Don’t feel bad: Content Complexity in Life Sciences and Pharma

It’s not just you. Omnichannel in pharma is actually really hard. In this series of posts, I’m going to break down different areas like content complexity, content reusability, data integration, and more. These insights are gleaned from a decade on the cutting edge with brands like Eli Lilly, Sanofi, Roche, Johnson and Johnson, and more.

Let’s get started by looking at the inherent complexity that’s in pharma content.

Why it matters

In the life sciences and pharma sectors, the stakes are incredibly high. The content produced can directly impact patient health, guide treatment decisions, and influence industry advancements. Given the intricate nature of the content in these fields, it’s essential to ensure that it’s both accurate and readable. The complexity arises from the need to cater to a wide range of audiences, from experts like MDs and pharmacists to laypersons like patients. Furthermore, the interrelated nature of knowledge in this sector means that content cannot exist in isolation; it must be part of a broader, interconnected web of information.

The common challenges

1. Complexity vs. Readability: Striking the right balance between technical accuracy and making content understandable for a broader audience is a constant challenge. Too technical, and you risk alienating non-experts; too simplified, and you might compromise on the nuances and depth essential for professionals. Even experts aren’t experts in absolutely everything.

Our research across multiple projects has shown that pharmacists or MDs who have to cover a wide range of disease states appreciate glossaries and quick references just as much as patients. And even if they can read complex language, they don’t actually prefer it and don’t feel “talked down to” if writing is clear and easy to understand. Everyone has a job to do and parsing dense paragraphs isn’t anyone’s job.

2. Diverse Audience Needs: Different audiences require different slices of and perspectives on information. For instance, a pharmaceutical decision-maker might need in-depth data analyses, while a patient might need understandable treatment guidelines. Catering to these diverse needs without creating redundant or conflicting content is challenging.

3. Interrelated Knowledge: In life sciences and pharma, knowledge doesn’t exist in silos. A single piece of information might be relevant in multiple contexts, and ensuring that these connections are clear and accessible is a significant challenge.

What can you do about it

Adopt a Holistic Content Strategy

Instead of treating each piece of content as an isolated entity, adopt a holistic approach. Map out how different pieces of content relate to each other and create a strategy that emphasizes these connections. This can be achieved through hyperlinks, cross-references, or even interactive content maps.

Once you have this map, you can start to tease out potential areas for reuse [LINK]. We found in content prototype testing (yes, that’s a thing) that both HCP and patient audiences could use the same core facts, provided they were arranged and contextualised appropriately for that audience. For example, patients want to know what they should do, what their risks are, and about the probabilities and mitigations of those risks. They also want to be spoken to with empathy. They don’t care about specific studies other than to know that the answers they’re looking at are well-validated.

HCPs usually want answers to specific questions – drug combinations, side-effects, dosage, efficacy and safety data, etc – and depending on how much of a rush they’re in may want it organised to focus on quick answers, or to read up on whole studies.

At Eli Lilly, we were able to rearchitect content to get 77% reuse on production content. Imagine the savings on review, localisation, publishing, and maintenance costs. As well as the ability to keep fewer duplicates of content, making all of it easier to keep accurate. All that time frees you up to add more metadata and focus on quality, fit, and omnichannel-readiness.

Accept that some retraining is going to be necessary

Content creators need to be well-versed in the nuances of the industry, but they also need a common baseline of creating content in a way that’s friendly for reuse. This might mean regular training sessions, workshops, or even collaborations with industry experts to ensure content is able to work in an omnichannel environment.

Implement advanced tagging & management

It’s almost impossible your current tagging (metadata) game is up to the omnichannel challenge. That’s simply because there was never the need to manage so many little bits of content, personalize, or deliver to all these new channels. Using modern content management systems and techniques allows for audience segmentation and eases the requirements on writers to manually tag content. The more automatic tagging you can get, the more your efforts will scale (and the less likely your writers will start a violent revolution).

By properly tagging content, you can tailor content delivery to the specific needs and preferences of each audience segment.

If you’ve been tasked with taking your company’s omnichannel strategy forward, we’ve lined up a whole library of 9 free sessions for you to explore. See Eli Lilly, Sanofi Vaccines, Roche, Content Rules, ICP’s Victor Lebon, RWS, Urbina Consulting, and more share their experiences and expertise on key enablers to omnichannel success, like

AI-driven advancements
modular, lego-like content
cross-system data integration, and
balancing the goals of audiences and the brand.

Pharma and life sciences sessions coming up soon

(or available on-demand, depending on when you’re reading this!)

➤Session: Independent thinking: How artificial neural networks enable computers to think like us

Discover the power of artificial neural networks for pharmaceutical companies, revolutionizing content creation and collaboration with human-like capabilities

Tuesday, September 19, 2023 at 16:30 CET / 10:30 ET

Featuring Val Swisher of Content Rules

➤Session: Transform traditional content into intelligent modular content

Explore the journey of converting human-only content to both human and machine-friendly content that enables automation showcasing the modernization of product claims content

Thursday, October 26, 2023 at 16:00 CET / 10:00 ET

Featuring Cecil Lee of Eli Lilly

➤Session: Omnichannel in pharma: Scaling up your content operations

Join this session with Sanofi Vaccine’s Monica Mercer, where we examine how pharma companies are getting started with and scaling omnichannel solutions.

Wednesday, September 27, 2023 at 17:00 CET / 11:00 ET

Featuring Monica Mercer of Content Rules, Noz Urbina of Urbina Consulting, and hosted by Scott Abel, the Content Wrangler himself.