In the excitement that follows every new trend in pharmaceutical marketing, it’s easy to lose sight of the bedrock principles that drive impact and ROI. Here are four red flags that could indicate your pharma marking may not deliver the results you want.
Red Flag One: You’re Not Providing the Content Physicians Value
HCPs are tired of generic marketing and prefer content that aligns directly to the needs of the patients they are treating. So if your brand marketing plan isn’t delivering clinical result, eligibility, affordability, formulary updates, and other high-demand information directly into the clinical workflow, you could be sacrificing engagement. And if you’re not able to leverage patient journey insights to determine when and where that information is most relevant to HCPs’ current patients, you could be limiting your marketing ROI.
Red Flag Two: You’re Using a Static NPI List
Real-world data has the potential to transform how pharma marketers reach and engage their audiences – but only if it’s used in the right way and incorporated in real-time. Data goes stale quickly; many brands use past prescribing data to build a target NPI list for their media agencies and vendors, but don’t have a means to adjust that list to reflect changing patient flows. So if you’re relying on static NPI lists, instead of generating weekly lists of the HCPs mostly likely to be treating brand-eligible patients, you’re missing an opportunity for more precise messaging – and the benefit of increasing your NPI reach by 20-50%.
Red Flag Three: Your Content Doesn’t Reflect the Marketing Funnel
Omnichannel programs are proven to drive stronger brand engagement by increasing physician touchpoints. But the savviest pharma marketers know that it’s not just about channel reach – it’s about aligning key messages and brand content to physician needs throughout the marketing “funnel.” If you’re not focused on filling HCP information gaps through channels closer to the point-of-prescribe (like the EHR), you could be missing out on the chance to reduce prescribing barriers, align the right patient with your therapy, and drive double-digit marketing ROI.
Red Flag Four: You’re Not Incorporating Patient-Level Data into HCP Engagement Programs
As noted above, brand content has the most impact when it aligns to specific patient needs – needs that can’t be determined through physician-level data alone. Even physicians with strong prescribing histories can change their pattern. And without patient-level insights, it’s impossible to know when these shifts are due to patient demographics or physician preference. So where should you direct marketing resources? If your HCP engagement program doesn’t incorporate privacy-safe, compliant patient data alongside HCP behavioral data, then your ability to implement next-best-action marketing is hampered. This is especially true in competitive therapy areas such as oncology, immunology, and endocrinology – where the competition to reach both patients and HCPs is fierce.
Do Any of These Pharmaceutical Marketing Red Flags Resonate?
If you’re reading this guide and you don’t detect a red flag – well, then congratulations! Your pharma marketing is more likely to have the desired impact on script lift and ROI. But if your programs do have one or more of these red flags, we’d welcome the chance to help you shift direction and benefit from a patient-first omnichannel program. Connect with us for an initial chat today!
