“Analytics are becoming more predictive, programmatic, and intuitive for pharmaceutical companies, and it’s now possible to deliver alerts and next-best actions seamlessly,” says Leilani Latimer, VP Global Marketing, Zephyr Health. “Solutions that anticipate market needs and operationalize important changes, such as a formulary status change, or responses to a nonpersonal promotion campaign, let sales and marketing teams act on real-time alerts and recommendations. Not only does this change marketing behavior from pull to push, it makes pharma marketers more dynamic in their go-to-market planning and execution.” How are marketers using analytics in big pharma digital marketing to impact their business?
Patient-Centric Approach
As medicine in general is becoming more individualized, marketing strategies are becoming more personalized. Technology solutions like patient portals and apps are allowing patients to document their experiences and communicate more easily with physicians. AI powered chatbots are available to patients 24/7. They have access to instant information about their questions and concerns whether it be on their personal health condition or directions needed for using medical devices, side effects or treatment options. Patients are participating more actively in their own healthcare. The data collected from these efforts are providing marketers with deep, reliable data that they can use to target specific messages to the right patient at the right time…effectively using analytics in big pharma digital marketing.
Physician Behavioral Targeting
Collecting data on physician preferences and patterns in care delivery allows analytics to be done that provide insights for more effective marketing tactics. Models are being developed that indicate when a physician has a high probability of having patients eligible for a certain treatment. “AI can be used to identify specific physician practices where undiagnosed patients with the highest probability of having a difficult-to-diagnose condition are currently being managed for other conditions,” says Bob Gabruk, Managing Director, 81qd.
Data sets that allow for National Provider Identifier (NPI) targeting include the American Medical Association’s (AMA) listing recognizing medical specialty, subspecialties and secondary or tertiary specialties, and other data sets around license type, hospital affiliation, address, practice name and insurance carriers. NPI targeting data guarantees more accurate campaign reporting and smarter optimization that has staying power.
Point-in-Time Marketing
Just like marketers can influence or detect opportunities for medical intervention, optimizing marketing tactics to deliver the right message to the right care provider or patient at the right time in the patient’s treatment is a significant improvement for all the parties involved. Timely data can be used and acted upon NOW. Data or marketing efforts that lag by months is not good enough to keep marketing teams informed enough to act on the rapidly evolving pharma marketplace. “Understanding the triggers for interaction in real time helps marketers to target timely outreach and align communications and programs tied to the patient experience,” says Derek Rago, VP Business Intelligence and Product Strategy, McKesson Specialty Health.
Data Consolidation and Transformation
The consolidation of data from different sources into analytically useable databases provides the opportunity for a deeper understanding the marketplace informing marketing strategies. “This is where machine-learning solutions are providing the most value; with AI solutions, larger and more complex sets of data can be connected and analyzed more rapidly, “ says Latimer from Zephyr Health. “This gives marketers the ability to segment and sub-segment customers based upon a more sophisticated set of characteristics, and to engage them with timely and tailored messaging – all in support of their commercial strategies.”
