Pharmaceutical brands were slow to web marketing. The cautious behaviour of the sector, combined with uncertainty of regulation, held pharmaceuticals back while marketers in finance, professional services, manufacturing and business services raced ahead online. In this tactical roadmap for pharmaceutical brands Danny Meadows-Klue highlights key steps every brand should evaluate for boosting the effectiveness of their communications planning. For the experienced digital marketer this will be a useful checklist, for those new to the web it could revolutionise the communications mix - and for finance directors it could be the key to saving 20% of the marketing budget without any drop in results.

Pharmaceutical brands were slow to web marketing. The cautious behaviour of the sector, combined with uncertainty of regulation, held pharmaceuticals back while marketers in finance, professional services, manufacturing and business services raced ahead online. In this tactical roadmap for pharmaceutical brands Danny Meadows-Klue highlights key steps every brand should evaluate for boosting the effectiveness of their communications planning. For the experienced digital marketer this will be a useful checklist, for those new to the web it could revolutionise the communications mix - and for finance directors it could be the key to saving 20% of the marketing budget without any drop in results.

Download: Web strategies for pharmaceutical brands

How could we accelerate your pharmaceutical marketing strategy? Simply ask.

Email the author of this report directly:

Danny@DigitalStrategyConsulting.com
DigitalStrategyConsulting.com/dannymeadows-klue

Getting the best value from your digital channels demands understanding what works and why. In a fast changing environment, many brands have websites and email programmes that are years behind best practice, failing to engage their stakeholders, generate leads, build brand equity and create real value. A digital communications audit provides the fast track to understand how your digital investments are working and what’s needed to accelerate ROI. They give an expert view, independent of your teams, agencies and stakeholders. They deliver insights quickly and include key recommendations as well as prioritizing critical issues.

This file is locked | Request a copy from your Digital consultant

This file is locked | Request a copy from your Digital consultant

• Introduction and context
• Innovation and change
• Practical advice for improving ROI
• Three ways pharma brands can use the web to build relationships with customers
• Three ways pharma brands can harness web media in their online marketing strategy
• Three ways pharma brands can reduce field sales force costs
• Three ways pharma brands can use web analytics to listen to their customers online
• Online pharmaceutical marketing: where to start in building your digital marketing strategy
• Extra support for pharmaceutical brands from Digital Strategy’s team

These dozen tips for best practice digital marketing for pharmaceutical brands are grouped into four areas firms can check and apply quickly

1. Three ways pharma brands can use the web to build relationships with customers
2. Three ways pharma brands can harness web media in their online marketing strategy
3. Three ways pharma brands can reduce field sales force costs
4. Three ways pharma brands can use web analytics to listen to their customers online

Relationship marketing is the most powerful tool in converting leads into customers

1. Pharmaceutical marketers should invest in their customer databases: start your communication strategy here
2. Take the message to market: use email in pharmaceutical marketing to reach customers in their inbox
3. Build eRM campaigns in pharmaceutical marketing to drive conversions

Create segmentations that match your sales processes and build the foundations for a relationship marketing channel. Divide people between those who are customers and potential customers, those who make the decision and those who influence, those who are prescribers and those who are patients.

Look for ways to capture data at every opportunity. Find ways to acquire more new leads by using your web presence smartly – using both your own websites and your online advertising. Explore other classic channels and motivate your sales force to incorporate email into the data they capture for every new contact. See the database as the engine of your marketing and everything else starts to follow.

Today’s HTML format mailings provide smart gateways to brand websites, they can take the best and most relevant of what you have on the web and package it seamlessly into a digest right for the customer – and at a marginal cost of almost zero.

There’s an accountability in the mailing process because marketers can track open-rates and pass-on rates much of the time, identifying when and how deeply target prospective customers are engaged with the brand. And that research insight comes without the intrusion of telephone interviews or surveys, customer’s real attitude can be uncovered in days.

Using online media to reach the right audiences in the right mindset

1. Pharma brands should reach audiences online where they want to engage
2. Track the exposure web ads generate
3. Explore podcasts, video debates and white paper downloads

If the first rule of marketing is to understand your customer, then the first rule of media is to reach them in the places they come together. Within today’s regulatory framework of the web there are clear ways to harness web media and the online clinician is readily interested and keen to be engaged. Their use of the web may be at times and places that suit them rather than field sales, but in the hands of smart online media planners, the messages for a pharma brand will only be seen by those interested in the specific therapy. Lord Leverhulm’s adage of ‘half my advertising being wasted, if only I knew which half’ has been answered with surprising clarity.