Create an Omnichannel Presence to Grow Your Brand

Omnichannel marketing is a big marketing buzzword right now.  Using an omnichannel presence to grow your brand, exceed revenue expectations, and connect with customers better than you ever have.

Recently I met with someone who was very interested in how I was able to take a very old, stagnant brand from declining sales and units year over year to high double digit growth.

I answered, “Omnichannel marketing,” realizing as I said it that it has already become a contrived marketing buzzword.  The reality is the omnichannel strategy is what grew that brand so effectively.

In this post I’ll provide  a case study of how an omnichannel marketing ecosystem was built for a languishing brand near patent expiry.

What is Omnichannel Marketing?

Omnichannel marketing is the process of promoting to your customers using all channels and means necessary with a similar look and feel and experience.  Ideally, customers should have the same experience as they move between interactions with sales staff, your website, email campaigns, or product theaters with doctors.

Other resources that thoroughly describe omnichannel marketing and give additional tips are below.

This article gives a good review of omnichannel marketing with some definitions and some tips to consider if you take on the challenge.

I love this article…it differentiates between multi channel marketing and omnichannel marketing.  There are some great thoughts on the nuances between the two.

What Challenges To Growth Did We Face?

Our brand was in the anesthesia space.  The anesthesia space has seen a lack of innovation in technology and few products still have patent exclusivity.  Additionally, hospitals have a variety of choices between cheap generic products and are incentivized to use them because of the pressures surgical services and pharmacy are under to control costs.  End user CRNA and anesthesiologists were apathetic and also had a history of suboptimal results brought about by a lack of practical education on how to use the product appropriately.  This was amplified by incorrect dosing guidance when the product was originally launched as well.

Key challenges:

Target uses too narrow

Sales force targeting not optimized

Activity based sales force metrics

Sales force effectiveness through the sales cycle

High price sensitivity

Apathy by end users

Dosing Confusion by end users

End user adverse events with patients

Limited web presence

No email or mCRM campaigns, social, or digital community presence

Value proposition not well understood

Messages and Value Prop not in line with treatment pathways or trends

What Were the Different Channels We Intended to Use?

Our first step was to evaluate the different channels we could utilize to promote to our customers.  In the end we settled on using the following channels.  We chose these predominantly due to ease of execution.  This is an important key to success.  The overall impact of the ecosystem will be more effective if you are maximizing the opportunities that are easiest to execute.

Key Channels

Sales force

Dinner series using peer to peer physician speakers during dinner series

Webcasts using peer physician speakers

Product theaters using peer to peer physician speakers at conferences

Sales aids / sell sheets

Dosing cards

CRM email campaigns

Mobile app

Website

Resource Portal

Journal / Trade Journal Supplements

Physician community advertisements

SMS Messages

None of these channels were particularly innovative, but instead were all channels that customers gravitated to naturally.  We focused our efforts on perfectly weaving our value proposition in a consistent manner across each.

What Background Work Did We Have To Do?

There was a great deal of prep and background work needed to prepare ourselves for a true omnichannel ecosystem.  Without this prep work, and completing the proper diligence about your product, customer, and market, it’s not possible to execute an omnichannel strategy effectively.

Activities Completed

Customer segmentation:  Customers were segmented between anesthesiologists and CRNAs.  Within each of these groups, we put them into the groups of ‘New User’ or “Expanding User’ while acknowledging there was a segment of potential customers who had a high likelihood of never adopting.

Market research:  We conducted market research to understand each of these customer segments better.  We learned each cared about different things and messages had to be tailored appropriately.  Anesthesiologists cared more about the science of the product and delivering end state outcomes improvements.  CRNAs were more interested in how to dose the product and the efficiency gains they would experience.  We dug even deeper after this however.  We dug into how they thought about the product, what they were trying to accomplish in the clinical setting, and how they made decisions.  Ultimately, we were able to identify clinicians who would never consider changing their practice patterns (Traditionalists), those that had pigeon-holed the product for one type of procedure or patient (Expanding User), or the customer that either had a bad experience previously and wasn’t using, or generally wasn’t aware…but was open minded about improvements (New User).

Market targets:  Standard segmenting, targeting, positioning work flow…we defined our market targets.

I’ve written about the benefits of 2×2’s to quickly and effectively focus.  We used the same technique for this exercise.

Don’t confuse this with sales force targeting, which evaluates sales force footprint, rates accounts by opportunity, and drills down to the customer level to determine market opportunity.  Market targets are the customers within those accounts and takes into account how they behave.

Customer Typing:  We created typing tools that both Sales Representatives could use verbally or we could use digitally (surveys, quick polls, and interaction behavior) that would tell us what bucket to put any individual in.  This alone ensured one consistent approach with our customers which we could scale across any channel or platform.

Positioning, Messaging, and Value Prop:  We established top level value propositions and positioning for the product, and then customized messages in line with the interests of each market target.  From this core set of messages, we would be able to create content that could be applied to every channel and as they migrated from one platform or channel to another would have a similar experience and similar ‘conversations.’

How Was This Information Scaled to Give The Same Experience Across Each Channel?

By providing the sales force with screening questions they were able to understand which customer they were talking to and then respond with information that would resonate with that individual.

When that same customer received an email from the mCRM system, after answering typing questions we embedded in quick polls, information was recorded to the customer database which placed them in the correct category.  In the future they were then served a content stream that matched their interests and were similar…sometimes exactly the same…as messages we asked the sales force to convey and used in other channels.

This process was repeated across the other channels.  The website, which tracked behavior through cookies, matched it with their profile from any mCRM campaigns.  Emails were sent to the customer to prompt them to visit specific content or provide links to downloadable content on the Resource Portal.  We created a mobile iPhone application that mirrored much of the content available elsewhere but served it up faster and more easily.

Scientific content such as peer to peer decks were created in a flexible fashion and we trained our speakers to probe with open ended questions to understand the audience better and then adjust their presentation accordingly to make sure it was information that the audience was interested in.

Each of these channels had a uniform look and feel that matched branding guidelines and ensured a consistent experience which ensured easy navigation.  We delivered information to each customer consistently to make sure they never forgot about the brand.

How Did We Drive Engagement?

We drove engagement by measuring individual campaign responses using A/B testing and evaluated engagement levels across all channels.  We measured which channels performed better than others.  While we had 40,000 HCPs in our email list, it was surprising how much engagement the website had.  We learned through the analysis that the website received far more unaided visitors than any other property.  We adjusted our efforts accordingly, using the website as the hub to send customers to other channels and properties.

We actively worked with the sales force to educate them about every property, every campaign, and every piece of content.  This way as they engaged with customers, the sales force would help drive engagement and would consistently have new materials to talk about.  They used these to break down access barriers.  We also made sure that information was at each customer’s fingertips so it was an effortless experience.

As the ecosystem became more mature, we also drove engagement to content through SMS messages that showed great potential.

What Were The Results?

The end result was significant growth.  Prior to the implementation of the ecosystem, the brand experienced decreasing unit sales 3 years running.  It took a year to implement this program.  The brand stabilized, but subsequently grew 30% in year two and continued strong growth with 16% in year three.  Year four was an expiry year and we eliminated most new investment but were still able to grow by high single digits on top of a much higher base.

Undertaking the creation of a true omnichannel marketing ecosystem is not an easy task.  Particular care must be made to ensure the customer is at the center.  Your content must be designed in a way that the look and feel is consistent, but the information experience as well feels familiar and is of interest every time.  Once you achieve your goal, the channels begin to act in a synergistic fashion and amplify results above and beyond expected growth.