Maximizing Your Media Impact While Spending Less Money

How many health campaigns do you see in one day? How many of those ads have you engaged with or acted on?

Though we are constantly bombarded with ads (4,000 to 10,000 according to Forbes), not all pharmaceutical campaigns are successful in reaching the impact they desire. 

People’s attitude towards healthcare has changed, and traditional marketing techniques are not enough to create an impression that drives change. Even with the use of digital technology, not every message will suit every audience. 

How do you create a highly customized and targeted marketing approach that can impact customers? PRECISIONeffect says it has an answer. 

A precise approach: behavior mapping

PRECISIONeffect is the industry’s only healthcare advertising agency dedicated to working with companies seeking to change the standard of care. Founded in 1978, Boston-based PRECISIONeffect changed its name after the acquisition by Precision Medicine Group (PMG) in May 2015. They also have offices in London and Los Angeles.

The agency’s goal is to create exceptional campaigns that drive changes in thinking and behavior. As the company’s name implies, it utilizes a precise approach to uncover the behavioral psychology of people to orchestrate changes. This approach is called ‘’behavior mapping.” 

In my interview with Pam Caputo, Associate Vice President of Media and Engagement at PRECISIONeffect, she explained what behavior mapping is. 

“Before we make any decision in our life, we’ve actually thought through a dozen or so small steps to get us to that final product,” she noted. “What we do is map out every single one of those small steps that we want a person to take, whether it’s a healthcare physician or a patient or consumer. By mapping that out, we’re able to then think through the media about why and where they’re going to interact with us, and then we get to measure it on that backend.” 

“By doing that, you’re able to see how you’re taking those tiny mind shift differences and marching them towards that final product, that final goal, whatever that key performance indicator is,” she said.

By mapping the behavior, PRECISIONeffect can get down to the details which add a lot of traction when creating the ad content.

“Really thinking through and putting yourself in a patient’s perspective gives the information they value and are more likely to use,” added Pam. 

By thinking about the patient and answering questions about his or her daily life, you start to get a better picture of the patient, the habits you are trying to influence, and the kind of media that matches the behavior change. 

Leveraging data and actionable insights to improve outcomes

Creating a compelling marketing campaign means using customer data to reach goals effectively. Healthcare has a huge amount of data, but careful analysis and insights are needed to make decisions. Otherwise, big data will remain as it is, a bunch of numbers and words with no discernible value. 

Customer analytics can be turned into something actionable, along with setting the metrics for the campaign. 

Pam admits that one of healthcare marketing’s challenges is establishing the ROI because marketing agencies can’t directly tie programs to script lift, but she’s positive that they are getting close to a solution. PRECISIONeffect is now at the stage where they can measure moving people from Point A to Point B, thanks to digital platforms that produce real-time results. 

Another benefit of leveraging data and analytics is it creates a streamlined and more efficient approach in the behavior mapping stage. 

Pam explains, “If someone, a healthcare provider, has seen an ad or read an article or been to the site, what’s the next thing we should be showing them. What’s that next piece of information that a healthcare provider needs to feel comfortable prescribing our drug or leading to the new treatment? Is it another case study or is it a video? Having actionable data against those elements to get the information in front of them saves their time. Physicians are busy. They’re so busy and they have to stay up to date on so many different aspects of their job.”

By having an intimate understanding of a particular audience, the PRECISIONeffect team can think through and plan the next course of action to continue orchestrating behavior change. 

Precision Targeting for a better customer experience

Like I mentioned before, not all messages will suit the audience. To reach audiences whether its patients or physicians, Pam discusses the importance of precision targeting. 

Precision targeting allows for a  more focused method to get the right message to the right person at the right time. “The idea is to cut through the clutter so that your ad is relevant and stands out from the other 3,999 ads you are going to see every day,” Pam notes. “This can be helpful if you have regional messages (for example, conferences), rather than having messages that are intended for national distribution.”

Digital technology has already advanced and precision targeting through smartphones has allowed advertisers to target specific locations. This tool helps create content that increases engagement and improves the consumer experience. “We are able to find physicians based on their consumption habits and interests outside of work and that means layering in behavioral and demographic data, as well as job titles,” Pam notes.

By utilizing digital tools and platforms, PRECISIONeffect can help you create an impactful campaign designed to drive behavior change. 

For more information, you can listen to my podcast interview with Pam for more of our conversation. 

For more information on PRECISIONeffect, visit their website or find them on LinkedIn.