6 Pharma Marketing Tips You Need To Know About

Marketing to a roomful of doctors may sound intimidating, but there are ways to get the message through to these professionals. Interestingly, you don’t need to get technical and complicated. These tips will help you to sell that next product to a team of physicians much easier.

1- Stick To The Program

Okay, remember we’re talking about doctors here. That means you need to have your presentation solid, concise, and to the point. You need it to be bang-on and know your stuff. According to Digital Authority, marketing to medical professionals should be “strategic, tactical, and razor-focused.”

You also need to be sure that the physicians you are marketing to can prescribe the product you are selling them on and that the doctors you are pitching have some purchasing power.

2- Know Your Audience

You already know that you’ll be speaking to several doctors but not all of them will be the right fit for your product line. This means that to increase the odds of a positive outcome, you have to craft your message to fit a specific segment of your potential audience.

But how do you do that? By taking into account the following factors:

The Specialists

Take a good, hard look at the product you are selling. If you are selling clinical items that would be of particular interest to a roomful of urologists, then you would spend your time with that focus group. It also means you won’t end up wasting resources on non-urology specialists. Focus on your target group.

The Location

Geography can play an interesting role in the marketing of pharma products. An example of where this can be an issue is if you are pitching doctors a product that is controlled at the state level, you’ll want to be speaking to doctors who can provide service to that state.

The Setting

Doctors who own their practices are very different from those who are hospital-based. The big difference you need to know is that the ones who own their practice have a lot more influence on the decision-making at their clinics. These physicians are the best ones to pitch new products.

The Payment Mode

There are many different payment modes for doctors. They are Medicaid, HMOs, private insurance, and accountable care. Depending on the method of payment a doctor functions with will have an impact on how they will react to your specific product pitch.

3 – Define Your Doctor’s Target

Didn’t we already cover this? Well, not exactly. Doctors play several different roles in their non-doctor lives. If you can identify these roles, you will have some additional success. For example, aim for some business content or human content depending on what the doctor type happens to be.

4 – Make Use Of Content Marketing

First off, funny and goofy ad copy that kills at the coffee machine in the office is not going to sell physicians on your product. That doesn’t mean that dull and boring will win them over, either. But you do need to be conscious of what kind of content will give you an edge.

Factual And Educational

Your presentation has to drip with facts, stats, and information 

Choose Your Topic Carefully

Doctors are big on clarity and not so fond of vagueness

Use The Best Format

Don’t venture far from the norm and use white papers, videos, interactive media, webinars, and eBooks to get your message across in the most effective manner

It’s All About The CTA

The bottom line is that your call to action will be what makes or breaks the deal with the doctors

Keep A Handle On The Strategy

The content marketing strategy should be clearly defined on your end long before launching any kind of presentation. Each member of your team should have a complete understanding of what the project is and the possible outcomes.

They also need to know what their roles are within that strategy. This puts everyone on level ground and with each step of the way carefully documented, execution will be more focused and successful as a result.

Establish A Separate Budget For Marketing

For projects you will be pitching to digital-savvy physicians, you will need a specific budget that is earmarked just for this project. It keeps all other marketing programs out of the picture so that you can focus on the goals of selling to doctors and not to other outside audiences.

5 – Do Your Homework

One way to network with potential doctor customers is to hang out where they can be found. This will involve attendance at medical conventions and conferences. Just be sure that the trade shows you go to are open to the general public and marketers.

6 – Start With The Inbox

As old-school as email may appear, for busy doctors, it is still the most reliable form of communication. This means that you can start up conversations through the inbox that could otherwise take months to set up. Email marketing will help you greatly.

 

In Conclusion

According to HealthCare Weekly, pharma companies spend a great deal of money on marketing their products. The amount rivals how much is spent on research and development of those very same products which tells you that getting your new medication or treatment into the hands of doctors who will use or prescribe them is big business.

The key is to be able to reach those specific physicians who will become customers and supporters of the new products. It isn’t exactly rocket science, but the process that marketers must follow to be successful is almost as complicated. But when you factor in the returns, that extra work does have a good return.

The fact of the matter is that it is possible to succeed when marketing to doctors. You just have to know how to do it and when you think about it, isn’t that true about anything worth doing? Following these guidelines will give you a leg up on the competition and win you some sales in what would otherwise be considered a tough room to work.