KOL Engagement: Create High-Impact Pharma Events

Involving the right key opinion leaders (KOLs) in pharmaceutical company events, meetings, and trials can make a major impact on campaign reach and product adoption. To collaborate with the most influential stakeholders, you have to invest in KOL engagement.

In this article, we'll cover everything you need to get started with KOL engagement or expand your current efforts. We'll explore why it's so important for pharma companies, how to develop a successful strategy, and how to handle challenges that often arise.

What is KOL engagement?

KOL engagement is the process of developing relationships with important stakeholders in the healthcare industry and inviting them to speak at pharma seminars, board meetings, and launch events.

For the pharmaceutical industry, KOLs include healthcare professionals (HCPs) and clinicians as well as researchers at academic institutions. No matter their role or place of employment, KOLs share one thing in common: they're regarded as thought leaders in their therapeutic area.

Because they share such valuable insights about topics like clinical trials and new treatments, KOLs often influence healthcare providers' approaches and decisions. They can also guide pharma companies' research, development, and marketing efforts.

Why KOL engagement is so important for pharma events

KOL relationships are no longer a nice-to-have perk. Instead, medical science liaisons (MSLs) must prioritize KOL development to host successful pharma events.

Plus, by 2030, the pharma industry will likely include an even wider group of KOLs in digital engagements and virtual events, according to a McKinsey report. Here's why these stakeholders are so crucial for pharma.

Higher HCP engagement

Between patient visits, office administration, and continuing medical education (CME) courses, healthcare providers are busy professionals. They have limited time to participate in medical seminars, virtual conferences, or optional industry events.

Inviting the right KOLs to in-person and virtual events can generate significantly higher interest, leading to more registrations and higher attendance. The more HCP engagement your event generates, the better the outcome is likely to be.

Increased trust and credibility

Pharma companies are responsible for sharing information that's unbiased, compliant, and up-to-date. Since KOLs understand these requirements, they tend to be excellent partners and spokespersons for your company.

Plus, KOLs are respected thought leaders. As a result, KOLs can lend authority to many pharma events, helping reinforce your company's credibility and establishing trust with healthcare professionals.

Greater competitive edge

The pharmaceutical industry is highly competitive, with the largest company holding less than 5% market share. Attracting support from key professionals in healthcare and increasing the usage of new pharma products can be incredibly challenging.

Developing a KOL engagement plan is one way pharma companies can successfully compete with others in the space. Building a long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationship with a highly respected KOL can help your company develop an advantage over the competition.

How to create a successful KOL engagement strategy

How can your team take advantage of these benefits? Use the steps below as a guide to develop a KOL strategy for your organization.

Decide on engagement goals

Start by setting goals for your KOL strategy. Get clear on how you want to work with KOLs and what you want these relationships to achieve so you can plan for more strategic engagement.

If you plan to engage KOLs during the research and development (R&D) phase, you may need to identify specific groups of experts who can advise on your testing or development process.

If you intend to engage KOLs during symposia or conferences, you may want to seek out experts who have significant influence on the HCPs you need to reach.

Identify KOLs who align with your needs

Once you've narrowed down your goals, identify the types of KOLs who can help you achieve your objectives. Create a simple KOL profiling procedure to find stakeholders who align with your needs.

For example, segment experts by factors like:

• Therapeutic area
• Geographic region
• Connections with clinical or academic groups
• Experience with various event types
• Knowledge of different R&D stages

Create a KOL outreach plan

Next, design a plan to connect with the experts you've identified. Generally, it's best to start reaching out as early as possible to give KOLs enough time to consider your proposal.

Your initial outreach attempt may focus more on building a relationship and exploring the possibility of a partnership. Once you've established potential interest, you can start discussing details.

For example, you'll want to confirm the types of events KOLs are open to leading. Whether you're seeking a short- or long-term partnership, you'll also want to discuss the length of the agreement.

