By focusing on driving authentic interactions over impressions, drug brands can deliver relevant messaging that is inclusive of patients’ lived experiences. Balancing empathy and information along with creative tactics and use of technology can help brands set themselves apart.

During the LiveWorld-sponsored thought leadership discussion, Content Over Clickbait: Driving Meaningful Patient-Brand Interaction, on October 26th, the expert panel shared their thoughts and experiences on how different pharma brands approach patient engagement, what tactics have been successful in an ever-changing landscape, and how organizations are adapting and refining their digital strategies heading into 2022.

Check out five key takeaways below:

1. Concentrate marketing efforts where patients are actually engaging

Tom Zipp of Antares Pharma acknowledged the amount of digital “noise” patients are faced with on a daily basis. He advocated using data-driven tactics to break through the clutter and concentrate marketing efforts where brands know their customers are engaging with their content.

“There’s just so much coming at folks nowadays that you’ve got to be able to get your message through all that,” he said.

2. Content gamification is a key driver of engagement

Quizzes, polls, and other interactive content is a key driver of patient engagement. Exploring ways to make traditionally static content more interactive is a promising strategy.

“[We are] allowing people to play around with content,” said Nick Lucente of Bayer, “they customize it for themselves then [we can] leverage that to enrich either our customer database with activities [customers] are doing or do some really smart remarketing.”

3. Be open to leaving the comments on when posting on social media

“Having the comments open [has been] really great to understand the patient journey,” observed Nick Lucente, “There were insights in there that had we not read directly about patients [experience], I don't think would have had as deep of an understanding of what a patient [was] going through.”

4. Telling patient stories can be highly effective

When engaging with both HCPs and consumers, telling authentic and inclusive patient stories has been an important catalyst behind meaningful interactions.

“The patient stories that reinforced that burden [of treatment] and reminded them of the humanity on the other side of that diagnosis,” said Dawn Lacallade of LiveWorld, “[has been] some of the most successful content.”

5. Plan ahead for changes in privacy laws

“We [are] starting to have a renewed focus on first-party data collection,” noted Michael Mazza of Horizon, “just figuring out the way that we exchange value to consumers [in order] to access the right to their information.”

Mike noted that shifting privacy regulations over the next 18 months will result in increased challenges in obtaining this data. He emphasized a proactive, well-thought out approach now will pay dividends in the future with a database of targeted customers.

While Nick noted the legal hurdles and other challenges to having the comments on, he felt the insights gained were well worth it.

Curious to learn more about our discussion? Access the full event content by filling out the form at the top of this page.