Whether you're exploring new channels or rethinking how you use the ones you already have, Claude—Managing Director and Principal Consultant for Commercial Strategy at The Palindromic—believes adaptability is key to building stronger connections with HCPs.
With years of experience working alongside top pharma brands, Claude takes a closer look at the tools, trends, and tactics shaping the future of omnichannel marketing, and explains why content teams need to pay attention to HCPs' habits and preferences across different regions to guide their strategies.
What does content excellence mean to you?
CW: Content is the cornerstone for commercial, marketing, medical and clinical success. You need quality content which fits the right model across all of these separate divisions.
Content is also a key driver in addressing emerging new go-to-market models and commercialisation strategies. As we’re evolving our engagement strategies, content is becoming more important. It's about the quality of engagement—the human one-on-one connection—but equally the support that you can provide through the use of modular content.
What do you think are the most exciting advances in pharma marketing now?
CW: There's so much happening! But it depends on where we’re talking about. Some key markets—like Asia—are more innovative than others. Asia is at the forefront of embedding artificial intelligence (AI) within customer relationship management (CRM), for instance, and bringing personalisation in the form of engagement through the integration of specific channels into one ecosystem.
We need to take a flexible approach to keep engagement strong and give physicians the support they need to make decisions
Field reps and HCPs around the world use a variety of instant messaging (IM) channels to stay connected, with regional preferences shaping the popularity of platforms like SMS, Line, WeChat, Telegram, WhatsApp, and more.
This regional diversity means we need to take a flexible approach to keep engagement strong and give physicians the support they need to make decisions. IM apps are great for sharing quick, to-the-point content, making it easier to connect, boost engagement, and even impact prescription rates.
It’s such an exciting shift! We’re not replacing email—we’re opening up new ways to communicate, using a variety of platforms to create a more dynamic approach to content delivery.
Beyond in-person engagement, we're also exploring recommendation engines. These tools would allow sales reps, medical affairs managers, medical science liaisons, and key account managers to engage more effectively with doctors. For instance, they could receive recommendations like, "Dr. X has interacted with us on these topics, opened this email, posted LinkedIn or X, or provided this insight in a past meeting." This could help them deliver easy to digest short-form content during or after meetings, tailored to the channel the doctors like best.
How do you see email marketing evolving?
CW: Pharma marketing used to rely on a field rep visiting a doctor in person with a pen and paper, and driving engagement with a little brochure. Now, field teams can boost engagement by sharing product videos and other content in formats that work best for their customers. Whether it’s email or another preferred channel, they can make the most of every communication opportunity.
Omnichannel content creates a more flexible and interactive way to connect
Email has long been seen as a traditional push channel in pharma. But as preferences evolve, more companies are exploring pull channels to keep engagement high. Blended approaches let physicians access content when it works best for them. In this sense, omnichannel content creates a more flexible and interactive way to connect. Take the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, for example—using video as a pull channel has boosted physician engagement by seven times compared to traditional channels.
When is a company ready to move to an omnichannel strategy?
CW: A company is ready to embrace an omnichannel strategy when it has a well-defined plan to move beyond the traditional push channel, or branded portals for communication. In a basic multichannel strategy, modular content typically has a smaller role, especially when automation and AI are not fully incorporated into content production. Shifting to an omnichannel strategy takes some careful thought. It means evaluating your current communication channels, localizing content, planning how to bring in new platforms, and making sure your content production processes are ready for modularization and automation.
Once a company moves to an omnichannel approach, modular content becomes essential
But once a company moves to an omnichannel approach, modular content becomes essential. Events and congresses, in particular, are a powerful opportunity for modular content—both before and after they take place—to boost quality engagement.
Modular content can boost email engagement through personalized, interactive, and dynamic elements tailored to individual preferences. It plays a key role in adapting content and channels to meet the specific needs and preferences of the customer.
Modular content can boost email engagement through personalized, interactive, and dynamic elements
Companies actively building or executing an omnichannel strategy are best positioned to use modular content effectively. While modular content has an upfront cost, its adaptability and reusability across formats and markets can significantly reduce costs in the long term—especially in more mature markets.
What challenges do pharma marketers face today?
CW: The biggest challenge we see is maintaining compliance while innovating. Regulatory teams have told us that they've been sending many pilot projects to the cemetery. Collaboration with compliance teams is pivotal in driving success—they need to be involved from the offset.
Collaboration with compliance teams is pivotal in driving success
Pharma companies also lack the adaptability for the evolving needs of HCPs. HCPs prefer to digest content in their own time. Through research, we're seeing that many doctors actually digest content later in the evening rather than during patient visits and in between breaks. They're human like all of us, so they often just want to go and grab a coffee rather than read about your product. In the evening, however, they can actually breathe a little bit and they catch up on some content in their own time.
Companies should design strategies with reusability in mind rather than thinking of it as a byproduct
Companies should design strategies with reusability in mind rather than thinking of it as a byproduct. Initially the investment is higher, but in the medium term the cost is reduced by adapting that content to various formats and markets, which can improve the time to market, MLR review time, and so on.
How can pharma marketers better adapt their strategies to meet the needs of HCPs?
CW: It’s about changing focus. Most pharma organisations prioritise individual brands and their budgets, but doctors don’t see the brand—they see the company. Building trust in the company, not just the brand, is key.
Branded portals, for example, only engage about 12% of doctors. Instead, organisations need omnichannel strategies that create cohesive journeys across multiple brands and channels. Content must align with what doctors find useful, emphasising company trust over individual brands.
Branded portals only engage about 12% of doctors
This requires a unified approach—consistent messaging and modular content adapted to how the company communicates as a whole. Brand coherence builds trust and supports cross-selling opportunities while staying compliant.
What’s the best approach to measuring the success of content across multiple channels?
CW: IT teams are often focused on measuring content performance—tracking HCP engagement rates, conversion rates tied to prescriber uptake, or patient adherence. I’d add a critical fourth metric: HCP feedback on content relevance and utility. Too often, we miss asking doctors straightforward questions: Did you find this content useful? Did it make an impact? Would you use or share it?
Too often, we miss asking doctors straightforward questions: Did you find this content useful? Did it make an impact? Would you use or share it?
To get meaningful insights, companies need to unify data from multiple sources—CRMs, messenger apps, branded portals—into a single framework. Some pharma companies are already doing this successfully, while others are actively building or experimenting with solutions. Whether it’s through a customer data platform or a healthcare cloud, the core idea is a unified data model. This approach allows companies to interpret data points, integrate them seamlessly, and craft journeys based on insights—not intuition.
In conversations with industry professionals, I often hear talk about metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs). What’s often missing, though, is a cohesive strategy to unify these metrics for commercial impact.
The key metrics should start with HCP feedback on content relevance. From there, prescriber uptake and patient outcomes are essential metrics to track. These insights help companies understand if their content is truly making an impact—both for HCPs and the business model. Bringing these data points together into one framework is key.
What’s often missing is a cohesive strategy to unify metrics for commercial impact
A unified data model serves as a strategic compass—it transforms how pharma companies approach clinical education and engagement. By integrating global data—not just localised metrics—it highlights regional preferences and supports tailored content strategies that connect with HCPs in different markets. At its core, optimizing engagement and making the most of content depend on this centralized approach.
We work with pharma and medtech clients to design global architectures that map and unify these data points. This approach simplifies measurement while uncovering insights that improve engagement strategies, especially when it comes to understanding regional channel preferences for clinical education.
