Pharma
companies’ marketing communications to their target audience of healthcare
providers are increasingly digital. That's not terribly surprising, considering
the uptake in digital channels among physicians for professional use.
What
is changing, however, is the way pharma reaches doctors, according to an annual
report from from healthcare and pharma solutions
provider Indegene. In 2016 in the U.S., brand promotional emails, healthcare
provider portals and key opinion leader webinars are the top three ways pharma
companies reach out. However, by 2018, KOL webinars, social media and mobile
apps will top the list, with social media and mobile apps growing the fastest,
by 50% and 27%, respectively.
The
social media investment is already underway, which will power the expected
usage jump, Urvi Mehta, senior manager, strategic relationships at
Indegene, told FiercePharma.
“Social
media is a very powerful channel that can help in understanding the end
consumers. It’s easy to make marketing decisions like segmentation, course of
patient education, and influence adherence through listening and analysis of
the social behavior,” she said.
While
KOL webinar growth will be smaller at 8.8%, that channel was identified as the
best return-on-investment generator by the more than 100 global pharma and life
science companies that responded to the survey.
ROI,
in fact, is an ongoing concern. Even among the rise in projected spending,
seven out of 10 pharma companies noted that demonstrating ROI is the biggest
barrier when implementing new communication strategies.
U.S.
pharma companies are second globally in digital spending, with 31% of
companies spending more than 20% of their budgets on digital. By 2018, Indegene
expects that to increase to 40% of companies. China leads with 33% of its
pharma companies spending more than 20% on digital, and that figure is expected
to rise to 50% by 2018.