Marketing has evolved significantly since the time when a marketing plan would ignore market segment differences and appeal to the whole market with one offer or one strategy.
Now, data-driven insights – using advanced analytics, real-world data (RWD), and precision targeting – equips biopharma marketers with tools to reach the right audience and achieve measurable success, and a comprehensive understanding of their audience, gaining insights regarding product positioning and physician decision-making behavior.
With more expansive datasets, RWD and actionable real-world evidence (RWE) provide a much more precise, patient-centric, and focused strategy, increasing the effectiveness of marketing strategies.
A proactive approach
Derived from multiple sources, RWD includes electronic health records (EHRs), insurance claims, patient registries, and wearable devices, which highlight the steps of a patient’s journey, mapping the route as they transition through the treatment process. By applyingadvanced analytics, such asmachine learning (ML) algorithms to historical and real-time data, non-linear patterns and correlations can be identified that human analysts using basic statistical tools may not detect.
This is a “holy grail” for biopharma marketers – by augmenting controlled trial data, these data points provide the ability to drill down and customize messaging to the specific recipient’s needs, for example, patient issues surrounding medication adherence and treatment outcomes.
Building trust through knowledge
With this wealth of information, campaigns can be developed that hit the right healthcare providers (HCPs) at the right moment with more personalized, data-informed, and accurate targeting, resulting in better engagement, response, and return on marketing spend.
Trust and brand perception are essential in influencing a HCP’s responsiveness to engagement. RWE reinforces these attributes with more focused and detailed messaging by demonstrating that a pharmaceutical company knows its customer, with data providing detail on diversity and the complexity of patients’ experience, thus building confidence in the drug’s effectiveness and the manufacturer’s commitment to patient care.
A key aspect of this data-driven approach for campaigns is the improvement in targeting and segmentation processes because it gives in-depth information on patient demographics, treatment patterns, and doctors’ behaviors, allowing for the identification and engagement with the most appropriate HCPs and patient subgroups via specific, data-driven messages. One example is the identification of patient groups with the higher probabilities for preventive care, skipping appointments, or readmittance to hospital, allowing for more targeted, proactive outreach and engagement campaigns to support the mitigation of these issues.
One biopharma marketing strand is the use of EHR systems for accessing physicians directly at points in a patient’s care journey and can help raise provider awareness about available, appropriate therapies. However, the messaging must be relevant to a practice’s workflow or patient encounter to add true value whilst meeting all applicable laws.
RWE can also improve business development for pharma companies through the identification of new revenue streams, for example, off-label uses of a drug that have proved to be effective. This can create new treatment opportunities for diseases and conditions from existing products – derived from the collection of long-term data on a drug, or through line extensions. In relation to this, it also helps validate of the effectiveness of a product through supporting evidence, both in terms of cost and treatment – giving credence to its value to payers and regulators, and enabling more favorable market access and reimbursement, which often cannot be fully demonstrated by trial data alone.
An additional benefit of RWE to biopharma marketers is the analysis of evidenced-based information in real time to monitor the effectiveness of campaigns. When using digital media, marketers can measure the impact of their initiatives on patient behavior and outcomes with more accurate results, such as prescription fulfillment, rather than the more traditional, ambiguous engagement metrics of clicks and views. With this transparency, marketers can undertake real-time fine-tuning of strategies and can switch resources to the most effective channels, resulting in a better ROI. With a more personalized, data-informed, and outcomes-based approach, this supersedes the more traditional approach of mass marketing and is responsive to the evolving demands of HCPs/patients, payers, and regulatory bodies.
Demand forecasting is also made easier through the analyzes of purchasing history, and seasonality to reveal consumer demand for drugs or treatments, improving the management of stock and resource allocation. And, by analyzing external macro factors such as public health data, social determinants of health (SDOH), and economic indicators, marketers can anticipate disease outbreaks or shifts in population health needs, supporting the development of relevant and timely services and campaigns.
Veradigm – driving biopharma marketing innovation
US-based Veradigm, an integrated data systems and services company, combines data-driven clinical insights with actionable tools, to help biopharma marketers improve the quality and efficiency of their marketing strategies. Veradigm’s Digital Health Media solution bridges the gap between advanced technology and human expertise, so marketers can connect with their audience more effectively and target the right customer at the right time.
For more on how Veradigm can help with your real-world data, download the free paper below.
