The advantages of a personalised, compliant email service
Tailoring messages to the recipient’s needs results in a higher open rate and hence greater engagement, says Chris Wade.
Although email is a popular choice for outbound communication, many life sciences companies overlook the impersonal nature of one-size-fits-all email campaigns. At the same time, they need to manage the risk of commercial team members sending unapproved emails to customers. The answer? Using a personalised, compliant email system.
Reaching the right audience
One of the biggest issues with mass email campaigns is the lack of relevance to specific customer needs. Campaigns are frequently built around broad, brand-level objectives with little regard to specific customer needs. As a result, average open rates for emails are typically very low (10% being seen as a very strong mailing).
A personalised approach can be delivered by leveraging customer engagement platforms built around tight integration of content and contact processes. This ensures that the right information is sent to the right people. And the benefits are clear, with average open rates of more than 40% from those receiving tailored information – significantly higher than the traditional non-personalised approach.
Improving customer engagement
Rep-triggered emails not only ensure the right people are reached, they also address what is considered the true measure of success in email campaigns: increasing engagement.
As open rates are typically very low for mass emailing campaigns, the average click-through rates and engagement levels are also weak. Rep-triggered emails provide information that is relevant to each individual, resulting in far higher customer engagement – regularly six-times greater click-through rates. Links included in the email mean that their associated content is accessible to the right audience, increasing the likelihood of future engagement and ensuring that the most current versions of the content are shared.
Ensuring compliance
Strict regulations and guidelines mean life science companies are responsible for delivering only approved messages in all their customer communications. Failure to comply can result in fines and lead to reputational damage.
Improving communication effectiveness with information resources across a customer’s preferred channel must be balanced with the need to protect against distribution of unapproved or out-of-date content.
Using a CRM-based email approach greatly reduces risks and increases effectiveness. Message templates coupled with links to a company’s commercial content repository – all of which are thoroughly examined and kept current with the latest information – allow staff to deliver high quality, differentiated, relevant communication while ensuring compliance through the use of approved content.
View more in an infographic here.
About the author:
Chris Wade is director, Multichannel Strategy, Europe, at Veeva Systems. He is in the commercial strategy team in Europe, and leads the company’s multichannel strategy.
Prior to joining Veeva, Wade was business director at Doctors.net.uk, leading their online marketing and education programmes for companies including Eli Lilly, Novartis and Roche. He also worked at Dendrite, IMSHealth, and PWC Consulting. He has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Deakin University in Australia.
