Introduction:
In the rapidly evolving landscape of life sciences marketing, implementing an effective omnichannel strategy is crucial to driving positive customer experiences and increasing engagement. By seamlessly integrating multiple channels and considering the needs of not only global but local affiliates, organizations can unlock ample opportunities to expand their reach and connect with markets on a meaningful level.
An omnichannel strategy integrates various channels to provide a smooth and consistent experience for providers, patients, and other stakeholders. Unlike multichannel marketing, which uses multiple independent channels, omnichannel marketing ensures that all of these channels are interconnected and work together to deliver a unified message and experience. During our latest session at NEXT Pharma Summit, we explored the key considerations when implementing a global-to-local strategy in the life sciences industry and how to ensure success in your omnichannel rollout on a global and local scale.
Featured Speakers During This Session Included:
- Ewelina Knigawka – Executive Director of Content & Partnership Excellence, Novartis
- Scott Dille – Digital Content Lead, Novo Nordisk
- Christine Buggle – Senior Director, TransPerfect Life Sciences
Why an Omnichannel Strategy?
A successful omnichannel strategy delivers a superior customer experience. While buzzwords like "omnichannel" can be misleading, it is essential to understand that true omnichannel capabilities are still a work in progress. However, by focusing on meeting customer expectations by delivering high-quality content, organizations can lay the groundwork for a successful omnichannel approach as presently defined.
Key Challenges
Implementing a global-to-local strategy in the life sciences industry comes with its fair share of challenges. One significant hurdle is the medical, legal, and regulatory (MLR) approval process. Despite careful planning and discussions, the MLR process often results in numerous comments and delays. To mitigate this challenge, organizations must establish a clear strategy, deliver content aligned with that strategy. Timeliness is also crucial, as meeting deadlines is often a struggle in this industry.
Delivering a consistent and seamless customer experience across various channels and touchpoints involves managing a complex ecosystem of communication channels, platforms, and technologies. Part of this often requires adapting content to different languages and cultural contexts. Striking the right balance between accuracy and adaptability is crucial. Another part of the translation process is transcreation, or creatively adapting content while preserving its intent and impact. This is vital to ensure messaging is not diluted or lost in translation. Engaging a vendor with the appropriate technology frameworks to manage scalable translation workflows can mitigate the challenges associated with maintaining quality and consistency through the translation process.
What Drives a Successful Omnichannel Strategy?
Standardization:
- A key component of a successful omnichannel marketing strategy for consistency across markets.
- Involves establishing processes and guidelines across different channels for a unified brand experience.
- Pharmaceutical companies can implement brand guidelines for visual elements, language style, and content structure to ensure consistency across various platforms.
Consideration of Local Markets:
- Critical for a successful omnichannel rollout.
- Requires deep understanding of local healthcare landscape, regulations, culture, and preferences.
- Engaging local affiliates is essential to align with the overall company direction and cater to target audience needs.
Center of Excellence (CoE):
- Plays a crucial role in ensuring omnichannel strategy success.
- Facilitates sharing of best practices and capabilities optimization.
- Balances centralization and localization through strategy alignment and efficient content delivery.
- Serves as a central hub of expertise and resources, guiding content creation, digital marketing, and technological solutions.
- Tailors strategies to consider unique nuances of local markets for effective execution.
Conclusion:
A successful omnichannel marketing strategy requires delivering a seamless and personalized customer experience across channels while prioritizing local market needs.
Accurate translation, cultural adaptation, and transcreation play a pivotal role in global customer engagement. Ensuring that your content resonates with audiences in any market requires expertise in language services.
At TransPerfect Life Sciences, our team of experts can help develop and deliver strategic omnichannel marketing campaigns. We work to understand and form a strong content plan that is relevant and appropriate for your audiences while helping you access and optimize digital channels to engage global audiences at scale with targeted, multilingual marketing. Reach out today to get started.