Closed Loop Marketing – Feed the Need

Frank Iorio, Director of Health Sciences Solutions, CGS/VirtualEvents365

Closed Loop Marketing (CLM) has become a mantra in some quarters of the healthcare industry and it’s easy to see why.

 

In the past, it was hard to track an initial customer contact, evaluate its journey through the marketing& sales evaluation and service process, and quantify the value to the organization.  Often times, very little actionable information was percolating to the top of existing CRM systems.  Marketing and sales management were well aware that opportunities, time, and money were being wasted, but they didn’t have the mindset or tools to evaluate and refocus their investments and efforts.

 

What they did have were a lot more questions than answers…Are the correct initiatives being deployed?  Are we investing in the appropriate areas?  Is my messaging correctly matched to the audience?  How can I identify and eliminate the waste? Are our systems flexible enough to quickly react to the market and re-set strategies and tactics?  How can we communicate better internally and work together to achieve the organization’s goals? 

 

It comes down to a common point of reference (The Need!). CLM enables both sides to see the bigger picture, and empowers sales and marketing to work together more efficiently and effectively.  Also, CLM provides two types of insights (The Feed!).  The first shows how their marketing tactics are being executed.The second indicates what customers are thinking and what actions they’re taking. From these insights a unified perspective arises that is not dependent on long-term research or anecdotal information. 

So, how do virtual events figure into healthcare CLM?  Based on some of the fundamental aspects of virtual events, they are a perfect fit for CLM.  Data collection opportunities and customer feedback are continuous, and can be delivered in real time. This allows for the evaluation of the receptivity of the content being delivered and digested, the tracking of ongoing interactions with KOLs, peers, and marketers, and the inquiries generated.

 

The bottom line is:  organizations have a need to better understand their audiences, as well as their marketing and sales efforts – and they must continually feed themselves actionable data to achieve their goals.