For the 3rd edition we’re focussing on one of my favourite topics, and one I’m really passionate about – content. In my opinion, getting content marketing right is a game-changer. It attracts and really engages consumers. Even better, it creates trust, and in-turn, brand loyalty. Now, who doesn’t want that? But of course, as with many things, there’s a bad way, a good way, and the best way to go about it. Luckily, for our 3rd edition of Spotlight On, we’ll be shining a light on the latter.

1. 1Pharma content marketing |www.wearecouch.com
SPOTLIGHT ON...
PHARMA CONTENT
MARKETING
COUCH MEDICAL
COMMUNICATIONS ©2016.
All rights reserved.
Inspiring audiences. Motivating change. Thinking beyond.
ISSUE 3

2. HCPs through to patients and caregivers crave information,
which needs to be easily accessible at the time when they want it.
Strategic presentation of content enables HCPs and patients to
make informed decisions at any point during the lifecycle of their journey.
Content marketing is the building of a narrative that speaks to brand goals and audience
needs through the creation of relevant and valuable content that attracts, captures and
engages consumers. It’s much more than just digital advertising, social media and blog
posts. It’s an overall strategic approach that encompasses all those and more, but the
basic principle behind it is not a sales approach.
Within this in mind, I hope you enjoy this issue and as always I would love to hear your
thoughts. You can email me ash@wearecouch.com or tweet me at @ash_rishi.
Till next time.
Ash Rishi
Managing Director
COUCH Medical Communications
Welcome to the 3rd edition of our spotlight magazine. In this
issue we talk about something I am quite passionate about
improving in our industry – content.
There was a time not so long ago when content marketing
consisted of brands needing to incorporate all of their
promotional information onto a print double-sided detail aid,
however, if the pharma industry is to maintain relevance in
the digital landscape, it needs to take action and embrace
the content challenge, for two key reasons:
NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

3. Why the pharma customer journey starts with content
How to develop an effective pharma content marketing strategy
Engaging content is all about emotion
How to find pharma content that inspires your audience
Mapping content strategies to pharma lifecycle management
How to conduct a pharma content audit
IN THIS ISSUE

4. 4 | Pharma content marketing
For any company – regardless of industry and location – a huge mistake is
to think a marketing strategy is all about ‘selling stuff’. If that’s what you
think it is, shift your perspective quickly.
Above all, marketing’s purpose is to form and maintain a relationship
with customers. The stuff you sell is secondary to this; a byproduct of that
relationship. And like any relationship, the one between you and your
customers must involve mutual respect, care and hard work at times. It’s
time to be selfless and immerse yourself in the pharma customer journey –
rather than your own.
This journey started long before you arrived, and its destination is not
‘products’ (even if the customer may end up there). But here’s the good
news: products aren’t, in fact, all you have to offer. You have knowledge,
and this will always be in demand.
WHY THE PHARMA CUSTOMER
JOURNEY STARTS WITH CONTENT
4 | Pharma content marketing

5. 5Pharma content marketing |www.wearecouch.com
CONTENT: THE SOLUTION
TO PROBLEMS
In an online sense, your knowledge is passed on
to the wider world in the form of content – blogs,
research papers, videos, ‘how-to’ guides or whatever
else you can think of.
The mistake many make, however, is in thinking
that creating content is just something to ‘add
on’ to all the other marketing techniques. As with
customers of other industries, the pharma customer
journey begins with a ‘problem’ of some kind – and
knowledge (i.e., content) is their first resort when it
comes to solving that problem.
Consider a middle-aged man who is having slight
difficulty breathing. Would he first run to Google
to find the cheapest and most available cure for
cancer? That’s a ridiculous scenario, but putting
products first is just as ridiculous – because it
ignores the customer journey and goes straight
from point A to point Z. Content addresses the
problem first, before wading in with a cure that – at
the time – won’t make any sense to the customer.
So what is ‘good content’?
Primarily, good content is that which addresses
the customer’s concerns. But besides that, it has
to be interesting, entertaining, relevant and stirs
an emotion.
Here are some practical tips for achieving these
objectives:
DON’T USE JARGON: It’s alienating and
off-putting.
RELATE TO PROBLEMS: Use anecdotes
and real-life stories to show empathy with
readers.
BE AS BRIEF AS POSSIBLE: Time is of the
essence to most readers.
GET EXCITED: Remember, what’s old news
to you may be like the discovery of penicillin to
your readers. Make the most of that.
MOVING FORWARD
Of course, you don’t want the pharma customer
journey to end at ‘content’, but content can remain
throughout the disease and product lifecycle, of
course you need to make sure you have content
available for the lifecycles. If you have satisfied your
customer’s need for knowledge and solutions, it’s
likely they’ll trust you enough to read – and indeed
seek out – your content again.
And what’s more, they’ll want to share their findings
with others. As your reputation grows, you’ll become
a trusted source of information, and in turn your
products will become more appealing. Creating
content is all about building trust – and so the better
the content, the greater the reward for you and
the customer.
5Pharma content marketing |www.wearecouch.com

