How to master digital engagement with Healthcare Professionals

For the past few years, it’s all anyone seemed to talk about:

What’s our digital strategy? Do we have adequate digital capabilities? How can we convert the customer journey to digital? What are the digital insights?

It’s easy to become numb to ‘digital transformation’ or ‘digitalisation’ but here we identify the biggest enablers for HCP digital engagement.

Digital engagement with HCPs has increased hugely in the last few years. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, biopharma organisations had to flip 100% to digital communication channels to stay afloat, and we learnt a massive amount in the process.

A great example of this was the use of Webinars.

Increasing in number by 3250% in 2020 compared to 2019.¹

Do you want the quick win with webinars? Shorten the engagement – reducing these down to 15-20 minutes. Or, if you can, 3-6 minutes is even better.²

Now that we’ve emerged from lockdown, the general preference for HCPs seems to be balanced between digital channels and in-person channels, with neither leading the way as a priority.⁴ But the key factor here is that there is no ‘general preference’ HCP - the perfect mix of channel is highly dependent on each individual.

Which is where the second biggest enabler presents itself: Personalisation.

Less than 20% of HCPs are getting personalised experiences.⁴ Instead they get a one-size-fits-all experience, leading to a worrying 65% of HCPs feeling “spammed” with digital content.⁵

To reduce the number of distracting digital touchpoints for customers, you need a customer segmentation model, in which your target audience is characterised into specific profiles.

One thing to note here though, is that 40% of HCPs change segments as often as every 6 months.⁵ In contrast to our prescribing personas, our digital customer segmentation must be a dynamic and on-going activity.

To explore and embed these digital engagement solutions in your business, contact us to schedule a call or find out more about our Medical Omnichannel capabilities.

References:

¹ Furtner et al, 2021. Digital Transformation in Medical Affairs Sparked by the Pandemic: Insights and Learnings from COVID19 Era and Beyond

² Spotme, 2023. Accessed March 2023. https://spotme.com/blog/hcp-engagement-emerging-trends-success-metrics-and-omnichannel-strategies

³ Ghosh et al, 2021. Preparing for the Next Normal. Accessed March 2023. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40290-021-00392-x

⁴ Accenture, 2021. Accessed March 2023. https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insights/life-sciences/new-rules-healthcare-provider-engagement

⁵ PharmaForum, 2023. Accessed March 2023. https://pharmaphorum.com/views-and-analysis/automating-and-optimising-hcp-engagement-to-maximise-commercial-success