The Advantages of POC Marketing in an Evolving Landscape 

Updated on March 22, 2023
Doctor with stethoscope and tablet computer on black background, still life style, Technology digital to treat patients concept.

If the past two years have taught us anything, it’s that the healthcare industry is constantly changing. The recent pandemic has induced a rapid uptake in digital solutions in the industry, resulting in the global ePharmacy market size is to reach 249.9 billion dollars approximately by 2030. 

In order to improve patient care outcomes, marketers need to assist HCPs to get the right information about prescriptions at their fingertips so that they can offer educational information to help their patients. This is where point-of-care (POC) marketing plays a crucial role, as it creates opportunities for healthcare providers to make informed decisions at the point of prescription. 

With Point-of-care (POC) marketing, advertisers can more accurately target and reach healthcare professionals at the time of prescription to help guide prescription behaviors and more. In 2023, marketers must add POC marketing to their playbooks to bring to life outside-the-box ideas effectively and reach the desired targets in a digital environment. 

Advantages of POC Advertising 

With advancements in digital technology, healthcare professionals are able to connect with their patients at new levels to ensure quality treatment is being provided. More healthcare professionals are becoming accustomed to these changes in the industry, and this is where POC advertising comes into the picture. Implementing POC advertising into campaign strategies while the industry evolves is an effort to ground solutions and re-emphasize the shared desire for overall positive outcomes. 

Recent studies show that telehealth use increased sharply throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, with more than 60% of physicians reporting that telehealth is easy to use within their practice across urban, suburban, and rural locations. The benefits of telehealth aim to improve outcomes for physicians, healthcare facilities, and patients with 91% of respondents stating that telemedicine would help them stay on track with appointments, follow recommendations, and manage prescriptions and refills. 

The ability to provide patients with critical information to inform decisions while engaging with physicians is crucial to improving overall patient outcomes. For example, POC advertising uses advanced targeting to share pharmaceutical brand messaging and campaigns oftentimes revealing the latest in prescription and treatment opportunities. With POC advertising, HCPs are able to have educational conversations with patients to better discuss their treatment plans. 

Additional advantages of POC marketing are detailed targeting, influenced prescription behavior, and an increase in sales. Backed by collections of data, marketers can use POC marketing to create campaigns that effectively communicate messaging points to HCPs via targeted content. With effectively placed messaging, brands are ensuring that HCPs are not only seeing the campaign but are acknowledging how the specific brand or messaging point can create a lasting impact for the patient. 

Marching our way into 2023 

In 2023 we can expect to see shifts in the pharmaceutical marketing industry with programmatic marketing taking center stage. This will cause marketers to focus on tailored communication strategies, driving the pharmaceutical marketing industry to add POC advertising to their toolkit to further reiterate the need to reach specific consumers like HCPs. 

Using POC marketing along with traditional advertising strategies will ensure all bases are covered for reaching targeted audiences, which is especially important in the healthcare industry. As digital transformation continues to evolve, AI-driven solutions and technologies will be opening new doors for efficiently and scalably reaching HCPs. It is pivotal for marketers to take advantage of these opportunities and integrate POC marketing into their campaigns to break through the noise while delivering real-time information.  

As the global pharmacy market size expands, marketers are gaining the ability to become more creative with their strategies and campaigns. With this evolution, the year 2023 is calling out to marketers to become more efficient with their communication efforts. 

Harshit Jain MD is Founder and Global CEO-Doceree and Author of The Next Marketing-To Healthcare Professionals.

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Harshit Jain

Harshit Jain MD, Founder and Global CEO, Doceree 

The Founder and Global CEO of Doceree, the First Global Network of Physician-only Platforms for Programmatic Marketing. With Doceree, he is aiming to address the acute problem of rising cost of healthcare by bringing in efficiency and effectiveness in marketing to Physicians by pharma brands on digital platforms with methodical use of data and creativity. A healthcare innovator, he is driving health transformation across the globe, delivering life changing, creative and sustainable ideas. Recognized as Elite 2020 Disrupter Award by premier global PM360 Magazine for his venture, Dr Harshit has addressed some of the biggest health challenges – Immunization, Vitamin D deficiency, Diabetes by creatively and innovatively using data. In his over 13 years of professional journey, he weaved together his domain expertise of medicine and his marketing acumen to come up with out-of-the box ideas and campaigns in the healthcare space.