This is a guest post by Anne Stroup, Vice President of Strategy, Alliance Life Sciences

You don’t have to cast a big shadow to turn data analytics into improved engagement strategies – and capture increased market share.

With a more nimble, flexible business model than their larger counterparts, small to mid-size companies have the potential to readily evolve multichannel marketing (MCM) strategies and personalize healthcare provider (HCP) interactions that drive business.

MCM is about building a relationship: capture the HCP’s attention and continue to have meaningful interfaces so that the customer-brand relationship deepens. Building relationships creates the loyalty that delivers brand growth.

Data Reveals MCM Strategies

Data is essential for brands to understand all aspects that influence a physician’s script writing decision and is key to finding HCPs who can help grow your brand by unlocking:

• How the brand’s value proposition meets the HCP’s needs
• Attributes of the specific value proposition that influence their decision-making process
• The investment required for the brand to build a relationship with the HCP
• The benefits the brand will receive over the course of the relationship

Traditional data sources are not sufficient to fully understand customer behavior and sentiments. While incremental data is needed, it can be cost-prohibitive for smaller brands. Physician-level qualitative research is an alternative method for gathering the information that delivers accurate views of target physician clusters. Well-designed studies can deliver the kind of actionable insight that optimizes customer engagement strategies.

With this level of knowledge, brands can build personalized HCP interactions. Communicating on a one-to-one basis creates relationships that move physicians from awareness to advocacy.

Transform Value Proposition Elements into Personalized Dialogue

Personalized dialogue can be created by pairing a certain point in the HCP’s customer journey with specific decision triggers. Thoughtful coordination guides messaging content and assets presented for consumption.

Example: deliver a clinical study and tie the key opinion leaders to the physician’s        university affiliation.

Such small, positive perceptions can make an enormous difference that helps to advance the brand-customer relationship.

Brands with limited content development budgets should prioritize incremental assets based upon decision triggers and cross channel utilization.

Multichannel Includes Sales Reps

Effective MCM is built using channel mix models, combining face-to-face meetings, digital tools, and personalized emails to deliver personalized experiences. This systemized, multi-channel approach aligns physicians to a model based upon value and accessibility, reflecting an understanding of inside or field-call plan results and triggering follow-up outreach through other channels. Communications align the content with the physician’s need at that point in time.

The evolved MCM strategy extends the relationship-building concept typically orchestrated by the sales force into the overall sales and marketing strategy: influence more HCPs – those of value — but who are outside the 20 percent of called-on physicians who truly engage with the field reps. In this age of limited physician access, brands really must integrate all their efforts.

Enable through Technology

Evolved MCM strategies need operational infrastructures that integrate and accurately process disparate data. Advanced analytic methodologies require a flexible analytic ecosystem and systematic approach that integrates campaign components, content management and sales force automation systems.

Enterprise-wide implementation of customer-centric engagement is a multifaceted process. Many mid-tier companies evolve their infrastructures to support much of what’s needed, or outsource to address specific needs. Smaller companies that are still building this expanded infrastructure can leverage alternatives, such as a DataMart and Promotional Hub, to implement MCM efforts that feed digital and sales force automation systems.

Take a page from “Big Pharma’s Playbook” and think of data analytics as a guide to influencing behavior, providing the specific point that the customer is at in the brand relationship and leading you to the best integration of all promotional channels.

Boost your prospects for winning business by partnering with a life sciences solution company that offers guidance and data that EMPOWERS a smaller company to perform like the high profile players.

Further Insights: Customer Engagement Strategies Drive Brand Growth.

About the Author

Anne Stroup is a highly accomplished pharmaceutical marketing professional experienced in leading strategic engagements with brand marketers and commercial operations management. As a Customer Engagement visionary, Anne is renowned for her commitment to stimulating for her clients’ brands by leveraging customer centric methodologies within the Life Science environment. Blending eMarketing and relationship marketing with brand marketing, Anne has worked across multiple therapeutic categories and CPG brands.