While the pandemic has affected many factors within the world of healthcare provider (HCP) and patient engagement, peer-to-peer engagement—specifically via a speaker bureau—is still one of the most impactful tools available to any brand marketer.
In fact, a speaker bureau remains a preferred channel for educating HCPs. Additionally, IQVIA studies have found that peer-to-peer can be up to three times more impactful at delivering a message than a sales rep detail alone, and HCPs who attend a speaker bureau presentation are 40% more likely to prescribe than non-attendees.
But some things have changed. Access to HCPs has decreased, regulations are evolving, and patients and HCPs are now seeking the same level of engagement in their professional lives as in their personal lives.
As a result of these factors, brand marketers are asking in a world of omnichannel engagement, do you:
- Trust your speaker bureau channel to deliver when your next best algorithms are recommending increased peer-to-peer activity?
- Deliver when your customers are demanding different formats for engagement?
- Have confidence when your compliance team queries the value of the channel in light of the latest Office of Inspector General (OIG) fraud alert?
Focusing on the four key areas below will help you evaluate the readiness of your speaker bureau channel to deliver value.
1. Enrich the Audience
Within the speaker bureau channel, as in all other personal and non-personal channels, it is no longer sufficient to simply focus on your high-decile prescribers and assume you have the right audience. The optimum time to deliver a message is when the audience is primed to learn or prescribe. In addition, we know the closer the connection between audience and speaker, the greater the probability that the audience will act on the message being delivered—up to a 40% improvement.
Key Question: How is your vendor leveraging data to identify the greatest number of high-propensity prescribers at your events?
2. Elevate Engagement
Audiences now have sophisticated needs that can be addressed through peer-to-peer strategies. They expect the right mix of multimodal engagement—live in person, virtual, webinars, podcasts, and all content on demand—and these preferences change by specialty and by demographic.
Key Question: How are these considerations embedded into your speaker bureau channel strategy and execution?
3. Focus on the HCP Journey
A meeting is more than an event, it is a touch point in the HCP learning journey. Determining the right follow-up for attendees, for registrants who didn’t attend, and for non-registrants is critical in ensuring your message is reaching your audience.
Key Question: What decision support tools are deployed within your speaker bureau channel to achieve this?
4. Measure to Optimize
To ensure you are reaching the right patients, it’s important to measure the effectiveness of your engagements, whether in terms of disease awareness, changes in clinical practice, persistence rates, or number of new-to-brand patients. It’s also important to ensure compliance throughout these activities.
Key Question: Is your platform provider capable of helping you maintain compliance while providing you near-real-time feedback on impact so you can make the most effective decisions?
About IQVIA
IQVIA is delivering more innovative and effective speaker programs with connected intelligence by combining unparalleled data and advanced technology with service excellence to enhance HCP engagement and increase brand loyalty. Contact us to learn more: donal.cumiskey@iqvia.com.
