The email as a means of communication has not only retained its relevance but, on the contrary, remains more pertinent than ever. The success of an email marketing campaign in the pharmaceutical industry depends on various factors, such as:
- The quality of the subscriber list
- The content of the email
- Segmentation and personalization
- The frequency of sending
It is important to note that each campaign should be designed according to the specific needs of the company and its target audience and must comply with relevant regulations regarding the promotion of pharmaceutical products.
Campaigns for Healthcare Professionals
They have some differences compared to those aimed at end consumers:
- Educational content: They often discuss the disease or condition that the product or service is designed to address, as well as available treatments.
- Messages focused on scientific evidence: Healthcare professionals are highly trained and seek reliable, evidence-based information.
- Use of technical language: This helps build credibility and trust in the brand and the promoted product or service.
- Personalization: It is crucial to customize the message and content according to their specialty, level of expertise, and geographical location.
- Regulatory compliance: It is essential to ensure that the content and tactics used comply with all relevant regulations.
Expected outcomes of a campaign targeted at professionals
Typically, one expects to achieve any of the following outcomes:
- Lead generation: This can be accomplished through the use of registration or contact forms in emails or by including calls to action to visit a website or complete an online form.
- Increased brand awareness: The goal is to enhance brand awareness and acquaint healthcare professionals with the promoted product or service. This can be achieved by including detailed information about the product or service.
- Promotion of recommendation and prescription: This can be achieved by providing information about the clinical and therapeutic benefits of the product, as well as by delivering relevant clinical studies and statistics.
- Sales increase: This can be achieved by including special promotions, discounts, exclusive offers, and specific calls to action to encourage purchases.
Goal Tracking
To assess the attainment of desired outcomes, it is crucial to pre-establish SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound). If the campaign's objective is to increase sales of a product or service by a certain percentage, the campaign's conversion rate can be compared with the number of sales prior to the campaign to ascertain goal achievement.
It is essential to consider other factors that may have influenced campaign results, such as seasonality, market behavior, or the quality of the email list used for the campaign. Additionally, analyzing results in relation to the campaign investment is valuable in determining whether a positive Return on Investment (ROI) was achieved.
Benefits of Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Salesforce Marketing Cloud offers a comprehensive set of tools to effectively engage with customers. Some key benefits include:
- Personalization: Interact with customers not only by their names but also based on their preferences and behaviors, enhancing satisfaction and fostering loyalty.
- Automation: The platform provides a wide range of marketing automation tools, enabling businesses to create personalized and automated campaigns, saving time and increasing efficiency.
- Data Analysis: Salesforce Marketing Cloud includes diverse data analysis tools to glean valuable insights into customer behavior and purchasing patterns. This aids in making informed decisions on how to engage customers more effectively.
- Multichannel Capability: Marketing Cloud supports various digital marketing channels, including email, social media, WhatsApp, SMS, and online advertising, allowing businesses to reach customers across multiple platforms.
- Integration: The tool seamlessly integrates with other Salesforce solutions such as Sales Cloud and Service Cloud, enabling businesses to create a comprehensive view of the customer and deliver consistent, personalized experiences throughout the customer lifecycle.
A Proper Marketing Strategy
Some projects may fail due to a lack of proper planning and organization. Customer Journey is a key feature of Salesforce Marketing Cloud that requires collaboration and teamwork across various departments of a pharmaceutical company to define objectives.
To achieve this, it is advisable to:
- Maintain a product-focused approach.
- Set measurable goals that can be benchmarked against other products.
One of the most critical aspects is deciding how to track the journey. Different channels require different technical implementations for tracking, as well as a different campaign methodology.
It is essential to leverage information from the CRM (whether Salesforce or Veeva) with interactions with healthcare professionals to have a 360° view.
Some studies highlight the disparity in how physicians consume scientific information compared to the efforts pharmaceutical companies make to disseminate that information. While healthcare professionals focus more on digital channels for information, pharmaceutical companies continue to invest in sales forces or Medical Scientific Liaisons (MSLs), individuals with specialized technical profiles in a therapeutic area who interact with physicians.
This is neither good nor bad (one approach does not replace the other) but should be complementary.
The Importance of Omnichanneld
Omnichannel is the succession of events that happen in multiple channels, connected by data, by knowledge. In pharma it is understood that traditional sales force means must be reinforced with digital support.
The challenge is that areas (for example, sales and marketing), which move in independent ways (in data and actions) complement each other.
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