Omnichannel customer engagement is a critical component in Life Sciences Industry, where companies aim to connect with customers and stakeholders through multiple touchpoints and channels. With the rise of modern digital technologies, customers expect a seamless and personalized experience across all channels, including websites, social media, E-mail, mobile, and in-person interactions. Yet, improving the overall customer experiences continues to be challenging. We are asking Nataliya Andreychuk, CEO of Viseven, about important considerations for the creation of digital content aimed at omnichannel customer interactions.
Karsten: Thank you for taking the time for this interview, Nataliya. As we know from recent survey results, the customer experience of HCPs with omnichannel offerings of Life Sciences companies is becoming more positive, but there is still plenty of room for improvements. What are the reasons for that?
Nataliya: Well, believe it or not, Omnichannel Technologies are still an enigma for some players in the Life Sciences industry. Yes, it may be hard to grasp, but even if a company implements a comprehensive stack of Marketing Technology solutions, it may still take quite a bit of time to adopt a new workflow and learn to deal with large amounts of data, which is always a must. So, jumping ahead here, change management and omnichannel marketing go hand-in-hand. Therefore, let's say Omnichannel in Life Sciences needs a bit of a push.
Illustration: Moving from Multichannel towards Omnichannel customer engagement
Karsten: Medical, Legal and Regulatory (MLR) review processes of content can slow down the aspired agility of marketers in Life Sciences. What are ways to speed things up?
Nataliya: I love talking about being agile in an often very stiff industry. Indeed, MLR can put a damper on things for marketing and content-creating teams compromising deadlines and, not to mention, the need for more transparency often associated with the review. There is much talk about automation these days and how Marketing Technology platforms like eWizard can accelerate the process with a pre-approval, grammar check and automated reference check before content is published to Content Management solutions like e.g. Veeva Vault.
Transparency and visibility of pre-approved assets are crucial. So, in that sense, we have developed our solution as a content experience platform with an integrated product line for effective multichannel enterprise content lifecycle management. This helps improve the quality of content production and optimize operational costs via business process automation with faster brand time-to-market, which leads to managing content in a highly agile way.
Also, improved data management as a whole will help to learn how to use customer data, evaluate assets, understand their true marketing value, and make an informed decision to improve, reuse, or discard them.
Karsten: Is implementing a modular content approach going to solve all the problems with the MLR?
Nataliya: Probably not, but it will help marketers become more agile in managing, launching, and reviewing their marketing campaigns. No matter how challenging it may seem, today it is practically impossible to ignore such technologies as Machine Learning (ML) or Artificial Intelligence (AI). Think about the very trending ChatGPT and other tools that are coming to the forefront. Will they change our industry? I believe they will make an impact on all industries as they will enable assistance in copywriting, marketing materials and even research. How AI and ML will impact modular solutions and whether that will get us up to speed with the MLR process, we have yet to discover.
Karsten: From your perspective, how important are collaboration across geographies and centralization of content creation versus the importance of adapting content according to local market needs?
Nataliya: Short answer - both aspects are tremendously important. In my opinion, collaboration is crucial in all aspects of the industry. Being able to centralize top decisions and address problems on a global level is very helpful, and when it comes to content creation - it is no exception. That said, localization is key to getting your message to the right customer at the right time and in the right language. So, making sure to have the tools for both and the training to apply each one will actually be the right balance for company and client.
Karsten: Technically speaking, how difficult is it nowadays to reutilize pieces of content amongst different channels?
Nataliya: Well, technically speaking once the team masters the ins and outs of modular content - it is not an issue at all. However, knowing what channels to use, where to reuse content, and how is crucial. Reutilizing content will be a breeze if all the content assets are analyzed semantically, tagged, and properly stored. Of course, if something can be mastered, it does not mean that it is not difficult or time-consuming, but if proper change management tactics are applied, then the team will know what to do, when, and most importantly, how.
Karsten: Incorporating feedback and data analysis into the content creation process helps teams make informed decisions and continuously improve the effectiveness of their content. How well is this working in Life Sciences today?
Nataliya: Customer data has always been pretty scarce when talking about Life Sciences and Pharma industries. Not to mention how well-protected it has to be due to the many regulations in place. Knowing how to collect data, using the analysis to your advantage, and incorporating client feedback is a process that is also very effective for our industry.
Understanding that clients have many great opportunities to communicate with marketers and implementing different solutions to gather customer insights is what ultimately is changing how the industry views today. We see many more quizzes, polls, feedback forms, client interviews and even social media content poised to learn more about clients´ wants.
Karsten: Would you be able to share an example in which customer needs and preferences are already better understood leading to more tailored offerings and more effective customer engagements?
Nataliya: There are many ways how pharma marketers can collect customer data to personalize their offerings. Lately, we have taken a big step in collecting open-source data and using social media to collect valuable customer feedback. Currently, when so much data is available, such technologies as AI and ML are very effective in helping marketers automate data collection and forming a better, clearer understanding of customer needs.
Karsten: Omnichannel customer engagements are certainly here to stay, yet many Life Sciences companies have to overcome their reluctance to adjust accordingly. What important elements should be considered to drive the required change management process?
Nataliya: Well, as soon as every executive marketing manager understands the benefits of change and is determined to it, there is nothing to worry about. Today it is almost impossible to reach excellence in communication if you don't learn to embrace the modern pharma marketer's digital toolkit. The ability to leverage your content over multiple channels is one of the basic competencies that must be addressed.
Karsten: Thank you so much for sharing your insights, Nataliya. It's been a pleasure hearing about the challenges and opportunities of content creation in omnichannel customer engagement in the Life Sciences industry.
In summary, we can say that creating digital content for omnichannel customer interactions comes with different challenges like adopting new workflows, handling large amounts of data, and embracing change management. Now, we are aware of the importance of transparency and visibility of pre-approved assets, the modular content approach, collaboration across geographies, localization, and reutilizing pieces of content amongst different channels. Also, the significance of incorporating feedback and data analysis into the content creation process is a key aspect which is worth considering.
What steps are you taking to enhance your omnichannel digital content creation strategy, and how has it impacted your overall customer engagement and business growth?
For further reference please contact info@xeleratio.com or info@viseven.com.
Xeleratio Consulting Ltd.
We help Life Sciences executives improve sales performance with innovative best-in-class Business Excellence tools and methodologies . Expertise in Business Excellence has been gained with over 12 years of working in different global and regional roles in the Life Sciences industry.
Please feel free to reach out and request a free strategy session whenever convenient. See all articles on Xeleratio Consulting Blog
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