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Optimizing the Customer Experience Through Multi-social Marketing

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Creating an immersive customer engagement

for patients, caregivers, and HCPs

2 P u l s e C X | S p e c i a l P u b l i c a t i o n | A u g u s t 2 0 1 4

Customer Experience Through Multi-social Marketing

The environment in which life sciences companies markettheir products and devices is changing rapidly and is very dif-ferent today than just two or three years ago. There is in-creased focus on improving patient health outcomes,delivering value to healthcare providers (HCPs), and enhanc-ing business effectiveness and results. Life sciences companiesare searching for ways to provide real value to their customersand to differentiate themselves from their competitors.

At the same time, the ways that customers (i.e., HCPs, pa-tients, and caregivers) obtain information has changed dra-matically. Our world today is always on, interacting, learning,and changing channels, moving seamlessly from news sourcesto online communities to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn,Google+, YouTube, etc. Most importantly, customers are seek-ing information customized to their needs and preferences.

To adapt to changes in the environment, life sciences com-panies need to make structural changes to integrate and alignprofessional and consumer marketing strategies into immer-sive health experiences that meet their customers’ functionaland emotional needs.

Brand teams have traditionally structured themselves intodedicated verticals that oversee activities directed to specificaudiences. This approach worked in the old environmentwhere healthcare providers were the primary conduit for com-munication but, in today’s much more engaged and interac-tive environment, this approach leads to “push activities” such

as mass e-mail campaigns thatare only marginally effective.

In the old environment,marketing focused on neatly se-quencing messages and sellinga product based on features and

benefits. Today’s environment requires creating immersive ex-periences for customers that deliver tailored experiences tomeet their specific needs at just the right times.

PulseCX and Adobe have joined forces to engage and sup-port all customers (i.e., patients, caregivers, and HCPs)through relevant, engaging, and customized customer expe-riences. Recently PulseCX and Adobe hosted a workshopwith commercial leaders from life sciences companies to dis-cuss how multi-social marketing strategies and content dis-tribution can meet many of the challenges in healthcaremarketing.

During the meeting, in-depth discussions focused on thefour primary benefits of multi-social marketing:

1. Creating immersive digital customer engagement strategies.2. Bringing content and media assets together for delivery

to customers through tablets, smartphones, and desktopcomputers.

3. Developing insights into audience needs, motivations,preferences, and behaviors.

4. Delivering significant operational efficiencies acrosscampaigns.

Please read on to learn more about multi-social marketing. �

Winning brand strategies focus on authentic and relevant experiences

Clockwise from top left: James Lockman, Senior Solutions

Consultant, Adobe Systems; Kurt Mueller, Chief Innovation

Officer, PulseCX; David Zaritsky, President, PulseCX; and Michael

Adelman, VP Commercial Operations, Emergent BioSolutions

Table of contents

Winning brand strategies focus on authentic

and relevant experiences

Multi-social marketing in the life sciences world

Creating excellent customer experiences

Delivering multi-social immersive experiences

Integration and analytics of content and

experiences

Making multi-social marketing a reality

About PulseCX

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Copyright © 2014 by PulseCX.

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by PharmaLinx LLC, Titusville, NJ. CUSTOM PUBLISHING

Multi-social marketing in the life sciences world

Patients, HCPs, and

caregivers require different

things from life sciences brands.

Tailoring experiences to

functional and emotional

needs empowers these

stakeholder groups to engage

when and how they want.”

David ZaritskyPresident, PulseCX

‘‘Market research— Confirm assumptions about unmet needsand predict behavior patterns across all channels.

Insights—Transform data through analysis into business intel-ligence.

Short-term optimization—Develop plans to interact with cus-tomers that deliver what they need, when they need it, and howthey want it.

Long-term solutions—Apply the right resources (i.e., staff,processes, technology, content) to the work.

e concept of multi-social marketing is new to most individ-uals working in life sciences companies. Many assume multi-social marketing is just about applying core creative elementsacross all communication channels — print, digital, online, so-cial media, etc. is is not what multi-social marketing is.Multi-social marketing interlaces siloed channels and createsimmersive experiences that align with the customer journey.

Three critical elements of multi-social marketing

Multi-social marketing begins with storytelling, which is apowerful tool to connect and inspire action. Storytelling goesbeyond the logical presentation of facts and data. Effective sto-rytelling engages the hearts and emotions of customers in anauthentic manner and inspires them to act.

e best multi-social marketing initiatives integrate cam-paigns and leverage best practices from all channels, includingprint, digital, and social media. e most successful initiativesfocus on the specific needs of different customer segments ateach particular point in their journeys through the channel(s)they prefer.

e final critical element in multi-social marketing is thecreation of value for customers beyond the prescribed treatmentor medical device. Creating value is the glue that holds immer-sive experiences together. Value beyond the treatment or deviceis what keeps customers engaged with your brand. As patientsnavigate their journeys, and experience relapses, flares, or evenremission, the value must change and evolve to continuallymeet their needs.

