Ultimate Guide to Digital HCP Engagement

Healthcare professionals (HCPs) are increasingly relying on technology to stay up-to-date with the latest information and resources. As a result, pharmaceutical companies need to adapt their marketing strategies to effectively engage with HCPs in a digital environment.

In this article, we’ll explore the importance of digital HCP engagement for pharmaceutical companies, as well as some best practices for making your HCP digital engagement efforts successful.

To get you started with effective digital HCP engagement, in this post we'll cover:

What is digital HCP engagement?
Why is engagement important in healthcare?
Current challenges in digital HCP engagement
5 Best practices for effective digital HCP engagement
      1. Qualify visitors and target content accordingly
      2. Offer easy online appointment scheduling
      3. Automate your first line of support
      4. Provide personal support
      5. Give personalized recommendations
Start boosting HCP digital engagement

What is digital HCP engagement?

Digital HCP engagement refers to the use of digital channels, tools and platforms to connect with healthcare professionals (HCPs). This can include a variety of tactics, such as online educational resources, communication channels, and interactive portal content. By leveraging these digital engagement tools, pharmaceutical companies can create targeted and personalized campaigns that deliver valuable information and resources to HCPs.

Why is engagement important in healthcare?

Digital HCP engagement is a critical component of any modern pharmaceutical marketing strategy. It allows you to establish yourself as a trusted information source and build stronger relationships with HCPs.

Additionally, digital HCP engagement offers a more cost-effective and efficient way for you to reach your target audience, compared to traditional marketing channels like print advertising and in-person events.

By leveraging the best digital engagement tools and platforms, pharmaceutical companies can build stronger relationships with HCPs, enhance their brand reputation, and ultimately drive better patient outcomes.

But in order to effectively engage with HCPs in a digital environment, you need to take on a strategic approach that caters to the unique needs and preferences of your target audience. By following the best practices for digital HCP engagement, you can build trust and credibility, and create an engagement strategy that delivers value to HCPs.

Current challenges in digital HCP engagement

One of the main challenges of pharma and service providers is to establish their credibility and provide relevant content for HCPs. Research has found 77% of pharma and 68% of service providers find providing real value, a major challenge for digital HCP engagement. This can lead to HCPs favouring content from third-party or independent providers, due to them seeming more credible and trustworthy.

Essentially third-party content helps HCPs to avoid being bombarded with large amounts of information combined with promotional content. To gain back the trust of HCPs it's crucial for pharma companies today to invest in establishing themselves as the go-to resource where HCPs can be guaranteed to be guided and supported in everything they're looking for.

Engaging HCPs when and where it matters most and offering end-to-end personalized portal experiences enables better and more effective HCP engagement. But to be able to do this, there is a need for more knowledge and awareness of the use and benefits of HCP engagement platforms and related strategies within the pharma industry. In fact, research shows that pharma companies experience limitations in not just their digital and analytic capabilities but also in the specific elements related to their strategy, culture, and organization.

The solution to closing these gaps and helping you drive your HCP engagement efforts to the next level, is a customer-centric mindset, understanding the link of digital to the broader business and taking on the best tools and practices for digital HCP engagement. 

5 Best practices for HCP digital engagement

So in this section, we’ll share our five proven best practices for boosting your HCP digital engagement. By incorporating these practices you can establish your value in the industry, interact with HCPs more effectively and strengthen your relationships.

1. Qualify visitors and target content accordingly

To start off with, a key to effective digital HCP engagement is to qualify your portal visitors and target content accordingly. This approach involves identifying the specific needs and interests of HCPs and tailoring your content and communications to meet those needs.

Essentially, this should form the base for the rest of your HCP engagement efforts. By doing so, you can significantly improve the relevance and effectiveness of your engagement efforts.

To make the most out of your qualification and targeting strategy, consider these factors:

Understand your audience 👥

Start by gaining a deep understanding of your target audience. This may involve analyzing data on their demographics, interests, and behavior, as well as gathering feedback directly from HCPs.

Use targeting and qualification tools 🎯

Utilize an HCP engagement platform, like giosg, that offers tools for targeting and qualification. This will allow you to connect HCPs with your experts, have meaningful conversations and schedule meetings with important stakeholders. These tools can also help you identify the most relevant content and communications for each HCP, and ensure that they receive personalized attention from your team.

Create personalized content 💎

Use the insights that you gained from your qualification efforts to create personalized content for each HCP. This may include tailored pop-ups, whitepapers, case studies, or any other content that addresses their specific needs and interests.

Provide value ⭐

Ensure that the content you provide is valuable and relevant to your visitors. Avoid using generic content that is not specific to their needs or interests, as this can lead to low engagement rates.

Measure and optimize 📐

Make sure you measure the effectiveness of your qualification and targeting strategy and refine your approach based on the results. For this, you can use analytics tools to track the engagement metrics, such as click-through and open rates, and adjust your content and communications accordingly.

