7 Data-Driven Strategies to Supercharge Your Biopharma Marketing Mix
Written by: Allison Mudd, Director of Client Success, Veradigm
In today’s biopharma industry, launching a new medication takes more than science; it takes strategy. With billions invested in research and development before a single dose reaches the market, every marketing decision must count. Yet, connecting with healthcare providers in a crowded, competitive market is no easy feat.
This is where data-driven insights come in. Using advanced analytics, real-world data (RWD), and precision targeting enables biopharma marketers to overcome industry challenges, cut through the noise, and reach their audience with messages that matter. Veradigm leads the way, equipping teams with advanced tools to navigate biopharma marketing complexities and achieve measurable success.
The highs and lows of biopharma marketing
Bringing new medications to market is a monumental task requiring years of research, development, and sizable financial investment—ranging anywhere from $161 million to $4.54 billion per product. After these immense efforts, biopharma companies face the critical challenge of connecting with healthcare providers in ways that drive awareness and uptake.
The significant stakes put pressure on marketing teams to deliver results and also navigate complex regulatory restrictions that govern brand messaging and outreach. Additionally, siloed teams often hinder collaboration between marketing, sales, and other departments, making it difficult to measure campaign impact and optimize strategies. These hurdles can limit marketing effectiveness and create uncertainty around spending decisions.
Despite its challenges, biopharma marketing is vital and rewarding work. It provides the opportunity to share groundbreaking treatments with healthcare professionals who play a key role in patient care. For marketers, helping the medical community adopt innovations that offer hope to patients is a responsibility that makes the hard work worthwhile.
1. Why data-driven marketing matters in biopharma
Strategic biopharma marketing begins with a comprehensive understanding of the target audience. What are their demographics? Where are they located? What price point influences their prescribing decisions? When and where do they decide which medications to recommend? In-depth market research helps biopharma marketing teams answer these questions with accuracy and precision.
Combining advanced analytics with real-world data (RWD) expands the scope and reliability of market research. Unlike traditional methods that rely on smaller data sets gathered through surveys or interviews, RWD includes large amounts of information from diverse sources such as electronic health records (EHRs), claims submissions, and patient registries. These data points provide an invaluable view of physician prescribing patterns and other market dynamics.
To effectively leverage RWD for market research, biopharma teams need access to advanced analytics programs capable of converting RWD into actionable real-world evidence (RWE). Software platforms with artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities can synthesize vast datasets; this provides actionable insights that give marketing teams the ability to optimize their outreach strategies and drive results.
2. Understanding your marketing: research and analysis
While market research helps biopharma marketers understand their target audience, market analysis reveals essential insights like market share, product strengths and weaknesses, entry points, barriers, and competitors to define where products fit. This involves thorough research into the biopharma industry and therapeutic niche for the medication (e.g., blood pressure management).
With a sound market analysis, biopharma marketers can refine strategies and direct marketing efforts where they’ll have the most impact. By using advanced RWE analytics, marketers can improve product positioning and identify physician decision-making behavior, gaining fundamental insights into prescribing patterns and preferences. These advantages enable biopharma marketing teams to stay ahead in the increasingly crowded biopharma industry and carve out a competitive edge.
3. Leveraging data to drive biopharma market growth
Using data strategically equips biopharma marketers to deliver their messaging to the right healthcare providers at the right time—accelerating awareness, prescriptions, and market growth.
For example, Veradigm worked with a pharmaceutical company marketing a treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD) to increase its market reach. The challenge? The medication needed visibility among both psychiatrists and primary care providers (PCPs), as research shows 79% of antidepressant prescriptions are written by non-specialists. Traditional internet marketing proved ineffective for targeting physicians, who spend considerably less time online than the average American.
Veradigm Digital Health Media tapped into physicians’ electronic health record (EHR) workflow, where healthcare providers spend an average of 4.5 hours daily. Advanced targeting delivered approved messaging directly to specialists and PCPs who were already actively involved in the diagnosis and treatment of MDD in adults patients. This approach bypassed traditional ineffective methods, such as banner ads, instead creating high visibility during targeted physicians’ clinical routines.
Through this campaign, Veradigm helped the client achieve notable success to boost physician awareness, improve decision-making, and strengthen market presence in a competitive therapeutic class.
