Since the pandemic’s start, digital has taken an important place, especially in healthcare marketing. This has led to an acceleration of digital exchanges between healthcare professionals and patients.
This digital transformation has enabled the development of a complete digital ecosystem by changing the pharmaceutical industry’s perspective; from a product-centric approach to a patient-centric approach. Thanks to this ecosystem, the boundaries between the pharmaceutical industry and patients have become less complex.
However, despite the technological evolution, digital healthcare marketing remains very different
from other markets.
Indeed, healthcare marketing differs from traditional marketing at the level of promoting a product or service. Here, the consumer is considered a patient, and the customer is a doctor. In addition, the rise of pharmaceutical products is subject to regulations; only Over Counter “OTC” products can be promoted and sold over the counter. Any other drug that requires a prescription cannot be freely marketed or submitted for advertising purposes.
STRATEGIES FOR WINNING DIGITAL HEALTHCARE MARKETING:
1-Develop a content strategy:
Several regulations prohibit pharmaceutical companies from advertising drugs, with a few exceptions, like OTC drugs.
For this reason, healthcare marketing is ideal for pharmaceutical strategies since it allows for long-term results without the need to market the products openly.
First and foremost, pharmaceutical companies need to have a strong and comprehensive blog that provides value to readers. They should always be the center of attention, not the company. The goal is to succeed in creating a community of engaged and interactive consumers.
This will easily lead to increased traffic, conversion, and, eventually, sales.
Thanks to a content strategy, the company will no longer be content to manufacture a product and then sell it. Now, it has several digital tools that make the product speak and bring it closer to the consumer.
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2-Search engine optimization:
Health is one of the subjects that provides the most research and discussion on the Internet.
Today, patients’ first instinct is to type their symptoms into the search engine.
Indeed, a Google study has shown that one out of 20 searches on the search engine is linked to health.
For this reason, presence in searches is vital for pharmaceutical industries.
Thanks to a pharmaceutical SEO strategy, it would be possible to reach new channels and reach as many people as possible. As a result, the pharmaceutical company will gain visibility and growth in organic traffic.
Also, keyword ranking is very important to patients. He demonstrates expertise in the field, which will develop credibility with patients and health care providers.
3-Social media:
Studies have shown that social networks influence more than 40% of people’s health choices.
Indeed, social media is at the heart of any digital healthcare marketing strategy for the pharmaceutical sector. It is a way to connect the consumer and the seller, otherwise the doctor and the patient, to create an emotional bond and trust between these two parties.
Thus, since human contact is crucial in the pharmaceutical industry, social media is an indispensable tool to understand the needs and fears of patients and meet their needs. The goal of using social media is to make life easier for patients and improve their comfort.
Best suited to reach doctors
Users most often seek to expand their knowledge of the sector.
Best suited for accelerating brand awareness to a wider audience.
The ideal platform to humanize a pharmaceutical brand.
Best suited for reaching younger audiences and promoting products indirectly through wellness and lifestyle posts.
4- Online reputation management:
Pharmaceutical brands sometimes have to deal with negative coverage and rumors from groups of people on the web.
Online reputation management is one way to detect negative coverage.
To succeed in detecting them, one of the most effective means is to saturate the search.
Otherwise, the extension of search engines.
Brands should be careful with negative keywords about their brands.
To ensure that negative coverage is kept to a minimum, businesses must first identify negative keywords, then target the same keywords and create new positive content based on these. last.
THE CHALLENGES OF DIGITAL HEALTHCARE MARKETING IN THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY:
Issue of the regulated market:
The pharmaceutical market is highly regulated and monitored by governments.
We can take the example of the French government, which passed the Bertrand law in 2018.
This law promotes the industry’s ethics in terms of transparency in the use of drugs.
In addition, it prohibits pharmaceutical companies from advertising products requiring a medical prescription in the general public and social media space or offering financial advantages to healthcare professionals in exchange for promoting their products.
This, therefore, leads to unique marketing from the laboratory to the customer, then from the customer to the patient.
Human challenge:
Despite technological growth, the customer-patient relationship must always remain human because
Human contact is essential in the pharmaceutical industry. Indeed, the pharmacist must keep his role of adviser even on digital platforms without forgetting to maintain a human connection with patients. Therefore, the evolution of digital marketing in the healthcare sector should not alienate patients and customers from each other. On the contrary, the challenge is to connect the real world to the virtual world in the best possible way to meet patients’ needs.
Issue of personal data:
Information from the pharmaceutical industry database may only be used to conduct non-interventional studies. These studies make it possible to analyze and evaluate the use of medicines in terms of compliance and compliance with prescriptions in patients’ daily lives. In addition, these data allow health actors to position themselves about the drug of the medication until the observation of the effectiveness of the treatment for the patient. This data is confidential and cannot be sold for the promotion of health products commercially. Unfortunately, they are for profit.
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