6. 6 | Pharma content marketing6 | Pharma content marketing
Healthcare professionals (HCPs), payers and patients are all using internet
as a means of engagement with pharma, and one way of optimising
this digital engagement is through effective content. As it has for other
industries, this sales-shy marketing technique could give pharma the boost
it needs to enter the 21st century by promoting a strong online presence and
responding to the increasing demand for healthcare information.
Achieving this type of marketing success requires a more than ‘OK’ strategy
and this takes time, planning, insights, analysis etc. When executed
beautifully though, content marketing is a powerful tool for building brand
trust and maintaining customer relationships.
HOW TO DEVELOP AN
EFFECTIVE PHARMA CONTENT
MARKETING STRATEGY

7. 7Pharma content marketing |www.wearecouch.com
A CONTENT MARKETING
STRATEGY THAT WORKS
In recent years there has been a shift in brand
marketing as pharma seek to build closer
relationships with their customers rather than solely
selling a brand. This relationship can be established
through delivery of accessible, meaningful content
that the consumer easily understands via a medium
that they are comfortable using. This requires insight
and analysis, so that the target audience is truly
understood, and then mapping information back to
the brand goals.
Following these particular steps will help you create
a content marketing strategy that works:
1 Segment your customers
It is highly significant that content marketing meets
the needs and interests of your target audience
and different content should be created for each
audience segment in a way that speaks directly of
their particular issues; a one-size-fits-all approach
is now outdated. It would be senseless for any
company to rush into content without even asking
themselves who the content is for or what the target
audience needs and our industry is no exception.
Putting yourself in the shoes of your audience is the
most effective way of understanding their thinking.
Some simple questions you can ask yourselves so
that you are clearer on how your content should be
developed are:
Who is your audience? Are they patients,
general practitioners, specialists etc.?
What information do they want?
What issues do they have and how can you
solve this?
2 Create content promote
After considering all this, creating a content
manifesto should be the next step as it allows
you to reflect on everything you have learned so
far including brand objectives, target audiences,
audience needs and tone of voice.
Content should be interactive and interesting with
the target in mind and these seven golden rules will
ensure your content efforts are fully optimised:
Nonetheless, whatever content you develop, it
cannot promote itself and it is essential that you
market it - the least you can do is share it through
social media. Keep in mind that your efforts
shouldn’t really seem like a marketing strategy or
be obviously promotional.
3 Measure, analyse adapt
It’s essential that you know how well your content
is performing and measurement is the only way
to determine whether your efforts have been
successful. Measure time spent on page, downloads,
social shares and engagement i.e. blog/social
media comment to evaluate whether you have
had any return on investment. Remember, this
information will also be useful for future content
marketing strategies as it allows you to tweak
your plan so it’s crucial you carry this step through.
Furthermore, content marketing is a continuous
effort as consumers demand new, engaging content
constantly and frequently so it is important to come
up with new content all the time.
Although, every marketing strategy is different,
following this loose plan will ensure you stand above
any other marketing effort.

8. 8 | Pharma content marketing
EMOTIONS STIR ACTION
That isn’t to say we shouldn’t respect the systematic
element; far from it. But we must remember that,
ultimately, our prospects are not robots. Emotions
stir humans to action well before logic makes its
appearance, so healthcare content marketing is no
different to ‘The Lad Bible’ in this respect.
WHAT MAKES A USER
CHOOSE YOUR CONTENT?
What does make it different, however, is the
audience in question. Before getting down
to specifics, let’s consider the main reasons
people browse in the first place – before
choosing content:
Inspiration
To keep updated/connected socially
To find specific information
To be ‘in the know’ in general
During a recent conversation with a prospective client, I was asked “what is
engaging content?”. My initial response was to assert that engaging content
is informative content, while that is true, in hindsight I do not think that is
accurate, so in this post I will discuss why engaging content is all about
stirring an emotion.
In our daily role, it is often easy to make one of the biggest mistakes in
marketing, which is to under estimate our target market. Sadly, this is
often the case when creating online content. Too often, marketers focus
on systematic algorithms such as SEO and forget the good old-fashioned
‘human touch’.
ENGAGING CONTENT IS
ALL ABOUT EMOTION
8 | Pharma content marketing

