MULTI-CHANNEL MARKETING

ORCHESTRATING ON- AND OFF-LINE TACTICS
By BARCLAY MISSEN

A Website. A blog. A tweet. A coupon. A sales aid. A tablet tool. A patient testimonial. A fact card. A KOL presentation. A YouTube video. An email alert. An app. These are just a few of the tools in our industry’s toolbox of online and off-line tactics. So, what do all of these tactics have in common? The fact that they need to be integrated to have any real impact in the market. Separately they may have an effect, but together they have the power to create an experience. Now that marketing reach is truly a global proposition for many brands, a coordinated push-pull communication strategy using multiple channels and touch-points is an important first step. Not aligning all aspects of your brand strategy could ultimately cause confusion unless you coordinate where and to whom it will be delivered.

Dead-End Road
Go to any popular medical Website today, and it is easy to spot a banner ad for a new product enticing a reader to learn more. What happens when a patient clicks? Where does he land? What does she learn? Chances are, if it isn’t relevant or up-to-date, no one will stick around. What does the brand gain (or lose) by the visit? If a patient with a heart condition talks to his or her doctor about different drug therapies, we all know the first stop after the doctor’s office is not always the pharmacy. It’s Google. If “heart disease medication” is typed into the search box only to find that none of the results mention the products the doctor described, that’s a missed opportunity to communicate with a potential patient. The key to avoiding an early communication dead-end is the careful planning and pairing of interconnected tactics driven by one overarching strategic idea to ensure the interaction is meaningful.

Piecing the Puzzle Together
Consider this scenario: Your product treats a difficult-to-diagnose disease often mistaken for other ailments. The patient population is small because the disease is so rare. Until correctly diagnosed, patients endure physical and emotional distress while they are bounced among specialists over the course of many months or years. They are frustrated as they search tirelessly online and offline for answers. Once diagnosed, they find support online from other patients who live thousands of miles and several time zones apart. And their caregivers or loved ones have a difficult time understanding the physical and emotional strain of the disease.
Based on this scenario, the three key audiences are healthcare professionals (HCPs), patients, and caregivers. Instead of individually targeting each audience, consider developing one common idea that can be customized and integrated across all audiences. An approach that leverages online and offline tactics will ultimately provide a broad array of touch-points that work together to produce an overall experience. (See Figure 1, opposite.)
Let’s assume the common theme for this scenario is a faster diagnosis. You decide to produce a daylong speaker program at 12 select treatment centers that rolls out over a 12-month period. Guest speakers include healthcare professionals who treat the disease, a local sales rep, insurance specialists, and lifestyle coaches, who discuss all aspects of the disease from diagnosis to drug therapies, insurance issues, and everything in between.
Now let’s break it down by audience to see how these tactics are connected and how the program drives home the idea of faster diagnosis.

Healthcare Professionals
You promote the speaker event to regional specialists through sales reps, using online promotion such as banner and search campaigns, email, and direct mail. An event-specific microsite is developed so HCPs can register and gain more information. The promotional message of the site centers on the disease state and the importance of recognizing the symptoms. This also ties into a CME program that encourages early diagnosis.

Patients and Caregivers
An online audit reveals this patient population is already active on existing disease forums, support groups, chat rooms, and blogs. You can transparently leverage these existing communities to build interest and excitement around the speaker event. These tools help you locate and connect with potential patient advocates to build a future brand relationship. An event microsite enables patients to follow the tour by sharing archived video clips, pictures, and stories from the previous event and allows questions and moderated interaction with the team of speakers on the site and through mobile applications and social media tools. In short, you start a dialogue by providing something of interest.
So what do you get with all your hard work and dollars invested? Content and relationships generated from these events that are relevant and compelling, and as a result, an audience with a deep desire to know more and a good first experience with your brand. For healthcare professionals, you have helped facilitate awareness and training about the diagnosis of this disease. You have a powerful database of HCPs with whom you can now continue the conversation after the event. This can be accomplished using a variety of tactics. One example is to create personal URLs (pURLs) pushing out relevant content applicable to their practices using traditional or digital media in a semi-automated way. It can also serve sales reps who now have a reason to follow up with the doctors and survey them either online or offline about the program.
Additionally, there are opportunities for the presenting speakers to solidify their position as thought leaders by participation in scripted or moderated forums with interested HCPs. For HCPs unable to attend the speaker event, you can still create a connection with on-demand Webinars and local sales rep communication. To further extend the impact of the speaker tour, you can create a dynamic trade show presence with the “faster diagnosis” theme, as well as CME programs and a short-format speaker series focused on early diagnosis.
For patients, you have started to build a relationship by showing your commitment to faster diagnosis. Following the event, already active bloggers who attended may provide a write-up about their experience with links that drive visitors to the event microsite and additional participation. Local sales reps have new material to help them continue to build a personal relationship with patients. A patient advocate program provides the ability for brand champions to help newly diagnosed and undiagnosed patients with personal experience and support.

Result
This is only one concept for a multi-audience, multi-touch-point initiative that takes advantage of interactivity by each tactic feeding into another. The ultimate goal is continuing interaction across audiences, tactics, and relationships. Your Website is facilitating a conversation. Your social media efforts are relevant and meaningful because they work together across audiences. Your sales reps are able to leverage all efforts to help build a strong relationship with patients and doctors. Your traditional media leads to digital media, and vice versa. When you integrate your tactics across all channels, the impact of your communication is exponential.
When all is said and done, it is about creating and having a good experience. If you thoughtfully integrate only a few tactics, you can achieve great results. The tactics you use need to work together to open the conversation with your audience, no matter if that conversation takes place in a physician’s office or on a Website. This interactivity will help to build a loyal customer base through new engagement and interest. The possibilities and their reach are endless.

Barclay Missen is Director of Digital Communications at Topin & Associates in Chicago. He can be reached at bmissen@topin.com.