About the 7 P’s of Digital Pharma Marketing
The 7P’s of Digital Pharma Marketing is a summary of some important things I’ve learned over years in practice. I hope you find them useful. Please feel free to share with others and contribute your own learnings and experiences.
About me
I am a designer, a strategist and a marketeer.
I’ve been in pharma marketing for over 15 years and have been working on digital marketing projects for over 10.
I’ve worked for Pfizer, IMS Health, Herbalife and BMS in local and regional roles.
I studied architecture in Istanbul and business in London, and I reinvent my career every ten years.
PS: The 7P’s originally started as a training slide set of 5 topics and evolved to 7 over time. And yes, 7P’s is probably easier to remember than 4P’s 2T’s and 1S or something like that.
You may email me at tughan777@gmail.com or follow me on Twitter @tughan777
Dhanuka Agritech Limited - Sales and Marketing Intern
7 P's of Digital Pharma Marketing by Tughan Demirbilek
1. The 7 P’s
of Digital Pharma
Marketing
Tughan Demirbilek
tughan777@gmail.com
@tughan777
2. About the 7 P’s of Digital Pharma Marketing
The 7P’s of Digital Pharma Marketing is a summary of some important things I’ve learned over years in
practice. I hope you find them useful. Please feel free to share with others and contribute your own
learnings and experiences.
About me
I am a designer, a strategist and a marketeer.
I’ve been in pharma marketing for over 15 years and have been working on digital marketing projects for
over 10.
I’ve worked for Pfizer, IMS Health, Herbalife and BMS in local and regional roles.
I studied architecture in Istanbul and business in London, and I reinvent my career every ten years.
PS: The 7P’s originally started as a training slide set of 5 topics and evolved to 7 over time. And yes 7P’s is probably easier to remember than
4P’s 2T’s and 1S or something like that.
4. “ 100%
of customers
are people. ”
Simon Sinek
We need to start with
people because 100%
of our customers are
people.
But not all people are
your customers.
5. Who’s your customer? You need to know who
your customer is .
You actually have to
decide to focus on a
group of customers that
you want to and can
serve best and stick with
that group for a long
time.
6. Insights…
be there…
be curious…
be open minded…
be modest…
Then get real insights about them.
This is the somewat hard part.
You really need to be there, among
them, like one of them, live their
day, their week, their months. Be
curious, like this young lady here
clearly demonstrates. Be open
minded, allow your customers to
surprise you, forget what you think
you know for a while. Adopt a zen
attitude and repeat to yourself you
know nothing and you’re here to
watch, listen and learn.
7. What
do
they really
want?
Insights
Research
Customer personas
Customer journey maps
Pain maps
Now you need to pull it all
together.
Analyze and synthesise what
you’ve learned.
Get all your smart minds
together and figure out what
your customers really want to
achieve and how can you help
them.
9. Choose
your
purpose A dolphin is purpose-built.
So is a tiger.
They are fast, powerful and graceful all
at once. That’s why they’ve survived
and thrived over millenia.
Our digital marketing programs and
projects must be purpose built too.
Choose what your purpose is. You can’t
be a dolphin and tiger at once…
10. Inform
Educate
Enable
Entertain
There are 4 possible generic
purposes for a digital marketing
project.
They are: Inform, Educate, Enable
(buying, doing etc) or Entertain.
You may choose any one or two or
three of these as your purpose. The
more the better. Just like propellor
blades, two, or more work better.
11. Add Value
But the key is that whatever you
do you must ADD VALUE to the
customer.
This is the one question you
should ask yourself and your
teams constantly.
If you’re not adding value, for
sure, your program or project will
fail and fall into obscurity, for
sure.
13. Relevant?
Important?
Urgent?
New?
Credible?
Emotional?
Add
Value
There are multiple aspects to plan for your
digital marketing program or project. Your
message is top of the list.
Your message needs to be: Focused on a
single topic, sufficiently Simple to be
understood easily by all, Short enough to
ensure enagement.
The criteria you need to judge if your
message is good are: Is it relevant to your
intended audience, important for them,
urgent enough to merit their attention, new
– otherwise you’re wasting their time,
credible so they can trust you and
emotional.
Why emotional you think? In his bestselling
book Daniel Kahnemann states that contrary
to widespread rational expectations that
people Think-Act-Feel they actually Feel-Act-
Rationalize their actions. So if your message
doesn’t strike an emotional chord with your
audience you won’t get too far.
And finally, don’t forget, check to make sure
your message ADDS VALUE.
14. Timing
Flexible
Shared
Budget
Long-Haul
Secured
Timing and Budget are two other critical
aspect to plan ahead for.
Digital marketing is a continuous
experiment, so plan for flexibility. Share
your timing with all internal stakeholders
whose support you’ll need and avoid
surprises as much as possible.
It takes continued and persistent effort to
get a digital marketing program to build
traction. If you run out of budget and stop
investing what you gained through blood,
sweat and tears will be gone in the blink of
an eye. The most typical example for this in
pharma are websites that are built and
launched to great fanfare, attract audiences
one year, only to be abandoned because the
project owner moved to another role or you
stop adding new content because you ran
out of budget. Your audience will not love
you for that and they will remember you for
it.
