Mary Browning, MedThink SciCom, USA; Rebecca E. Slager, MedThink SciCom, USA; Nishal Patel, Pfizer, Global
(The views and opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policies or positions of MedThink SciCom or Pfizer.)
Email your questions and comments on this article to TheMAP@ismpp.org.
Since the term “omnichannel” first emerged in marketing materials around 2010, its use has expanded across many industries. The early 2020s have seen an explosion in the use of the term “omnichannel” in healthcare, including in medical communications and as an evolution of current medical education planning. But what sets it apart from “multichannel?”
Multichannel communication uses various channels, but the messages and channels operate independently, and there may not be a seamless integration or alignment with audience preferences.
In contrast, omnichannel communication prioritizes audience needs, delivering a seamless experience across all online and offline channels. It considers audience preferences for content and trusted information sources (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Difference between multichannel and omnichannel communication.
Considerations of Omnichannel
When developing an omnichannel communication strategy, publication professionals should prioritize aligning with audience needs to enhance existing processes in medical education planning. This distinguishes omnichannel from multichannel approaches, emphasizing a seamless and unified experience across preferred channels.
Think about the “so what” factor as you consider content. Will your audience find it useful or critical? Personalizing information for the HCP based on their educational needs is crucial for omnichannel communication. It ensures that their experience across channels is seamless and consistent.
Align educational goals with HCP needs and consider their preferred channels, including professional social networks, such as Doximity or Sermo, and digital/print journals. In an omnichannel strategy, these diverse channels must be interconnected for a cohesive user experience, distinguishing it from multichannel communication.
The Role of Publications in Medical Omnichannel Planning
While the lexicon and process may be new to Medical and Publication teams, think of omnichannel communication plans as an advanced form of a medical education plan. By leveraging omnichannel concepts, the medical education plan evolves to recommend tactics to meet the educational needs of HCPs. Publication teams would grasp the overall process, with some being early adopters and advocates. Although omnichannel engagement might seem unfamiliar, publication team members excel in key elements of the process. They’re adept at capturing audience feedback, understanding educational needs, and prioritizing publications to fill gaps seamlessly within an omnichannel plan. Optimizing for omnichannel engagement can elevate publication planning by internalizing learnings into preferred content, formats, and channels. For instance, if audience feedback reveals that HCPs discussing drug safety prefer digital formats, publication leads could adapt safety content into a podcast or short video for better reception.
Foundational Medical Affairs materials, such as peer-reviewed publications and congress materials, are crucial for an omnichannel engagement plan. Publication professionals play a vital role in the plan development life cycle. Figure 2 highlights key collaboration points between publication leads and the broader Medical Affairs team who typically spearhead omnichannel strategy, potentially in collaboration with the emerging role of Omnichannel Strategy lead. In the discovery phase, Publication team members can assist in identifying educational gaps, advising on plan goals, and developing medical educational objectives. In the execution phase, Publication team members collaborate with internal teams to facilitate rollout and contribute to data dissemination and content development. Consideration of publication extenders and alternative formats based on audience preferences is essential. Leads should stay mindful of data availability and publication timing—crucial milestones that impact downstream tactics.
Figure 2. Overview of an omnichannel communication plan approach, highlighting key roles of publication professionals in bold.
Building an Omnichannel Communication Strategy
After identifying your key audience, it is important to determine the specific information HCPs seek, the platforms they go to for this information, and the channels they trust. Market research, surveys, advisory boards, and Field Medical perceptions provide relevant demographic and behavioral information and an understanding of that audience’s opinions, which deliver an overview of the individual engaging with your content and outline their preferred styles of interaction (Figure 3).
Figure 3. HCP representation and preferences.
Once you have a better understanding of the HCP, you can center their educational needs within the omnichannel communication plan, aligning your medical educational objectives and scientific priorities with their needs and channel and tactic preferences (Figure 4).
Figure 4. Example omnichannel strategy.
Consider your key performance indicators and how they gauge the success of your plan. How will you recognize your efforts are paying off? It could be as simple as more people visiting your medical information website, a slight shift in conversations between HCPs and your Field Medical team, or changes in the frequency of medical/treatment information queries. These incremental changes tell the story of your plan’s impact.
Measuring and Optimizing for Success
The biggest hurdle most Medical Affairs organizations face in implementing an omnichannel plan is measuring its effectiveness and success. Measurement plans are key to the optimization and success of omnichannel plans.
“…However, despite the development of omnichannel plans and the piloting of various tactics, generating evidence of ‘increased understanding’ has proven to be an arduous task.”
Cassie Stox, MedThink SciCom, Measuring Omnichannel Efforts in Medical Affairs, Pharmaceutical Executive
There are 5 steps to developing a successful omnichannel measurement plan that address common tactical metrics (views, reach, impressions, and engagements) and “knowledge-state” metrics—seemingly intangible but crucial in knowing if your efforts will improve understanding.
- Establish clear goals: How will planned tactical efforts affect core goals?
- Reference the scientific communication strategy and define the educational objectives. If applicable, clearly delineate different educational objectives for different audiences
- Define current knowledge state: What is known about the HCP’s current state of knowledge?
- Defining the current knowledge state allows Medical Affairs to set a baseline. Cross-functional collaboration across the organization is key
- Talk to Field Medical, Medical Information, and/or Medical Directors to understand current knowledge levels
- Audit current discussions, key opinion leader and digital opinion leader dialogue, and clinical guidelines
- Deploy surveys with HCP audience(s)
- Defining the current knowledge state allows Medical Affairs to set a baseline. Cross-functional collaboration across the organization is key
- Identify success/key performance indicators: What actions indicate a meaningful change?
- Things that can be measured outside of surveys indicating improved understanding include:
- Increase/Decrease in medication information queries
- Perception changes noticed by Field Medical
- Changes in dialogue among key opinion leaders
- Changes in clinical guidelines
- Set baselines for these indicators so that measurement of changes can be monitored
- Indicators should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound
- Things that can be measured outside of surveys indicating improved understanding include:
- Define the plan: Understand the tactics to be included
- Foster cross-functional collaboration to share planned efforts and measurements
- Collaborate with Field Medical teams to align communication plans with educational objectives
- Adjust existing metrics, incorporating both hard and soft measurements within the larger context of the educational goals
- Gain understanding of how publications, congress presence, continuing medical education, and other factors are communicating and measuring success and identify opportunities for alignment
- Foster cross-functional collaboration to share planned efforts and measurements
- Measure and survey: Check measurements and deploy pulse and postcampaign surveys (via internal efforts, such as MSL/HCP conversation; external partners, such as Sermo Pulse surveys among HCPs; or more formal ad boards)
- Monitor the established success/key performance indicators
- Deploy pulse surveys throughout the campaign for direct, real-time feedback and optimize along the way
- At the conclusion of the campaign, deploy surveys to measure overall efforts
- Tactical measurements should indicate that multiple tactics have worked together to deliver an overall outcome
Conclusion
An effective omnichannel strategy differs from and is more effective than multichannel communication because it aligns educational objectives and scientific priorities, centers around the audience, and maintains message consistency while seamlessly incorporating various channels. Success should be gauged through tactical metrics and enhanced knowledge, leaving your audience with the assurance that their needs and preferences are truly understood.