Digital Doses: Leveraging Pharma Email Marketing
Let’s face it: doctors are busy. They have patients to see, treatments to plan, and research to keep up with. The last thing they need is a sales rep interrupting their day.
But as a pharmaceutical company, you still need to get the word out about your latest products and answer doctors’ questions.
So, what’s the best way to do that? Pharma email marketing or pharma e marketing.
It’s the practice of sending targeted, informative emails directly to healthcare professionals. These emails can include product launch emails, clinical data reports, email marketing newsletters, or answers to frequently asked questions.
Join us as we explore the benefits and strategies of effective email marketing in the pharmaceutical industry. We also discuss how you can succeed at B2B healthcare professional email marketing.
Benefits of Pharma Email Marketing for Pharmaceutical Businesses
Healthcare professionals, like the rest of us, live in a digital world. When they need information, they turn to the internet. They also check their emails multiple times a day.
This makes email marketing a perfect way to reach them. Email marketing to doctors is non-intrusive, meaning you aren’t disrupting their busy schedules. Instead, you’re providing them with valuable information they can read when they have the time, without the pressure of an in-person meeting.
Pharmaceutical email marketing has three additional benefits for your company:
- Targeted reach. Email marketing platforms have fine-grained personalization criteria based on customer segments. You can send your subscribers targeted content that speaks to their needs.
- Cost-effectiveness. Email marketing costs are typically lower than other marketing channels. For every dollar you spend, you can expect to get $36-$42 in ROI. Compare this with the costs of sending brochures through direct mail or sales rep salaries.
- Trackable results. Email campaigns provide measurable outcomes. You can track open rates and click-through rates to gain insights into the effectiveness of your strategies.
Which Pharma Email Marketing Agency is Best?
If you work for a pharmaceutical manufacturer, a biotechnology company, or a medical device manufacturer, email marketing can benefit you.
You can send various types of email campaigns to target different audiences such as:
- Healthcare professionals (HCPs),
- Patients,
- Researchers,
- Any other demographic.
Just ensure you choose the right pharma email marketing agency!
The best pharmaceutical email marketing companies excel in:
- Regulatory compliance such as HIPAA and GDPR,
- Data-driven strategies,
- Email deliverability.
Look for agencies with deep industry knowledge, a proven track record, and strong client relationships. They should be able to personalize pharma campaigns, employ email A/B testing best practices, and offer advanced analytics to maximize ROI.
This table has our top 5 suggestions:
| Pharma Email Marketing Agency | URL |
|---|---|
| Thrive | https://thriveagency.com |
| Viseven | https://viseven.com/ |
| Healthcare Success | https://healthcaresuccess.com/ |
| Eureka Digital | https://eureka-digital.co.uk/ |
| AmuraTech | https://www.amuratech.com |
How to Build a Pharmaceutical Mailing List
Reaching the right healthcare professionals and stakeholders is crucial for pharmaceutical companies. Building effective pharmaceutical email lists requires a strategic approach, navigating industry regulations, and prioritizing ethical data collection.
Check out our top suggestions for online and offline methods
How to Build a Pharmaceutical Email List Using Online Methods
Use these popular online methods to build a pharmaceutical companies email list:
- Content Marketing and Lead Magnets: Offer valuable content — white papers, webinars, reports — in exchange for contact information via lead capture forms, incentivizing sign-ups with exclusive access and early updates.
- Targeted Online Advertising: Run targeted PPC ads on pharma industry messaging platforms like LinkedIn and industry websites, promoting resources and linking to opt-in signup forms.
- Targeted Email Newsletters: Create targeted email newsletters for specific industry segments such as drug discovery, regulatory affairs, and more.
- Dedicated Landing Pages for Specific Campaigns: Create distinct landing pages for each campaign for targeted messaging and better tracking.
How to Build a Pharmaceutical Industry Email List Offline
Taking your email lead generation activities offline helps you reach a diverse audience.
These are our top 5 recommendations for building a pharmaceutical industry mailing list offline:
- Pharma Events: Network and collect contacts at industry events, while also hosting seminars to gather registrations.
- Strategic Partnerships: Collaborate with industry associations and complementary healthcare businesses to expand reach.
- Industry-Specific Communities: Engage in offline groups and professional network meetups, sharing insights and promoting email list sign-ups.
- Team Up with Industry Magazines: Collaborate with pharmaceutical publications for sponsored content and integrated opt-in forms.
- Host Industry Roundtables: Organize pharma professionals-only events and collect email addresses during registration.
These methods work not just to target doctors but to also help doctors build an audience. With the right drs email marketing strategy, it’s possible to build a loyal group of subscribers.
