A company without goals is meaningless, right? Achieve a certain number of sales, generate X number of customers per year, get followers in your social networks, etc. How do we achieve these goals? With a marketing plan.
This tool avoids deviations and keeps us focused on the path to follow in order to achieve our objectives.
It is very important to perform a marketing consultancy beforehand, in order to correctly orientate the strategy to be followed in the marketing plan and to develop personalized solutions that optimize your business.
What is a marketing plan?
The marketing plan is the guide for any company, large or small, that outlines the actions to be taken during a given period of time to successfully achieve its objectives.
It is a flexible tool that evolves and grows according to the results and needs of the company. It is therefore very important to continuously evaluate the data of the actions set out in the plan to see if they work or not, and thus be able to rectify if something does not turn out well.
It is not a document that should be used only by the marketing department, but rather the entire company and its team should be aware of it and apply it.
Marketing plan for a pharmaceutical company
Creating a marketing plan for a pharmaceutical company is simple if you know the particularities of the sector well. In fact, this is something that happens with any type of business and it is very important to take it into account. That is why the first steps in devising this plan are even more important. We are talking about internal and external analysis.
By fully understanding the company’s situation, its surroundings and even who it competes against, the strategy will be seamless and will take a realistic view of the landscape against which it will be applied.
Below we will see, point by point, how we should develop the marketing plan of a pharmaceutical company.
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Internal analysis
To better sell our products and services we must know the details of the company. Our history, what we offer, what differentiates us from the rest, how the company is structured, in which market we operate, etc.
It is also important to know what strategies have been used, tactics that we know work, the commercial pillars of the company, etc.
All the information we can gather and contribute at this point will be very useful to align the actions to come.
We can and should also use it to draw up a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats and Threats) that will allow us to know at a glance what we should improve and what we should strengthen.
2. External analysis
Once we have looked inward, it is time to gather information about our surroundings. This includes the social, economic, political and even legislative context, as it affects us when deciding our strategy and helps us to see where we need to be stronger.
And of course we must study our competition within the pharmaceutical sector. Or what is the same: Benchmarking. Mark who competes in the same sector for our same or similar target audience, who offers a catalog of products and / or services like ours, what they do to sell, how they work their social networks, what fairs they attend and we do not, etc.. All the information we can gather about them, we can use it to glimpse new sales or communication channels.
All this information can be compiled in a document divided by companies in which we indicate what we have analyzed of each one of them, with a section of conclusions. It can be an annex to our plan, since we will only include the conclusions in it.
It will also be essential to study our customers. Who demands our services or buys our products? It is essential to know and understand what they are looking for, how we can give it to them, why they repeat, why they do not buy again, etc.
3. Plan a strategy
Thanks to the exhaustive analysis we have been working on, we will be able to prepare and justify the strategy we will follow. Understanding the state of the company, the current context and our target audience will help us to elaborate the steps to follow to reach the goal we set ourselves.
Now that we know where we are starting from, what we need to do is to set where we want to get to. That is, our objectives. We recommend that they be SMART:
- S – Specific
- M – Measurable (measurable)
- A – Achievable
- R – Relevant
- T – Timely (temporary)
Once we have these clear and defined objectives, we will draw up the strategy to reach them. This involves being very clear about what we want to improve and what we want to maintain.
We will define which distribution channels we will use and why: email marketing, social networks, presence at events, organization of a press conference, brochure design, etc. We can opt for offline marketing, online marketing or both. But always justifying their use very well, seeking that they complement each other and that they are focused on achieving results.
4. Actions
Within the different channels we have proposed, we will go on to define the specific actions that will make up our marketing plan for a pharmaceutical company. And we will add all the necessary details to carry them out, such as:
- The cost
- The date of realization
- Duration of action
- Tools we will need
- Involved team
- Stage of the decision-making process in which our audience is (brand recognition, first purchase, loyalty…).
These actions can be the creation of a blog with educational and attractive content for our customers, with weekly publications. WordPress will be used. It will begin to be set up in January to be ready in February and have the first contents in March. And this will have a cost x that includes the purchase of a domain and the realization of a custom design for this space.
It is also very interesting to consider the cross actions that can occur, as in this example would be the creation of a weekly newsletter for blog subscribers, sharing the articles on the company’s social networks, promoting the most powerful articles with a Google Ads ad, etc.
5. Analysis of the results
The marketing plan must also contain a measurement plan, i.e., how the results of the actions will be analyzed. It is very important to review the performance of all of them in order to draw conclusions and make changes that will help us to get closer to our objectives, as well as to correct possible errors, interrupt those actions that are not proving to be positive, strengthen those that are, etc.
The most common is that the marketing plan should be half-yearly or annual, with periodic reviews, but this is something that we must determine according to our strategy, the results obtained, the changes undergone by the pharmaceutical sector, etc.
As you can see, the marketing plan for a pharmaceutical company is not complicated, but it is essential to improve sales and achieve objectives. Whether for offline marketing, online marketing or both, it is a must for any company in the pharmaceutical sector.
It takes time, several meetings, changes, etc. but it is essential. If you want us to come up with your next marketing plan, with innovative ideas for your company and 100% results oriented, contact us!
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