Succeeding in reaching a target group that is known for its short attention span and stressful daily work – is a challenge.
In addition to this, the way HCP marketing has shifted from working with a lot of face-to-face contacts to becoming increasingly digital, has presented a significant obstacles for HCP marketers creating engaging strategies.
In this shift, the brands' own websites are growing to become the most important HCP engagement platform.
What is HCP marketing?
Before we go into detail about the different ways there are to engage HCPs, we should clarify what HCP marketing actually means and the different phases it includes.
The first and foremost priority in HCP marketing should be to successfully capture healthcare professionals (HCPs) as an audience, who, in addition to their work in treating patients, spend a lot of time searching for information about the latest advances and drugs in health care.
A lot of this today is done with digitally targeting campaigns containing valuable messages and content to the HCPs. And of course, through the large impact of word-of-mouth in the pharma industry.
💡Here digital campaigns mean engaging the right people and getting them to click through to the desired content.
In this initial phase, marketing channels such as email marketing, social media platforms, and events are common to capture attention.
But, when you as a marketer have succeeded in attracting the target HCPs to your website, it is important not to let go of them. Setting a strategy for how to then gain their contact information or drive conversions on your website is crucial to success.
The importance of targeting
HCPs are fed with a lot of information on a daily basis.
They can often also be overwhelmed by both the information and the workload, and because of this they only have time to consume information that provides them with actual value.
Hence, it's important to market the information that is most relevant and valuable to each unique carer based on their field of expertise.
A successful HCP marketing strategy speaks to the right audience on the right platform and at the right time.
Many pharmaceutical companies today work with targeting audiences in their digital advertising. Targeting the market in this way is a good way to reach the right people and spend money wisely.
However, often enough the same efforts are not put into HCP targeting and segmentation on the website, the secondary phase of pharma marketing.
This may seem strange since that is where the actual conversions occur.
3 Actionable steps for effective HCP marketing
So – with the information that we know about HCPs, we know they are short on time and need to find what they're looking for online quickly.
How can we design a strategy that responds to their needs and succeeds in driving effective marketing campaigns all the way to conversion?
1. Automated flows for easy navigation
As a way of helping healthcare providers find relevant information for them, it is very helpful to guide them on the website, easily and quickly.
By setting up automated flows that are directed to the right landing pages depending on what the HCPs are looking for, the website becomes easier to navigate.
To target the market this way, you create more relevant and focused communication that saves you money and your target HCP his or her time.
This means that several HCPs can find what they are looking for and become repeat visitors. Examples of this kind of targeted automation are:
- whether the HCPs are looking for a specific drug or a piece of research
- or they're interested in a specific area they are working on, ex. oncology
This is definitely a marketing technique that should be considered when it comes to the pharma industry, simply due to the volume information this industry handles in everyday basis.
2. Promote upcoming webinars with targeted pop-ups
In the medicine and pharmaceutical industry, webinars are commonly used to educate about the latest research and progress for various treatments.
These webinars serve an important purpose in HCPs market research and as a pharma marketer, a major focus should be placed on getting the right HCPs to attend relevant webinars for them with the use of digital targeting solutions.
Here, pop-ups with the right targeting element can work wonders. Working with pop-ups on the website that promote upcoming webinars on specific topics on relevant sub-pages is the same as working with pinpoint accuracy.
With a good tool for creating and targeting pop-ups, the possibilities are endless for how you can adopt the means to achieve great results.
With giosg's pop-up tool no coding is required for either design or publishing and thanks to its simple rule sets, you can also choose when and where you want to market with your pop-ups.
Use this, for example, for marketing niche HCP webinars on the subpages that belong to the topic or to those HCPs who have previously shown interest in the topic to be talked about – all to be as relevant as possible and not lose the interest of busy HCPs.
3. Static banners for most recent updates and product launches
Another area where companies could develop their websites is by clarifying what is new and big in their research and launches. The websites are often static landing places, making it difficult for HCPs to distinguish what is new vs. old information.
A simple way for healthcare marketers to make clear to their website visitors what is relevant right now without having to redesign the entire structure of the website is by working with time windows on the website that promote the latest relevant content.
With giosg it’s easy to keep the news up to date as you can easily campaign new and relevant information wherever you want on the website.
You can build customer banners that can be placed anywhere on the website and it only takes a few button presses to create, as well as turn them on and off whenever you like.
How to get started with HCP marketing
With digital development, there are a number of channels and ways in which you can make your marketing visible.
And even though the pharmaceutical industry lags behind other industries, this industry is also moving in a digital direction.
The competition between pharma companies is constantly increasing and we are moving towards an omnichannel approach in engaging healthcare providers, where it is important to be present in the digital channels and communication paths that HCPs themselves are in and prefer. It is important to differentiate and find innovative ways to market to HCPs if you want to capture their interest all the way to conversion.
If you want to hear more about how to get started with HCP marketing on your website, contact our specialized HCP team for a deeper understanding and development of customized interactions for your situation and needs.