Pharma Marketing: Challenges, Trends & Strategies

A successful pharmaceutical marketing strategy goes far beyond simply launching and promoting products. Instead, it involves building trust with providers and patients, demonstrating clear value, and creating meaningful engagement across channels.

As pharma companies juggle regulatory issues and emerging channels, a traditional marketing strategy is no longer sufficient. In this guide, we'll cover how to approach key industry trends and challenges and which top pharma marketing strategies and channels to implement.

What does pharmaceutical marketing involve?

When marketing and advertising treatments, pharmaceutical companies typically use two different approaches.

A direct-to-consumer approach targets consumers directly, informing the end user about available treatments for specific conditions or increasing awareness of the company's drug research. It's important to note that many countries heavily regulate how pharma companies can market prescription medication to consumers.

A direct-to-provider approach targets healthcare professionals (HCPs), informing physicians about treatments for patients' conditions. Historically, pharma sales reps focused on meeting HCPs in person. Today, digital marketing for pharma companies takes precedence, with most prioritizing online methods.

Both methods of pharma marketing involve similar end goals. Some of the most common objectives include:

• Building the brand: To increase awareness of the brand and generate interest in its offerings, many pharma companies use strategies like content marketing and event marketing.
• Establishing trust: To instill trust and promote the brand's mission, pharma companies often use video marketing to share customer stories and content marketing to feature scientific developments.
• Increasing sales: To drive sales of pharmaceutical products, companies often use digital ads to reach their target audience directly and market innovative treatments.

Top challenges with pharmaceutical marketing

While pharma companies have many options for building their brands and driving sales, planning cost-effective marketing campaigns isn't always easy. These challenges affect companies of all sizes in the pharmaceutical industry.

Staying on top of industry regulations

Pharma companies are subject to strict regulations on their marketing efforts, especially for direct-to-consumer marketing. These regulations are designed to protect consumers by ensuring all marketing material is accurate and balanced.

Regulations vary widely between countries, so pharmaceutical companies must have deep knowledge of regional guidelines. Most companies implement multi-step reviews before launching campaigns and keep extensive records of their compliance efforts.

Balancing online and offline efforts

While the pharma industry historically prioritized in-person marketing efforts, succeeding in today's market requires investing in both offline and online efforts. For pharmaceutical brands, finding the right balance between the two can be difficult.

In many cases, you need dedicated teams for each approach. Digital marketing teams focus on connecting with patients and healthcare professionals on the company's website, email, and social media channels, while field and event marketing teams focus on connecting with healthcare providers in person.

Engaging with KOLs and HCPs

Building relationships with key opinion leaders (KOLs) and HCPs has become critical for driving pharmaceutical sales and improving product adoption. Yet companies that once relied on face-to-face networking have had to find other options for engaging with these influential providers.

To connect with these providers, consider investing in KOL engagement strategies that get these providers involved in pharma product launch events, board meetings, seminars, and conferences. Or use HCP engagement tactics like sharing educational material and collaborating on research.

Current pharma marketing trends

To build an effective pharma marketing program, companies must pay attention to the latest channels and approaches. These pharmaceutical trends are reshaping how companies develop campaigns, allocate budget, and connect with customers.

Adopting omnichannel engagement

Engaging customers on a single digital marketing channel doesn't always lead to efficient or cost-effective outcomes. After all, healthcare professionals and patients alike tend to use multiple channels to research treatments. As a result, pharma companies are increasingly focusing on omnichannel engagement.

For direct-to-consumer approaches, this often includes a combination of social media marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and digital advertising across social media and search engines. For direct-to-provider approaches, incorporate tactics like email marketing, brand portals, and event marketing.

Testing new platforms and channels

As the pharma marketing landscape continues to change, it becomes riskier for companies to simply repeat the same marketing tactics or playbooks from previous campaigns. Instead, pharma brands are becoming more agile and open to experimenting with new platforms and channels.

To connect with providers, consider researching sponsorship opportunities for new medical congresses and virtual medical conferences. To engage patients, consider launching awareness campaigns on new social media platforms or experimenting with new formats like video marketing.

