Digital Marketing Innovation

This year, we held our inaugural Veeva Exchange in Korea with customers and prospects from 17 multinational and 7 domestic pharmaceutical companies.

– What’s the trend? –
Until five years ago, ‘digital marketing innovation’ and ‘digital transformation’ weren’t buzzwords in the life sciences industry, however, they have become popular as the role of the rep has evolved. In the past, doctors preferred face-to-face meetings but preferences are changing and digital enablement, coordinated multichannel and ultimately intelligent engagement is becoming increasingly important.

Driving the change is the fact that the rep is also being asked to do much more than simply meet with the doctor. Their day-to-day role now has them managing customer visits, scientific data, stakeholder management, account team strategies, medical information, emails, video calls, training materials and much more!

At Veeva Exchange, we conducted a survey on digital marketing trends and 89.7% of participants have plans to start digital marketing in next 12 months. Previously most pharmaceutical companies had heard about digital marketing but, the survey results show that almost 90% of companies realize it’s NECESSARY and they NEED it NOW.

– What is the digital marketing innovation? –
As a marketer, the things I care about when I am executing a marketing campaign is simple.
Who is my audience? What is my message? Am I using the correct channels? Am I reaching my target at the right time? Is my campaign cost effective and is it compliant?
For a sales rep, better access to customers, reduction of cost and expenses, improvement of HCP training and education are all areas they care about.

Digital marketing innovation is not just about digitalization, but about the transformation of the business, it’s activities, processes, competencies, and models which impact the organizations’ vision and strategy.

– How can Veeva help? –
There are two main scenarios that pharmaceutical companies in Korea often ask us advice on. “How do we keep the same number of Medical Reps (MR) yet increase their territory coverage by 10%?” and “We’re reducing the number of MR’s and will also be faced with a reduction in budget. How do we maintain the same coverage and productivity levels?”

My answer, start to improve customer reach through digital first.
For that, Veeva CRM can help you with multiple channels like Veeva CRM Engage Webinar, Veeva Engage for Portals and Veeva CRM Approved Email for your broader reach. For customers who prefer the rep interaction, try CLM e-detailing for face-to-face calls and remote calls via CRM Engage and CRM CoBrowse.
Use multiple channels to extend your customer reach, and capture continuous feedback to improve strategy, execution, data quality and performance outcomes.

– How to make steps forward –
Digital marketing innovation doesn’t happen overnight and can take years. And, there are many pieces to ensuring success including compliance, content, training, strategy, agency management etc.
My recommendation is to try it first on a smaller scale for low risk. If you don’t get the result you want, there will always be takeaways from your journey.

Veeva is here to help with your digital marketing innovation journey as a trusted advisor.