As digital transformation continues to shape the new relationship between healthcare providers and their customers, upskill your pharma marketing team with the key digital skills and tools to improve performance
The question of the key digital skills and tools in the pharma industry is an ongoing challenge. Pharma marketing generalists plan and optimize marketing strategies, campaigns and product launches, requiring a T-shaped digital skillset and continuous professional development to oversee all marketing activity. Pharma digital specialists manage day-to-day optimization of key digital channels, the new front-line of customer engagement. Investment in tools and training for these staff is crucial for your company's growth. Of course, the breakdown of these channels will depend on your pharma company's positioning and target markets, which we will visit further on in the article.
Why invest in digital marketing for pharma?
Improved distribution of, and accessibility to, pharmaceutical data and information is accelerating customer-centric disruption…
Mistakes happen but there are many that can be avoided when it comes to digital marketing plans. Being aware of common mistakes helps you improve digital marketing
Even the top marketing gurus can implement bad marketing strategies if they don’t pay attention to the nitty-gritty, unspoken rules. While they may look good on paper, even the smallest mishap can completely derail favorable results. In this blog, we will cover 5 areas where you can improve digital marketing performance.
Pay attention to these errors so you can best educate your teams and adapt your strategies to avoid dicey marketing situations. Although you might think you’ve heard it all when it comes to managing marketers, it always pays to look for the weak spots in your goals and plans.
Without further ado, let’s dive into 5 examples where you can improve digital marketing...
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1. Your strategies cross the line between informing and spamming
Although we…
With the launch of our brand new Learning Paths - offering practical, strategic marketing courses online - discover which marketing training solutions have been the most popular
Deciding on a marketing course to optimize your strategy in 2021 is tough. With so many marketing training options, you need a solution that's practical, data-driven, and proven to generate results, quickly. Read on to discover our Smart Insights members' top Learning Paths and resources in each membership tier.
Top Business Professional marketing course: Manage change for digital transformation
Module from Digital Transformation Learning Path for Business Professional Members
Digital Transformation is the use of new, fast and frequently changing digital technology to solve problems. However, a Boston Consulting Group report found that only 33% of significant IT projects have been fully successful since the year 2000.
The danger is that the benefits of digital transformation are not being fully achieved as organizational barriers can hold…
Do you know your 4Cs from your 4Cs? Read more about these two marketing models, plus find practical examples to apply to your marketing strategy
What is the 4Cs marketing model?
Two groups of marketers have created the 4Cs marketing model. This often leads to confusion about what’s being discussed and where!
Let’s clarify the two models:
The 4Cs to replace the 4Ps of the marketing mix: Consumer wants and needs; Cost to satisfy; Convenience to buy and Communication (Lauterborn, 1990).
The 4Cs for marketing communications: Clarity; Credibility; Consistency and Competitiveness (Jobber and Fahy, 2009).
Lauterborn’s 4Cs: Consumer wants and needs; Cost to satisfy; Convenience to buy and Communication
What is it?
In 1990 Bob Lauterborn wrote an article in Advertising Age saying how the 4Ps (he didn’t address the 7Ps) were dead and today’s marketer needed to address the real…
From annual to 90-day planning that rocks
Has this happened to you?
You spend a ton of effort creating your marketing plan, you feel great about it. You’re going to move forwards with clarity on those important initiatives.
Tasks are planned week by week and resources allocated...
The ink has barely dried before the first curve ball arrives. You’re back to the plan, juggling and adjusting, trying to hold it together.
That’s frustrating enough, but it’s not long before the next curve ball. Redraw plans again. Soon you wonder why you spent the time trying to plan in first place.
The sand shifts so fast planning seems pointless.
You are not alone. I’ve seen it happen too many times.
The net result is:
People outside the team are frustrated because those bold initiatives with planned dates rarely happen as planned
People inside the team are frustrated. Continual chop and change kills productivity and is frankly demoralizing
You end…
How to develop a clear marketing brief that unlocks insight and gets to the heart of the marketing challenge
Our primary role as marketers is to constantly solve new and different types of challenges and demonstrate this insight through an effective marketing brief. From a client-side perspective, this may be responding to a change in the market, for example, a new competitor disrupting the status quo or a sudden change in consumer demand as a result of a new trend. From an agency perspective, this will often involve responding to a client request to help formulate a strategy for a new campaign or initiative, usually in support of the challenge they’re attempting to solve!
I’ve written about the importance of an effective marketing brief before and its positive impact on both clients and agencies. However, whilst a written brief is essential, one of the keys to the success…
Five steps to creating an effective process that generates results
It’s difficult to argue with the benefits that good content marketing can deliver for businesses. We have talked regularly here on Smart Insights about the opportunities provided by great content and how it fuels many inbound marketing techniques, including:
SEO
Paid search marketing
Social media marketing
Email marketing
Conversion rate optimization
However, once the overall strategy and approach have been agreed, the next step is execution. Unfortunately, creating and maintaining good quality content is not straightforward. There are often many stakeholders and dependencies across businesses, including marketing, PR, creative and legal/compliance. If you work for an agency you will also need to consider the client’s point of view, too.
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One of the trickiest elements of the…
What guides, templates, examples and Quick Wins have our members found helpful in 2019? We've taken a look at this year's most popular Smart Insights resources
Over the last year, we’ve updated and created new guides, templates, presentations and Quick Wins in order to help you better develop your marketing skills. We always aim to provide the most up-to-date information and advice to enable you to grow your knowledge, while our practical approach means you can easily put this knowledge to use.
No matter what your membership level, business or personal goals, we’ve aimed to provide you with a broad range of resources to help you achieve them. So, whether you’re trying to improve your skills, upskill your team or grow your business, you’re all set with the support of Smart Insights.
You’re not the only one either, as this year has seen a huge number of people making use of our guides,…
Chart of the day: Looking to 2018, marketers were asked which tactics will be used in their digital marketing strategy for 2018
Social Media Marketing (18%) Content Marketing (17%) and use of Marketing Technology (16%) are expected to be included the most in digital marketing strategies in 2018.
Least used will be data management as well as paid search and social ads.
The research suggests there will be a shift from the previously popular use of paid search and social media advertising, to increased use of marketing technology, content marketing and organic social media. We already know content is king, as in a previous chart of the day we reported that research reports used for content marketing are the most successful for generating a return on investment.
SEO is still and I predict, always will be very important. It might never be top of…
Chart of the day: Marketers reveal that data quality, lead generation and user experience are the most critical challenges to the success of a digital marketing plan
When it comes to planning a digital marketing strategy we all know there are factors which affect its implementation and success.
Data quality affects things like marketing automation and personalization and marketers said it was the biggest challenge. Lead generation is also related to data quality, marketers will always need leads. User experience (UX) also came near the top at 15%, it's great to see marketers are thinking about how UX improvements can benefit sales, revenue and even data.
Bonus chart: Are digital marketing budgets increasing?
For most marketers, their digital marketing budgets are increasing.
For just over 4 in 10 (41%) their marketing budget will increase significantly, and over…
