Life Science Organizations can Stand out from the Competition with Winning Content Strategies
When the pandemic struck, life science organizations scrambled to fill the gaps in HCP customer experience and engagement. Content quickly became one of the top ways they sought to provide value to healthcare providers (HCP) in lieu of conversations with sales reps, lectures, and conventions.
The sudden influx of content became a blessing and curse for pharma companies: they reach more HCPs than ever, but so does everyone else. Getting in front of physicians can be even more challenging as they are overwhelmed with content.
As life science organizations reassess marketing and content strategies while they come back from the COVID-19 shutdowns, they need to transform their content to reflect the changing needs of their customers.
Here is how pharma can master tailored content to reach more HCPs, provide more value, and enhance the overall customer experience (CX).
Personalized Content: An Under-Addressed Opportunity
In pre-COVID times, organizations had one channel in mind for their content: field reps. Marketing reused content with little revision across all other platforms. While this was a feasible strategy when most of the medical care industry relied on in-person engagement, it presents a problem in today’s digital-first environment.
The good news is HCPs are happy to learn about new drugs and treatments that could impact their patients. One recent survey of over 600 physicians found that 95% were interested in learning about new procedures, products, and treatments. However, the study also found that physicians are inundated with information they have no time to go over: 68% said they were overwhelmed with information. It echoes the findings of a survey earlier this year that found 64% felt they were getting too much information and 65% said they were “spammed” by at least one pharma organization.
Because HCPs are trying to sift through more information than ever, mediocre content is no longer enough. Unfortunately, that’s what many HCPs get: our survey found that 40% were unhappy with the content provided, and a measly 7% were very satisfied. This gap allows pharma companies to stand out from the competition. Pharma marketing teams can best provide the most accurate, timely, and valuable content through collaboration with medical affairs. Medical Affairs has the expertise needed to create information that avoids fluff and stands out in a sea of middling brochures, articles, and white papers.
Tailoring Content to Meet All Customer Needs
While life science organizations aim to develop go-to resources for HCPs, there are other customers who benefit from personalized content. For example, patients are becoming more engaged and invested in their care. A recent study found that 37% of patients wanted to be more proactive in their health and care. Content is no longer a one-size-fits-all stopgap. Instead, it needs to meet the needs of each customer type and provide them with relevant information.
While creating content, it’s vital to create unique buyer personas to understand the motivations, education, concerns, and challenges of providing tailored content. For example, the typical HCP prescriber might want information about drug interactions, safety, and efficacy. They are not the only medical professional that would like to have content. A nurse will be more concerned about the appropriate needle type for an infusion-related to medication, while a pharmacist might be interested in the shelf life of a drug. Likewise, a patient will likely want more information about their condition and helpful tips for lifestyle modifications. On the other hand, a regulatory body or payer might have questions about efficacy and the cost of treatment.
Each customer type requires content suited to their knowledge level, expertise, and unique considerations. It means that marketers need to provide more than in-depth information. They also have to have a thorough knowledge of each customer’s pain points and goals, not just the HCP.
Content creation requires closer collaboration with other stakeholders to create personalized and productive content for each customer type. For example, field sales reps will likely have helpful insights based on their interactions with different customers and the direct feedback they receive. The more teams and departments work together to truly understand the customer, the better the content they can create.
A particular challenge in creating tailored content for life science companies is organizing and managing it across different digital platforms. Not only must content be personalized for different customer types, but various mediums as well. Organizations must understand the goals of each platform to adapt content for engagement best.
No one piece of content is appropriate for each platform. The more content can be transformed across platforms, the more likely it will receive customer engagement and interest. For example, Twitter is a place for short, digestible pieces of information with a link to the study or article in full. LinkedIn, on the other hand, is a place for more nuance and slightly longer content.
Science and development are evolving faster than ever. Pharma organizations must adapt their processes to develop vital, time-sensitive information efficiently. This requires them to create content more quickly to stay relevant and meet the changing needs of their customers. The more they improve collaboration and streamline processes, the better they can meet these demands.
Providing True Customer Value with Collaborative Content
While content is more critical to pharma organizations than ever, few take steps to provide valuable content to all customer types and across each platform. It requires increasing collaboration to get better and more timely technical information and deeper insights into customer sentiments and needs. As science changes quickly, organizations need flexibility and speed to respond and provide the most up-to-date content.
Even though HCPs are overwhelmed with information, life sciences organizations still have a critical way to stand out from the competition. Timely and accurate content that enhances an HCP customer experience and provides value will continue to build trust and engage crucial customers.
Why Omnipresence?
Exeevo’s Omnipresence is a single digital ecosystem with omnichannel capabilities that provides life science organizations critical support and in-depth insights for collaborative commercial and medical customer relationship management. The platform offers support at each stage of the customer journey empowered with Microsoft AI across devices and applications.
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