4. Optimizing multichannel biopharma marketing with Veradigm
Biopharma marketers rely on diverse channels like social media, EHR-integrated campaigns, and content marketing to engage their audience effectively. Advanced analytics make it possible to refine these efforts, pinpointing the channels that deliver the highest ROI for their products.
The Veradigm Real-World Evidence analytics platform demonstrates the transformative power of combining advanced tools with robust real-world data (RWD). Data sourced from the Veradigm Network of EHRs allows life science companies to analyze patient populations, create cohorts, and uncover actionable insights. Although primarily designed for research purposes, this platform highlights the immense potential of using RWD to shape multichannel strategies and build marketing efficiency.
5. Integrating digital tools in pharmaceutical marketing
Biopharma has fully embraced digital transformation, using innovative technologies across clinical research, manufacturing, and marketing. Digital tools like social media, targeted web campaigns, and EHR-integrated advertising help companies connect with patients and physicians where they spend the most time.
In another real-world example, Veradigm worked with a US-based life science company introducing a new drug in the gastrointestinal therapeutic area. Historically, life science marketers have focused point-of-care marketing exclusively toward providers with specific, targeted National Provider Identifier (NPI) numbers. The client engaged Veradigm to deliver point-of-care messaging to providers targeted in this way via their EHR systems.
Although this approach initially yielded positive results, Veradigm worked with the client to expand their targeting parameters based on physicians’ ICD-10 codes used, prescribing behavior, and more. As the client’s target audience for messaging increased, the total number of prescriptions increased as well—significantly beyond what they’d achieved targeting physicians solely by NPI numbers.1
6. Forecasting future biopharma marketing trends trends
Advanced analytics solutions offer biopharma marketers the ability to predict patterns and estimate future market developments, including shifts in trends and changes in the factors influencing purchasing decisions. These insights help marketers anticipate consumer behavior and market needs rather than reacting to them; this offers a competitive edge.
While advanced analytics provide a wealth of opportunities for data extraction and forecasting, their effectiveness depends heavily on plentiful data is available and thoughtful implementation. In situations where data is limited or ambiguous, traditional analytics often yield more relevant outcomes. Successful biopharma marketing strategies require careful integration of advanced tools alongside human expertise to balance technology with intuition.
7. Reaching the biopharma marketing final mile
The “marketing final mile” is the crucial phase where brand messaging reaches potential customers. Without a strategic delivery method, even the most well-researched campaigns may fall short. Unlike average consumers, physicians engage far less with traditional marketing channels like social media which makes it challenging to effectively connect with them.
However, physicians spend substantial time interacting with electronic health records (EHRs)—about 16 minutes per patient encounter. This makes EHRs an ideal platform for delivering brand messaging to physicians directly on their EHRs for better engagement. Advanced analytics can further refine this approach to help biopharma marketers identify the right physicians to target, at the most opportune moments in their clinical processes.
Biopharma marketing key performance indicators
Identifying and tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) helps biopharma marketers measure campaign success effectively. Examples of omnichannel KPIs include:
- Lead generation: Number of qualified prospects expressing an interest in a product
- Conversion rates: Percentage of users taking actions, such as clicking on content
- Impressions: Number of times content is displayed on a customer’s screen
- Engagement: The duration customers spend interacting with the content
To be impactful, KPIs must align with campaign objectives and be grounded in realistic expectations. For instance, a campaign aimed at building awareness of a new medication might focus on increasing impressions over time, while a highly targeted effort could prioritize lead generation. Aligning KPIs with market data and business goals creates actionable insights that drive results.
Veradigm Digital Health Media supports biopharma marketers under these pressures with targeted solutions that can efficiently reach the right physicians and achieve measurable outcomes.
- Use Veradigm RWD and advanced analytics to find exactly the right customers
- Reach physicians when they are making prescribing decisions
- Display brand messaging on EHRs—where physicians spend much of their time
- Align with regulatory requirements for point-of-care advertising
Driving biopharma marketing innovation with Veradigm
In today’s competitive and complex healthcare landscape, Veradigm provides biopharma marketers with the right data-driven tools and strategies to achieve meaningful results. From advanced analytics to EHR-integrated solutions, Veradigm bridges the gap between innovative technology and human expertise, so marketers can connect with their audience effectively and drive lasting impact.
Boost your biopharma marketing effectiveness with data-driven strategies now.
References:
- Veradigm, 2024. Combining target list and white-space strategy for ‘bottom of the funnel’ marketing drives significant growth in total Rx. VDMP-1838.