Pharma marketing is reaching more diverse audiences than ever before, and doing that effectively and communicating the right message requires the appropriate materials. When it comes to getting the right information to the right consumer, one message will not fit every community, and that’s a challenge pharma marketing will have to face.
Reaching diverse communities by highlighting diverse voices is the approach recommended by Craig Haines, Chief Revenue Officer at the healthcare consumer media brand Verywell. In this conversation with Fierce Pharma’s Rebecca Willumson, Haines discusses the data-driven conclusion that in building relevance to multiple types of audiences, it’s extremely important to build credibility, trustworthiness, and empathy.
Patient and other consumer populations across the healthcare world are increasingly diverse, and only by the inclusion of diverse voices can pharma marketing effectively communicate the right message in the right way and ensure positive health impacts for every community.
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Rebecca Willumson:
Hi, there. I'm Rebecca Willumson. I'm the publisher of Fierce Pharma and I'm here today with Craig Haines, Chief Revenue Officer at Verywell. Craig, thanks so much for joining me.
Craig Haines:
Thank you for having me.
Rebecca Willumson:
So Craig, to start us off, can you just share a little bit about yourself and your role at Verywell?
Craig Haines:
Sure. As you said, I'm Craig Haines, the Chief Revenue Officer at Verywell. I've been at Verywell for about four years. Prior to that, I have a long history in positions of sales and marketing and healthcare. And in fact, I started my career earlier on in pharma.
Rebecca Willumson:
So Craig, tell me what aspect of pharma marketing is poised for the biggest distraction?
Craig Haines:
I think with everything that we've seen happening in the world and the change in sensitivity, certainly pharma realizes that they're reaching more diverse audiences and they have to have the appropriate materials in order to reach audiences that look a little different. They now know and we know that not one message fits every community and certainly that's a challenge with pharma marketers given the regulatory nature of the industry.
Craig Haines:
So I think what we're trying to do as a publisher is certainly highlight the importance of diverse voices. One of the, I think challenges that the pharma marketers will need to overcome in the next few years is how can they create materials that can reach diverse communities that look much different than sort of that one-stop shop approach to marketing.
Rebecca Willumson:
Tell me, what does customer engagement look like in today's world?
Craig Haines:
This is something that we look closely at as a publisher and we conducted research with a third-party organization called KR&I. And obviously we know that content has to be relevant and that is one of four criteria that really came clear in the research. When you look at relevance, you have to be relevant to multiple types of audiences, so diverse voices, but we also found that ease of use is extremely important.
Craig Haines:
Credibility and trustworthiness is critical and empathy is certainly something that a lot of us are talking about. But what we learned from the research is that if you meet those four criteria, you have a positive, emotional impact on people and they are much more likely to take an action towards their health.
Craig Haines:
So when we think about our partnerships with pharma marketers, those are four things that we certainly encourage them to think about within their own promotional messages. Because we have learned from the research that certainly spoke to us loud and clear that if you can do those four things successfully, you will increase the likelihood that a patient will take an action towards their health.
Rebecca Willumson:
So how is your brand engaging and reaching a wider, more diverse audience?
Craig Haines:
As a publisher, it's critical that we also realize that the world has changed and we have to reach a diverser community or a more diverse community of people who are interested in information towards their health. So we've done a lot of things towards that. First, last year we created an anti-racism pledge. So that was our editorial team creating a pledge to ensure that the materials, the tools and all of the things that we do on our websites certainly represent the more diverse communities that are interested in learning anything about their health regardless of their condition.
Craig Haines:
Secondarily, obviously we provide more BIPOC opportunities for people to join our staff. And obviously we have to make sure that the people that are writing our materials and reaching out to patient populations throughout the healthcare world are themselves more diverse.
Craig Haines:
And then thirdly, we are also creating an anti-bias review board. So that is those diverse voices ensuring that the materials that we're creating, the articles that we're writing certainly don't include unspoken or biases that we previously may not have realized consciously.
Craig Haines:
And then lastly, following through with all those efforts. We've actually created a franchise called Health Divide. So looking at it at the condition level, understanding that there is a divide in sort of the way that health has been documented and written about. We now create materials, articles, content, and tools to help people of all races and colors better understand how it is that they are being impacted by any specific condition.
Rebecca Willumson:
That's great. Well, that's all the questions that I have. I think it's a great way to close out on. Craig, thanks so much for joining me today. I appreciate our conversation.
Craig Haines:
Thank you for having me, Rebecca.
Book traversal links for Diverse Communities Require Diverse Voices