In the wake of the COVID-19 health crisis, accelerating omnichannel engagement is a business imperative for life sciences companies.

Yet, there may be a limit to healthcare professionals’ (HCP) appetite for digital engagement, especially via e-detailing. We’ve seen that oncologists, for example, proponents and early adopters of e-detailing, are beginning to rate their experiences less positively. This flagging interest could be driven by a decrease in detail quality and saturation. HCPs, just like the rest of us, may have limited tolerance for additional screen time. 

One key tactic to differentiate your company and maintain your customers’ interest is through remote events, particularly if they can offer  “enduring activities,” i.e., activities that start conversations, spur interest in attending the next event, and change behavior. Here are 14 tips to help ensure success:

1. Think strategically. Digital events should be considered in the context of your orchestrated engagement strategy. They should offer as much information value as in-person events, with the convenience of virtual platforms.
2. Segment your audience. Match attendees to the content, which may involve using different presenters around the globe for each audience segment. Enlist help from all customer-facing teams to develop your invitation lists and to help you understand the influence specific speakers have on different attendees. 
3. Master the logistics. The best days to host healthcare virtual events are mid-week, and the preferred time of day is between 9:00 am and 11:00 am (local time). This obviously needs to be a consideration with global events. Send invitations two to four weeks before the event. 
4. Promote via multiple channels. Use email, social media, and publications to advertise your event. Invitations can be managed by customer-facing teams, and event promotions can be handled by automated-marketing. 
5. Track registrations. About half of all registrants sign up within the first couple of weeks of an announcement, but many will wait until the week before the event. (On average, 63 percent of registrants actually attend.) As you track registrations, adjust your outreach plan as needed. Remember that maximizing the audience for your events may seem like a good idea, but sometimes, smaller events can be more interactive and, therefore, more engaging.
6. Chose a reliable and flexible platform. The technology should be foolproof for attendee participation, as well as for presenters who will likely insist on last-minute changes to their presentation. 
7. Make the event interactive. Interactivity is one of the most crucial aspects of making a webinar successful, and it is what turns attendees into participants. Execution tactics can include interactive polling, a Q&A segment, or a group chat. (Caution: Group chats can be challenging to manage. They should be actively moderated and reserved for longer-format meetings.) 
8. Offer relevant, valuable content. Over half of HCPs believe that sponsored symposia are too brand focused, and even messaging delivered by Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) can come across as biased. So, be mindful of the need to link your presentation to daily medical practices. You can present new clinical results, cover controversial topics, and allow attendees to test their knowledge at the end.  
9. Aim for sustained, two-way engagement. Foster a connection with your audience before, as well as after the event. In addition to pre-event promotional efforts, employ a variety of post-event media tactics (email, LinkedIn, social investments, Twitter), and consider offering pre- and post-surveys. Provide resources for download after the fact, and have a clear way for people to follow up with you.
10. Follow up. After the event, keep the engagement going. When participants submit survey results and feedback, be sure to acknowledge that feedback, respond to questions, and start conversations.
11. Curate the content for later consumption. Audiences devote less time to on-demand replays of webinars than when listening live. Thus, give some thought to how to edit and reformat content for subsequent viewing, and make use of opportunities to promote the content to anyone that didn’t attend live. It’s another chance to build engagement that requires a very small investment.
12. Aim for a cohesive series, rather than standalone, unrelated events. A continuing series is much more powerful and will help your audience see you as a partner rather than just a manufacturer of treatments they use and prescribe. You may want to work together with publications or other institutions to bolster and to promote your content. 
13. Track engagement. The usual event metrics include qualitative feedback on the length of the presentation, how much of it was viewed, the quality of the content (be careful what you ask about if you’ve engaged KOLs as speakers, though), and expected impact on prescribing behavior. 
14. Measure your ROI. Measure the return you get in terms of physician behavior within the context of your omnichannel orchestrated engagement. Track engagement, change in perception, and prescription whenever possible.

You may view our webinar, “Remote Engagement: Maximize the impact of digital events” on demand by registering here. Watch for our next webinar recap on the second presentation in our series, “Virtual conferences that promote connection and exchange.”