How AI & ML Can Elevate Omnichannel Pharma Marketing

By Preetha Vasanji, President – Emerging Markets, Doceree

The pharmaceutical marketing industry is extremely competitive, and to stay ahead of the curve, both big pharma brands and marketers are constantly looking for new and innovative ways to attract attention to their products.

Omnichannel marketing in pharma has emerged as the tool for most brands looking to achieve their goals. A well-thought-out and executed omnichannel strategy allows for a smooth transition between multiple channels, creating a seamless and customer-centric approach. As this study by the Aberdeen Group suggests, it also yields great results -- companies with the strongest omnichannel strategies retain an average of 89% of their customers.

At the heart of any successful omnichannel strategy is the idea of precision and adaptability. The understanding is that promoting medicine is not the only goal. Rather, fostering deeper, more meaningful connections with patients and healthcare professionals (HCPs) is truly the goal to achieve. As such, this approach shifts the focus from promoting medicines to building meaningful relationships with patients and HCPs.

Challenges Remain

However, much like any strategy, there remain challenges. Thanks to the intrinsic nature of omnichannel marketing, which brings together multiple mediums for disseminating product information, a strategy that’s not on point can make HCPs feel overwhelmed – within and outside their clinical workflows.

For example, a report published by Accenture claims that 64% of HCPs feel bombarded with information from pharma reps, while 65% complain of pharma firms spamming them with requests for checking out products. Naturally, faced with such a situation, HCPs can shut themselves off from any unwanted approach both mentally and physically.

AI, ML, & Big Data to the Rescue

To help avoid this, and generally improve the quality of interactions with HCPs, pharma brands -- and marketers working as their representatives -- can leverage the power of HIPAA-certified Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) solutions.

One of the ways in which AI and ML-based tools can help is by driving effective omnichannel marketing strategies that focus on precisely segmenting audiences based on demographics, behavior, preferences, and past interactions.

For example, ML-based algorithms can be used to analyze the online behavior and search patterns of HCPs, and their engagement across digital platforms to develop insights about their preferences and needs. AI tools can then be used to sift through this data and help segment customer profiles for the distinction between HCPs, patients, caregivers, and even institutional buyers.

Further, the use of Big Data tools, and the integration of data analytics, can enable marketers to make their omnichannel strategies more contextual to the HCPs and other consumers, thus ensuring they are ultimately more responsive to the messaging they receive.

The use of predictive analysis is another way through which both AI and ML solutions can be used as drivers of omnichannel marketing strategies in the pharma industry. Backed by rich data, AI and ML tools can identify emerging trends, and predict market conditions. This in turn can help pharma brands optimize their marketing strategies by targeting the right customer at the right time.

Apart from these, the use of AI and ML can help improve the execution of omnichannel marketing strategies which rely on the idea of seamless coordination between various mediums of information dissemination. AI and ML can ensure that HCPs receive contextually relevant messaging at the correct time without fail at different touchpoints of the Point of Care (POC) cycle.

Elevating HCP-Patient Conversations

While reaching the right HCP at the right time is just one part of the puzzle, getting the messaging right is an equally important aspect of the whole omnichannel marketing process. Here, AI-based solutions can be used to improve the quality of messaging by involving them in the content generation process.

AI-based tools that make use of advanced natural language processing (NLP) models can be used to either optimize or even generate content – in the form of subtle nudges, blog posts, newsletters, push notifications, and other types of relevant formats – to grab the HCP’s attention.

Thanks to the use of AI and ML, the content being made can be tailored not just to meet the HCP’s preference, but even made to look and feel specially curated for them. In fact, they can even be customized to include patient information in a HIPAA-compliant manner to make them appear more relevant and engaging to the HCP.

The Future of Omnichannel Marketing

Suffice to say, AI and ML backed by the powers of big data look set to transform the landscape of omnichannel marketing in the pharma sector through several unique offerings.

Gazing into the future, we can safely say the sector is being driven towards a reality where seamless multichannel experiences, better customer insights, and increased efficiency would ultimately lead to offering hyper-personalized marketing that’ll ultimately yield better results not only for marketers but also for patients through improved outcomes.

As such, it’s only a matter of time before AI and ML start seeing widespread adoption in omnichannel marketing strategies for the betterment of the entire pharma sector.

[Disclaimer: This is an authored article, DHN is not liable for the claims made in the same.]