Pharma, Biotech, and Medical Device companies host several events for Healthcare Professionals throughout the year. With increasing regulation due to the Sunshine Act, companies are turning to events to better educate and drive awareness around their offerings. Unlike other industry hosted events, the attendance of HCPs and the Sunshine Act add a layer of complexity to the event planning process. Below are 5 best practices for driving a better outcome, and enhancing the HCP experience.
- Capture HCP Event Details: Because of the Sunshine Act, tracking of HCP contact information, specifically the state in which they practice, is essential. Regulation dictates what can be spent on each HCP, and HCPs from various states can fall under different policy guidelines. Event coordinators must report on travel, lodging, and catering costs for each HCP. Capturing this event information, against each HCP, is necessary.
- Automate Post-Event Follow-up: Whether you have 5 people attend an event, or 100 people attend, providing real-time follow-up will result in increased engagement. For many companies, it’s difficult to remember each conversation and deliver relevant content to that attendee, days after the event occurred. Using an Eloqua Cloud App like Zuant, attendees can automatically be entered into targeted post-event nurture tracks. Ask for event feedback as well as suggestions for future events. By providing real-time event follow-up you can increase engagement, further relationships, and ultimately generate new revenue.
- Engage Your Compliance Team From the Start: When planning content for the event, best practice is to allow ample time for content approval with the in-house legal team. It’s recommended that all post-event content be created, approved, and programmed before the event so post-event follow-up can occur immediately.
- Nurture Event Relationships: It’s important to nurture event relationships by providing relevant content in the weeks following the event. Provide content associated with topics covered at the event. This can be in the form of articles, blogs, reports, white papers, infographics, and video. Offering valuable content and providing an opportunity to select subscription preferences, or opt-out of such communications, is a best practice.
- Don’t Forget Non-Attendees: It’s important not to neglect those who could not attend the event. Offering digital content from the event, like video of speakers and presentations, as well as the post-event nurture content, can result in new opportunity for the organization.
By incorporating these 5 tips, you can better automate communications, capture information for future segmentation and understand the preferences of HCPs. This insight will allow you to more effectively communicate relevant content and foster relationships with the HCPs resulting in a more positive experience for the HCP, and ultimately drive revenue.