Understanding the customer experience

In developing a successful multi-social marketing campaign,one must understand the customer experience. Marketers in lifesciences companies will want to immerse themselves in the jour-neys customers are on while managing their conditions. Divedeep to understand the interactions between physicians, patients,caregivers, nurses, pharmacists, and information sources. Keyquestions to ask are about the nature of the interaction (i.e., di-agnosis, response to treatment, managing side effects, or on-goingmanagement of the condition), how the HCPs, patients, or care-givers are feeling at different times throughout their journeys,and what information is needed at every point.

Developing a multi-social strategy

Once the customer experience is understood, the strategyfor implementing a multi-social marketing experience can bedeveloped. e process for developing a multi-social strategyencompasses:

Discovery—Ask questions and gather data to understand cur-rent and future customer needs.

Assessment— Understand and predict customer needs nowand in the future.


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The life sciences’ audience is multi-social



Effective storytelling: Abbott Nutrition and EAS brands

Abbott Nutrition created a com-

pelling story for its EAS sports nutrition

brand to boost lagging sales and re-

align their marketing efforts based on

research conducted to reprioritize the

customer targets.

To learn who the main characters were in its story,

the company conducted a customer experience audit

(CXA). A critical moment came when they discovered,

through a multichannel assessment process, that the

greatest potential for engagement with the brand is

not bodybuilders (as originally thought), but with fitness-

conscious, middle-aged adults.

Once the main characters of the story were fully un-

derstood, Abbott Nutrition created configurable story

pathways to deliver custom experiences based on

where the main characters are in their journeys.

This type of engagement is at the heart of multi-so-

cial marketing, and Abbott Nutrition’s focus on creating

opportunities for characters to engage with content,

fitness challenges, recipes, and sample workouts (that

meet their specific goals) continues to build on-going

engagement with the brand.

How does multi-social marketing apply to life sciences?

e ideal formula for developing an effective multi-socialmarketing strategy pairs brand awareness (grounded in theunmet needs of customers) with a wide variety of delivery chan-nels, allowing customers to control and drive their interactionswith the brand through the specific content and experiencesthat provide meaning to their journeys.

Healthcare consumers may not have much direct experiencewith a prescribed treatment or medical device, but they have atremendous amount of experience with the diseases and con-ditions that affect their everyday lives, including their health,relationships with others, perceptions, and self-image.

Critical to inspiring change is timing the delivery of infor-mation when customers are most receptive to receiving it. Un-derstanding the customer experience identifies “moments ofimpact” when customers are most ready and willing to engagewith brands.

Critical components for engaging customers

To engage customers effectively, life sciences companies mustprovide compelling stories that reach customers at critical

Multi-social marketing brought to life

Living excellent customer experience: Warby Parker

Warby Parker has revolutionized how

boutique-quality, classically crafted

eyewear is sold, eliminating the need

for customers to buy eyewear from their

opticians.

By removing the middlemen and mark up, Warby

Parker eyewear is purchased directly from the com-

pany through an immersive online experience that sim-

plifies the selection of eyewear from the comfort of

home. Customers can upload a photo of themselves

into a Virtual Try-On tool to get an idea of how any pair

will look. Additionally, customers can select up to five

pairs of glasses, which are then shipped to them for a

five-day trial period.

After selecting their favorite pair(s), customers can pur-

chase the frames online, return the samples, and receive

new eyeglasses a few days later at a fraction of the cost

compared with traditional channels.

Warby Parker identified an opportunity to dramatically

change how high-quality eyeglasses are sold. Addition-

ally, the company has a strong desire to make a differ-

ence in the world, offering a pair of glasses to someone

in need with every pair of glasses purchased.

points in their journeys. Key considerations for effectively en-gaging customers are:

Access—Ability to choose content wherever customers wantto engage. Access requires content availability through variouschannels. Keep in mind the freedom to choose is not about aplethora of content choices.

Control—Customers choose what information to access, aswell as when and how they access it.

Reciprocity—Ensure give-and-take with customers. Providevalue to customers before making requests of them and in re-turn they’ll give you their loyalty.

Experiences—Customers want an experience, not a manu-factured brand moment. Provide a series of experiences andmemories all tied together with a story that resonates and alignswith their journeys.

e best multi-social campaigns begin with compelling story-telling, focus on meeting customers’ emotional and functionalneeds throughout their journeys, and deliver value beyond thetreatment. �

gers, who are influential with patients and caregivers. Under-stand their points of view and challenges, and address their con-cerns.

