Budget burnout: avoiding the pitfalls of outdated engagement strategies

If you’ve worked in pharma marketing, you’ll know how hard it can be of late. You’ll spend a load of budget on what looks and feels like perfect, machine-tooled content – disease awareness, perhaps, or promo – send it out with high hopes – and then… nothing.

No engagement, no contact. The influencers don’t read it, still less the decision-makers.  The payers? Forget it.

Are you wasting your time and budget on engagement approaches that don’t work? Many companies are, which is partly why mine, Wilmington Healthcare, is in business. We work with our clients on modern, bespoke, tailored multichannel content delivery that really makes a difference.

To get the engagement you need, the content channel mix needs to change. We recommend realigning the content distribution channels. Acknowledging the ineffectiveness of a uniform approach in today’s dynamic landscape – where professional, patient and consumer preferences continually evolve. And embracing this shift by broadening the spectrum of communication platforms.

In the NHS, too, the ‘who’ has changed. Structural and organisational shifts have created 42 different healthcare systems in England, each with their own governance, processes, priorities, delivery mechanisms and stakeholder maps.

New roles and bodies to influence include clinical networks, transformation groups, new contractors, the private sector, MDTs, new ICS formulary bodies and clinical pharmacists.

In this environment, your customer landscape shape-shifts. Brand plans can go out of date and budgets deplete.

When this happens you’re less able to invest in the solution you need to. Marketing will struggle to find investment internally. And an awareness campaign can languish in obscurity – leaving the very patients who need it to cut through disenfranchised and forgotten.

Disease awareness campaigns are one of our specialties at Wilmington and we have succeeded in moving the dial in many therapy areas – because we know who to reach, how and why.

The drivers of pharma haven’t changed: we still need to maximise influence on decision-makers and payers. But in this decade of profound change, we know that looking in the rear-view mirror to see how it was done before doesn’t help and will teach us little. We need data-driven, actionable insight that influences the right people at the right time.

Beyond changing the channel mix, Wilmington Healthcare has its own philosophy when to comes to customer engagement and omnichannel strategy.

Firstly, the importance of range. Over the last year, our commitment to extensive outreach has led to the dispatch of more than six million emails to the NHS via 1,361 distinct campaigns. The success of such a vast operation hinges on our unparalleled access to comprehensive NHS data.

We boast an expansive database featuring over 470,000 UK healthcare contacts. To guarantee its precision and currency, we have invested in a dedicated team of 30 researchers who diligently ensure its continuous update. This formidable foundation is what enables us to meet our clients’ expectations and solidify our leadership in the industry.

Secondly, we highlight our granularity. In today’s environment of hyper-targeting, we can lead you to the exact disease treaters you need. We value the specific over the general, and understand the multilayered aspect of the NHS with many cross-cutting roles and responsibilities.

Lastly, our background insight comes from our colleagues at the leading NHS news publication – Health Service Journal. That means our thinking in uncovering and researching new customer groups is driven by the latest understanding and knowledge of health service change.

If this strikes a chord with your experiences, we’re keen to understand your unique challenges. From hurdles in initiating a disease awareness campaign to difficulties in distributing promotional materials and proving their ROI, we stand ready to offer our support and expertise.

Our services provide complete integration between sales and marketing, and provide business-critical information in the context you need.

We can help you and drive growth. Contact me at Jake.Crute@wilmingtonhealthcare.com for more information.

Wilmington Healthcare specialises in data, insight and consultancy solutions to facilitate access to the NHS for life sciences companies and other suppliers. Do you need a just-in-time solution for regulatory comms? Contact us now for more information about our Direct Healthcare Professional (DHCP) communications hotline.