Gaining consent from HCPs is of upmost importance. Here, we discuss the best ways to obtain and use that consent effectively for engagement strategies.
Talking to HCPs is critical to drive brand adoption, but you need consent to send promotional information, from both an ABPI and GDPR point of view. Consent can also help you build a consistent and trusted relationship with your clinicians.
With their working world being so busy, access to HCPs is becoming much more restrictive1 and whether you run face to face, hybrid or remote rep engagement, you need consented data for ongoing interaction outside the sales activity. To ensure that you are reaching relevant HCPs and growing your database, we recommend using a variety of channels to gain consents, with field force, webinars, events, and an HCP website platform topping the list.2
Make life as easy as can be
First things first, you need to make your HCPs’ life easy with a straightforward data capture and opt-in and opt-out process. Bringing a personalised touch to this, for example, a therapy area focused online form or a landing page highlighting the benefits of receiving your information, could help.
We also recommend reducing the number of mandatory fields, as they can be off-putting. If you need to verify their HCP status, that information along with their name and email address need to be mandatory. Beyond that, you can use other tactics to build up your understanding of them and their preferences once they’ve signed up.
Once opted in – ensure that HCPs communication preferences are respected and adhered to,2 especially as ‘no-see HCPs’ are known to restrict and sometimes even deny access from pharmaceutical sales reps, and ‘low-see HCPs’ may only engage under specific conditions. If you have the right tactics to gather digital engagement consents you can reach and engage those valuable ‘no-see’ or ‘low-see’ HCPs with a balance of educational and promotional content, resulting in better healthcare outcomes.3
Want to know more? Read our Insight on HCP emails that engage.
Start with your known HCPs
Do you have consent to contact your current customers with marketing information? If not, start there – it’s the quickest win! You already have a good relationship with them, they have sales contact with your team so let’s get their marketing preferences. From there, you can implement your engagement plan to engage a new audience, potential customers and relevant clinicians who could become advocates. Offer opportunities to capture consent and convert individuals at every touchpoint.4
Not sure where to start? We engage thousands of HCPs every day. Drop us a line and we’ll share some of our best tactics for quick consent capture.
Add value to personalise engagement
Be transparent about your consent to contact, what your HCPs are signing up to and how you will use their data. Make sure your cookies and privacy statement are watertight and approved by your DPO.
Be explicit that they are agreeing to receiving your marketing and promotional content.
Remember, you may feel like this is just for your benefit, but there are benefits for the HCP, too. You can give them access to much more relevant and personalised information, up-to-date promotional information, education and more. They will be unlocking benefits for them, and their patients.
Once you start to gather this data you can do a lot of work to identify their prescribing stage, their persona, their advocacy position. With strategic engagement activity aligned with your sales team’s insights, you can identify your KOLs and personalise your engagement.
Don’t be a stranger
Once opted-in, keep in contact with your HCPs. They are treating you as a trusted source, and by keeping in touch, you will build upon that trust. That’s said, it is equally important not to take your HCPs consent for granted, over communicate or only push the messages you want to share. Add value!
The benefits will be reaped – an increase in engagement, improved deliverability, personalisation and compliance. It’s ethical, transparent and, in turn, brings more success.5
HCP consent can also help to increase your brand reputation. According to the ABPI-IPSOS UK Pharma Reputation Index, more than a third of HCPs have a high degree of trust in UK pharma, but most are neutral to industry. Personal experiences and interactions shape this view. Digging into the metrics of your engagement data can help you to identify what type of content works best – the preferred channels an HCP will use, the time and day they are most likely to engage and their preferred areas of interest.6
With 77% of HCPs using digital channels for their own personal learning, and 58% appreciating flexibility within digital channels,7 understanding HCPs digital behaviour is like gold dust.
At The Studio, we believe in the power of personalised marketing, we develop engaging campaigns that convert and have 11,500 consented HCPs on our database.
Sources:
3. https://prescriberpoint.com/insights/how-to-reach-no-see-hcps/
4. https://www.chimpanswers.com/consent-matters/
5..https://www.veeva.com/resources/four-key-ingredients-in-hcp-communication-and-consent/
7. https://levohealth.com/hcp-marketing-pharma-engagement-strategies/
