Digital Content Factories: Key to Scalable Omnichannel Marketing for Pharma Companies

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when I say "digital content factory?" For many, this term is likely to be associated with something completely stripped of creativity and meant to just fill in the void when content creation gets too difficult and expensive. But what if I told you that digital content factories can empower digital marketing and speed up content production while enhancing the creative and intellectual value of the content? Let me tell you more about this.

Understanding Digital Content Factories (DCFs)

Scaling content production for pharma companies is a challenging task that requires expertise, human hours, thorough planning, and resources. All that can be alleviated by digital content factories (DCFs). A digital content factory is an end-to-end solution that enables companies to produce content at scale and gain flexibility in various operation processes, from content planning to delivery. Omnichannel marketing and DCFs are often intertwined since both approaches help businesses optimize content creation and make the content itself more impactful.

Role of omnichannel marketing in pharma

Omnichannel marketing enables companies to craft unified and personalized customer journeys, guiding healthcare professionals (HCPs) through tailored content rather than bombarding them with repetitive information across different channels. A digital content factory enhances this personalization, driving organic traffic and increasing brand awareness by creating more engaging, relevant, and consistent content.

Will AI replace DCF?

Content generation with AI is not the same as enabling the content, which, unlike AI-powered solutions, maintains branding and customer loyalty. Without human intervention, we are powerless, as you still need human judgment to maintain branding and keep your company's tone of voice. Yes, with the help of AI, enabling content can be simplified, but this does not mean you can get away without human intervention. Digital content factories will continue to serve as one of the best solutions for scaling content production and enablement.

Benefits of Digital Content Factories

Digital content factories offer many benefits, from faster content distribution to more personalized marketing technology, but let's talk about three main advantages of DCF implementation:

Agility

Even if a company hires a creative agency and delegates all content-related tasks to it, it is still not guaranteed that it will be able to speed up content delivery. With a digital content factory, companies can achieve flexibility in operational processes, such as content production and distribution, and scale up and down quickly while maintaining the same level of productivity.

Strategic campaign planning

Implementing the DCF opens further strategic opportunities for the business, such as implementing the Campaign Factory. As the extension of the DCF, Campaign Factory promotes a holistic campaign planning and deployment approach. With a flexible planning-execution-tracking pipeline in place, Campaign Factories help pharma businesses scale up their marketing efforts across all channels.

Enabled modular approach

The modular approach involves breaking down content into smaller, manageable parts, and a digital content factory facilitates the creation of such modular content pieces. What's the point of creating one big, expensive movie if we can use it in just one channel? Why don't we break the film into shorter episodes and reuse it on different channels? With DCFs, companies can easily repurpose content and create unique customer journeys within the desired budget and deadline.

Enhanced creativity

Don't be discouraged by the "factory" concept: it's not about putting things on the assembly line and churning out large quantities of mediocre products. A digital content factory enables the work of creative agencies, not replaces it.

Integrating Content Factories in Pharma Marketing

Integrating a digital content factory is much simpler than you might think, though it still requires expertise and a structured approach. Here are the main steps that precede the integration itself:

1. Defining the workflows and processes

The first thing a company should do is establish clear rules of the game. The DCF approach is unique: it involves experts who know the right technology, understand their clients, and follow a clear delivery process. Content is the king, delivery is the queen, and both always come hand in hand. A simplified and scalable delivery process allows us to execute the scale we are talking about when it comes to DCF, reuse assets, and lower service costs.

2. Separating creativity from content production

The second step should be decoupling content production from the creative processes. A creative agency makes money from ideas, production, messages, and efforts that require the combined talents of a large group of people, while a digital content factory helps creative agencies focus on bringing their best ideas to life. DCF experts enable these ideas through various templates, marketing strategies, and other systems that facilitate content creation, customization, and delivery. The digital content factory doesn't diminish creativity; quite the opposite, it reinforces it.

3. Measuring the baseline

After decoupling, the next task is measuring the baseline and figuring out how much it costs to create and enable content for different channels. After these measurements, we will understand the global and local estimates and can start searching for vendors.

Currently, most digital content factories are hybrid, meaning they offer different types of products, including AI-powered solutions and Do It Yourself services. Of course, they also have benchmarks you can use to compare costs per asset. Don't hesitate to request information on those benchmarks; a reliable vendor should gladly provide you with this information.

4. Integrate the DCF

Integrating a content factory is relatively quick, especially with a reliable service provider. On top of that, the DCF can be the platform for further initiatives such as Campaign Factory. However, effective change management is still essential, as digital content factories require major organizational changes that can confuse employees without proper support and training.

Strategies for Implementing DCFs

The content factory is all about a partnership. Once you decide to implement a DCF, keep in mind that it will be most effective if based on collaboration and aligned goals. Here are a few more strategies for DCF implementation:

Assessing current capabilities

One of the most important steps in your journey to implementing a DCF is determining your key performance indicators (KPIs). What are the page views? What is the click-through rate? How many comments do consumers leave? These factors can help you achieve your goals faster and build the best content factory strategy for your business.

Choosing the right technology

Many tools and platforms can help you achieve maximum marketing efficiency and content optimization when implementing a DCF. The choice of those tools depends a lot on your goals and needs, so consider them when deciding what kind of software to invest in. Some key technologies are content management systems (CMS), personalization engines, analytics and reporting tools, content creation tools, marketing automation platforms, and digital asset management systems.

Developing a scalable content strategy

A well-structured content factory model that takes into account the company's goals and needs can help you build a scalable content strategy. Ask yourself: How can I adjust the content creation process to scale when needed? What processes can you automate or optimize to scale faster? With a digital content factory, adapting to the market's ever-changing needs becomes much easier, and if you develop a scalable content strategy, you will be able to leverage the power of DCFs fully.

Closing Thoughts

Previously, it was always one channel, one piece of content. Now, we can browse through a vast library of templates and modules to build a personalized customer experience based on our goals. This eliminates situations where, for example, you have an e-detailer but no accompanying email or a video without a supporting presentation. This is the essence of an omnichannel strategy, and digital content factories can help you unleash its full potential.

If you are ready to tap into the power of omnichannel marketing, Viseven Digital Content Factory is the right solution for you. Learn more about it on our website.