15. Integration
Organization
Brand plan
Other channels
Prior programs
And one other critical bit of planning should go
into integrating your program or project within
the organization (i.e. your sales force, legal,
medical, access, corporate communication, HR).
Digital marketing programs should never be the
remit of a special team or department. They
should be integrated into the strategic plans at
all levels, down to the brand plan and owned by
relevant people in the organization. They should
also be integrated with other channels you
already use like congresses, print media, sales
detailing materials, the corporate website and so
on. And finally, getting traction in digital is hard
already as it is, so don’t forget to integrate with
earlier digital or traditional programs that have
been succesful.
17. Choose and
combine for
purpose
A place for
everything and
everything in its
place
There are many possible platforms where
your program or project may come to life.
Each platform also has a natural media,
customer segment, tone of voice that you
need to respect and understand. Choose
and combine to suit your purpose. A formal
tone on Twitter won’t work and YouTube
requires attractive video, Facebook covers
billions yet the younger generation are on
Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat or the latest
platform you haven’t yet heard of. A
Michelin starred restaurant can’t be without
a bread knife and a burger joint without
ketchup.
20. 1
Agitate-Impact
The purpose of the Agitate step is to
grab your audience’s attention. It’s
like shouting «Hey!» to someone in
a crowded place.
Once you have their attention you
want to Educate or Inform them
about whatever it is that you’re
focusing on.
Here are some examples of Agitate.
21. 3
Activate-Persuade
You got their attention, and told them
what you wanted to tell them, now
close the sale, call them to action.
If you can actually get your audience
to do something physical as part of
your call to action that’s even better.
Because people will remember
something much better and be much
more inclined to change their future
behaviour if they’ve involved more of
their five senses into it.
22. 1
1 2 3
3
3
3
3
3
Here’s a good example of
how the three steps could
be used in an email.
Agitate
Educate
Activate
2 2
23. William Bernbach – DDB
"It may well be that creativity
is the last unfair advantage
we're legally allowed
to take over our competitors.“Creativity is a process to
have original ideas that
have value.
Sir Ken Robinson
After seeing these examples you might have started thinking that this is something
for your creative agencies to worry about and figure out for you. I think otherwise.
Sir Ken Robinson who is a thought leader for creativity, defines creativity as «a
process to have original ideas that have value». I believe original ideas come from
deep insights. If you’ve followed the 7 Steps as described here you’ll be in the best
position to have those insights for your intended audience and best positioned to
develop original ideas from them. This is fundamentally important as William
Bernbach of DDB states that will be the only legal unfair advantage over your
competitors. And mind you your competition might not be who you might think it is.
Encyclopedia did not fall victim to Larousse but Wikipedia.
26. Launch
Early
Adopters
Champions
A digital marketing program or project is just like a
new product or brand. It needs a launch. Make
sure you launch and launch well. IMS Health’s
records Show that almost no pharma product that
failed in its first six months ever made a come
back again. Why should it be any different for
digital pharma marketing programs?
Identify and pursue your potential early adopters
fervently. They will help you learn what works,
what doesn’t and guide you in improving what you
have on offer. If you don’t have any, stop and go
back to the People step.
And finally, aim to cultivate champions of your
program or project who will spread the word about
your program or project a lot better than you ever
can on your own.
28. Observe
Measure
Set thresholds
Set targets
Fine tune
Pivot or persist
Save the knowledge
Track your performance. Most of these are self-
explanatory, so I’ll explain only those that might not
be.
Set thresholds: Set minimum clicks, visits, users
etc. as success milestones you aim to hit. This will
ensure you don’t invest time or effort if something
doesn’t work.
Pivot or persist: You can’t always know how things
turn out. If things are not going to plan either
change the plan radically according to new insights
you’ve gained or if you are certain your convicitons
are true then persist until a given deadline or
milestone. If persistance fails then you inevitably
have to pivot or quit.
Save the knowledge:Don’t forget to record what
you’ve learned and gained for the future.
30. People
The 7 P’s
of Digital Pharma
Marketing
Tughan Demirbilek
tughan777@gmail.com
@tughan777
Purpose
Platform
Plan
Pitch
Performance
Promotion
Notas do Editor
We need to start with people because 100% of our customers are people.
But not all people are your customers.
You need to know who your customer is . You actually have to decide to focus on a group of customers that you want to and can serve best and stick with that group for a long time.
Then get real insights about them. This is the somewat hard part. You really need to be there, among them, like one of them, live their day, their week, their months. Be curious, like this young lady here clearly demonstrates. Be open minded, allow your customers to surprise you, forget what you think you know for a while. Adopt a zen attitude and repeat to yourself you know nothing and you’re here to watch, listen and learn.
Then you need to pull it all together. Analyze and synthesise what you’ve learned. Get all your smart minds together and figure out what your customers really want to achieve and how can you help them.
