Enhancing Content Delivery with an Omnichannel Approach

Life Science companies require a content management strategy that enables an omnichannel approach to content delivery by fully leveraging the value of many formats.

AN OMNICHANNEL CONTENT STRATEGY LEVERAGES CORE CONTENT AT ITS SOURCE AND DELIVERS IT IN FORMATS THAT TAKE THE MOST ADVANTAGE OF EACH SPECIFIC CHANNEL

Life Science companies currently provide content to their patients and healthcare professionals (HCPs) in several different channels such as websites, their call center, chat bots, or infographics.

However, the delivery of that content is often in the form of a PDF, a Microsoft Word document, or a piece of static HTML content. When using these formats, Life Science companies miss opportunities to provide interactive content for users.

An omnichannel strategy maximizes Life Science companies’ use and benefits of content distribution through its various channels while realizing all the potential benefits to the content consumer provided by that channel.

Understanding Omnichannel Delivery

In 2021, phactMI, a consortium made up of over 30 Life Science companies developing best practices in medical information, conducted a survey to better understand HCP content format preferences. 

The survey tested several formats of content delivery: infographics, slide decks (PowerPoint), desktop publishing documents (Microsoft Word), and web-based interactive content. The web-based, navigable format was preferred by the majority of the HCPs.

The major takeaway from the survey is that the content itself was adequate, however, the HCPs preferred a channel that could provide a more dynamic navigation capability. While this may be challenging in a Word document, the web channel and the HTML language is built to provide this robust style of navigation.

The barriers to getting to an omnichannel strategy include:

  • Having an incomplete understanding of all of the technologies involved in content delivery.
  • Tightly coupling the content with the presentation format for a specific channel (i.e., content written in MS Word looks great in Word, however due to the lack of a reliable structure in Word, bringing that content to the web usually requires web developers or an agency)
  • Lack of corporate or department-wide buy-in to change the authoring paradigm to adopt standards and technologies to standardize content for use in other channels

The Path to an Omnichannel Approach

To foster a true omnichannel environment, Life Science companies need to change the way content is created. 

This starts with switching content creation from Word documents to a structured component authoring platform. 

By leveraging structured component authoring, Life Science companies can overcome the barriers of entry to efficient omnichannel delivery. Structured component authoring does this by separating out components and metadata from the presentation of the content, so all the content is easily presentable in the channel where it is delivered hereby maximizing the number of channels through which it can be delivered.

For example, if a Life Science company has written several Medical Information Response Documents  on a particular drug, structured component authoring will allow an author to assemble content and organize it into a frequently-asked-questions format for a chat bot script, develop interactive pages with collapsible headings, and leverage components for infographics, and call center staff. Also, the writer has the luxury of using components that clearly trace back to approved documents. This will speed the review cycles in other channels as authors are able to ensure they are reusing already approved content.

Let Us Help You Get to an Omnichannel Environment

Entitech Solutions knows how to leverage structured component authoring to help you reach an efficient omnichannel approach.

Learn how we can help you. Request a consultation today.