No more pharmaceutical spam. Why video is a more effective way of communication?

Is there someone who reads spam emails anymore?

With about 14,5 billion spam emails sent every day, this question is worth the comprehensive answer.[1]

According to multiple sources, even 70 to 90 percent of all the emails we get are considered to be spam. People don't trust messages that are coming from an unknown person, mainly when he or she aims to sell something. The most popular cloud-based mailing solution like Gmail has automated filtering of messages to such an extent that the majority of incoming emails are not reaching the general income box and finish unread in some tab called Updates or Promotions. With roughly 70 million Gmail accounts and about 50 more million G-Suite users, you can imagine how many emails, which are not treated as spam will never get the attention.

How to get attention?

Getting the attention of the targeted demographic is what marketers struggle every day. How can you make your message heard, in all this noise? Do you really want to spam doctors or instead make them feel comfortable with your products and salesforce?

If people don't read mass emails and are equipped with tools to skip them seamlessly, why they consume more and more content? It is all about personalized digital experience. Salesforce reviewed this trend and found out that for 58 percent of consumers it is absolutely critical for companies to provide a personal experience.

More human touch needed

What is more, 84% of customers agreed that being treated like a person, not a number, is very important for companies to winning their business [2]. The best players on the market learn from this and add a lot of human touch to their services. When Uber realizes that clients would like to listen to the songs they want during the ride, the company allows customers to sync a Spotify playlist with the car audio system.

The rising number of on-demand services and platforms is another example. Users value their time more than ever before. When they would like to watch something, a movie or series, they will not wait until it is presented on TV. They have Netflix. Not only to watch what they want, whenever they feel hungry for it but also to get the suggestion, what to watch next. The learning algorithm is following every individual to recommend movies or shows that will suit the user with a high likelihood.

The rule behind it is very simple. The user instantly feels a connection with the message if the experience is personalized. The same was in a Starbucks case. The brand keeps customers engaged with its mobile app just by integrating the company's reward system with the option to customize orders via the app. Collecting the data like location and purchase history makes it as personal as it can be. In the end, the app generated about 22 percent of all US sales.

Is the society asking for personalizing experience?

No. The mainstream generation is not asking for it, but demanding it. Standing out from the noisy crowd is a tough nut to crack for digital marketers. Every day they are looking at the metrics wondering how to improve conversion rates, drive more leads and finally increase the company's revenue. When you know, where the demand is, you don't bid against it but deliver. According to Harvard Business Review "personalization can deliver five to eight times the ROI on marketing spend, and can lift sales by 10% or more". It is huge. It may be the winning strategy for the companies struggling in a highly competitive market.

A video is the king of content

There is one more thing that describes the mainstream. People cherish video content more than any other. A little over a decade after the first smartphones appeared on the market, almost everyone can afford a device that gives the opportunity to watch high-resolution movies or video messages. For over 70 percent of marketers, a video is number one in producing conversions. From the customer experience point of view, it is undoubtedly more engaging and memorable than a text. We can see it in a marketing budget, where the expenses on video content are rapidly rising.

We now consumers expect a personalized video experience. We are also aware of the fact that this kind of content can boost sales by 10 percent or more and deliver five to eight times the ROI on marketing spend. Now the most intriguing question is how to do it?

How to implement personalization in the pharmaceutical industry?

Should I hire the video team and produce more video content to publish on YouTube? That may be a question some of the CEOs ask themselves. Probably there is no need to run a separate department in your company, but rather consider a hyper-personalization of digital services.[3] There are tools like the Highp platform, made to do it for you with the smallest effort. Especially in the medical and pharmaceutical industries, where you need to build a strong relationship with the doctors, keeping the highest ethical standards.

Highp is paving the way for the responsible communicating with MDs. Thanks to it you can build highly personalized digital services that will seamlessly align with your customers’ journey. Creating video content is easy and can be made by your sales representative equipped only with the smartphone.

Highp Services can be triggered automatically or directly by field force as part of your sales and support communication with customers. As a result, your brand will provide improved customer experience along with content fully aligned to your customer’s needs.

According to the ePharma Physician report by Manhattan Research, 64 percent of U.S. physicians reported meeting with sales representatives face-to-face in the last six months. But 60% declare that they would like to meet in person in the future. It is meaningful. Connecting via video messages could be more efficient.

No more spam

Don't hesitate to rethink your communication strategy. Personalization of messages and video usage are going hand in hand to deliver a better ROI, especially when combined with the marketing mix, and the greater mass media campaign. It is also clear information for the doctors: you know from who you get the message, the channel is safe and personal and the video content from the rep is credible. It doesn't matter if it brought during a pharmaceutical event, a meeting or conference. It is understandable that communicating with doctors is different than advertising to the mass market. But in the end, both targets are people, and in 2019 they hate spam more than ever.

 

[1]   www.propellercrm.com/blog/email-spam-statistics

[2]  www.salesforce.com/content/d...

[3]  hbr.org/2015/11/how-marketers-can-personalize-at-scale