3 Reasons Why Data is Crucial to Pharma Marketing Success

You’ve heard it before: healthcare professionals (HCPs) are hard to reach. Pharma and device brand managers continue to struggle as they compete for ever-dwindling HCP availability. But some brands have found success despite this accessibility challenge. How? By featuring data in their campaigns.

Why is data important to your marketing success? Because the landscape has changed, with three major hurdles (unrelated to COVID-19) preventing healthcare brands from continuing business as usual.

Lack of Time

The average number of patients a primary care physician treats hovers between 1,200 and 1,900, and physicians spend nearly a quarter of their time doing paperwork. So pharma brand managers must leverage a doctor’s available time as efficiently as possible.

There are not enough doctors to serve an aging and more chronically sick patient population. As such, sales reps are unable to create the one-to-one relationships they’ve counted on in the past. Moreover, the industry is in danger of losing HCP attention, as the way doctors consume media and content has changed—just as it has for consumers.

HCPs have turned almost exclusively to objective, real-world data for decision-making. As doctors explore potential solutions for their patients, brand managers must find a way to embed relevant, meaningful data into more of their messaging. Doing so increases the likelihood that an HCP will investigate your solution and be receptive to connecting with a rep.

Substance Over Style

While data provides more efficient decision-making criteria for physicians, there is another reason data is now more effective. Prior to the coronavirus, the pharma industry had taken a hit to its reputation. So HCPs have turned to objective data to support therapies.

Non-promotional websites and KOL webinars, for example, have become leading channels in marketing. And real-world data has supplanted clever messaging and brand claims when it comes to convincing HCPs.

A second reason for leading with data is that the pharma industry is now highly commoditized, which means that drugs have less intrinsic value to physicians. Data helps to establish value as a prescriptive solution that HCPs cannot (and often do not) ignore.

So data – especially real-world data – becomes a credibility pillar that brands can leverage to provide more substance in their HCP marketing.

Third-party Influence

Finally, prescribing behavior in hospital settings is now heavily influenced by pharmacy and therapeutics (P&T) committees. As more HCPs lean on P&T committees, those committees are relying on data for inclusion in their formularies.

According to Decisions Resource Group, in 2017 only “16% of U.S. physicians say they always prescribe their [own] first choice treatment.” Healthcare brands must accumulate and present data to these gatekeepers, who focus on cost as well as efficacy to decide a drug’s value to their organizations.

In addition, health insurers have been venturing into primary-care-centered delivery models, value or outcomes-based payment directives, and retail-type customer experiences. As part of that initiative, these organizations look objectively at therapies, which reduces an HCP’s ability to make decisions in a subjective manner.

The good news is that there are plenty of marketing channels where HCPs can be reached with data-oriented messaging. That flexibility allows you to connect on different platforms, such as digital journals and eReprints.

To help you with driving data-based marketing campaigns, access Elsevier’s data on advertising effectiveness. Download our survey of over 1,800 global physicians here.

Article Written by: Alex Brown