4 Best Practices for Closing the Loop in the Life Sciences
Closed loop marketing (CLM) has gotten a second life with the upsurge of technological innovations over the last decade. In a 2008 survey1, only about 25 percent of pharmaceutical companies said they were engaged in “full-blown closed loop marketing.” Over the last six years, we’ve seen several companies leverage industry innovations, including combined CRM and CLM, to revitalize customer engagement. Here are some best practices to help you as you look ahead.
1. Right content for the right channel
Creation of a core asset isn’t the end of the story. Tailor what you’ve produced for each communication channel. For face-to-face engagements, calls with doctors are short –usually a minute or less. Each second matters, so being vigilant about aligning CLM content with the reality of the call is critical. A five-minute video or even a 10-slide presentation is not usually feasible.
If content isn’t going to fit the rep experience with a customer, consider another channel more suited for the material – something that allows customers to review it on their own time, such as Approved Email.
2. Make it relevant
Customers are more likely to respond to content that is personalized and relevant. Multichannel CRM gives you rich information on your customers’ preferences, and the ability to execute across channels in a coordinated way. These insights make it possible to appropriately target every communication.
Determine which key messages are going to be most relevant to a given customer. Include formulary access specific to the practice, pinpoint their interests, and include personalization based upon previous interactions. Never miss an opportunity to make content relevant.
3. Focus your data efforts
Crafting compelling content hinges on knowing your customers deeply. Today, the volume of data you can capture is almost limitless. Focus on the data most actionable and related to indicators of performance. Data collection alone isn’t the end goal. Using closed loop marketing effectively means ensuring that new insights are reflected in your content.
Content should evolve with business and customer needs. Updating content twice a year aligned with POA cycles may not be sufficient. Leading organizations are updating content more frequently in response to CLM feedback and data from other channels. These companies are able to move quickly, leveraging agility provided by commercial solutions built specifically for the life sciences industry. The ability to gauge content’s effectiveness in real-time – and to easily withdraw or update content – offered by modern solutions like the Veeva Commercial Suite is helping life sciences companies get customers the information they want, when they want it.
4. Go beyond traditional detailing
CLM allows companies to improve engagement using customer insights, in an innovative way – this is its biggest advantage. When CLM is integrated with your CRM system, you have access to all your customer information in one place. You can use all this activity data across channels to offer more value to your customers. In your presentations, you can capture specific information about a doctor’s practice with integrated surveys, for example, and present peer summary results to HCPs. Or you can leverage technology to ensure that your customer is getting all the right information. In Veeva’s multichannel calendar, for example, a rep can see when a HCP opened an Approved Email from a teammate and use that information to determine the best follow-up message.
Life sciences companies are increasingly embracing multichannel strategies to deliver the most engaging content, precisely targeted to customers’ preferences. Let’s have 2014 be the year that the industry expands its use of closed loop marketing to meet the individual needs of its customers – allowing them to better serve patients around the globe.
Carol Jacobson is the CLM SME for Commercial Services at Veeva.
1. Faden, Mike. (2012). Pharmaceutical Commerce, Will Closed-Loop Marketing Energize the Pharma Sales Process? Retrieved from http://pharmaceuticalcommerce.com↩