anymore. Marketing automation provides the answer to the question: How do we reach targeted HCPs more often and with the relevant content?

 

If you are looking for more insight into delivering content to HCPs, check out our booklet Rethink Clinical Content today. 

 

Article Written by: Alex Brown