Pharmaceutical Marketing: The Rules of Generating Engagement
If you have ever defined engagement (be it via brand trial, adoption and/or usage) as the key measure of your promotional and sales strategy, you know that tactically your key promotional drivers, assets and messages will require a strong call-to-action as a leading indicator of intent and ultimately success. A marketing tactic without a call-to-action is simply an awareness tactic. If you want early indicators of engagement such as trial, usage and conversion/adoption to show through as measurable, you MUST ask your audience to take action on something.
A call-to-action in marketing is more than just a punch sound bite or phrase. It’s the critical connection that transforms awareness to intent through trial, usage and adoption. For pharma, providing physicians with support tools/materials to best equip/assist them and their staff in supporting and serving their patients is a highly valued and utilized performance indicator of such intent.
In the earlier Media Vitals survey conducted by CMI/Compas, we uncovered support materials/tools found most useful (on a scale of 1-5, rated as 4 VERY or 5 MOST USEFUL) by physicians across 21 different specialties (N=2,167 physicians) – making these the top “call to action” choices for adoption in any campaign.
Drug samples ranked number 1, and was recognized by 69% of responding physicians across the board as MOST useful in their practice settings! Patient starter kits were rated as second most useful by 61% of responders, yet they seem to have NOT made their way in recent years from Pharma to physician sample closets or storage areas. Patient education along with Vouchers/Coupons for Patients tied for third place, with 56% of responders stating they find these most useful in their practice settings. Interestingly, most physicians across the many practicing generations still prefer to have something to “hand out” to patients and discuss as part of their consult, rather than point them to a site on the Internet or their smartphone. Information regarding patient financial assistance rated fourth with 54% of responders, while medication guidelines for personal physician use followed immediately thereafter with 52%. Forty percent also rated medical reprints (even with Sunshine reporting looming) as another key and valued source. Interestingly, patient appointment and/or prescription refill reminders ranked last with only 19% of responding physicians!
The greatest takeaway is that there are many valuable ways in which Pharma can and should engage with the Medical community - with benefits that not only demonstrate engagement and intent but more so enable the provision of quality, unbiased care on behalf of the provider to the patient.
What has your experience been with the use of these or other call to action drivers? Please share your thoughts on things that worked really well as part of your engagement strategy!