The year 2024 marks an important moment in the pharmaceutical industry. This is reflected in the rapidly changing trends in pharmaceutical marketing and a substantial shift towards digital Transformation within the industry. This era of change demands agility and flexibility from pharmaceutical companies in order to keep ahead of the competitive environment.
As we move into 2024, the focus is shifting to incorporating advanced digital technology into marketing strategies. This strategy helps keep pace with technological advances and changes the way pharmaceutical companies interact with their customers. Utilizing these tools is crucial for businesses looking to make a significant impression on the marketplace. Keep reading to get more!
Four Big Digital Trends Set to Impact Pharma
The most effective way to pursue Omnichannel
The new channels being developed for pharmaceuticals (like the social web) are well-established, and the number of interactions has increased exponentially. Nick Cowling, Head of Performance at the Three Whiskey agency, proposes that in the field of medicine, companies are constantly refining their understanding of Omnichannel strategies.
“Practically, this involves adopting a hybrid marketing strategy that makes use of current capabilities and seeks to develop future capabilities based on the wealth of healthcare data available,”
“Brands need to become proficient at understanding their audience and channels and adopt sophisticated methods of planning, optimising, and measurement that have significance. This is the aim of omnichannel,” Cowling says.
Marketing by influencers goes beyond HCPs, and into communities.
The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a boost in the use of influencer marketing strategies across the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries as more consumers relied on social media for medical guidance. Curious Health’s Jaquie P. Pantoja explains that despite other issues taking over COVID-19, the industry is continuing to implement influencer marketing strategies in the coming year.
“As the expert analyzed influencer marketing’s impact on the market, she noted an important change: Pharmaceutical companies are now considering individuals with medical conditions instead of focusing solely on doctors as authoritative figures.” By 2024, she expects this trend to continue.
Marketing campaigns that are influenced by influencers benefit pharmaceutical companies by establishing trust by harnessing the power and trustworthiness of the relevant people to connect and interact with an even larger audience.”
The year in video and “FAST’
According to Three Whiskey’s Nick Cowling, “video will be a very big part of the mix this year.” It has been widely accepted that the pharmaceutical industry has traditionally relied heavily on text-based marketing.
However, the landscape is beginning to shift. The brands are shifting their resources to video content, as well as campaigns, which will allow for a greater effective communication of everything from information on the products and services to advertising campaigns.
“Video materialis not just going to increase your user’s experience, but can also grant brands with the opportunity to capitalize on the year of FAST’, which is the reported improvement of Free Ad-supported streaming Television–with integrated video ads. In addition, it will create a larger data base that will offer additional more insights which can feed back into the process of planning,” explained Cowling.
The rise of generative AI applications in healthcare
The debate surrounding AI in healthcare and pharmaceuticals is currently escalating because of the development of ChatGPT. Jaquie Pantoja of Curious Health told Econsultancy that ChatGPT has already caused a stir in the world of healthcare.
According to her, ChatGPT has a lot of potential in the digital marketing space. Also, it will provide you with valuable information about the people you want to reach and help you create more successful marketing campaigns. In addition, writing well-crafted articles, blog posts, social media posts, and meta-descriptions can prove very beneficial. It’s a game changer, and we’re just starting with the potential.
Pharma companies’ possibilities of AI extend far beyond marketing. Virtual assistants that can recognize human speech and produce detailed writing have inspired doctors and HCPs to consider ways in which the technology could simplify daily yet time-consuming and complex tasks.
There are ethical considerations to consider when with this kind of AI in the healthcare field due to the possibility of harm and misinformation. ContentBot creator Nick Duncan recently told Econsultancy that ContentBot does not permit it to use its AI to produce medical content, regardless of whether it’s basic or complicated, because of this risk.
“Humans are more likely to get the facts correct since they’re getting it from an alternative source. However, there’s a higher likelihood that an AI will come up with an entirely random number,” he said.
Generative AI engines – which could be utilized to make new material is just one of the areas that artificial intelligence can be applied to, that is, naturally. in 2021 Health Education England published an outline of AI within the NHS that outlined the 240 AI technologies that are nearly to be deployed and aimed at aiding HCPs to analyse patient data as well as raise efficiency and quality of patient feedback and proactive treatment for conditions that are in the early stages.
The excitement surrounding ChatGPT is certain to bring discussion about the concept of generative AI specifically to the forefront in 2023, which will allow pharmaceutical companies to understand its potential and further accelerate expansion in the industry. GlobalData’s “State of the Biopharmaceutical Industry’ report, more than two-fifths (39 per cent) of health professionals believed that AI will be the most disruptive technology emerging this year.