Data-driven omnichannel strategies boost brand performance

By applying data-driven segmentation, AI and ML-based technology IP, and agile omnichannel strategies, Indegene is helping this global, biopharma company engage more healthcare professionals (HCPs) and further its bold vision of stopping cardiovascular disease from being a leading cause of death.

This biopharma company's growth in the cardiovascular market was entering the post-launch growth phase, and the company needed to continue to drive growth in the face of 2+ new competitors. They also had a need to focus on improving profitability. Up until this point, the company had been promoting the product with a full footprint sales force promotion to both specialists and primary care physicians, and they only had light HQ-driven digital promotion.

An omnichannel approach has the power to augment field sales force efforts and drive effectiveness and efficiency

But changing their approach to reaching and engaging HCPs and leading with a digital first approach came with some challenges. How could this company be assured that their digital promotional efforts would prove to be as effective as the reach and frequency model they had been using successfully? And even if digital was the right path, how could they transition to a digital model quickly and efficiently and drive an improved customer experience based on HCP preferences?

Partnering with Indegene's Omnichannel Activation Solutions team was the answer. As a trusted commercialization partner focused on helping organizations make the most of both their field sales force and their digital strategies, Indegene's expertise was exactly what this company needed to transition to a more digital-first strategy.

Indegene builds creative digital strategies to create unique customer journeys and reach customers with relevant messages through communication channels

Armed with its proprietary IP powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) and its unique data sets containing over 1.8 million HCPs and NPI-level data, Indegene crafted an omnichannel strategy that solved their challenge to reach more HCPs, deliver a personalized message, and make near real-time adjustments based on HCP responses. In this way, Indegene was able to help expand their reach, activate more prescribers, and generate more prescriptions while rightsizing their field footprint and helping drive great efficiency and impact.

A digital-first approach opens opportunities to reach more physicians and amplify marketing efforts

Locating additional physicians to target, however, was only the beginning. Using this highly targeted list, Indegene employed its unique micro-segmenting capabilities to determine the digital affinity of HCPs. And with its AI-driven tools and data sets, Indegene was able to highlight how these individual physicians interact with digital channels. They were also able to understand which channels were likely to be most effective and when during the day and week the physicians were most likely to engage with content on a particular channel.

An added benefit to this company was the fact that Indegene’s data set and proprietary algorithms are continually learning from HCP engagements. This application of machine learning to constantly refine insights about HCPs meant that they knew they were getting the most up-to-date information to drive engagement.

And while targeting physicians with the right message at the right time on the right channel was a key component of the omnichannel strategy, Indegene took the project a step further and segmented HCPs based on their likelihood to prescribe. The real power of Indegene’s offering came to the forefront when they overlayed these segmenting capabilities and targeted physicians who were both highly likely to engage on digital channels and highly likely to prescribe this drug.

But the segmentation did not stop there. To refine its segmenting for even more efficient targeting, Indegene applied managed care access data to find HCPs that were able to prescribe the product with minimal managed care challenges.

Targeting and focusing promotional efforts to the physicians that were identified by combining the company’s HCP target list with Indegene’s intelligence drove meaningful results. Using digital channels that appealed to each physician, Indegene created customized physician journeys based on digital preferences. These journeys meant that they delivered information about this cardiovascular drug using customized content on preferred channels at preferred times for many HCPs that were likely to prescribe.

With Indegene’s Digital Rep Equivalence, a proven machine learning model that predicts the most efficient path for activating a physician to prescribe, the company easily understood the direct impact of a digital strategy. By assigning a value to each physician interaction and optimizing the plan based on real customer level interactions, tracking interactions across the customer journey assured the company that a digital strategy deployment was comparable to and complimented field sales force efforts in an effective, efficient way.

With Digital Rep Equivalence, Indegene leveraged its proprietary data to augment the biopharma company's data and delivered actionable micro-segments. It also activated the market with well-orchestrated digital touchpoints to deliver comparable impact to an in-person interaction

It's no surprise that adding a list of highly segmented target HCPs beyond the list this company was already targeting with their sales force led to increased sales. But the real success was the way that this omnichannel strategy not only moved the company into the future with a highly successful digital campaign but also significantly reduced its spend while still driving growth.

By deploying Indegene's omnichannel activation strategy, this company grew its prescribing base by 35% as it finally reached previously unreached physicians. Not only was the company able to maintain and grow total prescription (TRx) sales performance by 9% year over year, but it also reduced its sales force from 800 to approximately 300 reps. This transition to digital allowed the company to save over $100 million while still experiencing growth for a growth brand approaching LOE.

Moving into future-ready healthcare means different things for different companies, but for this company, taking the leap into digital promotion meant the difference between a declining drug and energizing its product in the market. Accessing physicians in whitespace not only opened a whole new audience for its promotions, but utilizing digital channels meant that its promotional efforts were no longer subject to the limitations of field sales force access. Leveraging the ability to connect 24/7 with physicians that were known to be digitally engaged and likely to prescribe meant that content was personalized.

This was a truly omnichannel strategy that deployed, not only multiple digital channels, but also augmented an existing field force. Observing how this omnichannel strategy boosted the performance of a growth brand points to the way that a well-designed omnichannel strategy can drive efficient and effective commercialization efforts across the lifecycle.

Using an omnichannel strategy is key for connecting with physicians regardless of geographic boundaries and engagement preferences. When we meet doctors where they want to meet us and we provide them with the content they want to have, there is no limit to the number of doctors we can reach and patients we can help.