Introduction to Digital Marketing in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Book excerpt: In the pharmaceutical industry, digital is still too often used as "another media" in a marketing campaign. The measure of performance is limited to the number of visits on a web site and the calculation of the return on investment remains a taboo. It is time to stop behaving like amateurs. Digital marketing should never be exclusively given to a junior employee who proudly added "comfortable with digital tools" to his resume simply because he managed the Facebook page of his student association! It is time for product managers to stop blindly trusting expensive communication agencies when they propose flashy technologies and buzzwords to create trendy tools to meet the marketers' - but not the customers' - expectations! It is time for marketing directors and general managers to challenge a multichannel campaign in its entirety: objective, strategy, tactics, cost per contact, and finally return on investment! Digital marketing is not about adding another tool to a marketing campaign. It will transform and structure classic marketing activities by placing the patient and the doctor, instead of the product, at the core of marketing behavior. It will pave the way for improving the customer's experience. While the pharmaceutical companies are still mainly competing through saturated digital channels, digital marketing is one of the best opportunities to differentiate from its competitors. This guide is based on 20 years of experience in digital marketing in the pharmaceutical industry at both global and local levels, in mature and emerging markets. It aims at providing the basic and necessary concrete methods to design, follow, and assess a multichannel campaign. By reading this book, you will land on the right side of the digital fracture and join those who will create the marketing of tomorrow in the pharmaceutical industry.