A dolphin is purpose-built. So is a tiger. They are fast, powerful and graceful all at once. That’s why they’ve survived and thrived over millenia. Our digital marketing programs and projects must be purpose built too. Choose what your purpose is. You can’t be a dolphin and tiger at once…
There are 4 possible generic purposes for a digital marketing project. They are Inform, Educate, Enable (buying, doing etc) or Entertain. You may choose any one or two or three of these as your purpose. The more the better. Just like propellor blades, two, or more work better.
But the KEY is that whatever you do you must ADD VALUE to the customer. This is the one question you should ask yourself and your teams constantly. If you’re not adding value, for sure, your program or project will fail and fall into obscurity, for sure. ADD VALUE.
There are multiple aspects to plan for your digital marketing program or project.
Your message is top of the list.
Your message needs to be: Focused on a single topic, sufficiently Simple to be understood easily by all, Short enough to ensure enagement.
The criteria you need to judge if your message is good are: Is it relevant to your intended audience, important for them, urgent enough to merit their attention, new – otherwise you’re wasting their time, credible so they can trust you and emotional.
Why emotional you think? In his bestselling book Daniel Kahnemann states that contrary to widespread rational expectations that people Think-Act-Feel they actually Feel-Act-Rationalize their actions. So if your message doesn’t strike an emotional chord with your audience you won’t get too far.
And finally, don’t forget, check to make sure your message ADDS VALUE.
Timing and Budget are two other critical aspect to plan ahead for.
Digital marketing is a continuous experiment, so plan for flexibility. Share your timing with all internal stakeholders whose support you’ll need and avoid surprises as much as possible.
It takes continued and persistent effort to get a digital marketing program to build traction. If you run out of budget and stop investing what you gained through blood, sweat and tears will be gone in the blink of an eye. The most typical example for this in pharma are websites that are built and launched to great fanfare, attract audiences one year, only to be abandoned because the project owner moved to another role or you stop adding new content because you ran out of budget. Your audience will not love you for that and they will remember you for it.
And one other critical bit of planning should go into integrating your program or project within the organization (i.e. your sales force, legal, medical, access, corporate communication, HR).
Digital marketing programs should never be the remit of a special team or department. They should be integrated into the strategic plans at all levels, down to the brand plan and owned by relevant people in the organization. They should also be integrated with other channels you already use like congresses, print media, sales detailing materials, the corporate website and so on. And finally, getting traction in digital is hard already as it is, so don’t forget to integrate with earlier digital or traditional programs that have been succesful.
There are many possible platforms where your program or project may come to life. Each platform also has a natural media, customer segment, tone of voice that you need to respect and understand. Choose and combine to suit your purpose. A formal tone on Twitter won’t work and YouTube requires attractive video, Facebook covers billions yet the younger generation are on Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat or the latest platform you haven’t yet heard of. A Michelin starred restaurant can’t be without a bread knife and burger joint without ketchup.
Now that you’ve prepared all your material, you need to pitch it to your audience. The 3 steps to pursue are constant. They are Agitate, Educate, Activate.
The purpose of the Agitate step is to grab your audience’s attention. It’s like shouting «Hey!» to someone in a crowded place. Shouting, waving your hand, jumping up and down are all acceptable.
Once you have their attention you want to Educate or Inform them about whatever it is that you’re focusing on.
Here are some examples of Agitate.
You got their attention, and told them what you wanted to tell them, now close the sale, call them to action.
If you can actually get your audience to do something physical as part of your call to action that’s even better. Because people will remember something much better and be much more inclined to change their future behaviour if they’ve involved more of their five senses into it.
Here’s how the three steps would look like in an email.
After seeing these examples you might have started thinking that this is something for your creative agencies to worry about and figure out for you. I think otherwise.
Sir Ken Robinson who is a thought leader for creativity, defines creativity as «a process to have original ideas that have value». I believe original ideas come from deep insights. If you’ve followed the 7 Steps as described here you’ll be in the best position to have those insights for your intended audience and best positioned to develop original ideas from them. This is fundamentally important as William Bernbach of DDB states that will be the only legal unfair advantage over your competitors. And mind you your competition might not be who you might think it is. Encyclopedia did not fall victim to Larousse but Wikipedia.
These first five steps are what make up your content. And content is king for anything digital.
A digital marketing program or project is just like a new product or brand. It needs a launch. Make sure you launch and launch well. IMS Health’s records Show that almost no pharma product that failed in its first six months ever made a come back again. Why should it be any different for digital pharma marketing programs?
Identify and pursue your potential early adopters fervently. They will help you learn what works, what doesn’t and guide you in improving what you have on offer. If you don’t have any, stop and go back to the People step.
And finally, aim to cultivate champions of your program or project who will spread the word about your program or project a lot better than you ever can on your own.
Track your performance. Most of these are self-explanatory, so I’ll explain only those that might not be.
Set thresholds: Set minimum clicks, visits, users etc. as success milestones you aim to hit. This will ensure you don’t invest time or effort if something doesn’t work.
Pivot or persist: You can’t always know how things turn out. If things are not going to plan either change the plan radically according to new insights you’ve gained or if you are certain your convicitons are true then persist until a given deadline or milestone. If persistance fails then you inevitably have to pivot or quit.
Don’t forget to record what you’ve learned and gained for the future.
To sum it all up, if you know who your customers are and you’re adding value you will not fail.