Why do pharma marketers feel, digital initiatives are not giving results?

Most Indian pharma companies are riding on the digital wave and focusing on launching different initiatives in the digital space. But lately, most of them are finding it difficult to drive doctors for enrollment and engagement. Now the new board room discussion is why digital is not working. What went wrong??Or is the thought process towards digital in a different direction?

Though we agree most brand managers do understand digital marketing as they are using these platforms daily for posting personal updates. But often miss out on the core understanding of how platforms operate, how to select a digital platform, when to post and how to engage with the HCPs. They often create a website, launch a webinar or create a mobile application for HCP learning. Once this is done, they will push the medical reps to drive doctors to enroll, join the platform or drive likes from HCPs. This is where the problem arises, we cannot push the doctors, they need to experience a pull factor to engage with the platforms. We have seen quite similar thought processes when pharma marketers launch social media pages or social handles for patient education. They will invest a huge amount of time and money to create the post, but often never invest to market or promote it. And they often wonder why digital is not working. In digital we work on a rule of 60:40, if your investment is 40% to create a Facebook-led initiative or a website, then a 60% budget of the 40% needs to go towards promotion.?

Well to start here are a couple of thought starters when a brand or company wants to go digital.?

# Defining the core challenge is very important. A brand manager can come across different challenges shared by the medical rep, but identifying the core challenge is very important before going ahead with any solution. The solution also needs to have possible scenarios, impacts they can achieve, and defined deliverables.?

# Brand managers need to get buy-in from medical reps and doctors on whether the solution would help them and how it will impact their personal or professional life. The role of digital marketing is to complement medical reps. They have one on one relationships with the HCPs which no other industry can boast about.? When medical reps feel the use of digital is towards replacement, they will not try to implement the digital strategies. Essentially the focus should be to make medical reps digitally savvy so they know to use the tools which will help to engage with more doctors and more often they will engage.?

# Now comes the major aspect of whether the entire solution needs to be digital or needs to have a phygital approach. Most digital initiatives are standalone, I mean they work in silos without any offline reach. Pharma marketers need to understand digital is a tool to uplift or increase recall, but conversion will happen in the physical world.?

Last, but not least it is important for the pharma company to listen to their customer, they need to speak to the doctor, get their social and contact details, and get permission on where they would like to engage and how. This will help to build a massive database and get better engagement. While most companies in India try to source data from medical reps, which is often non-validated without permission to receive any content.?

Listen to your customers and engage with them where they want to engage. Doctors will be happy, as finally there is a company that is taking permission to engage with them and asking what type of content they would like to receive. Work collaboratively with the medical reps and HCPs to help them serve better. Shift focus from giveaway to engagement.