3 Ways Inbound Marketing Can Help Your Pharma Business

Recently the pharmaceutical industry, which has traditionally relied heavily on traditional marketing, is shifting to embrace inbound marketing. This shift was reported in the 2016 MM&M/Guidemark Health Healthcare Marketers Trend Report, which revealed the pharma industry sector has increased their digital marketing budget by 58% from previous years. Pharmaceutical companies, and the healthcare industry in general, have been relatively slow to adopt digital marketing. However, while a few power players have embraced digital narrative, others are at risk of being left behind.

Within the pharma industry there are two general audiences: clinicians and patients. While there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to reach these coveted audiences, below are three ways to enhance your pharma inbound marketing strategy.

1. Evidence-Based Content is King

We’ve heard it before, quality content is the ultimate goal, and that notion still rings true today. Not only is relevant content important to improve SEO, but this tactic also proves to influence the way healthcare professionals view your business. Your audience wants to see third-party verified facts and evidence-based best practices. With that in mind, before you start compiling a 30-page data packet, remember that clinicians are people too, and they don’t have the time or desire to read a pharmaceutical study. Instead, utilizing an inbound content strategy to entice and entertain them can prove to be beneficial.

Consider hosting a continuing medical education webinar, create a short educational video or even promote a case study abstract. Remember, inbound marketing, is about creating and sharing relevant, useful content online with a specific audience.

2. Personalization and Automation

When it comes to your audience, you must recognize that you are not going to attract and engage a patient in the same way you would a physician. With that, your messaging and tactics should evolve based off of your audience in mind! This is where an effective email segmentation strategy comes into play. If you’re not sure where to begin, there are numerous email marketing platforms that we here at Pyxl have used and recommend to help healthcare companies create a CRM database and lead nurturing program. When developing a lead nurturing campaign for clinicians, it’s important to remember these individuals are skeptical, scarce on time and slow to change. Depending on your portfolio, pharmaceutical companies can segment their lists based on several factors including products, service lines or persona life cycles, to name a few.

3. Digital Sales Representatives

It’s difficult to replicate boots on the ground representation, and although digital marketing may never eradicate good old fashioned face-to-face interaction, inbound marketing is a necessity for a successful strategy. Overall, digital marketing activities among healthcare businesses have increased 73% since 2015.

We’re not saying that traditional marketing doesn’t have it’s place. Rather, digital marketing is necessary to support traditional pharma sales representatives. A few ways inbound marketing can support sales is through hosted webcasts, creating highly-targeted display ads and demonstrating thought leadership via social.  The goal for these activities is to reach your audience at the moments that most influence their decisions within the consumer decision journey.

Along their journey there are touch points, or marketing activities that in the past have been understood as a metaphorical “funnel.” This thought process explains that consumers start with a large number of brands in mind (wide end of the funnel) and your marketing activities methodically moves users through the funnel, at the end choosing which brand to purchase. Using inbound marketing tactics you can ensure your company touches users at the right points throughout their decision making process.

If you feel your pharmaceutical marketing isn’t reaching its full potential or need help creating a marketing strategy for your business, we can help. At Pyxl, we create engaging digital experiences for companies across the healthcare industry. Let us help you capture your audience while maintaining compliance with a comprehensive digital marketing strategy.

Updated: Apr 13, 2022