Pharma Email Marketing vs Email Marketing for Healthcare
While there are distinctions, pharma email marketing is a subset of healthcare email marketing. All the rules and regulations that apply to healthcare email marketing also apply to pharma. The differences lie in the specifics due to the nature of pharmaceuticals and their marketing regulations.
| Aspect | Pharma Email Marketing | Healthcare Email Marketing |
|---|---|---|
| Target Audience | Healthcare providers, Researchers, Stakeholders in the pharma industry. | General public, Patients, Doctors,Healthcare providers. |
| Primary Goal | Pharma emails promote pharmaceutical products, clinical studies, and regulatory updates. | Healthcare emails educate patients, promote health services, and build trust. |
| Content Type | These emails typically contain product information, clinical trial results, regulatory compliance, and research insights. | Healthcare emails contain health tips, wellness advice, appointment reminders, and updates. |
| Tone | These emails are professional, technical, and data-driven. | These messages are usually friendly, approachable, and patient-focused. |
| Challenges | The main challenge is adhering to strict regulations while effectively marketing complex products. | It’s a task to balance personalization with privacy laws, engaging diverse audiences. |
Email Marketing Success Starts with Establishing Deliverability
In email marketing, you want to make sure subscribers see your messages in their primary inbox. Sending pharma spam will ensure nobody reads your emails. It’s a huge waste of time and effort when emails go to spam.
Your email deliverability rate shows what percentage of the emails you send successfully reach the subscribers’ inboxes. The higher this rate, the more likely your subscribers will see and interact with your emails.
Deliverability can be tricky because it’s influenced by three categories of key factors:
- Email sender reputation: How trustworthy you look to email providers.
- Email marketing strategy: How consistent and strategic you are with your email campaigns.
- Email infrastructure: How well your domain implements the SPF, DKIM, and DMARC protocols to show you’re a legitimate sender.
Your email service provider also plays a crucial role for two reasons:
- IP reputation: This is the trust level of your email IP address. If your platform doesn’t monitor user behavior, spam email senders can ruin the platform’s IP reputation and kill everyone’s deliverability.
- Features and tools: Your ESP needs to provide tools for email list management and email engagement, plus help you track email performance. Without these essential tools, it’s tough to stay ahead of your competition.
At Campaign Refinery, we put deliverability first. We’ve designed all our features and tools to improve your email success. From automatic list cleaning to engagement gamification and sender monitoring, we work hard to make sure every email counts.
Pharma Email Marketing Best Practices
Email marketing for pharmaceutical companies has its nuances, but the basic principles aren’t very different from healthcare email marketing, email marketing for hospitals, or physician email marketing.
In a nutshell, you need to build an audience — doctors and other healthcare professionals in your case — that values your content. Then, engage and grow this audience by understanding subscribers’ needs and sending tailored messages to address their questions and concerns.
Once you establish trust with your audience, you can occasionally send them promotional messages. This approach helps maintain a healthy relationship with your subscribers.
Let’s review the top practices to optimize your email marketing initiatives for maximum effectiveness.
Avoid Cold Emailing
Investigating the best approaches for pharma in email more closely, we found many services advertising “outbound email marketing” and “email outreach” for the pharmaceutical industry. Although some of these services may be legitimate, they often involve cold emailing.
Cold emailing means sending unsolicited messages to people who may be interested in your products — healthcare professionals in the case of pharma companies.
Cold outreach can seriously harm your company’s reputation because people often view unsolicited emails negatively. You’ll get more spam complaints, and over time, ISPs will start sending your emails straight to the spam folder.
And there’s more. The practice can get you in trouble with the law in many places. Recently, Gmail and Yahoo cold emailing, and it’s likely that other service providers will follow suit soon.
Build Your Pharma Email Audience Without Spamming
Building a healthy email list takes time, and there are no shortcuts. Your list should only include subscribers who genuinely want to receive content from your brand. This approach is the best for email marketing in healthcare, as it will yield results in the long term.
Follow these strategies to bring on pharma subscribers organically:
- Deliver valuable content. Create content that appeals to healthcare professionals. Your audience will find medical news, research findings, and product updates interesting.
- Market your content. Use your website, LinkedIn, and other social media pages effectively. Create landing pages and pop-ups that invite visitors to subscribe for exclusive content.
- Engage subscribers at conferences. Medical conferences are prime spots to meet healthcare professionals. Hand out brochures with your website address. Encourage attendees to visit your site and sign up for your industry newsletter.
