Non-personal promotion (NPP) strategies have always played essential roles in connecting impactfully with your target HCP audiences, and as the healthcare industry continues to drift away from in-person communications, they've become more important than ever before.
Understanding how these approaches work and can best be implemented in your overall marketing plan is a pivotal component of long-term success.
Common Examples of Non-Personal Promotions in HCP Marketing
Firstly, what is a non-personal promotion? Simply put, it refers to a marketing method that doesn't rely on in-person interactions between prospects and marketing representatives.
Non-personal promotions encompass all your brand communications and campaign initiatives besides live interactions. While face-to-face meetings were traditionally the primary means of marketing to healthcare representatives prior to the coronavirus pandemic, digital and non-personal marketing have since become the norm.
These include a wide variety of communication and engagement channels, ranging from website content and social media posts to print marketing, and more.
In HCP marketing, the most effective and commonly used NPP channels are direct mail and email, which offer reliable and convenient ways to deliver promotional content and targeted messaging to your prospects.
It isn’t enough to simply publish content or send campaigns via your various channels. Coordinate and integrate these in conjunction with each other, to reinforce your messaging, position your brand as a valuable resource, and further encourage engagement and conversions.
Harmonizing your numerous NPP campaigns and producing relevant content based on your specific audience’s segments and positions along the buyer’s journey will lead them through every touchpoint, and a seamless conversion process toward becoming loyal customers.
Emerging Trends in Non-Personal Promotions
NPP strategies have changed and evolved throughout the years, especially in the healthcare marketing industry. Here are several notable NPP marketing trends for connecting with your HCP audiences.
Optimizing Voice Search Results
One of your major marketing priorities is ensuring your brand promotions and content are seen by the right people. Adapting the technology they’re using is a big part.
More people than ever before are utilizing voice search as a hands-free way of interacting with others and researching a broad range of brands and topics from their homes and smartphones. Some of the most popular services include Siri, Google Home, and Amazon Echo. Optimizing your search content accordingly makes it easier for users to engage with your brand.
According to the marketing and consumer data company Statista, in 2021, 32 percent of consumers in the United States owned smart speakers, and as many as 135 million people used voice search software nationwide.
It’s therefore important to make your websites and content as mobile-friendly and accessible as possible so all users can easily find and navigate your online content.
To increase your voice search results, utilize popular target questions and long-tail keywords, as well as a more conversational tone.
A schema markup is another good way to improve voice search results. This specialized code added to a website’s HTML provides more detailed brand information to search engines—helping improve online visibility and the chances of ranking nearer the top of voice search results.
Utilizing Interactive Campaign Elements
Healthcare providers are often bombarded with marketing communications and pharmaceutical offers, and one great way to set your brand apart from the competition is to incorporate interactive elements into your various campaigns.
This can help make your messaging be more memorable and impactful— increasing user engagement and conversions across your NPP channels.
Digital marketing interactive media can include everything from games and quizzes to GIFs and calculators—anything that entertains or encourages prospects to interact and spend more time with your web content.
Direct mail marketing also provides a tactile experience ideal for interactivity. These can include fillable puzzles and trivia games, 3D pop-up mailers, and other unique features to leave a more lasting impression on your HCP audience.
Making Use of Engagement to Promote Your Online Brand
When it comes to your online brand reputation, the voices of your consumers hold a significant amount of sway. Be sure to ask for and respond to reviews and online feedback, and respond to negative reviews in a timely, effective manner.
Encourage customers and campaign recipients to leave positive reviews of their experiences, and prominently display these on your website.
Set alerts and monitor mentions of your brand online to gauge what people are saying. There are reputation management tools and software to help make it easier to monitor and influence your online presence.
Biggest Challenges of NPP Marketing & How to Overcome Them
As essential as NPP channels have become, making best use of them can still pose a significant challenge. The biggest in using NPP marketing for HCPs include:
Reaching the Right Audience
One of the inherent benefits of person-to-person marketing is knowing you’re speaking with the right prospects.
While many NPP campaigns such as billboards and television advertisements appeal to more general audiences, email and direct mail are highly targeted, and more likely to reach the optimal HCPs.
Measuring Campaign Results
Healthcare marketing features long lead times that can cause NPP marketers to doubt their approach.
The best way to overcome this is to closely monitor the results of your numerous campaigns to see what’s working, and what needs to be improved. Tracking your most important KPIs will offer a better understanding of how your overall strategy is performing.
When measuring the success of your campaigns, the most important key performance indicators (KPIs) to track are direct mail and email open rates, website visits, engagement, market qualified leads, conversions, and return on investment.
Providing a Personalized, Memorable Experience
Losing face-to-face interactions doesn’t mean losing the personalized approach. One of the best ways to maximize the impact of your NPP channels and messaging is to make it as memorable as possible.
Segmenting your HCP mailing and contact lists based on the factors you care most about will help you craft more relevant content and offers, as well as more accurately and effectively deliver the right messaging at the right time, which can increase engagement and conversions.
Partner With PDQ Communications to Optimize Your NPP Marketing Strategies
No matter what platforms you’re on or what products or information you’re promoting, healthcare marketing partner PDQ Communications can maximize the effectiveness of your campaigns with an omni-channel approach featuring personalized content and interactive elements that entice your target HCP audience to meaningfully engage with your brand.
