With the business ecosystem going hypercompetitive each passing day, it has become inevitable for organisations to focus on their marketing strategy. The pharma industry, which has been going through disruption from the ongoing crisis of the COVID-19, has seen major consequences for how pharma markets and sells the medicines it develops.

After providing these services to some of the leading pharma companies in different geographies, we have learned that success is not only about great marketing but a great client-agency relationship. Even the most ingenious marketing plan will not achieve the expected goals until the client-agency relationship is not strong.

This post outlines the top five things you should keep in mind before you make up your mind to hire a marketing agency for your pharma business. To help you get the most out of your marketing agency investment, below are a few fundamentals.

1. Experience counts

There are about 2500 marketing agencies in India, or possibly more. However, do these agencies specialise in a particular sector such as pharma? Having their feet established in the industry your business operates in would be a fundamental criterion in the selection process. If you plan to go ahead with an agency that is inexperienced in the pharma industry, then you might be taking a risk with all the efforts, time, and finances you plan to put into the marketing initiatives.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Does the marketing company have experience working in the pharma industry?
• What kind of campaigns has the agency worked on, and for which verticals in the pharma industry?
• How many of these campaigns were successful?

2. Ideas that will turn the business

While shortlisting an agency to lead your marketing plans, assess whether they will come up with ideas that will add to the brand initiatives of your companies or not. Ask the agency to provide you with some of the case studies of the work they have done for other clients, which will help you assess the kind of ideas they will bring to the table. Ask them to provide you with an outline of ideas that you may not have tried before.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Can the pharmaceutical marketing company think creatively?
• Are they going to bring new ideas to the table, or will they just put on the table a plan that lacks any lateral thinking?
• Has the agency, in the past, done the box marketing campaign for their clients?

3. Identify the key services and USP.

Another critical factor while deciding the marketing partner for your company is the services and USP of the agency.  Skim through the agency website and ask questions regarding the services you require and the specific services the agency offers. Agencies might specialise in digital content, print, social media, TV or billboards, etc. Understand what is your requirement and evaluate if the agency fits well into your plans with the service they have to offer.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• What all services I am seeking from the marketing agency, and what services do they offer?
• Are the services offered by the agency will be able to build my brand awareness and generate targeted leads?
• What are some of the USPs of the agency?

4. Determine key staff and skillset

While a company-wide assessment of the agency is good, you might want to delve deeper and understand if the people working within the agency come with the skills that will help you to craft and execute an impactful marketing campaign or initiative. The marketing company needs to have a good understanding of the pharma industry and market. You can access this knowledge by looking at their websites and if they posted any blog or whitepaper or research. You can also visit their social media pages to have a quick look.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• What are the backgrounds of the individuals and the account managers you will be working with?
• Do they understand the market, and are they well versed in the fundamentals of pharmaceutical marketing?
• Check out the social media page of the agency and check how active they are? Do they contribute? How many followers do they have?

5. Financials and ROI

It goes without saying but select the agency that offers you the most cost-effective solutions. Do not decide your selection criteria based on the “most expensive” or “least-expensive” criterion as the most expensive agency may not necessarily provide the best results, and similarly, the cheapest agency may compromise on the quality of your marketing campaigns. Determine the outcomes of the campaign and discuss it with the agency and determine the ROI.

Ask yourself the following questions:

•  How the agency can work with this budget whilst also maximising the potential ROI?
• What would you call a successful campaign, and can it be delivered under the budget you proposed?
• How would you quantify the ROI?

Hiring a marketing agency is a critical task and requires thoughtful considerations of the points mentioned above. So what next? Start your research and shortlist the agencies based on the points suggested above, narrow down the list you might want to work with and set up a meeting.

I hope the checklist above will help you during each aspect of search and hiring the right marketing partner for your business.
If you have any marketing queries or would like to implement it for your pharma company, feel free to reach out to Amura, a Pharmaceutical marketing company.