Pharmaceutical companies have long understood the value of engaging healthcare providers (HCPs); their prescription pads are, after all, the conduit through which medications make their way to patients. But as the medical landscape has become more complex — with a proliferation of new therapies, intricate clinical workflows, and reimbursement barriers — busy HCPs need simple ways to make decisions. Often, they turn to their colleagues and prominent medical experts for advice.
No HCP can possibly keep up with the constant influx of information, including all the studies, literature, talks, posters, webinars, and social media. While the speed of the internet has magnified the problem, information overload is not a new challenge. Historically, HCPs have relied on their colleagues in academia as conduits for the most up-to-date information from peer-reviewed journals and for consultation on particularly thorny patient cases.
Today, HCPs still turn to their peers to tune out the noise and hone in on what’s worth their attention. Much valuable information continues to trickle down from academia. But in recent years we have noticed a democratization of education and information sharing, especially in the context of digital media. Messages may start with the top echelons of medical experts, but it is no longer a given, and emerging clinical experts can share information and opinions that now ripple out across the online HCP community.
Critically, in the current healthcare environment, HCPs increasingly seek clinical experts who are readily accessible and able to engage in real-time, unlike traditional key opinion leaders (KOLS) who may be less freely available. Those experts may be found online.
Digital HCP engagement can play a key role not only in amplifying brand messages but also in shaping them, helping identify which messages resonate and how best to meet the needs of HCPs and patients. By understanding how best to partner with HCPs in the new digital landscape, brands can harness engagement strategies that create a ripple effect throughout the entire healthcare system; if approached properly, they can yield better business outcomes.
Like all of us, HCPs are leveraging different mediums for communication and education. Pharma companies need to pay attention to them all. Indeed, it is imperative to meet HCPs where they are, with materials and messages tailored to the ways they want to engage.
Increasingly that is online via digital and social channels. In a recent survey, 69% of HCPs reported engaging with healthcare influencer content daily — and 60% reported changing their perception of a treatment based on knowledge shared by digital opinion leaders (DOLs), trusted medical experts online.
DOLs create and disseminate relevant scientific content digitally. They have significant impact across social media, industry websites, blogs, and news outlets. Consequently, they can have massive reach—and they tend to communicate with their audiences regularly, educating and influencing broad swaths of HCPs and patients.
With deeper understanding of where education is needed, you can craft messages that resonate more deeply — and then leverage the ecosystem to disseminate those messages broadly. After all, HCPs are not just individuals, they're connected to each other through an intricate and multi-layered network.
This all begs the question: How can you identify the best DOLs for your brand? After all, you don’t just want the loudest online voices, you want the right online voices.
First, you need to pinpoint and engage key influencers, both online and in more traditional platforms. Data and analytics are your friends. By analyzing the influence, affiliations, content style, publication history, and other attributes of prominent HCPs in your realm, you can identify the ones that are the most credible collaborators, content sharers, and networkers.
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Fortunately, you don't have to handle this on your own. Precision AQ’s Navigator365™ Matrix mine millions of digital interactions to help you pinpoint precisely the right DOLs to advance your omnichannel brand strategy. AI-powered information synthesis and sentiment analysis help you understand expert insights that can fuel digital strategy. All you have to do is engage.
Of course, supplying the right information is also critical. Often, there is a chasm between what channels pharma marketers use and what content they share online, compared to what HCPs want to know. A close look at the channel and content preferences HCPs consistently engage with makes that “digital divide” glaringly obvious.
Data analysis can also illuminate which platforms are most effective for reaching your target audiences; the answer varies not just by therapeutic specialty, but even by region. Cardiologists in the US glean new information from different sources than cardiologists in Europe — and there is no reason to waste promotional money and effort on channels that are not optimal for your audience.
Omnichannel solutions like Precision AQ’s Navigator365™ Core can help identify both the platforms and messages that will resonate. Precision AQ’s Navigator365™ Core surveys over 16,000 HCPs worldwide annually, to understand exactly which channels are most effective across individual specialties and geographies.
Influential DOLs — specifically ones that your target HCPs are following — can help you cross this divide, too. These individuals do not build large, loyal followings by accident; they succeed because they understand exactly what their audience cares about. Once you have pinpointed appropriate DOLs, a strong initial engagement strategy can help inform your content strategy: consider inviting pertinent DOLs to advisory panels and gathering their insights on the needs of the HCPs and patients who are relevant to your disease state. From there, you can collaborate on content creation, curation, and validation.
Of course, content must meet the rigorous compliance standards for pharma. While this process can be eye-opening for HCPs unfamiliar with pharma’s regulatory environment, it helps DOLs better understand how to navigate digital engagement responsibly — while ensuring your brand’s voice remains credible and compliant.
Through DOL partnerships, you can communicate clinical updates, clarify or correct any prevalent misinformation — and importantly, amplify relevant clinical messages. By building these working relationships, DOLs become more knowledgeable about your brand — and as a result, they’re more likely to communicate about it in an authentic way that is trustworthy to their peers.
Partnering with the right HCP influencers and engaging through digital channels they already flock to, your message doesn’t just reach, it resonates. When done well, this approach creates a ripple effect throughout the broader community. Imagine the impact that can have for your brand.
At Precision AQ, we understand how to deliver smarter HCP engagement, distilling real-time insights to find, analyze, and activate the right thought leaders for each brand. Get in touch to find out more about our successes in this area and how we can help amplify your brand impact.