9. 9Pharma content marketing |www.wearecouch.com
To establish what kind of content you want
to create, you must first know which of these
reasons are most appropriate for your audience.
That means you must understand the audience’s
demographic. For pharma and healthcare, this
would comprise both medical professionals and the
wider public (i.e., patients). What have they all got
in common? How can you collate individuals into
groups based on the reasons they read content?
Once you’ve decided which reasons are strongest,
you can tailor your content to these reasons. Let’s
say ‘being in the know’ is your chosen reason –
you’d therefore choose a subject such as ‘new
advancements in disease X’ and work from there. d
EMOTIONAL TRIGGERS
Of course, knowing your subject is only the
beginning. To get that ‘gut’ response which forces
a click, you’ll need a headline which moves people.
Here are the emotions which are most likely to
engage audiences:
Awe Laughter Joy
Anger Empathy Surprise
Sadness Fear Disgust
Consider your target market again, and what
emotions are most applicable. Do they want to
be amused? Shocked? Awestruck? Healthcare
content marketing is all about understanding what
moves anyone interested in healthcare, and this
could be anyone from a junior doctor to someone
with a terminal illness.
In all cases, your readers begin with a problem
of some kind. The problem may be as severe as
finding a lump, or it may just be that they’re bored,
but it’s something you can remedy. Your cure,
however, will be ignored if you don’t stir emotion.
There are a million links to click on, so why choose
yours? Find a way to ease the pain.
MOVED ENOUGH TO SHARE
In healthcare content marketing, as with all
online marketing, the benefits of creating good
content can go way beyond impressing your target
audience. With a simple click, anyone at all can
share a message with thousands more – and they
in turn can share again. ‘Going viral’ needs no work
from you after the content is posted.
That’s the good news. The trick is that to share,
your audience needs to be moved enough to
do so. You may post an article that solves the
biggest problem in the world for one individual,
but what would inspire them to tell others?
Negative feelings such as fear, anger and disgust
inspire action, and this action is to warn others
or ‘get things off one’s chest’, whereas positive
emotions such as joy, laughter and surprise tap
into the human need to make others feel the
same feelings.
To some, relying on the more abstract nature of
emotions is a difficult task. But as mentioned
earlier, creating good content is not about
choosing one approach. The scientific ‘numbers
game’ is essential in the marketing world of 2016,
but only if you remember the simple truth: your
audience is made up of humans, and that comes
with all the emotional ‘stuff’ they cannot help but
be influenced by.

10. HOW TO FIND PHARMA CONTENT
THAT INSPIRES YOUR AUDIENCE
10 | Pharma content marketing
Have you ever felt as if you were talking to a brick wall? If so, you’re not
alone. Usually, however, we tend to blame this on the person we are talking
to. “I feel like I’m talking to a brick wall!” is a statement made in anger; a
chastisement of that other person for not listening.
When it comes to pharma content, however, it’s
time for you to take the responsibility for being
heard. Let’s face it: your customers come in all
shapes and sizes and from all walks of life, so you
can’t take it for granted they will automatically be
‘all ears’ to what you have to say. Quite rightly,
their attention has to be earned, and that begins
with content.
So how, then, can you achieve this? Is it by
shouting louder than your competitors? Is it with
the flashiest, slickest ad campaigns that get you
noticed? Perhaps, but in both these cases ‘being
noticed’ can often mean ‘putting people off’.
As Mark Twain once said, “Better to say nothing
and let others think you a fool, than to open your
mouth and remove all doubt.”
Knowing what motivates your customers to listen,
on the other hand, is the best marketing wisdom
on the planet. Practically, it saves you time
(and money) because you don’t waste your time
talking to ‘brick walls’. But more importantly,
you will establish your brand as a ‘go to’,
respectable source in the long run, and earn
respect and revenue.