- Offer incentives. For example, doctors are incredibly busy, so offer something valuable in exchange for their attention. Conference admissions or access to exclusive educational content can make signing up for your emails more appealing.
Keep Your List Clean
Growing your list organically is just one part of the process. Sometimes, subscribers lose interest in your content or sign up just to receive your lead magnet offer. So, you need to make sure only people who really want to be on your list are there.
Follow these strategies to keep your list clean and filled with engaged subscribers:
- Use double opt-in: After users enter their email address, send them a confirmation link via email. This double opt-in method weeds out people who aren’t genuinely interested in receiving your emails.
- Scrub your list regularly: People change email addresses often, and sometimes they use temporary addresses to sign up. Make it a routine to clean your list by removing inactive or invalid email addresses. This keeps your list up-to-date and improves email deliverability.
- Run re-engagement campaigns regularly: If you notice some subscribers haven’t interacted with your emails for a while, try to win them back. Send them a dedicated email with a special offer to reignite their interest. If you don’t see any signs of engagement, remove them from your list.
- Provide an easy opt-out option: Always include a list-unsubscribe header in your emails. When you make it easy for people to leave your list, those who stay are truly engaged and interested in your content.
Segment Your List
As a pharmaceutical business, you likely have a diverse audience, ranging from individual doctors to B2B customers like hospitals and clinics.
These groups of subscribers have different interests. For example, a cardiologist may want to learn about the latest advancements in heart medications, while the Dean of Medicine at a large hospital likely wants information on overall healthcare trends and new service offers.
If you send these people the same content, you’ll likely see a drop in engagement because it is not relevant to everyone.
To make email marketing to physicians more potent, divide your audience into smaller, more specific groups. This lets you customize your messaging to meet their unique needs. You should also build separate email marketing funnels for each segment.
You can divide your audience into segments based on:
- Specialty (e.g., cardiologists, neurologists),
- Role (e.g., practicing doctors, medical directors, hospital administrators),
- Type of institution (e.g., private clinics, large hospitals, teaching facilities),
- Geographic location,
- Engagement level (e.g., frequent openers, seldom responders).
At Campaign Refinery, our powerful tag-based segmentation engine sets us apart. Unlike other services that use multiple lists for different segments, our system lets you tag subscribers to sort them into segments. This means no messy, overlapping lists — just easy tagging.
We’ve also launched a new feature called Audience Groups. This lets you combine several segments into one group, making it easier to send targeted broadcast emails and run email drip campaigns to the right people, all from one place.
Personalize Every Email
Segmentation categorizes audiences by similar interests, but email personalization focuses on each subscriber’s unique preferences.
What do they need? What excites them? And what keeps them coming back? These are the questions you need to answer about each subscriber.
Luckily, though, you don’t have to create each email separately. Most email marketing platforms give you at least one of these personalization tools:
- Merge fields,
- Dynamic content.
Merge fields let you include specific details about your subscribers directly in your emails. For instance, if you know a healthcare professional has just earned a new certification, you can address them by name, congratulate them, and suggest further educational materials.
For more sophisticated personalization, use dynamic email content. Analyze your website and email marketing data to find out which content each subscriber prefers. Then, send them more of that type of content.
Campaign Management in Pharma
Email campaign management in pharma includes all the activities involved in planning, executing, and analyzing email campaigns for health businesses.
Key aspects of campaign management include:
- Planning and Strategy: Defining campaign goals, target audience, messaging, and budget.
- Execution: Creating email content, designing templates, and scheduling sends.
- Monitoring and Analysis: Tracking key performance indicators (KPIs), analyzing results, and making data-driven adjustments.
- Compliance: Adhering to regulations like HIPAA and GDPR.
To ensure your campaign management strategy is on track, follow these 4 guidelines:
- Take a Data-Driven Approach: Use data to inform every aspect of the campaign, from targeting to content creation.
- Track Metrics Diligently: Monitor open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and unsubscribe rates to ensure you’re reaching your goals.
- Add a Personal Touch: Use a solid email segmentation strategy and tailor messages to have the most impact on readers.
- A/B Testing: Experiment with different elements of the email to optimize performance.
- Continuous Improvement: Regularly analyzing results and making adjustments to improve future campaigns.
Use Marketing Automation Pharma Strategies
Connecting with healthcare professionals and patients in the pharmaceutical industry demands navigating a complex web of regulations. Email marketing automation provides a solution, enabling compliant and personalized communication at scale.
These points outline strategies for success:
- Lead Nurturing for HCPs: Automate targeted content delivery, personalized email sequences, and trigger emails based on behavior.
