Capturing the attention of your physician audience is no easy feat, especially with digital communication increasing every day. It’s difficult to cut through this noise to deliver your message. The best way to reach your audience is to understand their needs – and tailor your outreach to those needs. Today, more than ever, physician-level data is critical to effectively reach and engage your targets.

In our next webinar on May 22, Edith Hodkinson, Chief of Digital Strategy, will unravel some notions about the “digital physician” to demonstrate why it’s so important for marketers to separate fact from fiction when strategizing ways to communicate with and engage healthcare professionals. In preparation for the webinar, I sat down with Edith to explore some of the topics she’ll be discussing.

Here’s what Edith had to share...

Sarah Brown: In healthcare, we like to think of our physician targets as separate from the rest of the world, especially when it comes to how they engage online. Are physicians unique in their online behaviors? That is, do they operate differently than other professionals or the general public?

The best way to reach your audience is to understand their needs – and tailor your outreach to those needs.

Edith Hodkinson: A common misunderstanding is that physicians all behave the same as each other when it comes to online activity—and that this behavior is separate or different from the general population. Do physicians possess a special set of skills that sets them apart from other professions? Yes, of course. But, doctors are people too. Their online habits are the same as any other human, they do not engage with content in a linear way, and they have the same expectations as other consumers when it comes to personalized engagement. When we assess their top-read information across the online medical ecosystem, their content consumption is representative of what interests them most, at a specific point in time.

SB: In regards to that, how are you able to truly understand what one physician might find interesting in comparison to another, even if they're within the same specialty?

EH: Technology is a wonderful thing, Sarah. We’ve come a long way from a Google Analytics compilation of aggregate data. Audience identity management platforms capture physician-level information about website visitors—data points as specific as name, NPI number, geographical location, and specialty. Thanks to this technology, you may be surprised that oftentimes the information they’re searching falls outside of their specialty. Or, instead of researching your HCP site, they’re turning to the consumer site for information. This opens up opportunities to communicate with them in a manner not previously considered.

Doctors are people too.

SB: That’s very interesting. I imagine there could be a lot of marketing dollars being wasted, not understanding this level of specificity about website visitors and “targeting in the dark,” so to speak.

EH: You’re absolutely correct. On the other hand, having that physician-level data allows marketers to understand content preferences, which types of sites individual physicians frequent on a regular basis, what content formats they prefer, and therefore trends that demonstrate the greatest opportunities to capture their attention at the moment of intent. Then, we can further those physician-level behaviors with tailored, preference-based journeys delivered through marketing automation. Optimizing your marketing efforts becomes much easier when you have all of this information in your arsenal.

The webinar is May 22 at 2 p.m. (EST). If you’re not able to attend the live presentation, an on-demand version will be available.