#FutureReadyHealthcare
Driving Growth for Small and Mid-sized Life Sciences Organizations Using Superior Web Experiences
31 Mar 2022
A stellar web experience is central to small and mid-size life sciences organizations’ omnichannel customer engagement strategy. This is even more important for small and mid-sized life sciences organizations, as they usually do not use other channels of engagement (email, social, and search) till a much later stage. Apart from being the front-end of the organization, web experiences deliver strategic outcomes across key areas of product launches, lead generation, next-best-action analytics, and omnichannel campaigns.
For small and mid-sized life sciences organizations that are launching their products themselves, ensuring that their customers have a stellar web experience becomes even more critical. However, delivering this stellar web experience is neither easy nor straightforward.
This is because building in-house web capabilities takes time and involves significant costs. Very often, these organizations lack the technology stack, manpower, and infrastructure that is needed for delivering a superior web experience. Furthermore, doing these activities in-house also means extracting dedicated time from valuable resources of the company whose time could have been used for other tasks. Moreover, these organizations must also overcome the following unique industry-specific challenges.
Lack of domain content leading to irrelevant messaging
Industry-specific and tailored content is critical for engaging various customer archetypes. However, such relevant content is missing from standard website designing platforms. They often compromise on the specificity needed for the life sciences industry - be it images, domain language, specific therapy information, and expert conversational forms on the website. Hence, these organizations struggle with delivering relevant messaging and design at the very first step of their customer engagement journey.
Fragmented marketing infrastructure and disconnected reporting leading to delayed decisions
Growing life sciences organizations enter into multiple engagements to manage a single point of connect on the web. They have to work with different vendors for website design and deployment, hosting, and maintenance. Along with this, they also have to manage reporting and analytics, often driven by another set of vendors. This leads to infrastructural and data siloes, thereby creating barriers within the organization and often leading to higher costs, and slow or poor marketing decisions.
Lack of domain content leading to irrelevant messaging
Industry-specific and tailored content is critical for engaging various customer archetypes. However, such relevant content is missing from standard website designing platforms. They often compromise on the specificity needed for the life sciences industry - be it images, domain language, specific therapy information, and expert conversational forms on the website. Hence, these organizations struggle with delivering relevant messaging and design at the very first step of their customer engagement journey.Fragmented marketing infrastructure and disconnected reporting leading to delayed decisions
Growing life sciences organizations enter into multiple engagements to manage a single point of connect on the web. They have to work with different vendors for website design and deployment, hosting, and maintenance. Along with this, they also have to manage reporting and analytics, often driven by another set of vendors. This leads to infrastructural and data siloes, thereby creating barriers within the organization and often leading to higher costs, and slow or poor marketing decisions.
So, how can life sciences organizations get it right from the start?
Getting to market quickly is important - but getting it right the first time is even better. Growing life sciences organizations should identify key priorities that make all the difference in launching and scaling an online market presence. They must:
Identify core commercial outcomes
Small and mid-size life sciences organizations looking to launch and establish a robust online presence usually do not start building their teams until they are well advanced in their planning. As a result, they may struggle to catch up in key activities that require long lead times, such as developing foundational insights, designing commercial strategy, and planning external engagement. To get this right, they must identify core commercial outcomes such as customer acquisition, engagement, and loyalty right from the start.
Rely on data and insights
First-time launchers often rely on personal or professional networks with a few key opinion leaders to make choices on market access, communications, and other marketing decisions. Such a subjective approach leaves them with blind spots and over-optimistic projections of how HCPs and patients will behave and engage with existing information. To overcome this shortsightedness, such organizations must build a deep understanding of the market in their therapy areas and user behavior for providers, patients, and payers.
Track and pivot
Brand launches are complex, and first-time entrants need to build new skills and functions to constantly evolve their customer experience journey. Most organizations build detailed road maps, but they should take care not to let those plans get diluted or sway from focus. This leads to efficiency and time losses at several key touchpoints, and critical activities could be put at risk. Constant monitoring and pivoting quickly to changes are extremely important because these help in absorbing risks and also lead to relevant business outcomes.
Identify core commercial outcomes
Small and mid-size life sciences organizations looking to launch and establish a robust online presence usually do not start building their teams until they are well advanced in their planning. As a result, they may struggle to catch up in key activities that require long lead times, such as developing foundational insights, designing commercial strategy, and planning external engagement. To get this right, they must identify core commercial outcomes such as customer acquisition, engagement, and loyalty right from the start.Rely on data and insights
First-time launchers often rely on personal or professional networks with a few key opinion leaders to make choices on market access, communications, and other marketing decisions. Such a subjective approach leaves them with blind spots and over-optimistic projections of how HCPs and patients will behave and engage with existing information. To overcome this shortsightedness, such organizations must build a deep understanding of the market in their therapy areas and user behavior for providers, patients, and payers.Track and pivot
Brand launches are complex, and first-time entrants need to build new skills and functions to constantly evolve their customer experience journey. Most organizations build detailed road maps, but they should take care not to let those plans get diluted or sway from focus. This leads to efficiency and time losses at several key touchpoints, and critical activities could be put at risk. Constant monitoring and pivoting quickly to changes are extremely important because these help in absorbing risks and also lead to relevant business outcomes.
Partnering with specialty technology companies can help small and mid-size life sciences organizations to save valuable time and optimize costs. However, it is extremely important to identify a partner who truly understands the nuances of the life sciences industry, has an in-depth understanding of customers, and brings deep-domain expertise and agile ways of working.
Working with a single one-stop-solution partner works best
For achieving scalable and seamless web experiences, what works most effectively is an industry-specific solution, complete with marketing and reporting integrations. In effect, instead of generic and industry-agnostic content, life sciences organizations get pointed and segment-specific design, that is, images, domain language, and life sciences’ appeal
Starting from consulting and deployment to reporting, a single solution partner places end-to-end solutioning for ease of use and seamless management of data and infrastructure siloes. It also takes care of integrations with marketing platforms, so that the flow of customer data and information is smooth right from collection to curation and distribution. This also enables data-driven marketing decisions for relevant communication to target audiences.
For achieving scalable and seamless web experiences, what works most effectively is an industry-specific solution, complete with marketing and reporting integrations. In effect, instead of generic and industry-agnostic content, life sciences organizations get pointed and segment-specific design, that is, images, domain language, and life sciences’ appeal
Starting from consulting and deployment to reporting, a single solution partner places end-to-end solutioning for ease of use and seamless management of data and infrastructure siloes. It also takes care of integrations with marketing platforms, so that the flow of customer data and information is smooth right from collection to curation and distribution. This also enables data-driven marketing decisions for relevant communication to target audiences.
Ultimately, this approach ensures that audiences are engaged and find content that helps them in decision-making. The next generation of niche and growing life sciences organizations are rapidly evolving from their initial R&D focus to become integrated, end-to-end enterprises – and having a commercial advisor and partner will determine quicker business successes and ensure superior customer experience right from the first step.
