Rethinking Pharma Omnichannel Marketing: Be Where It Matters

Everyone’s heard the word “omnichannel” at conferences, in pitch decks, and across pharma marketing. But here’s the reality: most strategies miss the mark for healthcare professionals (HCPs), patients, and brands. Too often, it becomes a race to show up everywhere instead of focusing on what really matters—timing, relevance, and impact. 

At the recent Fierce Pharma Week conference, we challenged our clients and peers to think differently about pharma omnichannel marketing. Here’s why. 

A Story About My Mother (Told by Mike) 

As long as I can remember, my mom Eileen has been extremely active. About two years ago, she started playing pickleball, and developed arthritis in her knees. Not uncommon for her age (76). 

Her doctor recommended gel shots, which caused some bruising. Again, not uncommon. 

But then the bruising didn’t stop. She went to her PCP, who noticed some abnormal bloodwork. For the next 18 months, she pushed for an explanation, resulting in 10+ doctor visits and a year and half of stress. Finally, a hematologist-oncologist diagnosed her with marginal zone lymphoma (MZL).  

At last she had her answer, but was that arduous journey necessary? We’d argue no—and that a modern, more precise approach to omnichannel marketing could have made a difference. 

How Could Eileen’s Journey Have Looked Different? 

In the numerous sessions at Fierce Pharma Week, three themes kept emerging: 

• Start Early. We already have the data to spot risk sooner. Claims, labs, diagnosis codes, and real-world evidence can point to eligibility windows—moments when a patient is ready for diagnosis or treatment. Starting earlier could have shortened Eileen’s long, stressful journey – for her and her family. 

• Coordinate. Patients and providers are treated as separate audiences. This creates information gaps and can delay care. True omnichannel connects them—educating patients like Eileen while preparing her care team, so conversations happen at the right time with shared understanding. 

• Add the Right Digital. Digital isn’t a box to check. It’s about showing up in the right places for the right people. Mike shared that Eileen’s was a heavy consumer of TV news and Facebook, which could guide smarter spend and prevent wasted impressions. 

At OptimizeRx, we’ve built an approach that includes these elements and more, delivering effective, privacy-safe omnichannel programs that could make a difference for Eileen and others like her. And yes, it uses AI, but that’s not where we start.  

Building a Living, Unified Audience for Eileen 

Being on the right channels to reach patients like Eileen starts with understanding her before she reaches a key milestone like brand eligibility, a diagnosis opportunity, or an upcoming care visit. Here's how it works: 

• Our AI engine analyzes de-identified diagnosis codes, claims data, and other real-world data to build a predictive model that anticipates when patients are approaching a certain milestone. 

• The model creates a privacy-safe audience that prioritizes the patients most likely to benefit from brand or disease information in the near future. 

• Those patients are mapped to a hyper-local geography for DTC targeting as well as to their HCP team, creating a truly journey-mapped audience. 

• As patients enter and exit the milestone window, the audience automatically refreshes, so marketing is based on the present state, not a snapshot from six months ago. 

Once we have the audience, the next step is to determine the channel mix. It starts with profiling. 

It’s Not More Channels, It’s the Relevant Ones 

Pharma marketers often equate omnichannel with reach: being on as many channels as possible. But HCPs and patients don’t want more; they want better. Physicians are already overwhelmed, and patients are flooded with health content online. Adding noise doesn’t build connection, and trying to be everywhere only drains budget. 

That’s why a key step in our process is mapping predictive audience segments to real consumer and media behaviors. Instead of stopping at broad demographics (e.g., women 65–80), we dig into the specifics of each patient cohort. 

For example, here’s a few findings from our data on TV and social media consumption from Eileen’s cohort, women with marginal zone lymphoma. 

• 77% of patients have a high propensity for TV news, with documentaries and home improvement shows next in line. 

• 72% of patients consume their news on ABC, NBC, or CBS. 

• 37% watch on cable, compared to 30% for satellite and just 9% on streaming. 

• On social, Facebook leads at 28%, followed by Pinterest at 24%. 

Insights like these help brands spend smarter—deciding whether a direct TV buy is worth it, how much to invest in streaming, or where to focus social spend. They also show related trends, like the link between home improvement shows and Pinterest, that could inform campaign creative.  

And while this example focused on patients, it’s worth emphasizing that HCPs are media consumers too—with their own patterns and preferences that should factor into targeting and engagement. 

Omnichannel as a Care Enabler 

So, what if we had been running a campaign on MZL, and used these insights to target our media placements? Well, it’s likely we would have “caught” Eileen earlier in her journey. When we stop treating omnichannel as “everywhere” and instead focus on refining our audience and channel mix, everything changes. Omnichannel becomes a tool for better care, not more noise—and it drives both health and commercial impact. 

Every day matters for patients like Eileen. Let’s work together to give them more of them.