11. 11Pharma content marketing |www.wearecouch.com
KNOWING YOUR AUDIENCE
Before you offer solutions, you must know the
problems. And to know the problems, you must
know the sufferers (i.e. your customers). This
knowledge can be attained both scientifically and
socially. On the scientific front, research through
surveys and data analysis (online traffic trends etc)
can provide a clearer picture of where and how
customers search for information and, ultimately,
buy products.
Socially-speaking, listening is the key. In both
your working life and free time, getting to know
your audience will help you to understand what
they want out of life, what they struggle with and
what drives them. Knowing how you fit in with
their needs, rather than the other way around, will
empower you to send out relevant messages.
PERSONAS
Of course, your customers come in many ‘types’,
so there isn’t ‘one size fits all’ solutions. You
must create varying pharma content for varying
customers.
To keep track of these different types (and
therefore deliver the right content to the right
people), creating personas for each is an effective
marketing tool.
This persona should be a real person in your mind
(draw a picture if it helps!), and whenever you
create any sort of pharma content it should be
aimed at this person. Is it helpful to them? Do they
want it? Need it? Are they looking for it, and have
you put it in the right place so they can see it? This
person is your muse, so treat them with respect!
NURTURING RELATIONSHIPS
Understanding your customers is not just essential
for your marketing projects, but also for growing
and strengthening relationships with these
customers. It’s a two-way thing: as you get to know
them more, they see that you know them more –
and trust you more as a result.
And when you have trust, being ‘loud’ or ‘gimmicky’
isn’t necessary in order to be heard. You can focus
on delivering helpful, relevant and needed pharma
content which will benefit both your customers and
your brand name – and at a time and place that
suits you both.
Better to say nothing
and let others think
you a fool, than to
open your mouth and
remove all doubt

12. 12 | Pharma content marketing
MAPPING CONTENT STRATEGIES TO
PHARMA LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT
In these tough economic times, we should be ramping up our pharma
lifecycle management (LCM) strategies. These are well-established
strategies for managing and extending the commercial value of products.
So where exactly does content strategies sit in LCM and how can you map
content to the lifecycle?
CHALLENGES FACING
LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT
One of the key challenges facing LCM is when to
develop the strategy. Should it be implemented
at an early stage or is it better to wait to a later
stage when the product is facing patent expiry
and a greater threat from generics? It is clear
that whatever timing you take, it is vital that the
strategy needs to be integrated. Some of the
benefits of integration are:
Development of better insights
Increase in market share
Improved patient compliance
Increase in overall value
Timely intervention
HOW DO YOU MAP YOUR
CONTENT TO HCP NEEDS?
Firstly, we need to understand healthcare
professional (HCP) behaviours when searching
online. HCPs will have different information needs
at different stages in the buying cycle and this
needs to be mapped to the LCM.
Early in the disease diagnosis, HCPs will not
be looking for specific information about a
therapeutic. During the initial search they will
be looking for disease information, trying to
understand the best way to solve the issues they
have in their local health economy. This phase we
will call the awareness phase.
After the disease specific information, the search
will progress to focusing on an array of different
products. This is the consideration phase.
Once they have settled on a specific product, their
needs change to justifying the therapeutic through
ROI/health economic data analysis. This is the
evaluation phase.
12 | Pharma content marketing

13. 13Pharma content marketing |www.wearecouch.com
MAPPING THE JOURNEY
AND LIFECYCLE
The approaches to mapping will differ for the
stage of the product lifecycle. Regardless of the
approach you take, you should include insights
from all internal stakeholders to map the content,
these departments include:
Sales
Marketing
Medical
Regulatory
One stakeholder that is often neglected is the
actual customer themselves. It is of paramount
importance that you use their insight, work with
and involve them at every stage. The mapping
process should take into account the following:
Initial triggers that lead to first contact
Steps the customers take (industry reports,
published articles, reports and reviews,
whitepapers etc.) and the conversations
(conference booths, MSL, sales, etc.) they
engage in to solve their problem and find a
specific solution
Steps associated with the purchase and
consumption (training, reimbursement
purchasing processes, implementation etc.)
Ongoing experience and reaction to use of
product (patient data etc.)
Once you’ve mapped the process and organised
each step into the appropriate stage, you can
begin to match content with the lifecycle journey.
THE KIND OF CONTENT TO
DEVELOP FOR EACH STAGE
With every product lifecycle, there is a wealth
of appropriate content that could be developed.
Some of the key areas to consider:
Patient data
Health outcome data
Financial data
Trial data
Treatment and dosing regimens
Pricing and sales data
Reimbursement policies
The most important factors for any content plan
are to ensure that the lifecycle of the product is
considered, along with the available information
and the needs of the customer. Then… decide
on the best way to present this information,
ensuring that is easily digestible for healthcare
professionals to consume.
What does this all solve? It breaks down the silo
of the perception that pharma is untrustworthy,
it increases transparency and it increases
market share.

