Maximising the effectiveness of promotional materials

Content, tailored engagement and continual optimisation are the key to realising ROI from e-details and other self-directed promotional materials. But how should pharma marketers approach these issues in order to ensure their campaigns deliver results?

When it comes to content, experience shows that pharma companies struggle to create material that is not only tailored and relevant to specific groups of doctors, but also builds on their existing knowledge levels and meets their ongoing clinical information needs and practice.

Adapting content from sales rep presentations to enable doctors to navigate it independently online and then optimising it to ensure that it complements and integrates with other multi-channel marketing activities presents challenges; while ensuring that engagement can deliver a measurable outcome is also a problem.

Research shows that doctors want impartial, balanced product information that is tailored to their area of expertise and comes from a trusted provider. Independent professional online networks, which are one of the most trusted information sources for doctors, provide valuable insights into doctors' wants and needs, thanks to their extensive member profiling and research and evaluation capability. This information can be used to create tailored messages targeted at specific doctor groups, including the 'low see no see' ones and, due to the level of granularity of the data, it can also deliver a more significant set of metrics to measure the impact of the activity

Running integrated programmes through online professional networks, rather than via pharma company websites alone, affords impartiality and this approach can be strengthened by reducing the number of company or brand mentions in the copy, or using a more 'educational' approach, such as sponsoring a clinical paper summary written by a doctor, or a patient case study or other such resources valued by doctors.

The key is to ensure that the programme is not only delivered via the sales force, educational service calls, tele-detailing or any other channel activity, but also integrates the doctor's preferred online domain – rather than trying to persuade doctors to go to pharma.

Measuring awareness, interest, desire and action within target groups of doctors and continually optimising subsequent content and messages to ensure they meet their evolving needs and preferences, motivates doctors to keep returning. 

The insight gained from this behaviour also provides pharma sales forces with a detailed understanding of doctors' current levels of knowledge and interest in a disease or therapy area and feeds into other sales and marketing activities to support and enhance the multi-channel mix, thus helping to maximise ROI from this activity.

For more information on Doctors.net.uk, please call Simon Grime on +44 (0)1235 828400, or email Simon.Grime@mess.doctors.org.uk. You can also follow Doctors.net.uk on twitter: doctors_net_uk

Digital inspiration for pharma on mobile, social media, strategy, best practice, regulations and more