We live in a digital world. People’s habits and types of communication change drastically in brief time periods, and physicians are not an exception. If pharma marketers want to make it in the digital world, they need to adopt new forms of interaction.
Studies have shown that HCPs are increasingly turning to digital modes of communication and pharma marketers need to be aware of these preferences.
If you are still sticking to the old approach and sales rep visits, it’s about time to change that and join the digital revolution that’s spreading across pharma like a heatwave.
Not convinced of the power of digital marketing? Then this post is for you. For this post, I’ve selected 6 reasons why your pharma brand needs digital marketing and why you have to create a detailed digital marketing campaign ASAP.
Pay attention!
Patients are more informed than ever
According to studies, every 20th search on Google is related to health in one way or the other. Patients research treatment options long before they enter the doctor’s office.
The patients’ research can affect physicians’ decision-making process big time. That’s why next time when a patient googles “back pain” or some other medical problem, make sure they see your pharma brands page in the search results.
Everybody’s online
A recent study determined that physicians spend an average of 5.2 hours using computers every day. A large part of that time is spent looking for medical devices or products online.
While physicians spend more and more time online, they are less and less likely to take a visit from sales reps. By turning your attention to digital marketing, you’ll be reaching HCPs where they already are and avoid the risk of bumping into closed doors.
The world has become increasingly visual
You may have an array of useful data that prove how good your medical product or brand is. You can talk about it all day, but in a highly visualized world, you have to show people something visual if you want to get their attention. With the rise of data visualization tools, pharma marketing becomes less about data and more about making data appealing to healthcare professionals. By turning data into videos, charts, graphs, and infographics you can show numbers in a fun, memorable way.
Video marketing has the strongest audience appeal
Video has four times stronger audience appeal than text. Today’s pharma marketers must leverage the power of video marketing if they want to stay ahead in the digital marketing world.
Pharma digital marketing companies can use videos on their websites or distribute them via email and other social media platforms. That way they can convey the message about their products in a non-intrusive way.
Mobile is everything
Optimizing for mobile is just as important as optimizing for desktop. More than 80% of doctors use smartphones for work. Furthermore, 56% of them rely on tablets for browsing the web.
Since doctors are using smartphones to browse the web, every pharma brand should make sure to optimize for mobile. That way your content will always remain within the physician’s reach.
Digital increases possibilities for personalization
By using online tools that can provide metrics, pharma marketers no longer have to shoot in the dark. They can get an array of user info about their target audience, including their interests, location, age, and gender.
That way pharma brands can produce fully personalized marketing campaigns. Sending personalized emails and video content has become a trend among marketers. And the degree of personalization is expected to become even greater in the future.
These are some of the reasons why physicians are tilting toward digital channels and why pharma marketers have to do the same if they want to survive in the digital world.
With time, face-to-face meetings will be replaced with digital and sales reps will need to know the physicians’ digital profiles before they even try to get in touch.
Yes, the digital age is changing pharma marketing and I’m here to help you adapt to the changes. So before you leave, sign up here to keep up with the many ways the digital revolution is transforming pharma.
