HCP engagement in the new era
The engagement strategies for pharma representatives to connect with HCPs were already in a state of transformation. Covid-19 has only accelerated this process. With fewer HCPs now preferring in-person meetings and with the advent of new technologies, there has been a steady rise in the use of various digital channels like email, social, virtual connects etc. Statistics show that the volume of emails sent to HCPs increased by almost 300% in the last year and the average interaction duration in virtual meetings has increased manifold. All of these developments have compelled the drug companies to reimagine their engagement strategies, maintain a healthy relationship with the HCPs and use the right channels for making the required impact on the HCPs.
Personalization – The need of the hour:
With different technologies at their disposal and HCP preferences differing, pharma companies have realized that they have to change their marketing and engagement tactics to meet the engagement needs of each doctor. Each HCP’s expectation from the interaction is different and the education required for each of them is largely dictated by the patient cohort the HCPs serve. The interest points of HCPs differ and their response to channels differs. So does the response of HCPs to various incentives offered by pharma companies. For example, in one of the recent analyses executed using the Incedo LighthouseTM Platform, we found that the Pediatricians (PD) respond to nutritional rebates much more than their Non-PD counterparts.
Personalization, and sometimes hyper-personalization, therefore is the central theme of customer engagement across domains. HCPs now prefer to be connected to a digital platform of their choice e.g. mobile, email, social, call activity, etc. This behavior may differ across various HCP segments e.g. across therapeutic areas, affiliation, years of experience, and geography, apart from the patient cohorts they serve.
With response data now available to the drug companies, it is possible to derive insights on the HCP preference by various cuts such as segment, sub-segment, geography, etc. The HCP preference and behavior patterns shed light on how receptive they are to digital engagement. This data analysis is leveraged by organizations to analyze the context and content for a digital interaction to derive Next Best Action by answering critical questions related to the message and channel strategies.
Helping Pharmaceuticals understand High Impact Channels using Incedo LighthouseTM
In one of the recent deployments of Incedo LighthouseTM at a pharma organization, the client wanted to understand the most impactful channels for engaging with the HCPs. This was also driven by the CMO agenda to understand the profitable marketing channels to get a bang for the buck. Understanding the segments and sub-segments of HCPs from the visualization and segmentation powered by the Incedo LighthouseTM platform, ML models were built at different therapeutic areas. The marketing investment was translated to input variables specific to the channel and the impact was measured on the overall sales. Using the Data Science workbench of the Incedo LighthouseTM platform, different linear and non-linear ML models were built. The insights from the models were used to derive the contribution of different channels on both the baseline and promotional sales.
Using this, the ROI of channels was determined by various cuts. For example, at a broad level, every marketing dollar spent gave an extra 40 cents as a return. Also, it was understood that among all the channels, digital channels were underinvested and the HCPs responded best to them.
Using the KPI Tree and Cohort Analyzer functionality of the platform, one could see which HCPs were under-reached and had responded well and which were overreached and didn’t respond on certain channels. Using the deep drill-downs, one could go to the affiliation/hospital levels and identify the next action and specific ways to reach them.
Lastly, Incedo LighthouseTM’s advanced visualization capabilities help generate response curves of each channel with further drill-down capabilities. These can be instrumental in simulating the performance of HCP cohorts and channels and identifying the breakeven dollar spend. Laying optimization algorithms on top of it, leveraged from Incedo LighthouseTM’s pre-built accelerators, organizations can get to the channel strategy designed to optimize the HCP engagement through each medium while minimizing the investment.
