Pharma marketing has gone full circle in the last decade – high-end management systems, responsive UIs, crunch data accuracy, eDetailing and a lot more are now an integral part of the system. You would think that’s just about how far we can go with pharma marketing. However, a lot is at stake with regards to how the pharma industry shapes its marketing efforts in 2019. The upcoming year is set to witness new breakthroughs and trends. Here’s a collection of the most striking trends that will grip pharma marketing through 2019.
Strategic multichannel approach
All digital communications are traveling at breakneck speed. More and more customers want to control their digital experience with authority. With every evolving technology, the general expectation to respond to concerns of the average customer is soaring higher by the day. Every second online shopper in the U.S. sees no reason why their healthcare service should not be as good as Amazon.
One group of professionals that understands this phenomenon better than most is the physician community. Physicians have long adopted a patient-centric mechanism for their practice. By default, the healthcare and pharma industries are trying to keep up with them. It was years ago that physicians started embracing the internet. Now, they aren’t an emerging group of individuals anymore. Almost every professional physician now goes online anywhere between five and ten times a month for professional purposes.
In the coming years, the use of multi-channel online resources will break all benchmarks we’ve ever built. This approach is also slowly creeping into relationships among healthcare professionals and other medics. The internet allows us to receive all kinds of product information and medical updates at the snap of our fingers. As a consequence, we now have even more relevant digital solutions that pharma can dive into – e-sampling, live video, and even interactive detailing. To wit, it’s extremely difficult to find a med rep with some formidability of reputation that does not have an interactive presentation on their tablets.
Big tech powered by mobile
In the past few years, truckloads of small and large pharma companies have made a greater shift toward mobile technology. This actually not sound clinically normal, most doctors can now access medical information on their mobile phones through the day. That means they can sift through easy works with the help of smart technology and focus their energies on more complicated tasks. And that’s just one end of a spectrum of huge changes that are evolving through the pharma industry.
What lies ahead of us is next generation reality with a dense of bleeding-edge, futuristic devices. Richer customer experiences are going to be fuelled by superior pharma services made available online.
Plenty of AI and ML
The pharma industry is one of the chief beneficiaries of the trinity of machine learning, artificial intelligence, and big data. Physicians are now on the hunt for advanced datasets (both in terms of volume and complexity) that come with additional interactivities in real time.
The crux of this change is reflected in the manner of data collection and representation. All efforts are now geared toward creating a database that is both constantly updated and authentic. Pharma marketers and in 2019 will face the challenge of making this a priority in their marketing efforts. The fine mix of content with artificial intelligence will hold the key to the higher strata of pharma marketing.
We already have plenty of potential examples of on how automation and machine learning can influence the future of pharma. Right from saving costs to tracking and controlling patient journeys, machine functions are now optimized to the point where they barely need any human touch.
Improved data preferences
Individual data preferences powered by machine automation and AI will make sure customers get the necessary information faster than anytime in the past. While automation chews up a bulk of these grunt tasks, marketers should remember the values they have adhered to all these years. For better or worse, chatbots are not replacements for empathy and humanity. It takes a human to realize what people expect from the technological advancements in life sciences. If at all anything, technologies can help us better understand problems being faced by others, making us more empathetic in the process.
Every automated algorithm and the new technological process runs with people at their core. We cannot simply shoot out a mix of machine learning and artificial intelligence a silver bullet for every challenge. At the convergence of processes, technologies, and data lies the strategic thinking and mindset of humans.
New perspective of social media networks
If they haven’t discarded old marketing beliefs already, now (minus a few years) is the best time for pharma companies. Content marketing and social media promotion are no longer luxuries in marketing. Every week and month, pharma companies are uncovering new strategies to connect with their potential customers on social media. Pharma can reach specific audience types around the world an deliver them resourceful content on a range of subjects. Informed patients have the choice to conduct medical research on whichever platform they choose.
Patients can now choose to conduct their own medical research at a place and platform of their choice. Most people are known to trust things they read on the internet irrespective of the scientific validity of the fact. What we really need is a high degree of regulation on social media. The current FDA regulations place multiple restrictions to prevent shallow conversations on pharma. Even then, much of the information flowing around is largely inaccurate.
The challenge will be to develop the brand on the social media while adhering to regulatory requirements. With the help of adequate analytics, companies can provide their customers with highly relevant pieces of information. Making full use of regulated networks is the only chance pharma companies have to stay relevant with their digital marketing.
IoT in pharma marketing
IoT is transforming and revolutionizing the pharma marketing sector as we speak. Small gadgets are helping the processing of lots of information packets on a daily basis. The latest medical technologies have already hugely impacted life sciences and healthcare. An increasing number of stakeholders and analysts are now talking about how the pharma industry will shape up to the changes brought by edge computing.
“Software as a service” (Saas) is a quick solution by pharma companies. It allows access for all required services by devices from multiple locations. Insights Pharma Reports indicates that about one in two pharma manufacturers uses some form of cloud-based infrastructure or are contemplating over it.
The omnichannel approach
From what we have seen so far, the future of pharma marketing rests in active collaboration with available digital technologies. Notwithstanding how far ahead we go in that direction, devices and machines are not here to supplement human intelligence.
Like every other industry we see around us, the pharma industry is becoming more and more open to use multiple channels of marketing. New software advancements are of immense help in increasing revenue and boosting customer experience.
Futran Solutions specializes in delivering composite pharma solutions and resources. As pharma marketing is evolving, so are the resources that shoulder the needs of the industries. Speak to a Futran pharma resource specialist today to find out how we help you achieve your business and marketing objectives.