Loyalty and advocacy—Create experiences and foster a com-munity that induces repeat interactions, additional purchases,recommendations to others, and brand loyalty. For example, re-ward programs or support services that align with unmet needsin a particular community are effective ways to reduce the riskof brand migration.

Hero journey—Honor the customer’s idealized version of him-or herself and what he or she is striving toward. e hemophiliacommunity is a great example of what the hero journey entails.In treating hemophilia patients, HCPs are typically very focusedon being educators and mentors. Hemophilia patients are veryaware that they are different from others, and they very muchwant to be in control of their lives and condition. At each stageof a patient’s life—child, teenager, or adult—his or her needschange and the drivers they need to achieve their goals change.Understanding these changes and drivers guides the develop-ment of customer experiences that support the customer’s herojourney. �

Starbucks, Disney World, and American Girl Doll are threecompanies that have successfully embraced the “experience econ-omy.” ey have created immersive brand experiences for theircustomer segments. ese companies realize that the success oftheir brands depends on customers ‘living’ their brands. e ex-perience economy is much more than companies telling storiesand selling features and benefits; it begins with an inward assess-ment that gauges the customers’ experiences when they engagewith the brand.

To begin this assessment, ask yourself:● How enjoyable is the brand to work with?● How easy is it to do business with the brand?● How effectively does the brand meet customer needs?● What positive emotions and memories does the brand

elicit? Customers will have memories and emotions elicited from pre-vious experiences, and you want to ensure they are positive.

Collection of perceptions—Create a consistent experience atall points of interaction with customers. Two great examples thathave very strong reputations for positive customer experiencesare the luxury brands Nordstrom and Ritz-Carlton Hotels, bothrevolving around the tenet that it is a pleasure to engage withtheir customers and any problem can be solved.

Trusted advisor—Be deliberate and focused on integrity toearn the right for a consumer to listen to your brand story. Akey first step is to develop value for customers before askingsomething of them. For life sciences companies, this mightmean developing a patient or HCP program that helps themovercome a challenge. e end result is that customers feel thebrand “gets me and understands my issues and concerns.” isstep is critical to earning and continually building trust.

Awareness and word of mouth—Invest in smart approachesto building awareness. Understand and respect the informalconversations taking place about a condition/disease state,symptoms, treatments, and challenges customers experience.Get to know the nontraditional thought leaders, such as blog-


A u g u s t 2 0 1 4 | S p e c i a l P u b l i c a t i o n | P u l s e C X 5

Creating excellent customer experiences

Hemophilia: defining a hero journey

Excellent customer

experiences honor consumers'

idealized version of themselves

and what they strive toward.”

Michael Adelman VP Commercial Operations,Emergent BioSolutions

‘‘Creating excellent customer experiences

Excellent customer experience encompasses five areas:

Collection of perceptions

Trusted advisor

Awareness and word of mouth

Loyalty and advocacy

Hero journey

Each of these areas plays a critical role in providing remarkablecustomer experience.

e Customer Experience Roadmap is a critical piece in put-ting together a multi-social marketing strategy. It provides adetailed plan for meaningful and authentic communicationsat the most critical points of influence. Ensuring opportunitiesinteract at these critical points can profoundly influence a cus-tomer’s decision to connect with your brand.

A multi-social marketing campaign case study

As part of our strategic partnership with Adobe Systems, ourteams combined to develop an immersive multi-social wellnessprogram for a product indicated for overactive bladder. roughour discovery process, we found patients usually do not talk pub-licly about this problem, their journey will last for the rest oftheir life, and they prefer to have confidential conversations withpeople they trust or who also suffer from the condition.

rough mining customer insights, we learned that our pa-tient demographic was:● Females 45-65 years of age● Not wanting to be marketed to or have a brand pushed

to them● Desiring an experience that blends lifestyle content, dis-

ease education, and some brand content, with an offsetmedication price (i.e., co-pay cards)

For this brand, a multi-social immersive wellness and adher-ence program was developed and delivered right to the con-sumer’s mobile device (enabling real-time communications andengagements without the need for a website or email program).Built on the PulseCX proprietary “Aspire” platform, the patientleaves the HCP’s office with a prescription for the medicationand a “prescription” to download a companion wellness appright from iTunes or Google Play. e wellness app helps max-imize the effectiveness of the treatment.

Based on extensive market research, the experience is specifi-cally designed to appeal to women’s wants and needs, includinginteraction and engagement such as:

● “Bladder friendly” recipes where woman can cook side-by-side with videos of chefs preparing the dish.

● Exercise routines alongside a virtual 3-D trainer.● Geo-location maps of hiking trails and locations of rest-

room facilities.● Enabled social sharing so patients can share successes,

content, and become advocates of the brand and program.● Real-time surveys with feedback loops and coaching

videos to help patients talk to their doctors using languagethat brings them together, makes the dialogue moremeaningful, and provides the best opportunity for makingthe right treatment choice.

