Category: Quick Tips

Having developed rep-triggered emails for both creative agency partners and end pharma clients for nearly a decade, we have a pretty firm handle on best practice – so much so, that we have often shared our top tips for Veeva Approved Emails.

Understanding best practice principles and always putting the field team at the centre of our solutions has enabled us to steer our clients towards some highly impactful email campaigns. However, it doesn’t always go to plan.

In our experience, here are the four pieces of the puzzle that are most often missing, that can lead to delays, miscommunication and sometimes, just downright ugly emails! 

Annotated PDF

To kick off the build of your email, we ask clients to supply us with an annotated PDF so that we can see their vision. When creating the annotated PDF, the following are highly desirable:

• Links (hosted locally & externally) – where links direct your clients to documents hosted locally, make sure to provide the doc_info number associated with the document(s)
• Updates – minor text amends (for example, if the PDF contains an out of date DOP/ last accessed date, identifying and adding the required update as a comment is crucial)
• Logo & Image placement
  

The flip side of this is a written description of how the email should look and function. Believe it or not, that doesn’t tend to yield the best results!

Artwork

This may sound obvious, but you would be surprised how often we are asked to commence development without any artwork to reference or make use of. Assets such as images, icons, colours etc. should ideally be packages and provided alongside base artwork in a file format tailored to modern web design, such as Adobe XD or InDesign.

Fonts

Oh, fonts. Something so simple, yet overlooked so often that we were compelled to write the CLM best practice guidelines for web font assets. 

You’ll get all do’s and don’ts around licensing from that article, but what about font usage in emails?

The main consideration here when designing an email is to use a web-safe font. Many web-safe fonts are pre-installed on a wide range of computer systems/ devices, which ultimately reduces the risk of your email ‘breaking’. A list of these web-safe/default fonts can be found here.

A minimum font size of 12px is recommended for the body/main copy of the email, and they should be provisioned in either WOFF2, WOFF, OTF, or TTF format. Colour variations should be supplied with the HTML/ hex code(s), to avoid any minor discrepancies.

If you want to risk using a custom/non-web safe font, then do consider that it will not work on some email clients, most notably the Outlook app, and will use a default system font instead (9/10 times it will be Arial, but older versions of Outlook use Times New Roman).

Size

Quite simply, it is standard best practice to build to a 600 pixel width. If you’re looking for something different to that, then it’s pretty important to state that in the initial brief.

Next steps

Feel like you’ve already mastered the brilliant basics of briefing and want to move onto ensuring your rep-triggered emails are best in class? Stay poised for the next article in this series on getting the most from your RTEs and leveraging under-utilised features.

If it’s all feeling a bit hazy, why not have a read of our ‘what is Veeva Approved Email?’ page or check back again soon for another upcoming article that will break down the anatomy of a rep-triggered email, so that you can impress your peers with all the right technical language.

DSAs and e-detailers are crucial tools when it comes to helping HCPs engage with a new pharmaceutical products. Unlike paper-based handouts, e-detailers make content more interesting, allow for greater understanding of data via interactivity, and help pharma marketers to analyse and hone communications on a personal level.

So making sure you have the right digital tools throughout the design process is vital. That’s why we’ve put together a rundown of our favourite tools for designers working in pharma, and how they can enhance your design process. Hopefully there are a few hidden gems below that you may not yet have discovered.

Sketch

An excellent tool for UI design, Sketch is a vector-based design app for Mac. Lightweight, fast, and incredibly easy to use, Sketch incorporates an intuitive interface with Sketch Cloud libraries that make collaboration a breeze throughout development.

Designers in pharma will particularly enjoy Sketch’s huge range of optional plugins, which cover everything from creating user flow diagrams to prototyping your designs.

Licensing is pretty straightforward; you can opt to pay once and use Sketch for as long as you like, although this won’t entitle you to any updates. Otherwise renewals are yearly.

InVision

If you’re looking for a dedicated prototyping tool, InVision is an excellent option. Perfect for working on development with external agencies, InVision allows you to create interactive prototypes of your DSAs.

Collaboration is made easy via an in-app commenting mode while the clever Build Mode allows you to test interactivity – ideal for perfecting your edetailing design.

InVision offers several different payment plans depending on your needs, with the number of active prototypes allowed differing according to price.

Adobe XD

If you’re a dedicated Photoshop fan, you’ll love this interactive prototype designer from Adobe. Like Sketch, XD is vector-based and streamlines the entire design process from wireframing to development.

