Considering that your company has already invested in research, development, and patents, a lot is riding on your new product launch.
But don’t worry! This article will lay out all the latest strategies to maximize the effectiveness of your pharma product launch.
What Is A Pharma Product Launch?
A pharmaceutical product launch refers to when companies introduce a new product, whether that be a prescription medication or medical device, to the public.
But a product launch is a process that involves a lot more than just the new drug or device. A successful pharma product launch involves a series of strategic marketing activities to maximize engagement with healthcare professionals, patients, and other key groups.
How To Launch A New Pharma Product
Define Your Target Audience And Unique Selling Proposition
Many pharma product launches focus on boosting brand awareness with the general public. However, marketing directly to consumers only works because these consumers bring the advertised drug to the attention of their healthcare provider. So, why not just market directly to the healthcare professionals that make the recommendations and write the prescriptions?
Before rolling out your marketing plan, identify the healthcare professionals most likely to recommend your product and the patients who are most likely to benefit from it. After doing so, segment your audience based on factors like medical specialty, patient demographics, and geographic location. Segmenting your target audiences is crucial to delivering personalized promotions to each group that they are more likely to engage with.
In your promotions to each of your target segments, you’ll want to highlight your product’s unique selling propositions. For example, an advertisement for a sleep aid could highlight how it’s made from all-natural ingredients and is scientifically proven to improve sleep quality without causing dependency.
Create A Marketing Plan
There is a wide array of advertising mediums available to pharma marketers. With an omnichannel or multichannel marketing approach, you can choose which of these mediums best suits your pharma brand and use them together.
Digital Marketing
Paid Ads
Paid online advertising can be of fantastic use to pharmaceutical companies because this medium allows for precise consumer targeting. The two most effective paid online advertising channels are social media ads and Google pay-per-click ads.
Running targeted ads on platforms like Facebook is extremely easy because social media companies are constantly collecting data on their users’ age, interests, backgrounds, and other key identification points. As such, you can roll out specific ads that will appeal to specific groups and can be sure that they will be viewed by them.
You can use Google pay-per-click ads to have your pharmaceutical brand featured in the top three search listings for the keywords and phrasings of your choosing. For example, a pharma company could bid on the phrase “Best psoriasis treatment” to reach consumers already traveling down the purchase funnel. As the name would suggest, you only have to pay for these ads when users click through the sponsored link to your website– but bidding for highly sought-after keywords can go up to $80 per click.
SEO
We just covered how to pay to promote your brand online, but there are free ways to do this as well. You can organically boost your online presence by utilizing search engine optimization (SEO).
To do this, you’ll want to conduct keyword research on what HCPs and consumers are most likely to search for when seeking out treatment options. Once you have your list of keywords, the next step is to tactically place them throughout your company’s landing page. With an optimized website, Google and other search platforms will rank you higher in the search listings.
Social Media
While social media paid ads are great, you can also actively manage your company’s online profiles to reach consumers and HCPs. One of the most engaging post formats for healthcare brands are patient testimonials.
By having users of diverse backgrounds describe how your medication or treatment increased the quality of your life, you can encourage others to place trust in your brand. Having testimonials from people with different backgrounds can be immensely beneficial as people relate more to those who have had similar life experiences.
Content Marketing
You can gain even greater online visibility by publishing articles and blogs on common questions about diseases and treatment options in your company’s area of expertise. Let’s say that you’re launching a new heart medication. You could post blogs like “The Best and Worst Diets for Heart Health”. In doing so, search engines will recognize your pharma brand as having Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T) and rank you more highly as a result.
Just like with your company’s landing page, you’ll want to include keywords and phrases from your SEO research throughout your blogs and articles.
Partnerships
There are a variety of businesses that are more than happy to partner with pharma companies. These partnerships can allow your company to tap into additional resources, expertise, and networks that were previously unavailable. In return, you can provide your partners with access to research and development, funding, regulatory support, or even education and training.
