Foreword on Pharma Digital Marketing
Know – Appreciate – Adopt
Before I joined the Certified Digital Marketing Master’s Course from Digital Vidya, I tried doing a little bit of research on the subject. The internet is flooded with information on Digital Marketing but not much on Pharma Digital Marketing or on how going digital can help Pharma Marketers.
I believe that the Pharma Digital Marketing practitioners tribe needs to grow. That can happen only if we KNOW more about Digital Marketing, APPRECIATE the various nuances of it, and only then we can ADOPT it in our regular Pharma Marketing.
To tie up Digital with Pharma Marketing, I think I am qualified. Now that I have 25+ years of successful Pharma Marketing experience and am also a Certified Digital Marketer. I was a beginner in digital marketing sometime back and I had some very basic questions about it. I feel that even you may have the same.
And I shall just take 2 Minutes. This is strictly for beginners in Pharma Digital Marketing. Let’s get on
What is Digital Marketing?
It is an advanced and highly Customer-oriented form of marketing. It uses the internet and digital platforms like email, search engines (e.g. Google), social media, websites, and applications. This form of marketing is aimed to increase the online presence and ROI among carefully selected customers.
Let’s also know some key features that make Digital Marketing, what it is. And let us try relating with Pharma marketing.
1. The Customer is NOT a ‘face in the crowd’:
Digital Marketing assumes that each customer is a unique individual with a unique persona, behavior, needs, and aspirations. Basis this, customers are targeted with deadly precision using personalized digital communication contents and services. Naturally, results are far better.
In Pharma, we focus on customers as well, but our identification of the customers’ persona can be far better. The reason, why we end up wasting a lot of our resources. Isn’t that one of our key pain-points?
2. TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU:
Yes, these refer to the buyer behavior stages in a marketing funnel. In Digital Marketing, these are guidelines on the basis of which, digital strategies and tools are decided. Hence, in Digital Marketing it is very important to first place the customer in a particular place in the Marketing Funnel and then proceed with strategy.
In Pharma, we define and classify our customers but in a fairly broad manner. Just ask yourself: Does your VA have specialty-wise communication or communication as per customers’ quantum of support? That’s the difference. Get the hang of it?
3. The ‘Why’ is Most Important. As is ‘How Much’:
In Digital Marketing nothing moves without first setting a customer-based objective. Each objective is measurable through some metrics and so are the Outcomes. There is ‘0’ subjectivity.
Our Pharma brand plans and marketing plans also have objectives. The difference here is that every objective and activity is Customer Specific and very sharply measurable even on a daily basis.
4. Heard about Marketing Automation?
Almost every intervention in Digital Marketing can be managed automatically. So errors or lapses in the scheduling of campaigns or communications are least likely to happen. You just need to prepare the content, schedule it and roll it on.
For us, attrition creates disconnected customers, held – up campaigns, delayed inputs… Not so, in Digital Marketing. You can design annual campaigns in 10 – days flat and watch it roll on automatically in a perfect, hourly/ daily/weekly/monthly schedule all year long. Also, you can continuously remain connected with as many as 500 to 50,000 customers, even if there is attrition
5. Honey, I Don’t Have the Money!
This sets Digital Marketing wide apart from regular marketing. If you are a skillful marketer, then you would love to see most of your marketing objectives get fulfilled at a fraction of the cost with Digital Marketing. You would either save enormously or get better returns for the same money. Exciting, right?
Those of you who manage pharma P&L, are bound to have noticed the disproportionate growth in your sales and marketing expenditure. Give your marketing expenditure, a Digital Twist. And enjoy the difference
To wrap up the first part, I am sure, you have realized that Digital Marketing is simply BETTER marketing. It scores very high in terms of customer specificity, measurability, and scores quite low in terms of marketing expenditure.
There’s much more. But as promised, I shall not go on beyond 2 minutes. If you have liked what you read, do LIKE it and SHARE it.
Disclaimer 1: I know that all of you are successful pharma marketers and I firmly believe that you are doing fine maybe even without knowing Digital Marketing. If you know Digital Marketing, it’s great. If not, knowing about a new thing does not hurt.
Disclaimer 2: I know for sure that there are several pharma organizations that have already adopted digital ways. This may be worthwhile for those, who have not