30 - AI: Changing channels

The rise of omnichannel retail has transformed consumer expectations in recent years, driving demand for seamless and personalised experiences, whether they’re interacting with a brand via a website, mobile app or in-store.

Sales and marketing tactics in pharmaceuticals have evolved too, as tighter regulation and time constraints make it ever harder to get face-to-face time with clinicians.

Equally, the evergrowing number of digital channels has opened up new ways for pharma companies to reach healthcare professionals, delivering relevant and educational content in a time-efficient manner. While many are already using multichannel communications tools, omnichannel goes a step further – creating a coherent experience across every touchpoint.

By coordinating these channels and speaking to clinicians in a way that resonates with them, marketing teams are able to build trust. It reduces the need for sales visits where reps spend all their time travelling and waiting around, with a small window to deliver a scripted pitch. Trust in digital channels has also grown due to the pandemic so clinicians today actually prefer to access information online and have video calls.

Achieving true omnichannel customer experiences is not just about broadcasting over multiple channels. It is a way to drive personalised conversations; breaking down the disconnect that sometimes exists between sales and marketing. Importantly, it involves listening and thinking, as well as speaking.

Advanced technology, including data analytics, machine learning and AI, has created new opportunities for pharma companies to listen to clinicians, while also learning about how they can better serve them and patients.

By applying AI to a transcript of recordings, marketing teams can develop a clearer understanding of customer preferences and behavioural characteristics based on the language they use. Tools like AI allow them to process even more data and aggregate it across a whole clinician population.

Using intelligence that was impossible to gather before, they can start to understand how different customers want to engage with different companies, and what messages will be most appealing to them.

Operating in a highly regulated field like pharmaceuticals, it is perhaps reassuring to know that AI and data analytics aren’t radical or even new. Their ability to deliver omnichannel experiences means that adoption is rising quickly in some sectors, not just retail but also in banking and insurance where compliance is also critical.

These dynamic technologies are now being used in drug development and delivery to improve patient outcomes, so it’s not a big leap to see them applied more extensively to sales and marketing. The purpose is no different either, since it allows clinicians to rapidly access life-saving or life-enhancing drugs to achieve the best result for patients.

Knowing what treatments are now available and the performance advantages each one has, is challenging enough for time-pressed clinicians – which is why the pharma industry needs to engage with them on their terms. If data from clinical observations is continually fed into marketing activity, clinicians can also stay up to date on how patients are responding to treatments.

Omnichannel experiences take time to perfect but with more data and processing tools available, pharma’s new chapter has surely arrived.