Promoting value-based care

For most pharma marketing campaigns, it's no longer enough to simply share a list of symptoms, conditions, or active ingredients. Instead, patients and providers alike want to learn about costs, data-driven results, and patient outcomes.

The healthcare industry is shifting to a value-based approach, which means pharma companies need to adjust messaging accordingly. However, as they update product positioning and messaging, pharma brands still have to abide by the industry's marketing regulations.

6 Pharma marketing strategies to implement

An effective marketing strategy typically includes multiple interconnected channels. Use these ideas to develop a holistic strategy that reaches potential customers across channels.

1. Video marketing

Video marketing is ideal for initiatives ranging from improving brand awareness to educating patients and providers to driving consideration for products and services. As a pharma marketer, you have several options for distributing video marketing content. Two of the most popular options include:

• Publishing videos to your company website, where they reach a more exclusive audience
• Uploading videos to YouTube, where they can reach a wider audience

For example, this AstraZeneca video shares a customer story that features a patient with lung cancer and provides hope for patients dealing with similar conditions. It's one of many videos that the pharma company shares on YouTube to introduce patients to new treatment options.

2. Webinar marketing

While patients and providers can watch video marketing asynchronously, webinars often include live presentations by pharmaceutical marketers and KOLs. Whether they're live or on demand, webinars work well for educating customers, building trust, and establishing the company as a leader in a therapeutic area.

For example, this webinar by BINDER aims to educate pharmaceutical professionals about stability testing via features expert insights and real-world examples. It's available on demand so viewers can watch at their convenience.

Livestorm makes it easy to host a webinar and connect with your target audience via live events or pre-recorded content. During live sessions, your sales and marketing team can use features like Q&A sessions and live chat to engage directly with participants.

3. Social media marketing

When you include social media in your pharmaceutical marketing plan, you can connect with customers via a variety of media types—including videos, images, and links to your website. You can reach consumers on platforms like Facebook or Instagram, and you can connect with providers on platforms like LinkedIn.

For example, this Facebook post by Johnson & Johnson educates followers about rheumatic diseases. It also links to the company's website, which holds information about 200+ conditions and their symptoms and risk factors.

4. Content marketing

With content marketing, pharma brands can provide comprehensive information in various multimedia formats about company initiatives, treatment options, and research and development. By optimizing this content for search, companies can improve its visibility and make it easier for customers to find as they research.

For example, this blog post by Eli Lilly explores how collaborative research improves precision medicine, a principle that guides the company's drug development initiatives.

5. Event marketing

Event marketing gives pharma companies opportunities to promote their products, share their research and development, and connect with HCPs and KOLs either virtually or in person. A thoughtful event marketing strategy can include hosting conferences and events, sponsoring medical congresses, or exhibiting at trade shows.

For example, this YouTube playlist highlights Pfizer's Health Equity in Action Summit, a multi-day event covering topics like developing a diverse healthcare workforce, exploring careers in healthcare, and advancing health equity.

6. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising

With digital advertising, pharma companies can expand their reach and connect with potential customers at each stage of their journey. For example, this Facebook ad for Zepbound introduces the medication by featuring a customer story.

This Google search ad for Ozempic appeared in an online search for the drug. It's designed to help potential patients determine if they qualify, explore insurance coverage options, and learn how the medication works.

Livestorm for pharmaceutical marketing

Whether your pharma company has already invested in webinar and virtual event marketing or your team is experimenting with new channels, you need the right software to develop a competitive edge. Livestorm is your webinar software platform for:

• Planning webinars for exclusive audiences or 1,000+ participants
• Hosting large-scale virtual conferences for HCPs and KOLs
• Creating on-demand webinars to get more value from your marketing content
• Engaging attendees via Q&A sessions, breakout rooms, and live chat
• Using Livestorm integrations to connect marketing tools and run more efficient campaigns

Want to see how Livestorm helps your company elevate its video and webinar marketing and build a successful pharma marketing strategy? Book a demo to learn about our business and enterprise plans.