Top Considerations When Marketing to HCPs

The pharmaceutical industry is vast and highly competitive, and effectively marketing pharma products to physicians and consumers relies significantly on how well you can define and execute your marketing goals while adapting your strategy to deal with the ever-evolving landscape.

Pharmaceutical marketers have tons of tools and resources at their disposal, from audience targeting and segmentation designed to better produce and deliver relevant content to the right people, to using direct mail marketing and digital platforms such as social media and email that make it easier for prospects to connect and interact with your content and services. But in order to properly utilize all you have at hand, you first need to take a step back and look at your overall marketing strategy.

Here are several important factors to consider when marketing to pharmaceutical companies and their decision-makers:

Defining Your Marketing Goals

This is the first step to designing your marketing campaign and informs every aspect of your overall strategy.

Take stock of what marketing processes you have in the works, and make sure to be critical. What’s working? Where can you make improvements? What needs to change to help you achieve your marketing goals? Do plenty of internal and external research to gain a better perspective and help you determine how you want to lead your strategy in the current marketing landscape.

As you examine your processes, start setting realistic and attainable goals in line with your strategy. These objectives should follow the S.M.A.R.T. criteria, meaning they are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. Setting goals in this way will serve as a better, more realistic metric for your continuing success.

You and your marketing team will have to determine what your customers want, what opportunities and challenges exist in the marketplace and the industry at large, and how you can address those better than your competition.

Targeting Your Audience

Before you can market your products or services, you need to be familiar with exactly who you want to reach. Understanding who you’re targeting and learning what they’re looking for in terms of messaging will go a long way toward ensuring that your content reaches the right audience.

When it comes to pharmaceutical marketing, you have to know what medications and services each target prospect provides, and the demographic they’re focusing on attracting. It’s not only essential to know your customers, but your customer’s customers.

As you become more knowledgeable about your audience—what they need, and how they search for and interact with your product—the easier it is to develop effective marketing campaigns that target and curate content based on their specific interests. This is why it’s important to segment your target audience by a variety of relevant criteria, including specialty, location, prescribing habits, and more, to help you better tailor your messaging.

Successful HCP marketing campaigns depend on sending the right messages to the right people. Working with PDQ Communications ensures you have access to our extensive list of HCP contacts spanning hundreds of specialties and dozens of professions from across the industry.

Produce Unique, Relevant & High-Quality Content

When it comes to marketing, content is king, and marketing to pharmaceuticals is no different.

Ensure anything you produce is factual, educational, relevant, and compelling enough to earn the recipient’s attention. Physicians generally respond to more info-heavy content, so you don't have to be afraid of loading up your mailers, posts or emails with useful stats and numbers.

Educating your customers on the benefits of particular drugs or treatments, clinical trial data, safety information, health risks, and other factors will make you a valuable resource for those who engage with your content.

When evaluating your online content, you should also make sure to include a way for people to add their email addresses, leave a comment or review, or otherwise interact with the site. Including an effective CTA with an actionable request prompts your audience to do something. This will keep them coming back, and maximizes the chances of converting users into customers.

Prioritize Your Digital Platforms

Recently, in-person meetings and conferences have largely been replaced by virtual meetings and video conferences, but the importance of staying connected to partners, teammates and prospective customers has remained. Reinvesting in your company’s digital presence by equipping your team with the tools and resources they need to take full advantage of the new virtual environment is paramount.

With so much of the marketing landscape going virtual, email marketing has also grown in significance. A targeted email marketing campaign is an effective means of reaching your intended audience wherever they are, as well as adding value by sharing relevant and specialized content that matches their interests or specialities.

Once someone engages with your email marketing they’ll likely visit your website to further interact with your content or inquire about your services. When they do, you must be sure your site is optimized to provide a clean and seamless online experience which provides relevant and useful information, and lets your audience know about your products or services.