Making Pharma HCP Marketing actionable

Differentiate your Pharma HCP Marketing through patient focus

Pharma HCP marketing is a marketing strategy that forges a close connection between pharma and healthcare practitioners (HCPs). Product information, knowledge and experience with products and therapies is made easily available to HCPs through multichannel marketing. Ensuring that HCPs become increasingly familiar with the product properties. By adopting a pharma HCP marketing approach and forming a bond with HCPs, you increase their receptiveness to your product or service.

The most impactful relationships with HCPs are formed when pharma marketing teams adapt their strategy closely to the specific needs of the HCPs and their patients (‘Customer Focus’). Our research shows that commercial pharma teams score very well on variables such as product knowledge and pleasant contact with the HCP. In fact, most healthcare companies score "at par” and so there is little or no differentiation.

This graph ranks the products and treatments from high to low Net Promoter Score (willingness to prescribe). In +80% of the cases, the products with higher NPS are backed by HCP pharma marketing with the most customer focus. (Market with anonymized products: dermatology)

Adapting messages in Pharma HCP Marketing

Prior to personalising your marketing strategy, there are a few key factors to take into account, such as:

  • Most HCPs insist on their autonomy in the choice of treatment and product. Especially in Anglo-Saxon cultures, it is more difficult to approach the HCP. In order to establish credibility, first use other, more objective channels such as guidelines and conferences.
  • Marketing storylines are dynamic, they evolve with the product knowledge and experience of the HCP.
  • The more experience, the higher the need to dive deeper into specific patient cases.

Once a certain credibility is established, HCPs are receptive to different arguments, depending on their experience with a product and their personality. Make your conversation with the HCP more engaging by differentiating your marketing content:

  • Product-intrinsic arguments or information: efficacy, innovative features, 5-year data, comparative studies.
  • De-risking: a product’s safety profile (is it best in class?), which side effects to expect and how to manage them.
  • Patient experience: info related to ease of use and quality of life. How does a treatment impact a patient’s life (e.g. food dependency).
  • Practical: best practices in monitoring treatment adherence, product info for nurses, logistic and administrative info.

Tuning Pharma Marketing to HCP interaction preferences

Through discussions with HCPs and surveys on multichannel communication and pharma HCP marketing, we can distinguish two groups of HCPs:

HCPs who want to be visited, who value the relationship aspect. A number of preferred interactions are:

  • Medical or product specialist. Note that the role of face-to-face contacts has changed: the specialists can now focus much more on providing information and offering assistance tailored to the HCP on demand.
  • Presentation to the team in the institution, or a regional presentation.
  • Scientific literature and face-to-face medical education as back-up.

HCPs who want to retrieve information themselves when required e.g. when they have a specific question related to a patient or when they are preparing a lecture or article.

  • A – preferably – medical advisor that HCPs can approach.
  • Presence at conferences.
  • Scientific literature and virtual medical education as back-up.

By keeping these preferred interactions in mind when formulating your pharma marketing strategy, you will successfully form a close relationship with HCPs and, consequently, their patients. However, if a product has little news value to generate, it is better to choose more cost-effective channels than face-to-face contact. E-detailing, for example, provides the HCP with all the necessary information at a fraction of the cost, while still catering your pharma marketing strategy to HCPs.

About Optigage

The easiest way to successfully apply a carefully balanced pharma HCP marketing strategy is to bring in a specialised pharma marketing consultancy. Optigage has over 15 years of experience in 20 different treatment areas, we adapt our workflow to fit your needs. We work alongside our clients as one team, building capabilities with a shared ambition to achieve outstanding results through tailored HCP pharma marketing.

Are you interested in discovering the benefits of HCP pharma marketing for yourself?

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