Adobe XD supports integration with Adobe Suite as well as plugins and other tools like Slack for communication with your team and agencies. Animated prototypes are particularly useful for designers working with e-detailing.

You can sign in to Adobe XD using your Adobe ID and opt for monthly licensing or renewal every 99 days.

Pixlr

Pixlr is a powerful browser-based editing tool that comes with both a free and a paid Pro version.

A great option for designers on the go, Pixlr works as an alternative to Photoshop and its cloud-based service is especially useful for collaboration. Images can be easily shared and edited between teams.

It is compatible with all major browsers, while Pixlr Pro offers access to more advanced editing tools and comes with a monthly or quarterly subscription.

Avocode

When it comes to design hand-off, Avocode has all the bases covered. Compatible with Sketch, Adobe XD, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Figma, Avocode allows you to share and collaborate on designs across Mac, Windows, or Linux.

Especially useful for perfecting designs on mobile devices, Avocode is great for e-detailer designers who will love the easy exporting, innovative code generation, and advanced rendering engine.

Subscriptions are available for one user to over 10 users and you can choose between monthly or yearly billing as well as test out Avocode with a free 14-day trial.

Easing the transition from design to development

Having access to the right tools is essential for creating the sort of sound, signed off designs that are the bedrock of a successful e-detailing solution. We hope you’ll find these tools useful for creating designs capable of driving positive sales outcomes for HCPs in the field. If you’re looking to progress your designs through to development but don’t know where to start, get in touch with our DSA development experts to have your questions answered.

This is the third and final article in a series based on a talk that Nick Woolnough – Head of Marketing Operations at StrategiQ – gave at the Pharma Multichannel Marketing Meetup in December 2018. Following on from the importance of realistic expectations and an opportunistic approach to web content, this article goes on to look at learning from the increased number of visitors that your website is hopefully now receiving.

Transitioning from “visitors captured’ to “visitors converted”

In my last article, I discussed some tactics for acquiring new web traffic in your niche and how pharma companies in particular can deep dive into their areas of specialism to produce unique content that meets demand. Unfortunately, more traffic doesn’t always mean more conversions – if only digital marketing was that simple! When you are generating an upsurge in traffic through content marketing, it is likely that you are attracting a lot of ‘top of the funnel’ traffic that typically is even less likely to convert to business in the short term. As such, this traffic is ripe for analysis as the audience will typically be more varied in terms of intent and interests.

What do you do when it’s not working?

If traffic is increasing but conversions aren’t following suit – questions are usually asked of the marketing team behind the content strategy and the way in which budget and resource has been invested.

How brand and marketing teams react in this scenario is critical. Is it seen as an opportunity to learn from new data or a cause for panic?”

The temptation can be to use this as an opportunity to reinforce preconceptions and opinions about the website.

“I told you we should have put a link to our solutions in the secondary navigation.”

“That enquiry button has never been big enough, we need to make it orange too.”

These are the sorts of things you could typically hear in a session to analyse a drop in conversion rate. It’s all subjective, but if your new website visitors aren’t providing you with feedback then that’s all you’ve got to go on, right? Yes, but only if you didn’t have the foresight to put in place measurements at the start of the campaign.

Pulling on your data sources

As a bare minimum, most websites will be running some sort of web analytics software; most likely Google Analytics. With some forward planning there are great ways of enhancing the data collected within that platform and even better, overlaying it against something more visual.

Behavioural analytics tracking tools such as Hotjar and VWO allow you to actually observe the way in which visitors are using your website. All of a sudden that majority of users who weren’t leaving a tangible imprint of form completions or enquiries on your website become far more real, allowing you to derive action and a pipeline of website improvements based on real user data.

Heatmaps

Some of the quickest of quick wins when it comes to optimising your website for user experience can come from observing heatmaps. Set up on the pages that you wish to analyse, these can allow you to quickly identify if visitors simply aren’t finding the on-page elements that you view as most important or compelling – be that a video, content form or key sales message. By knowing – per device type – how much of a landing page the majority of your web visitors are actually viewing, you can make some pretty bold, data-backed decisions as to how you prioritise your content.

User Recordings

Here’s where it gets really interesting. With the exception of looking over someone’s shoulder on the tube or in a cafe, you won’t get much closer to charting a visitor’s journey on your website than through watching back user recordings. These screen captures follow the mouse around the website, giving you complete visibility as to what elements of the page drew attention and also those that didn’t. The danger for marketers here is the time it takes to analyse multiple screen recordings. While heatmaps are aggregated, these are not, so you need to be careful to use filters to tackle one landing page or predetermined user journey at a time. Key things to look out for include the mouse hovering over an on-page element for longer than usual, attempted clicks that don’t seem to result in an action or users scanning past content or elements you assumed they would find useful or engaging. By collating these findings, you can derive some genuine insight.

