Setting Pharmaceutical Marketing KPIs in the COVID Era
The new normal for pharmaceutical marketing KPIs: Agile marketers are those that will survive and succeed.
We are relatively fortunate in the pharmaceutical industry that the impact of COVID-19 has been much less disruptive to businesses than in other industries - in many cases, it has had a positive impact.
No one knows when this pandemic will end (even though this week we are seeing the most positive development yet in the UK where people are being vaccinated), or what our industry will look like at the end of it. One area which has been impacted has been marketing and especially the setting and measuring of marketing strategy and KPIs.
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Positives can be taken from how we have adapted our business practices (as an industry) over the previous six months and we will have to show similar flexibility in setting KPIs in the future. It could well be that we have parallel sets of KPIs and pivot between depending on factors outside of our control such as lock-down measures, event cancellations, supply chain issues etc. Adaptability will be vital.
We’ve seen most events in 2020 (still a principle driver for lead generation and business development) either translate to a virtual event or get cancelled altogether and this is a trend we anticipate continuing for at least the first half of 2021. Our clients have looked to repurpose budget for other strategies that can meet similar objectives to events and their audience has also migrated to online/digital platforms to consume their content.
Naturally, media suppliers have seen great gains in their online/digital audiences. Almost all our media partners report significant uplifts in website visitors, webinar registrations and digital product open rates as their audience look for alternative ways to research new innovations and technology in our industry.
A NEW NORMAL FOR KPIS
We cannot measure success in 2020/21 by our usual standards. Clearly, the number of leads generated by face-to-face events will be practically zero, whereas we would expect leads generated by digital campaigns to increase on previous years (perhaps just accelerating a natural and inevitable migration to digital channels).
I was asked to provide some insights, amongst others from our industry, on what the “new normal would look like” in terms of KPIs for GOLD Magazine. Kay Wesley, CEO, Kanga Health, also a contributor, highlights the mindset issue we must overcome: “When digital interactions were seen as a mere support act to the main business of speaking face-to-face with customers, the focus was perhaps more on ‘reach’ metrics for all interactions… But with little or no face-to-face interaction, we must use digital KPIs to track our conversion rate. Such as, has visiting our website changed the customer’s view about our product? Did our webinar have an impact on prescribing habits, whether they attended or viewed on-demand?”
“‘The New Normal’ for KPIs’ feature in the October issue of GOLD Magazine.”
THE NEED TO BE AGILE
Content marketing within pharmaceutical media is becoming an increasingly crowded market. By its very nature, each vendor has limited inventory to broadcast webinars or publish sponsored content so it’s more important than ever to get the messaging right. Any content should be solution-focused and of sufficiently high-quality that you stand out, otherwise, you are essentially putting yourself at the back of the virtual hall.
Measuring success shouldn’t be just about engagement in terms of views or basic leads, but any corresponding action the reader makes, did they visit your website or download a related piece of content? More important than numbers (though you obviously need these first!) is measuring conversion/interaction for each tactic.
It’s also important to remain agile when setting KPIs. Will events return in the second half of 2021? If so, we need to set realistic expectations on lead gen/appointments as a reasonable assumption would be reduced visitor numbers due to distancing measures in place and also perhaps a reluctance for attendees to travel.
We will also most likely see a drop off in audience numbers/response to digital campaigns as fatigue creeps in with readers tired of the same topics in the same format. Will a return to offices for most workers impact campaign response at all, or will a new attitude to home working mean digital engagement remains higher in relative terms? One thing is for sure, there are surely some more twists and turns in the road we need to be prepared for. Being agile with your marketing strategies and tactics, as well as your KPIs, will mean you will stand a better chance of survival/success.
Whatever challenges marketing teams face in the COVID-19 era are almost certainly shared with colleagues in business development. If marketing view their role in the buyer’s journey as finished when they deliver a sales-qualified lead to their business development colleagues, but their colleagues have significant challenges in converting the lead to a sale through limited opportunities to close the deal (no client meetings, no physical events), a more collaborative approach to lead nurture must be taken to overcome the obstacle of no human influence on the relationship.
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CONNECTING BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT TEAMS WITH PROSPECTS
From a marketing perspective, the most significant challenge we have faced is finding alternative ways to connect our client’s business development teams with their prospects. A majority of campaigns are focused on setting up face-to-face meetings at key events in the calendar such as DCAT or BIO. As these events are not running in a physical format for this year at least, we have to consider other opportunities that offer the two-way interaction that a physical meeting offers and enables us to meet the same KPIs around generating bottom-of-funnel prospects without having to meet in person.
Nikos Georgiades, Senior Vice President, Global Head of Digital Commercial Execution at Novartis also comes to a similar conclusion: “Measuring KPIs is about measuring progress towards goals. Irrespective of circumstances and changing environments, our ability to define what we are trying to accomplish and have a way of moving closer to that is critical. Only by tracking the right KPIs can we work in this nimble yet effective way to build a business fit for the future.” Essentially, the question we should be asking when measuring KPIs is not “was this campaign successful?” but “was this campaign successful in the COVID-19 era?”
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