Using spreadsheets for data analysis is completely acceptable, especially if we are talking about small to medium-sized standardized data sets. Basic calculations often shed light on the situation, so you can make a more informed marketing decision. However, traditional analytical tools will never be enough if you want to dig deeper to understand why certain events happened, what you need to do, or what is likely to happen in the future.
Additionally, most pharmaceutical brands work with massive volumes of unstructured data, often measured in terabytes. This makes recognizing complex shapes virtually impossible for human analysts, let alone tedious, expensive, and error-prone.
The good news is that AI analytics can handle these tasks in just seconds. Drawing on my experience as the CEO of an international MarTech company, I would like to share how companies can leverage this in life sciences marketing.
Customer segmentation
Customer behaviors are complex and ever-changing, which means it’s ineffective to take basic demographics, like the healthcare provider’s specialty or years of experience, and call it a day. Marketers need to understand that people in these segments may act differently and are affected by various factors in daily life. Global crises, pandemics, technological disruptions or new market players can radically change their feelings, preferences and behaviors.
When life sciences companies fail to understand their market segments, they risk sending the wrong messages to their audiences. This strategy can result in financial losses for the business and lead to customer frustration and high churn rates.
With AI data analysis, digital marketing teams can slice the market of healthcare professionals or patients precisely and, therefore, target them more precisely. The technology also allows pharmaceutical companies to build a detailed portrait of their customers in real time. In my experience, this gives them a substantial competitive advantage, since they can quickly engage with customers at the earliest stages of their journey.
Real-time forecasting and decision making
AI-powered analytics tools process large amounts of data, including audio, video, and images, and detect complex market trends. You no longer need to wait days for your employees to submit their reports. AI algorithms analyze data, allowing you to make evidence-backed decisions in real time. This is crucial when parameters are changing rapidly, requiring rapid responses to stay ahead of the competition.
AI chatbots can also process historical data to imagine various what-if scenarios, predict possible outcomes, and give personalized advice. Suppose users enter a question like: “When can we expect an increase in sales after launching the new digital marketing strategy?” » If the outlook isn’t optimistic, they can become more engaged by asking, “How can we accelerate sales growth?”
Sentiment analysis
Many life sciences companies still rely on customer surveys to gauge perceptions of their products and brands. Although this approach is quite common, it suffers from serious limitations. Some people may be inclined to give positive feedback rather than expressing their true feelings. Additionally, the questions in these surveys may not be designed to elicit honest responses.
Conducting surveys can be time-consuming, especially when analyzing the opinions of a large customer base. Finally, some marketers may naturally focus on positive or negative survey results, demonstrating selective perceptions of a situation.
AI-powered sentiment analysis allows pharmaceutical brands to tap into what their target audience is saying about their products and capture their immediate reactions. Using this technology, businesses can sift through large volumes of comments, reviews, chatbot responses, and even social media images to get a summary of customers’ true emotions about their brand. Additionally, robust sentiment analysis solutions can help them gain an objective perspective without cognitive biases.
Data visualization
Data insights are extremely useful for life sciences marketing, but, at the same time, they are gibberish if you can’t understand them.
Marketers often feel overwhelmed by big numbers and charts and it’s easy to see why. Turning a wall of numbers into a coherent story is like trying to crack a code without any programming skills.
AI solutions help pharmaceutical companies create interactive visuals, such as dashboards, graphs and charts, to make raw data easy to understand. These technologies provide insight into their marketing efforts and help effortlessly discern important market patterns and trends.
In my practice, the less time it takes to understand a visual, the more effective the communication. With AI-generated visualizations, team members can quickly exchange messages, back up their arguments, and make joint, evidence-based decisions.
Things to Consider When Using AI Analytics
If you decide to use AI analytics in life sciences marketing, you should be careful about a few key factors:
Data security
Be careful what data you transmit to any third-party tool. If you rely on AI for analysis, other users can also access it when they request similar information.
In life sciences, where regulations are strict, it is best not to teach AI models about your highly sensitive information. To stay safe, opt for solutions with a solid reputation in your industry.
Data quality
A common rule, “trash in, trash out” applies to AI analysis. Even reliable and efficient solutions won’t live up to your expectations if your data is riddled with errors and poorly formatted.
Before you settle with an analytics tool, make sure your data is clean, accurate, and free of bias. Consider involving your team members to verify the integrity and consistency of your data.
Use AI to get the most out of your data
Pharmaceutical brands rely on AI-powered analytics to effectively promote their products, improve visibility, and build customer loyalty. This successful life sciences marketing strategy offers a wide range of benefits throughout campaign development and evaluation.
With these solutions, life sciences companies target their audiences with surgical precision, predict customer behaviors, make decisions on the fly, and truly understand how buyers perceive their campaigns. If you need an overview of your business with real-time guidance, this solution is worth your attention.
About the Author
Nataliya Andreychuk is CEO and co-founder of Viseven, a global provider of MarTech services for the life sciences and pharmaceutical industries. She is one of the leading experts in digital pharmaceutical marketing and digital content implementation with over 14 years of strong leadership under her belt. Andreychuk is one of the strongest female leaders in the world of marketing technology. She has leveraged her extensive expertise to develop intelligent digital solutions and software, which now serve clients in more than 70 global markets, delivering intelligent, personalized content across all channels, platforms and countries.
About Viseven
Visevenis a forward-looking global provider of MarTech services to the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries, with over a decade of experience. Viseven’s Digital Transformation Center delivers innovative solutions to businesses of varying sizes and digital maturity levels by merging marketing and digital technology expertise with innovation and strategic capabilities. The company’s solutions, products and services are actively used by top 100 pharmaceutical and life sciences companies in more than 50 countries around the world.
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