Feedback Forms

If the above fails and the silent majority still aren’t telling you what you need to hear in order to improve your website performance, then ask them! Pop-up feedback forms are becoming more commonplace and enabling these gives you a chance to overlay some qualitative data against the more quantitative data that heatmaps and recordings can provide.

So even if your website users aren’t making a whole lot of noise, it doesn’t mean we can’t listen to them. The opportunities don’t end with websites either, so if you’d like to find out more about how advanced analytics can help you get more out of your digital sales aids, why not fire a quick question across to the team at twentyeightb.

In the first of a series of three articles on harnessing a data-driven digital strategy, Nick Woolnough looks at the solid foundations on which websites should be built in order to attract and convert visitors in the short, medium and long term.

Based on a talk that Nick – Head of Marketing Operations at StrategiQ – recently delivered at the Pharma Multichannel Marketing Meetup, this series isolates the challenges that may be faced by pharma companies when attempting to adapt their development and marketing methodologies to match their fast-moving, iterative surroundings.

“If you build it they will come”

It might have worked for Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams but this quote is far less relatable in the field of website, app and software development. Brands can fail to recognise that simply being a major player in your space isn’t a guarantee that your website will perform and acquire new visitors.

At times a victim of its regulatory sign-off process, the pharmaceutical industry can be somewhat held back when it comes to creativity, with web development being a prime example of how the end result can suffer as a consequence. However – as contrary as it may sound – the primary factor behind a failed web project is very rarely down to the level of creative input. It comes down to how that creative input is channeled.

Solid foundations – giving consideration to the basics

Common user experience principles and Google’s web development fundamentals exist for a reason. They are not there to stifle creativity, but to provide a framework for success.

“Attempting to produce something truly groundbreaking, innovative or astonishing cannot be a benchmark for project success as it isn’t really measurable and even if it was, what difference does that make to the bottom line of the business?”

First and foremost, any web project needs to harmoniously address both the needs of the end user and the company themselves. If this balance is weighted too far in either direction the site won’t perform against its overall objectives. Create a visually stunning, resource-rich website that provides great value to the user but leaves them confused as to how to get in touch or buy, then the project has failed. Conversely, if you focus too heavily on your own conversion metrics and jam call to action buttons and pop-up contact forms all over every page, regardless of where that page sits in a user journey, the site will fail to perform.

This is where the marriage of creativity and data can be so impactful. Start with a sitemap that is signed off by all stakeholders and reviewed against real examples of how people are using your current site through Google Analytics and UX analysis tools such as Hotjar and ensure this has been used to influence planning your new site. This then provides the framework from which creativity can blossom (within the remit of compliance, anyway!).

Over simplify or over complicate?

A loaded question as clearly, you’d do well to steer clear of both. A stripped back brochure site may simplify the user journey and allow the aesthetic qualities to shine through, however if not carefully targeted, will lack the keyword focus and depth of content to generate organic traffic from search engines. The impact of a large, unwieldy site can be even more difficult to manage, with the prospect of pages within your website competing with one another in the search engines or Google’s crawl bots (their technology for discovering and indexing your pages) getting completely lost within your navigation and overlooking key pages. There’s a middle ground to be found, which again comes back to ensuring the sitemap is signed off by all stakeholders ahead of design and development.

The bad news – your website is never finished

You may have been unfortunate enough to have been part of one of those ‘never-ending’ web projects where milestones shift, deadlines drift and before you know it the website feels outdated before it has even launched. The pursuit of perfection and the ‘cold feet’ that can cause decision paralysis in the final stages of a project have many knock-on effects. One very much stands out though.

“If you never launch the site, how can you measure whether it is working? If you’re not gathering data then you have no basis from which to improve and iterate the website.”

Launching with a minimum viable product and seeing the website as an on-going, iterative process is the best approach and can prolong the shelf life of any platform. The temptation to down tools and claim that the site is ‘done’ when it eventually launches can be overwhelming, but without responding proactively to the way in which actual users are interacting with the site, the platform has a genuinely low chance of success.

Up next

The next article in this three-part series will look at the role of content in acquisition marketing, followed by practical tips on how to listen to the ‘silent majority’ that browse your website in order to noticeably improve your websites user experience. Sign up for the twentyeightb newsletter to stay up to date with these upcoming articles and the other useful resources coming up in 2019.