- Patient Engagement and Adherence Programs: Automate reminders, send mass personalized emails based on patient profiles, and integrate with patient portals.
- Event Management and Follow-Up: Automate event invitation emails, reminders, and post-event follow-up emails.
- Sales CRM Synchronization: Implement lead scoring and automated transfer to sales, along with automated sales alerts.
Pharma Copywriting
In pharma, clear communication is key. Whether you’re targeting healthcare professionals or patients, your copy needs to be spot-on. It needs to be accurate, compliant, and easy to understand.
That’s where a good pharma copywriter comes in. They’re experts at crafting messages that cut through the noise and deliver real results. Don’t skimp on this — it’s worth the investment!
Email marketing for medical practices requires a skilled writer who is also aware of medical jargon. A good writer can transform written content for all your marketing channels — from social media quips to email copywriting, your messaging will become compelling and compliant.
Consider Regulatory Compliance
Email marketing for medical businesses cannot be taken lightly. Your email platform should help you comply with privacy regulations such as:
- CAN-SPAM Act,
- GDPR Compliance Checklist,
- HIPAA.
Pharma email marketing involves additional layers of complexity due to strict industry regulations. This is similar to regulations governing health insurance email marketing.
As a pharmaceutical company, you have to work closely with your compliance department to make sure your email marketing materials adhere to all the legal standards.
FDA Regulations for Prescription Drugs
In the US, the FDA closely regulates the promotion of prescribed drugs. When using email marketing to promote these products, your email content has to comply with FDA guidelines.
Keep these points in mind:
- Do not misinterpret findings from studies.
- Do not exaggerate the benefits of the product.
- Include complete prescription information for the drug.
- Clearly and thoroughly state the risks associated with the drug.
- Avoid making unsupported claims about your product’s benefits.
- Provide a balanced overview of both benefits and risks; not just the benefits.
FTC Regulations for OTC Drugs
If you promote over-the-counter drugs in the US, the Federal Trade Commission requires you to follow these guidelines:
- You must verify the benefits of the drug before you advertise it.
- Your descriptions of the benefits must be clear and leave no room for misinterpretation.
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
Healthcare providers in the US also have to comply with HIPAA’s stringent regulations.
The Act has strict guidelines for storing and transmitting protected health information (PHI), which includes patient records and any details that could reveal a person’s identity.
For example, you need express authorization from each patient to send their private information over email, and you must send encrypted emails when doing so.
Make sure your marketing emails don’t contain any PHI. Failing to protect this information can lead to hefty fines for your company, ranging from $50,000 to $1,500,000.
Pharma Content Marketing Examples
Your email marketing strategy can involve a variety of messages tailored to your products, audience segments, and marketing goals. Some types of emails are more commonly used because they tend to resonate well with readers.
We recommend incorporating these three types of emails in your email marketing strategy:
- Welcome email campaigns. Send a welcome email to each new email marketing subscriber to confirm their subscription; you could even send a thank you email. This is a great way to start building a relationship with any subscriber.
- Product launch emails. Keep your subscribers informed about new products. Highlight the benefits and intended users to spark interest and provide valuable information.
- Newsletter digests. Compile the latest articles, blog posts, and studies into a newsletter. This resource helps your audience stay informed about important developments without having to search for the information themselves.
These healthcare email marketing examples will inspire you to build your own email campaigns.
Welcome Emails
Whether you run a pharmacy selling medicine to patients or a pharmaceutical company marketing to doctors and healthcare professionals, you need to start your interactions with a warm welcome.
A welcome email is designed to give the reader a sneak peek into your business, what you do, and who works for you. Thank the subscriber for joining your list. You can introduce your team, who you serve, and what kind of products you offer.
The key to crafting a perfect welcome email is to be warm and inviting. Even for B2B emails, you can put aside the formalities and paint a professional yet human picture of your business.
This welcome email starts with a thank you message and an introduction to their products. But it doesn’t stop there. They offer a 10 percent discount on their product for joining their email list.
Product Launch Emails
When you launch a new product at your company, let your subscribers know about it!
Start with a catchy email subject line that makes the reader want to open the email. In the email, emphasize how the new product can solve specific health issues or improve patient care.
Explain the unique features and the scientific backing behind your product to build trust and credibility. Finish with a straightforward call to action to direct the reader to your website, where they can access detailed studies, clinical trial results, or prescribing information.
If your product doesn’t require a prescription and you’re targeting consumers, you can:
- Put more emphasis on your email design,
- Write email copy that connects emotionally,
- Include testimonial advertising,
- Offer discounts.
