Before long I’ll be headed to ePharma to speak on one of my favorite topics: audience identity management. This data innovation lets pharma marketers know the identity of the HCPs who visit their websites in real time, without requiring a login.
Previous web analytics tools give you a snapshot of your overall traffic patterns, but the real data resides in knowing exactly who visits your website and which pages each HCP views. This is a huge shift, and it’s changing the way pharma marketers approach digital marketing.
Most Website Visitors Aren’t HCPs
Until recently, it seemed safe to assume that most visitors to pharma websites were healthcare professionals. But real-time website data collected from our first AIM clients shows that the percent of physician visitors to pharma websites is actually in the single digits.
We know that making assumptions about an audience is risky. Now that we’ve learned how few website visitors are physicians, the stakes are even higher. Pharma marketers need to make a connection with as many of those physicians as possible or marketing ROI will suffer.
Know the HCP Visitor by Name
The most effective way to make that connection is to know the identity of every physician who visits your site. Then use that knowledge to reach each individual physician with timely and compelling messages, either on your website or through email.
AIM makes it possible by reporting the name, NPI number, medical specialty, and state of residence for every “tagged” HCP who visits your website. You’ll know how often each HCP visits your site, how long he or she stays, and what content he views while he’s there.
AIM also lets you distinguish between physicians, mid-level prescribers, nurses, and other persons of interest. This is critical, since each of those segments has different interests.
Connect with the Right Specialists
Most pharma products are specialty drugs, so first and foremost, you need to target the specialists who will prescribe your product. AIM can alert you to the types of content individual specialists view most often. Typically, this includes clinical trials and other scientific information. You can also link AIM data to the HCP profiles in your email database to develop an even more nuanced understanding of individual physicians.
Engage Secondary Audiences
Mid-level prescribers, nurses, and pharmacists also represent a huge marketing opportunity. Nurse practitioners and physician assistants make prescribing decisions and are still relatively accessible to sales reps. Nurses provide dosing and safety information to patients on a daily basis, and pharmacists influence patient outcomes every time they offer guidance about prescribed medications. AIM data indicates that each of these groups consumes different website content.
When you know the identity of individual HCP visitors to your website, you can track and analyze their content preferences. Then use this insight to personalize website content, follow-up with meaningful email messages, and focus in-person meetings on each HCP’s current interests.
We’ll take a closer look at many of these topics during my ePharma session on Monday, March 6 at 2:30 pm. Hope to see you there!