Discuss relevant incentives

Don't forget to include incentives in the discussion. KOLs often pursue partnerships with leading pharma organizations to learn new skills, get early access to information, and build their professional authority.

However, it's also worth offering fees for speaking at events or reimbursements for travel to in-person events. KOLs may also be incentivized by opportunities to review research or become involved in clinical trials.

Invite KOLs to participate in key events

Once you've confirmed the details and signed the agreements, start including KOLs in your organization's events. They often speak at events like:

• Company-sponsored conferences that include multiple educational sessions
• Product launch events that introduce new drugs or treatments
• Symposia that discuss the latest research
• Academic seminars that focus on specific therapies or research trends
• Panel discussions that explore industry trends from multiple perspectives
• Advisory board meetings that gather external experts

With Livestorm, you can easily host virtual events with multiple experts. Our webinar software supports multiple simultaneous speakers and includes numerous virtual engagement options.

Using Livestorm, you can invite KOLs to speak from any location, host live Q&A sessions, and even network with clinicians in virtual breakout rooms. This online meeting checklist can help them prepare.

Exchange feedback and analyze results

After each event, review the analytics and evaluate the results. For example, you may want to review registration and attendance numbers, viewer retention, and engagement rates.

With Livestorm, you can also record pharma events and offer them on demand. This way, you can allow your target audience to tune in at their convenience and continue to get value from your strategy.

Take time to discuss the results both internally and with KOLs. Together, you can make plans to keep improving results and engaging the right audiences.

Challenges with key opinion leader engagement

Working with KOLs can create a range of challenges for medical affairs teams. Here's how to navigate some of the most common issues.

Planning cross-organizational KOL strategies

Within your organization, multiple pharma teams may be focused on various stages of the product lifecycle, such as R&D plans or marketing goals. Some may oversee drug development efforts, while others may manage marketing strategies for launch events.

A disconnected strategy won't work. When each team requires specific key opinion leaders, your organization needs a coordinated approach to KOL engagement.

The most effective KOL relationships typically demand meticulous planning. Depending on the activity level, MSLs may need to meet weekly or monthly to discuss current initiatives, upcoming events, and engagement activities for each KOL.

This way, you can ensure each initiative has the right amount of expert engagement to support it. In many cases, you can extract more value by sharing KOL interactions and input across the entire organization. Plus, you can honor KOL needs and avoid overextending them.

Scaling engagement programs successfully

Onboarding and collaborating with a single key opinion leader may seem like a big enough challenge. Coordinating with multiple KOLs across various initiatives can seem impossible for a busy MSL.

In many cases, deliberate KOL management is the solution. Choosing the right technology and developing simple systems can help your team overcome issues with scaling successful KOL programs.

For example, a customer relationship management (CRM) tool helps you keep track of KOL contact information, LinkedIn profiles, and treatment areas. With a CRM, you can also track touchpoints with each KOL.

A live events platform like Livestorm helps you organize and host meetings and conferences. Since Livestorm integrates with many CRM tools, it also helps you manage stakeholder engagement more efficiently.

Neglecting to provide transparency for KOLs

To create long-lasting relationships with KOLs, MSL teams should aim for maximum transparency. The more these stakeholders know about your new product or treatment—including benefits and side effects—the better they can speak about your efforts in a way that resonates with HCPs.

For MSLs, providing greater transparency often means meeting with KOLs more frequently. For example, engage with KOLs relatively early in the product development process, long before reaching the commercialization stage. This way, you can gather their input early and better engage them throughout.

Livestorm for effective KOL engagement

To succeed with KOL engagement, you need more than just a solid strategy. You also need the right engagement tools to create impactful pharma events.

With Livestorm's video engagement and webinar software, you can:

• Use our healthcare toolkit to plan and run successful events
• Invite KOLs to speak at live events for healthcare professionals
• Record events automatically and offer them on demand
• Integrate Livestorm with your CRM and marketing automation tools

Ready to test it with your team? Sign up for Livestorm and set up your first virtual event in just a few minutes.