With more and more companies getting in on digital marketing, it makes sense that pharmaceutical companies would want to leverage a competitive digital marketing strategy to stand out in the industry. 

The Challenges Pharmaceuticals Face when Marketing Online

Alluring as it may be, pharmaceutical digital marketing can be difficult, even for a big brand like Abbott.  One misstep in marketing and advertising medications online can directly affect a person’s life. This is precisely why regulations are set to gatekeep what is shown online. What’s more, rules governing pharmaceutical digital marketing vary from country to country, making it all the more difficult to digitally market such products overseas. 

How Can Pharmaceutical Companies Enter Digital Marketing? 

Even though pharmaceutical digital marketing poses a difficult challenge, it’s not impossible. Below are the essential steps on how new players can enter the arena: 

#1 Set Your Objectives Clearly

Ask yourself, why does your company want to enter the world of digital marketing? Is the purpose to engage with a wider audience, to sway their decision, or to drive sales? 

Whatever the choice is, you need to set the objective clearly because each objective might require a different strategy and platform. You can either leverage search marketing or display marketing. 

Once you choose your objective, you are now ready to map out your online marketing strategy, which brings you one step closer to reaching your business goals. 

#2 Strategise Your Campaign and Drive Results

There are many ways to increase a product’s awareness. One campaign strategy is how Abbott, a US-based health care and pharmaceutical company, increased its product SURBEX® Zinc’s awareness in Malaysia through YouTube, the top video sharing platform online. 

Using an eye-catching creative as well as strategic media buying, SURBEX® Zinc’s video ad garnered almost 400k views in only two months. Not only did the video catch the viewer’s attention, but it also led the viewer to their website, leading to a substantial amount of website traffic. 

Of course, there are a lot more ways to spread products awareness such as content marketing, social media marketing, search marketing, and the like. But all these would not have been achieved without incorporating media planning and buying and content creation ot their efforts. 

#3 Review Your Campaign

After everything has been set and done, it is crucial to see whether or not your campaign reached your target KPI. This analysis leaves room for future improvement. 

Abbott used more than just one way in spreading the awareness of SURBEX® Zinc. To further widen the scope, the pharma brand featured four Key Opinion Leaders (KOL) using the product in an article placed on OhBulan!, a Malay entertainment website. 

Within less than a month, the story had at least 20k views. The result well exceeded the initial target of 15k story views. Afterwards, it proceeded to expand the reach using social media marketing through a Facebook and Twitter shout out. 

With the right tools to measure a campaign’s success, you can analyse data for the improvement of your future campaigns.

Are you having difficulties marketing your pharmaceutical brand online? Engage a digital marketing agency now to ease your troubles away. Drop your details here to know more about our services and what we can offer for your digital endeavours.