● Connections to 3rd-party systems to activate co-pay cardswithout having to visit a separate website.

A key feature of this program is its ability to customize fu-ture messages, content, and offers based on an individual’s pref-erences and past interactions (partnering with them in



Delivering multi-social immersive experiences

The Customer Experience

Roadmap provides a detailed

plan for meaningful and

authentic experiences at

the most critical points of

influence.”

Kurt MuellerChief Innovation Officer,PulseCX

‘‘

Aspire: a multi-social immersive wellness and adherence program

meaningful ways as they continue through their treat-ment journey). is level of customization provides amore ‘personal’ experience and encourages on-going en-gagement with patients, as well as provides valuable ag-gregated data that helps the brand further refine itssegmentation and marketing strategy.

Benefits of multi-social marketing

Multi-social marketing integrates tailored content andenhances customer experiences across communicationschannels. It is truly customer-centric and a powerful toolthat forms a strong pillar in the overall community thatcontrols your brand.

A properly developed multi-social marketing platformprovides opportunities to establish continuous engage-ment with your customers throughout the extent of theirjourneys. To guide future marketing strategies, drive in-creased brand loyalty, and continually improve thebrands’ overall ROI, life sciences companies can deepen theirinsights into customer needs through continuous customer re-engagement.

Multi-social marketing also provides operational efficiencies

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Analytics are a critical component to deliver immersive multi-social marketing experiences. Successful campaigns rely on ana-lytics to understand how customers interact with content andguide decisions regarding engagement initiatives. As part of itspartnership with PulseCX, Adobe provides its Digital PublishingSuite (DPS), a closed document ecosystem, which is criticallyimportant for multi-social marketing in the life sciences industry.is system, on which Aspire is built, ensures content is en-crypted and secure and, once “published”, deploys the contentaccording to the segmentation rules and individual customer

profile. Its built-in analytics capabilities provide insights intohow customers interact with content, and can automatically de-termine what content should be offered, in what order, basedon pre-established rules.

Measurement of every interaction, tap, touch, scroll, or clickprovides core data that drives insights and business decisions.

Real-time data is available to optimize the customer experi-ence. Understanding consumption patterns helps drive the con-tent creation process for future iterations, making each futuremoment more relevant and impactful to each target audience.Analytics within DPS can also provide insights that help refinesegmentation strategies, messages, and offers, and determinewhich combinations are driving more business; and more im-portantly, which ones are not. �

Adobe DPS enables

content to be customized and

tailored based on customer

segmentation and past

behaviors, and provides

analytics insights to drive

business decisions.”

James LockmanSenior Solutions Consultant,Adobe Systems

‘‘Integration and analytics of content and experiences

Adobe DPS closed document ecosystem

across campaigns. Content from previously siloed channels canbe repurposed for delivery directly to tablets, smartphones, andlaptops—integrating those channels and ensuring immersivemoments are woven throughout the entire brand story. �

Sample customer experience roadmap


Multi-social marketing strategies and content distribution canmeet many of the challenges faced by healthcare marketerstoday, including enhancing patient outcomes, delivering valueto healthcare providers, and enhancing business effectivenessand results.

Lessons learned

All new initiatives (or new ways of doing business), present ob-stacles that need to be overcome. Our experience has identifiedfour critical areas that need to be addressed to make multi-socialmarketing a success: ● Gain traction internally by keeping the team focused on

the customer journey, and not on the newest digital toolsor flashy creative.

● Engage communities to enlighten your perspective andshape your understanding. As you develop trust withthese communities you may be surprised by the types ofcollaboration that are possible.

● Keep current on regulatory guidance. In January 2014,the FDA issued draft guidance that allows for real-timecommunications and user-generated content with less fearof repercussions and warning letters. Each company andbrand will need to determine its level of comfort in inter-preting the guidance.

● Pilot ideas with the goal to fail fast and build upon whatworks.

Getting started

We offer three best practices to get started:

1. Develop your multi-social strategy first—e strategyensures channel and customer experiences are integrated. e

strategy will also optimize alignment with the brand’s businessgoals, now and in the future.

2. Perform a customer experience audit (CXA)—Identifykey stakeholders and decision-makers. The goal of the auditis to identify the “key moments of impact” when and wherecustomers are most receptive to communications and likelyto take action.

3. Map out the customer journey—Understand the interac-tions between HCPs, patients, and caregivers to align messaging,offers, and assets that are most relevant and engaging for the cus-tomer based on where they are on their specific journeys. �

Making multi-social marketing a reality

How to develop a multi-social strategy

PulseCX configures customer experience solutions to

your unique situation. To initiate a Customer Experience

Audit (CXA) and find out how multi-social marketing will

benefit your brand, contact David Zaritsky, President,

PulseCX, at [email protected], or 215-699-9200.

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