Here are some organizations that are likely to partner with pharma companies
- Patient advocacy groups
- Medical research institutes
- Telemedicine providers
- Health data providers
Out-Of-Home Advertising
Out-of-home advertising mediums are traditionally things like highway billboards, street furniture, and posters. These mediums are good at casting a wide net and boosting general brand awareness, but they struggle to target specific groups and track impressions.
Luckily for pharma companies, there is a pharma direct-to-consumer marketing medium that solves those problems and is a perfect fit for healthcare brands. That medium is wellness boards. These wellness boards dispense sanitizing wipes from below a prominently featured advertisement.
Wellness boards provide a perfect contextual setting for consumers to absorb your promotional material because they can be placed in pharmacy wait areas. As such, consumers will subconsciously associate your pharma brand with the local pharmacist they trust. Plus, these sanitizing kiosks can help you appeal to the health-conscious consumers who are most likely to be in search of additional medications and treatments.
Terraboost is a leader in this advertising medium and equips their wellness boards with digital capabilities to track impressions and target consumer groups. Some of these digital tools include retargeting and geofencing, which track nearby shoppers’ anonymized mobile data and can even send them online ads to their phone at a later date.
Plan and Execute The Launch Event
As with any plan, the first step is to set a specific goal. That goal can be to introduce your new product, educate healthcare professionals, or foster relationships with key opinion leaders (KOLs).
After identifying your launch event’s goal, you should pick a format that best matches that goal. For example, if you’re trying to foster relationships with KOLs, you may want to invest in an in-person event. Alternatively, webinars can be more cost-effective, and HCPs have begun to prefer them since they are easier to fit into their busy schedules.
Once you’ve identified your goal, format, and developed your event content, be sure to promote your event across all your marketing channels to encourage registration.
Tips For A Successful Pharma Launch
Reach out to KOLs
The healthcare industry is extremely competitive, and added credibility to your pharma brand can help immensely. One of the best ways to add reputability to your brand is to partner with KOLs.
When looking for KOLs to partner with, seek out prominent physicians whose work is frequently cited in an area that your medications and treatments address. You could also get in touch with HCPs that hold high positions in organizations like the FDA and NIH. These KOLs have significant sway over the medical market and can be pivotal in a successful product launch.
To entice KOLs into a partnership, consider offering educational initiatives, research collaboration on studies and articles, or even speaking opportunities.
Market Research and Analysis
Conducting thorough market research will help you understand what HCPs and patients in your treatment area desire most. With this understanding, you can properly formulate which of your product’s unique selling points you focus on in your advertisement.
Market research and analysis should be conducted before, during, and after your product launch. In doing so, you can continue to solicit advice from HCPs on how your product can be improved and delivered to consumers.
Of course, you’ll also want to conduct standard market research that any business would do when launching a new product. To do this, analyze your competitors’ products and what their strengths, weaknesses, pricing strategies, and marketing tactics are. This can help you strategize on how to differentiate yourself from the competition and carve out a sizable portion of the market share.
Measure Your Results
It’s extremely important to evaluate your pharma product launch and marketing efforts throughout the duration of your campaign. For example, you should have mechanisms in place to track impressions and customer conversions across each advertising medium you utilize. This will help you understand which mediums are best to use for your brand and which ones you should no longer invest in.
Successfully conducting a pharma product launch can be immensely difficult, but it doesn’t have to be. We at Terraboost have served as a pharma advertising agency to countless brands and can provide you with key industry insights as well as a free personalized quote.
Independent studies have shown that 80% of shoppers engage with our sanitizing kiosks and that 50% would take a coupon or brochure to learn more about the advertised company. Our 120,000+ wellness boards are located in top pharmacies across the country, like Rite Aid, Walgreens, and CVS.
If you’re looking to feature your pharmaceutical brand on a network that delivers 8.8B engagements, get in touch with us today!
