Pharmaceutical sales and marketing have long been dominated by the"detail men." The problem with that is that as the market changed and the internet evolved, key opinion leaders (KOLs) gained more and more influence. According to some studies, one in four of the interactions in the U.S. between sales and marketing executives at large pharmaceutical companies and their clients were digital in nature. Because that trend is only growing, pharmaceutical sales and marketing staff need to consider online marketing and multi-channel marketing.
Why multi-channel marketing?
As a pharmaceutical marketing or sales staff member, you already know what the latest pharmaceutical sales info and its connection to the marketing process. Imagine for a moment that you could send out emails to those KOLs to open a dialogue, and that email led them to an informative video, article or other marketing copy. Then they were linked to a landing page, where they could sign up for messages over multiple channels that would tell them about anything new that you had to offer. Once they signed up, they were sent a monthly newsletter, along with any other copy that was relevant to them. How do you know it's relevant? When they signed up, they populated a complete customer profile that showed you not just the information they gave you, but also the actions they took on your web site, how they found you and how they interact with your marketing. All of this information comes together to tell you precisely what those people and the organizations they represent are interested in.
Why is this relevant to pharmaceutical sales and marketing?
The fact is, the more tightly focused your marketing pitch, the more likely the relevant customers will buy, and you won't alienate others by giving them obvious mass mail that they don't care about. In addition, you get to use automated processes to nurture your leads, making them feel important. And everyone likes to feel important. You build an open and honest customer experience, and you give your customers precisely what they need. No more and no less. They'll take note. When they do, your reputation will begin to spread, until eventually word of mouth has preceded your marketing and people are seeking you out without even seeing your campaigns. The market is becoming more and more customer focused, and everyone has to shift with it, particularly in pharmaceuticals.
For more information, look at our marketing automation page to see what our platform can do for your marketing and sales experience. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter feed, to be sure that you get updates when new content goes live and to network with healthcare professionals.