This email from a multivitamin company effectively encourages the reader to take action by showcasing the product’s benefits, ingredients, and what makes it different from others. The icing on the cake is the 25 percent discount to seal the deal.
Newsletter Digests
Newsletter roundups provide busy healthcare professionals with a consolidated update on the latest industry articles and studies. Stay up to date with healthcare email marketing trends to ensure your emails are appealing.
Carefully curate content that adds value to your subscribers’ professional lives. Choose reliable sources known for their authority in the pharmaceutical field. Include a mix of news, recent research, regulatory updates, and actionable advice.
Design your newsletter to be easy on the eyes. Use clear headers, bullet points, and occasional images to break up text. Make sure it’s suitable for mobile email marketing.
Include links for further reading and encourage your subscribers to dig deeper. The Fertility Focus newsletter hits all the right marks with a clean and reader-friendly layout. Each issue highlights key developments in fertility treatments and includes links to detailed articles.
Best Pharma Campaigns
Communicating complex medical information requires a unique blend of science and art. These exceptional pharmaceutical campaigns demonstrate how creativity can overcome communication barriers and achieve remarkable results.
We picked the best pharma marketing campaigns to give us a masterclass in how marketing in medicine works.
Hims Baldness Campaign
Hims posted a direct and no-nonsense advertisement to address a serious male health concern: hair loss.
Departing from traditional pharmaceutical marketing, the video frames this issue as a subject for open discussion rather than concealment. The voice-over uses accessible, informal language, making it notably distinct from conventional pharmaceutical communications.
Dabur Gastrina
This Dabur Gastrina ad uses a clever visual metaphor to communicate its purpose: aiding digestion. The silhouette of a person with a saxophone inside their digestive tract suggests the smooth flow of digestion, like the smooth sound of music.
SickKids Foundation VS Campaign
This popular ad took the world by storm, showing sick kids as fighters and individuals to be respected. The campaign, entitled “VS,” representing “versus,” emphasizes the hospital and its patients’ determined opposition to a range of medical conditions.
How to Create a Pharmaceutical Messaging Strategy
This 9-step guide shows you how to execute email marketing for health professionals:
- Understand Audience Personas: Develop detailed personas considering demographics, needs, motivations, and information sources.
- Define Measurable Outcomes: Set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) objectives.
- Navigate Regulation with Precision: Conduct thorough regulatory reviews and establish internal guidelines with legal counsel.
- Craft Distinct Content Pillars: Develop key messages rooted in scientific evidence, differentiating your product.
- Tailor Messaging: Adapt messaging to the specific channel and audience using appropriate language.
- Use Different Marketing Mediums: Develop an integrated communication plan leveraging a mix of channels — consider both omnichannel and multichannel marketing.
- Develop a Content Roadmap: Create a flexible content calendar allowing for timely updates.
- Implement Airtight Medical and Legal Scrutiny: Establish a formal review process involving experts and legal counsel.
- Monitor Performance Closely: Implement robust tracking mechanisms using key performance indicators.
Lead the Way in Pharma with Campaign Refinery’s Top-Tier Email Marketing
Are you aiming to become a leader in the pharmaceutical industry through email marketing? You’ll need an email marketing service that delivers industry-high performance and reliability. Anything less, and you won’t make much of an impact.
At Campaign Refinery, we’re the go-to choice for companies with big email marketing ambitions. We have the highest deliverability rates around because we truly understand the complexities of reaching the primary inbox. We are the perfect choice for a doctor email marketing software.
How do we manage this?
- Mandatory domain authentication: We start by helping you set up domain authentication to improve your email deliverability and security.
- Engagement gamification: Our unique email gamification engine rewards users for interacting with your content. This means more opens, more clicks, and better deliverability.
- Campaign library: Use our proven email campaign templates for marketing to make your marketing efforts smoother and more effective.
- Automatic list cleaning: We automatically remove harmful addresses from your list, including spam traps and role-based emails.
- Powerful segmentation: Our advanced segmentation tools let you slice and combine your audience segments in unlimited ways.
Want to join our top-tier email marketing community? Apply today and start transforming your company’s email strategy!
FAQ
What is Medical Email Marketing?
Medical email marketing is the use of targeted email campaigns to educate and engage patients or healthcare providers about health services, wellness tips, and medical updates. It focuses on building trust and improving communication while adhering to regulations like HIPAA.
What is Medical Device Email Marketing?
Medical device email marketing uses email campaigns to promote medical devices, educate healthcare professionals on their use, and share updates about features, compliance, or innovations. It focuses on fostering trust while ensuring adherence to industry regulations.
