1. Digital transformation

Digital transformation in pharma has been famously slow. But evidence suggests that there may be an acceleration at hand, with greater senior level recognition and more money flowing into digital initiatives. But these two are not enough for digital transformation to take hold and flourish. There are four key dimensions (burning platform, actionable strategy, technology/people enablement, robust pilots) that need to be embraced to ensure true acceleration – if one is lacking, change will be subpar.

2. Digital divide
A growing number of HCPs would like to communicate digitally with pharma – but a far smaller number are currently reached via digital channels. There’s a clear gap between digital demand and supply. We call this disparity the ‘Digital Divide’. The bigger the gap, the bigger the opportunity. The bott om line is simple: progressive companies that e? ecti vely leverage digital channels in ways that match HCPs’ preferences can create a real recipe for success.

3. Multichannel rep
The promise of digital engagement with stakeholders is alluring – but many worry that removing the personal contact provided by reps could undermine relationship building. One of the leading solutions to this dilemma is to turn traditional reps into multichannel orchestrators. While much ink has been spilt on this, the full potential of this model is not at all being realized.

4. Segmentation

Many pharma companies persist with increasingly outdated models of communication. With its customers heading in one direction, pharma’s reliance on traditional channels means many are driving the wrong way down a one-way street. The need for nuanced, customer-centric communications that are built on a robust appreciation of individual/segment HCP needs and channel affinity by customer journey stage is widely understood. But is pharma actually acting on this?

5. More…is less

Sprinkling a bit of digital onto pre-existing Share-of-Voice led plans has been a go-to approach of many in pharma for some time, under the mantra of “more/augmentation is better”. But this approach will leave empowered HCPs feeling over-full, which will diminish the power and efficiency of ALL channels. In the “anytime, anywhere” New Normal, “less is more” and channel variation driven by customer journey stage and overall channel affinity is the way to go.

6. ROI

As the truism has gone: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half”. This left a large space for experience and instinct to make best-guess calls. However, this should no longer be the case – more data, and better analytics, mean that ROI and data-driven decisions should be at the heart of any (omnichannel) customer engagement programme.

7. Digital native HCP

The rise of the digital native has, understandably, hogged the headlines, presenting pharma with a burgeoning group of younger, digital-savvy customers. With two-thirds of the HCP population likely to be digital natives by 2020 it’s vital that the industry understands what this key demographic values. We continue to see a worrying misalignment between the types of communications that pharma is delivering and what HCPs want to receive – and the misalignment also exists for many “digital immigrants”.

8. Tactics before strategy

New tactics have proven to be both shiny and distracting for pharma – just think of the app boom or the social media craze of a couple of years ago – and the health tech frenzy today. But unless they fit into a clear strategy, are connected to clear business leverage points and can be executed at scale – they are often just that: a distraction. Real success comes from an integrated approach starting from the customer; there is little room for even an amazing tactic if it doesn’t fit.

As Sun Tzu said: tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.

9. Digital warming

Many in pharma are still sitting on ‘non-digital’ icebergs…. But the digital ocean is melting these at quite some rate. This ‘digital warming’ effect is undeniable – but some still stick to pretending it is not happening. The thing is – jumping straight into the digital ocean can improve customer engagement, efficiency and effectiveness… Time to get wet before there is no choice?

10. Right frequency

More is not always better. Simply overlaying traditional contact frequency targets with “cheap” digital surplus contacts will result in access issues, reduced brand & company equity and ultimately diminished returns. Understanding how often, and through which channels, HCPs like receiving information is one of the cornerstones of successful engagement…and can be the prelude to a “disruptive” go-to-market model.

11. Execution(ers) challenge

An idea doesn’t just need to be brilliant to be a success – even before it gets to market, it must be robust enough to go through the rigorous pharma approval process. For truly new ideas, the hurdles may not even be known before the process starts. The key is to have as many gatekeeping stakeholders involved as early as possible to stop a brilliant idea never moving beyond a proposal.

12. It's all in the mix

Always getting offered the same channel in isolation can be quite boring. The art & science of linking different channels seamlessly together can be quite refreshing to customers and should cause a significant uptick in engagement and ultimately impact.