Digital Innovation Path: Trends in Healthcare Digital Marketing Innovation, Customer Engagement, Investment and Approvals

Best Practices, LLC undertook research to examine a host of key operational benchmarks required to achieve best-in-class performance in digital marketing in the healthcare sector, and foster a stronger digital culture throughout the organization.

In particular, this study provides critical insights into how savvy bio-pharma digital marketers are expanding the reach and effectiveness of digital customer engagement through emerging channels, measuring ROI for innovative activities, right-sizing budget and staffing investment levels, and enhancing the digital content and program review and approval process.

Study Snapshot

Best Practices, LLC engaged 31 digital, multichannel marketing and other commercial leaders from 24 leading healthcare organizations for this benchmarking research. Nearly 70% of participants serve at the level of director or above.

Key Findings

• Non-branded websites consistently deliver high ROI for most companies: The use of non-branded websites, where DM teams can innovate widely in terms of content and formats, drives the most consistent returns among surveyed channels. More than 80% of companies build un-branded websites, with 70% reporting at least some ROI, whether through tangible indicators (e.g., increased revenue or lowered costs) or merely positive anecdotal evidence. A full 40% of DM teams report “hard, measurable” ROI through their deployment of non-branded websites.
• Establish Open Communication Channels & Use Standardized Templates to Improve Med-Reg-Legal Collaboration: The top-ranked tactic for improving collaborations with Medical, Regulatory and Legal review teams is to create an open communications channel between all stakeholders - 52% find this highly effective. Some 48% have found the introduction of standardized digital processes and templates to be highly effective. Finally, most companies (81%) find senior management support an at least somewhat effective way of improving the content approval process.

I.	Executive Summary	pgs. 3-11
	Research Overview	pg. 3
	Participating Companies	pg. 5
	Key Research Findings	pgs. 6-11
II.	Future Direction of Healthcare Digital Marketing	pgs. 12-18
	Top Challenges for the Digital Marketing Function
	Seizing Digital Health Opportunities
III.	Innovative Customer Engagement Areas	pgs. 19-30
	Return on Investment for Innovative Activities
	High-Impact Use of Video and Social Media
	Effective Electronic Health Records & IDN Engagement Approaches
IV.	Investing in Digital Marketing	pgs. 31-41
	Staffing and Headcount
	Budget
V.	Improving Digital Content Review	pgs. 42-46
	Enhancing Collaboration with Medical, Regulatory and Legal Partners
	Effective Content and Program Approval Tactics
VI.	Study Participant Data	pgs. 47-51
VII.	About Best Practices, LLC	pgs. 52-53

• Significant Challenges to the Growth and Long-Term Success of the Digital Marketing Function
• How are Participants Integrating Digital Health Opportunities into their Digital Marketing Operations?
• Demonstrated ROI for Innovative Digital Activities
• ROI vs. Usage of Innovative Digital Activities
• Most Heavily Used Social Platforms
• Use of Social Media over the Past Year
• Tactics to Support the Expanded Use of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) by Physicians
• Steps Undertaken to Grow Digital Engagement with Integrated Delivery Networks (IDNs)
• Important Lessons Learned in Serving IDNs through Digital Technologies
• Organization’s Total FTE Staffing Investment for all Internal Employees Working on Digital Marketing
• Organization’s Total FTE Staffing Investment for all External Contractors and Consultants Working on Digital Marketing
• Organization’s Total FTE Staffing Investment for All of Digital Marketing
• Digital Marketing Budget Allocation
• Percentage of Organization's Total Marketing Budget Devoted Specifically to Digital Marketing Activities and Programs
• Effective Approaches for Improving Collaboration between Digital Marketing Group and Medical, Regulatory, and Legal Approval Teams
• Success Stories – Keys to Gaining Approvals for Digital Content and Programs
• Effective Tactics for Expediting Internal Approvals of Key Digital Content and Programs