Digital touchpoints in pharma marketing

A touchpoint is an any kind of contact between a buyer and a seller, so between a company and a prospect or customer. This interaction can take place in a variety of ways, such as face-to-face conversation, email exchanges or phone calls. A contact between a company’s online brand and its audience is called a digital touchpoint. It can track the interaction of website visitors, social media followers, and visitors as well as any online presence. Moreover, it can provide a lot of information by dint of analyzing the data and applying the results, consequently helping meet company objectives. Let’s take a look at some of these digital touchpoints that should be considered in marketing and customer service efforts.^[1]

One example is search engine optimization (SEO), which greets consumers when they use a search engine to find information. The better the positioning, such as content quality and relevant keywords, the higher the page will rank in search results. This may be the first place someone gets to know you. Without proper SEO tactics, the company may be pushed to the other side of the search results, where - let's agree - no one looks, which will mean that no one will know the company and its offer.

A website is an important touchpoint, from getting your customer to read more information, to letting them make a purchase. Today's websites should be easily viewable and transparent, and suitable for a variety of devices; otherwise, you risk losing customers who cannot or will not navigate your inconvenient site.

Direct communication focuses on touchpoints such as email, SMS or messangers like Whatsapp, Facebook, WeChat. Generally, they help to get in touch with selected customers directly. This communication is not visible to others and its effectiveness depends on the relationship and contextthe context of the communication. Once we have this point of contact (e.g. the phone number with the customer's consent), we can start addressing or informing the customers directly.

Our all-in-one Highp platform for direct digital communication with HCPs could be another good example of a digital touchpoint. It's fair to say that Highp is a new form of communication, as it differs significantly from previous methods. Highp allows you to send valuable messages enriched with personalized files, attachments and infographics via SMS and email invitation. Highp is a smart shortcut that maximizes the effectiveness of multiple channels, touchpoints and technologies into a single frictionless experience for the customer. As a result, Highp provides up to 10 times more effective engagement than any single channel and technology.^[2]

Multichannel marketing - as the name suggests - is when brand delivers their marketing content via multiple channels. It allows being present across all the different places, where exactly the customers are, which benefits both. The company is exploited because using multichannel marketing increases the number of times customers see the brand. Additionally, benefits customers because it makes it easier for them to get in contact with the company's products when they are ready to do so. Multichannel marketing is all about choice. It is important to give prospects the most convenient way of interacting with the company in all stages of the customer journey. The proliferation of channels gives consumers over the buying process. Multichannel marketing is effective only if done correctly. Messaging must be highly targeted and also tailored and it is crucial to remember, if multichannel marketing is being done on an international scale, that customer behavior differs from country to country. The many channels available to customers mean that delivering the right message to the right audience is not enough. They must be highly choreographed across all channels to reach the right customers. Messages have to be tailored in a way that customers will find meaningful and trustworthy. Knowing what triggered a customer to respond, enables a company to assess whether or not the marketing efforts are getting results.^[3]

When considering, how to say touchpoint in a different way, there was no particular word that would be satisfying. It is because this word has many meanings which additionally depend on the context. However, considering the interpretation of the word "touchpoint", the following expressions: point of contact, interaction point and point of engagement might be the most applicable.

Attribution in digital advertising is a matter of assigning some type of credit to an ad so as to budge a particular user into becoming a customer. To simplify, attribution models can be described as a measurement technique, whose results can be used by marketers to optimize business performance. We can mark out a couple of different attribution models that depend on the sold product or length of buying cycle, but let's focus on the linear attribution model. It is easy to imagine, that this model assigns the same credit to every interaction that the customer experiences along the entire path. So, an in-person event is given the same weight as a click on a banner ad or a joining newsletter. The real benefit of a linear attribution model is - as already mentioned - that it accounts for all touchpoints. By accrediting every interaction that occurs along the path of a single buyer - from the first, even subconscious contact with a brand, to the point of purchase - you can adjust your marketing efforts accordingly going forward depending on what campaigns work and what do not.

Multi-touch attribution does not assign the greatest share to the last or first touchpoint (as it happens in the case of first- or last-touch attribution) but allows multiple touchpoints to earn credit in direct proportion to the ad’s contribution and open rate. Multi-touch attribution is one of the most important issues in digital advertising, especially when it comes to multiple media channels. When considering multiple media channels, distinguished can be for example engagement of research or search, displaying, direct messages, social or video. Multi-touch attribution tool in this case measures and allocates credit for a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) event to those touchpoints that were most effective and had the greatest influence on the business score. This methodology is considered the most objective, due to the fact that it is based on actual results, not marketers’ predictions. It helps them plan activities and optimizes their work.