Next-Gen Omnichannel: Beyond Tech To True Engagement

Summary of this webinar

Welcome and speaker introduction

Introduction of the host and speakers: Beshad, CEO from phamax (host), Sam Karim from The 4th Partnership, Salma Esseghir, founder of WhiteLab, as well as pharmacist with diverse pharma industry experience, and David Douek, digital marketing expert from phamax Digital. They’re gathered to discuss moving beyond technology for genuine customer engagement, a challenge many in their industry face.

Data points about omnichannel adoption

• The pandemic accelerated omnichannel adoption in healthcare by over five years
• Only 12% of companies are confident in their digital marketing capabilities
• Less than 20% can translate their omnichannel vision into actionable plans
• Outreach activities evolve from basic email sending to personalized content delivery
• Questions are raised about the industry’s ability to keep pace with rapid developments

Over-reliance on technology?

• The industry tends to focus on what is visible, such as technology (eg. “Look at my nice new website”), rather than results
• Several challenges can make tech useless: slow tech adoption from the rest of the team; lack of training or integration with brand strategy; wrong processes and implementations (eg. There are many ways to do a website, but a lot of them are bad)

Exploring Customer Centricity and Omnichannel Challenges

• Emphasis on understanding true customer needs beyond just focusing on channel and measuring the commercial impact of addressing those needs
• However, channels remain highly important to reach customers effectively. Valuable content alone isn’t sufficient if it’s not delivered through the right channels
• There are broader challenges to digital transformation: it’s not just about adopting new technologies but also about cultural shifts and mindset changes
• It’s difficult to achieve true customer-centricity in the pharmaceutical industry due to internal silos. There is a need for unified communication strategies

Tools are there, but do we have the skillset and mindset?

• There is a consensus that having the necessary tools is not enough. It needs to go hand in hand with the proper skills and culture
• Pharma needs cross-functional collaboration and being customer-centric in terms of mindset, but it’s being neglected as it is difficult to do because of pharma history
• Omnichannel shouldn’t start at the brand level. It should start with one target and then unify communication to have a seamless experience for all the brands towards this target
• In terms of skillset, there is a lot of training and upskilling being done, but not correctly or not enough.
• Easy-to-use playbooks are necessary to complement training, but either they’re not there, or they’re too complicated

Measuring Success and ROI in OmniChannel Marketing

• There is a gap between internal metrics and customer value
• Pharma digital marketers shouldn’t be driven by short-term sales metrics. There is a need for new metrics that go beyond product outcomes to drive both customer and commercial value
• Introduction of Meti and their goal to create a new customer experience measure that goes beyond medicine
• Meti seeks to provide a holistic measure of customer impact while also correlating with business outcomes like product preference and uptake. They measure customer impact across four dimensions: health impact, brand health impact, brand awareness, and product uptake
• Focusing on the human impact allows to optimise marketing outcomes and also for patients to access the medicine they need

Gap Between Perception and Reality in Digital Adoption

• There is a disconnect between where companies believe they are in their digital journey and where they actually stand
• There is a gap in terms of depth: A gap in understanding where organizations stand compared to industry standards and evolving expectations
• There is also a gap in terms of width: A gap in comprehending the breadth of omnichannel marketing and how it encompasses various channels and strategies
• These gaps pose a challenge to the effective adoption of omnichannel activities and underscore the importance of aligning organizational understanding with industry standards and evolving expectations

Introducing a Comprehensive Framework for Omnichannel Success

• Introduction of phamax Digital’s framework with five dimensions to evaluate digital maturity (data infrastructure, content, processes, change management, and strategy alignment)
• The framework emphasizes the interconnectedness of these dimensions and the need to address them collectively for success
• Each dimension comprises several categories and parameters to assess digital maturity comprehensively
• A digital maturity index is key to identify gaps and prioritize investments for omnichannel progression

Business hacks from the speakers

• The importance of co-creation and breaking down silos: Bringing together global teams, key markets, and field forces during campaign ideation fosters valuable insights and collaboration
• Embracing authenticity and simplicity in content creation: Lowering the bar for content perfection can lead to more authentic and engaging interactions with customers, especially on social media platforms
• Balancing content creation and promotion for effective reach: Allocating most of the budget to content creation is a mistake if there is not enough budget left to promote that content

Are we spending too much?

• It’s important to find a balance between investment and value generation (balance between content quantity and quality), as well as segmentation strategies to ensure effective targeting
• One way to limit spending is to start simple and focus on the basics before expanding. Continuously adding channels and content without a clear strategy brings the risk of losing a seamless experience for the end user
• Another way to limit spending is to reallocate budget from product information to value-generating content at different stages of the customer journey

ROI and conclusion

• There is a perceived lack of ROI in omnichannel marketing initiatives and it appears that some stakeholders believe that we can’t see ROI because we are not doing things right
• However, it’s probably unfair to expect immediate ROI when the industry is still in the “test and learn” phase and it’s too early to assess whether things are being done right or not. The industry is still in the middle of its journey and ROI will become clearer as the industry progresses
• The industry is at an inflexion point, having to adopt new marketing approaches since the pandemic. This sets the stage for another webinar, indicating a clear topic for further exploration.