As mentioned, having the tools for qualifying your visitors and targeting content accordingly is essential for digital HCP engagement. Once you understand the needs and interests of your target audience, you can improve the relevance and effectiveness of your engagement efforts, and ultimately build stronger relationships with HCPs.

Check out how Novartis utilised giosg's Interaction Builder tool to target their content and successfully boost their HCP engagement!

2. Offer smooth online appointment scheduling

Next, one of the crucial parts of digital engagement in pharma is providing easy ways for HCPs to schedule appointments online with sales representatives and Medical Science Liaisons (MSLs). By making sure you have a calendar integration on your portal, you can streamline the process of scheduling appointments, reduce wait times, and improve HCP satisfaction.

Our top tip for making this process as smooth and efficient as possible is to target your scheduling system to the relevant HCPs that you have identified with your qualification tool. This helps you make sure you target and reach the right people and for your HCPs to engage with the relevant information.

Here are some tips to consider when implementing a calendar integration:

User-friendly interface 😊

Ensure that the online booking system is easy to navigate and user-friendly. HCPs should be able to find the feature quickly and make their bookings without extra hassle.

Integration with other systems 🔗

Your calendar should integrate seamlessly with other systems on your portal. This will ensure that the process is seamless and that you have all the necessary information in one place. For this, you need to make sure you’re using an HCP engagement platform that can be easily integrated into your existing systems.

Overall, providing simple and easy ways for HCPs to book appointments on your online portal is a crucial aspect of your strategy. By implementing a user-friendly and seamless booking system, you can improve HCP satisfaction, streamline the scheduling process, and ultimately improve the overall effectiveness of your HCP engagement efforts.

3. Automate your first line of support

Another way you can improve your digital HCP engagement is to automate your first line of support using bots. By automating the first line of support, you can provide HCPs with quick and convenient access to information and support whenever and wherever they need it, without the need for constant human intervention.

Especially with HCP portals that contain large amounts of information and resources, it can be very difficult for HCPs to find the information they need. With proactive bots, like FAQ bots, you can direct your portal visitors to the most commonly requested relevant resources.

Moreover, one of the key benefits of bots is that they can provide immediate proactive help to HCPs, regardless of the time of day or their location. This can be especially useful for busy healthcare professionals who may not have the time to wait for a response.

The most effective bots out there can also help to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your support operations. By automating routine tasks, like answering frequently asked questions or providing basic product information, your team can focus their time on more complex issues or higher-value activities. And following best practices for bot design and optimization with the rest of your support options, can play a significant role in HCP satisfaction as well as in driving better business outcomes.

4. Provide personal support

In addition to automating the first line of support with bots to boost efficiency and avoid frustrated HCPs, you should also make sure you’re providing personalized support with tools like live chat. Live chat allows HCPs to connect with your customer service and sales representatives in real time, providing them with a more personalized and interactive experience.

Live chat can be a powerful tool for addressing more complex issues or providing more detailed information that may not be available through automated support channels. It can also be useful for building stronger relationships with HCPs, as it allows for more personalized and tailored support.

One way to make sure you’re accommodating to all your HCPs' needs with your live support is to offer a range of communication options. For example, in addition to a simple chat function, utilise a platform with one-to-one video and voice calls. With these different options, you can ensure your HCPs get support and guidance in the most effective way possible.

Here are some of our top tips for how to make the most out of your live chat:

Ensure availability ✅

Make sure that live chat is available and easily accessible to HCPs. This may involve providing chat support during particular hours or integrating chat functionality directly into the busiest sites on your website or portal.

Provide targeted support 🤝

Use the information you have on HCPs to provide personalized support and assistance. For example, you may use their medical speciality or clinical interest to provide targeted information or resources.

Integrate with other tools 🛠️

Integrate your live chat with other tools and systems, such as your CRM software. This can help you to track user behavior and engagement, and identify opportunities for improvement.

5. Give personalized recommendations

The final item on our list is to provide personalized recommendations. This involves tailoring suggestions or content based on the HCP's past behavior, preferences, or other relevant data. By providing personalized recommendations, such as suggesting specific products or resources, you can improve the relevance and effectiveness of your content, and increase HCP engagement and satisfaction.

With giosg's Interaction Builder, you can utilise the data on HCPs' behavior, interests and preferences as they interact with your portal to provide personalized recommendations with interactive elements like bots, pop-ups and quizzes.

The key to using tailored content is to boost the effective distribution of relevant information and to provide a variety of content types.

With the best engagement software, you can provide recommendations for different kinds of content, such as product pages, articles, videos, or webinars that are triggered at the right place at the right time for the right audience. This can help to ensure that you are providing HCPs with the information and resources they need, in a format that is most convenient for them.

Boost your digital HCP engagement 

By integrating these practices, you can engage and establish relationships with HCPs with intention and efficacy. These techniques employ the best tools, software, and content formats available to guarantee that your material is of superior quality and captivating for your specific audience.

Feeling inspired? See giosg's effective solutions for boosting digital HCP engagement, or get in touch with one of our experts and start building the best strategy for you! 😊