When putting together any HCP engagement campaign, one of the most common questions is “What channels should I use?”. But before you can address this question you need to know what you want to achieve before you worry about execution. Are you struggling to reach customers, or is your aim to interact with your existing customers more frequently? Having a clear idea of your overarching objective(s) will give you clarity in terms of channel requirements.
For instance, if your objective is to add frequency, then your strategy might be to leverage mostly low-touch channels to increase frequency. Channel options could therefore include: remote rep or MSL, pharma self-service portal, and/or rep triggered email.
Whereas if you are aiming to add impact, then your strategy would be to make every encounter count more, in which case Closed Loop Marketing (CLM), rich-media and/or personalized content would be channels to consider.
To increase reach you need to connect with customers you are currently not seeing, whether these are no-access customers, or because of restricted resources or geographic difficulties. To accomplish this objective you could consider any of the following: pharma email, pharma self-service portal, 3rd party site/newsletter, remote rep or MSL, call centre, pharma webcasts, eMedical education and/or banners.
And as a fourth and final example, if you want to facilitate “social selling” (aka peer-to-peer communications), then you need to help customers (mainly HCPs) connect with each other to personally endorse key messages. In this case your channel options would include: (KOL) webinars, virtual advisory boards, and/or HCP and patient networks.
As with content, when it comes to channels, more is not always better. You don’t necessarily need a lot of channels. Focus on your objectives and identify channels that specifically support these. Deprioritizing non-essential channels reduces complexity and cost, freeing up resources to allow you to focus on what really matters.
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