14. 14 | Pharma content marketing
A content audit is essential for identifying whether your site delivers
comprehensive, valuable information for the purpose of meeting the needs
of your content marketing efforts.
HOW TO CONDUCT A
PHARMA CONTENT AUDIT
14 | Pharma content marketing
A few pharma companies have fully embraced
the digital transformation at this point. If you have
a site and are publishing content, there’s a good
chance that it ‘just grew’. If you’re lucky, you have
one person on your team who actually has an idea
of what’s on there; if not, there are likely forgotten
pages, broken links and without question some
outdated information.
Performing a content audit is the checking,
recording and assessment of all the content
on your site, for the purpose of evaluating its
accuracy, relevance and user-friendliness. An audit
usually precedes a redesign or at the very least
a review of the site, and gives you the chance to
ensure that your website offers aligns with your
business strategy and your customer’s needs.
There are several ways of doing a content audit
for your pharma website. The type of audit you
choose depends on your reasons for needing the
information. Types include:
FULL AUDIT: This involves the complete
recording of every piece of content on your
site, including information pages, images, video
and downloadable items.
PARTIAL INVENTORY: This typically covers
categories or levels of the site. For example,
you might choose to record sections without
delving into every page in each section.
SAMPLE AUDIT: A sample audit is usually
conducted to identify issues such as tone,
format and quality of the content on the site.
If you are generally satisfied with the leads
delivered by your pharma website but just want
to evaluate certain aspects, a sample audit is
the way to go.
You can also choose between simply cataloguing
the content for record purposes, or taking the
audit process further and evaluating each piece of
content against specific criteria.

15. 15Pharma content marketing |www.wearecouch.com
By the end of the process, you should have a
complete listing of the audited sections. This will
give you a clear understanding of what is on your
pharma website. You might find information you
didn’t know you had, or notice areas where material
is duplicated or contradictory. You’ll certainly be
able to identify important content that might be
missing from your site, and see patterns that you
can exploit for purposes such as developing
new content. This information is invaluable for
planning the way forward for your customer
engagement efforts.
HOW TO PERFORM
A CONTENT AUDIT:
1 Choose the tools you’re going to use. Excel
spreadsheets provide a comprehensive way
to capture, store and view all the information
at a glance, as well as giving you sorting and
grouping options.
2 Review your content management system
(CMS) to see whether it offers an easy listing
of all the pages and sections on the site. If
your site was designed in one of the newer
CMSs there’s a good chance you’ll be able to
get usable information this way.
3 If your audit is for the purpose of assessment
as well as recording, identify the criteria for
evaluation in advance. Use the ‘touch once’
rule so you don’t have to revisit sections a
second time.
4 Capture your information with as much detail
as you can, including:
a. Menu items that link each piece of content
to the site’s navigation
b. Displayed page title
c. URL for each page
d. Type of content and basic description
e. Alt tags and meta descriptions
f. Attachments or downloads available
g. Quality of content, relevance and accuracy
h. Tone and format
i. Author, owner or person responsible
for updating
Add general comments about your thoughts that
can help you to remember each item without having
to go back and revisit it time after time.
Once you’ve completed your content audit, don’t
let your efforts go to waste. Make sure you use
the intelligence provided by the exercise to identify
the purpose and deliverables of each piece. Note
whether the item achieves these or not.
If you have analytical information showing traffic
and interaction for your site, this will go a long
way towards helping you to determine these.
Then implement your findings when you redesign
or revamp your pharma site to ensure that it’s
working for you as well as it should.

16. 16 | Pharma content marketing16 | Pharma content marketing

17. 17Pharma content marketing |www.wearecouch.com

18. © COUCH 2016.
At COUCH, we create content that responds to the known
needs and preferences of your target audience, and elicits
the desired response from them.
www.wearecouch.com
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