Building Trust at the Point of Care

July 1, 2016    

By Ashik Desai

From a marketer's perspective, this is quite the question. Is it ever possible to have marketing that is too targeted?

The life sciences have always looked at health care providers and patients in silos. By the book, this is successful marketing. We've identified the needs of each group and crafted messaging around those needs. Together, we have been able to market to each silo successfully, especially since health care marketers now have the technology available at their fingertips to deliver messaging in a high-impact location.

However, marketing can become too targeted when there is a dialogue involved. At the point of care, patients, physicians and caretakers work in collaboration, and developing trust with each group can determine success. It comes as no surprise that the pharma industry is considered by consumers to be one of the least trustworthy industries. With this in mind, we must work doubly hard to address this at the point of care -a reliable place of trust and consultation.

It is more important than ever to bring together HCPs and patient marketers to work in collaboration in order to build trust across the patient journey and drive optimal outcomes. The most important moments in the patient journey do not happen in a silo, but during the dialogue between the physician, patient and caregiver. If messaging is too targeted toward one specific group in these moments, we risk breaking the trust with all. But there is a middle ground. There is a solution.

Given that we can now target with incredible accuracy and at scale during the consultation, here are three ways you can "un-silo" your messaging to be more effective at the point of care.

1. Create messaging that builds trust. Leading innovators at the point of care have created platforms that embed information and technology at the center of the dialogue, which is an unprecedented opportunity. In these critical moments, getting too siloed with information? could mean damaging trust. For example, if we are delivering a message at the point of care about diabetes treatments that too focused on the symptoms, we risk missing out on resonating with the caregiver who also interacts with the condition on a daily basis. More than just the symptoms, a caregiver will have an understanding about how the condition affects daily life for the patient. Speak to the lifestyle, the experience and the most urgent needs of someone living with the condition.
2. Be thoughtful about the platform being used to deliver messaging. With dozens of platforms now available at the point of care for messaging, there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to repurposing our existing campaigns across all platforms. We must be thoughtful about how each person at the point of care is interacting with each platform. If you have a patient-targeted TV commercial for Hyperplexin on the doctor's digital anatomy board, that only confuses information with promotion, breaking the trust of the patient. On the other hand, a physician-led tool is a great way to deliver creative that helps spark a conversation with their physician, especially if it complements the rich media and anatomical diagrams that are being used during the consultation.
3. Make the content valuable and actionable to all parties. To be clear, patients, physicians and providers don't want to be pitched in the exam room; they want relevant and actionable information. While patient-targeted video that plays silently in the exam room can have an impact, there is no better way to build trust than by creating actionable content that drives value for everyone in the exam room. Many of the technologies that are available at the point of care are interactive. So, create marketing that actively engages patients and caregivers before the consultation, or that will actually help the physician consult.

By leveraging the technologies that are available and rethinking our message targeting, we can create content that is interactive, engaging and helps make the most of the limited time physicians have to spend with their patients and caregivers.

Source

"Building Trust at the Point of Care." MediaPost, 7/1/16.