Digital marketing in the pharmaceutical industry is a rapidly evolving field that has transformed the way pharma companies communicate and deliver their products. With digital channels unavoidable in any marketing strategy, pharma companies can now reach their target audience effectively and efficiently.
Any digital marketing strategy for the pharmaceutical business is likely to involve the use of social media, email marketing, search engine optimisation (SEO), and content marketing to promote products and services.
The primary objective of digital marketing in pharma is to educate and inform healthcare professionals and patients about the benefits and risks of pharmaceutical products and services.
Building a marketing strategy for pharmaceutical companies
Any good pharma digital marketing strategy starts with research. Businesses in this realm typically require extra research to grow through multiple channels at once due to stringent requirements.
But, using digital marketing tools to enhance the reputation of pharma brands is something we have years of experience in. We understand the underlying purpose of digital marketing for pharma companies is much more than money making – it’s life-changing.
As with most business-to-business marketing strategies, it’s important to use end-user centric material in your messaging. It’s no different in pharma marketing too.
Patient-centric marketing messaging can help potential buyers to convert. People love to see people when they’re being advertised or marketed to. It’s an undoubted and widely recognised fact that people-driven content directly supports positive marketing output.
Particularly in social media marketing strategies for pharmaceutical companies which include channels like LinkedIn, using case studies, testimonials and team news can revolutionise a digital presence.
Generating an increased level of emotional connection and relatability not only helps on social but can help generate higher organic rankings on search engines like Google and Bing. This means that long-form case studies can form the base of an SEO strategy for pharmaceutical companies.
Google itself has a set of guidelines that should be followed to create supreme SEO content. One of which is Experience, which is all about getting practical knowledge and real-life examples into your website’s content. This Experience not only helps you to rank higher for relevant informational searches but will have an impact on searches where a potential customer wants to buy or enquire.
Not two digital marketing strategies should be identical, each research and benchmarking piece will throw a different route to a brand’s digital transformation.
A pharmaceutical company’s target audience will be on different channels to that of a business within renewables, for example. This means that our approach to strategising has to be flexible and must adapt to how the customer behaviour of pharmaceutical end-users is vastly different to other industries.
Our approach to pharmaceutical digital marketing will take into consideration a myriad of different channels from social media and SEO, both highlighted above, to PR, highlighted below, and PPC.
Our team of digital marketing strategy experts will spend time to understand your unique selling points, your key values and messaging, and any potential gaps in your brand positioning. It’s important to approach these strategy meetings with an open mind in order to take the next step on the growth path.
Each pharmaceutical marketing strategy should be paired with an unwaveringly ethical sales process.
Rather presenting twisted facts to potential buyers in the sales process, pharmaceutical companies need to lay out accurate and unbiased information about each and every product they create. Sales people within your business shouldn’t be looking to push products for the sake of numbers, they should be acting as near healthcare professionals to provide the right product to the right buyer.
Technology plays a critical role in pharma marketing, enabling companies to reach and engage with their target audience more effectively and efficiently. Digital marketing tools such as marketing automation software, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, and data analytics platforms can help pharma companies to personalise any digital marketing campaigns. Taking a technology-first approach helps improve efficiency, reduce costs and maximise return on investment.
Battling the challenges of the pharmaceutical industry
Due to strict global regulations within the industry, the pharmaceutical sector faces a lot of unique challenges. Using a variety of marketing activities, businesses can position their business in a stronger manner to mitigate associated stresses quickly.
The industry is regulated heavily by different independent and governmental bodies. Whether US-based, UK-based or German-based, getting products approved can be a long, arduous effort. Some complicated approval processes sometimes take years to get product developments signed-off.
It is important, however, during these times for in-house teams and marketing agencies specialising in pharmaceutical strategies to work on marketing these products. One such channel for companies to use is the creation of news content, thought leadership and, both, digital and traditional PR.
Sharing these types of content with industry press is a perfect way of cementing your brand as a forward-thinking entity on the cutting-edge of the industry. It’ll make your competitor’s eyebrows move up a couple of centimetres, that’s for sure.
Building and maintaining pharmaceutical brand reputations is hard but attainable through PR.
Pharmaceutical companies must prioritise the safety of all their potential end-users in any marketing activities used in their digital marketing strategy. In many cases, people’s lives can depend on taking medicines created by these companies.
With that in mind, it’s imperative that marketing strategies for pharmaceutical businesses are created with the utmost transparency and honesty. All digital communications generated by pharmaceutical companies should be proofed a number of times to check for misleading claims and to assess the truth behind each.
