– By Harshit Jain, Founder & CEO, Doceree

 

What’s so striking about the year 2020, other than Corona? Perhaps, it is the upsurge of digital technologies across the globe.

 

It goes without saying that digital methods brought some semblance of normality in our lives during the catastrophic pandemic — we could talk to a doctor over phone, make financial transactions, children could study online, employees could continue doing jobs from home and we could stay connected with family and our loved ones.

 

For the first time, the power of digital technologies has been so profoundly felt. While umpteen challenges were glaring at our faces, digital technology not only made the lives of common man easier, but it also opened new avenues of doing business for marketers.

 

For Pharmaceutical companies which have long been quite wary of using the digital medium for brand promotion, digital platforms, in particular, became the only channel to keep in touch with their critical target audience – the Physicians.

 

Integrated digital marketing platforms – Changing the face of Physician marketing

 

Rx drug brands – What’s in for them?

 

The outbreak accelerated adoption of digital by pharmaceutical brands as they had to go into serious evaluation of their marketing strategies in a jiffy. Until COVID-19 broke out, the popular traditional method of Pharma brands to reach out to Physicians via sales representatives was doing just fine, and suddenly it ceased to work.

 

The pandemic presented Pharma marketers with an insurmountable challenge, and they clearly saw a ray of hope in countering it by way of digital platforms, and rightly so! Of late, there has been a considerable spurt in the popularity of integrated ad-tech platforms among pharma marketers. Let’s debug, why?

 

Effective behaviour change: Integrated ad-tech platforms allow Rx drug brands to customize their marketing communication after analysing Physicians’ behaviours, patterns, interests, demography and several other traits. The tailor-made campaigns and personalised communication are important to drive critical behaviour change among doctors and make them prescribe brands for which campaigns are being run. Also, while Rx drug brands took a leap from traditional methods to digital mediums, they stuck to doing campaigns with platforms in isolation wherein  results were not satisfactory. Integrated ad-tech platforms solve the problem for Rx drug brands by letting them reach out to Physicians on multiple platforms, thus ensuring a critical mass – something which is absolutely essential to trigger effective behaviour change.

 

Precision targeting: For a campaign to deliver desired outcomes, it must be targeted precisely to Physicians’ concerned. Campaigns and messaging that are customized and personalised while aiming at targeting doctor/s who could resonate with them are able to yield far better results than campaigns lacking any sort of precision targeting. Integrated ad-tech platforms employ AI and ML tools that help precision target Physicians, delivering higher engagements and subsequent conversions.

 

Regulation and compliance: Pharma companies have to tread the path cautiously for digital brand promotions. While there are innumerable digital platforms where Rx brands can run marketing campaigns to reach out to Physicians, the struggle is in finding those that are regulatory compliant. In such a scenario, the handful of integrated digital marketing platforms adhering to regulations and compliance offer a great deal of opportunity to Pharma marketers to gain access to Physicians during these uncertain times.

 

Transparency: Apart from being regulatory-compliant, the other major reason why Pharma marketers are keen on partnering with platforms like Doceree is the transparency they provide. Rx drug brands spend a lot while marketing on generic digital platforms, however

there is no visibility of progress of digital campaigns, thus defeating the very purpose of using a digital medium. On the other hand platforms like Doceree provide complete transparency, control and the ability to optimise for better efficiencies.

 

Physicians – What’s in for them?

 

Like pharma marketers, Physicians are also seeing a lot of value in integrated ad-tech platforms, and the reasons are multiple.

 

Accessibility of information: Integrated ad-tech platforms make it convenient for doctors to access information that are useful to them. They do not have to waste time scouring for information of interest or that which serve value. These platforms guarantee that doctors are able to check out information that are meant precisely for them.

 

No disturbance to schedule: Platforms like Doceree allow doctors to access information without any disruption in their day-to-day schedule. They could view information on Physician-only sites they already access during a patient visit or while a break or during their an online consultation. They are not required to park off some spare time from their daily schedule to gather information around new products, launches, innovation or any updates around existing products and services.

 

Increased trust: Physicians have information – necessary as well unnecessary – flowing in from multiple outlets. For want of time to sift through the information that is intended for them, they begin distancing from digital advertisements. Integrated ad-tech platforms like Doceree have solved the issue for Physicians by only showcasing them information that relates to their specialty or cross-specialities. This helps build a trust and rapport with Physicians, ultimately resulting in better and continued engagement.

 

COVID-19 has given a much needed digital thrust to the healthcare sector. The pandemic

has established the fact that the future of healthcare lies in digital. Pharmaceutical brands and Physicians are finally waking up to the reality – one with which they are embracing to live with. Platforms like Doceree are only making the transition smooth and convenient.