The RACE Framework: A Primer for Pharma Marketers

Developing a solid omnichannel marketing strategy has never been more important for brands in all fields than it is right now. Multiple global factors, including but not limited to the COVID-19 crisis, have necessitated an approach which seamlessly blends traditional and digital marketing methods together.

With its history as a predominantly B2B industry, the world of pharma marketing has arguably been somewhat late to the omnichannel party and many brands in the space have found themselves playing catchup when it comes to advertising products using these methodologies.

However, help is at hand in the form of the marketing geniuses over at Smart Insights who have developed an operational framework designed to help businesses accelerate growth through improved omnichannel marketing management.

RACE

Consisting of four distinct stages – Reach, Act, Convert, Engage – the RACE Growth System deploys the RACE Planning Framework to provide marketer with simple yet effective tools with which to reach new audiences and convert them into paying (and hopefully repeat) customers.

"We created RACE as a simple framework to help small and large businesses alike take the best advantage of the fantastic low-cost opportunities available from digital marketing,” said Smart Insights in a blog post. In our research, we have found that, shockingly, many businesses don't have a digital marketing strategy. When creating a digital marketing strategy, knowing how to structure it and where to start is sometimes the biggest challenge! RACE gives a structure to help you review and prioritize when there are so many options, but some options work better than others.”

The four stages of the RACE framework operate at a different stage of the buyer journey and seek to leverage maximum value from them.

• Reach targets prospects at the exploration stage and achieves its goal through published and promoted content, and by allowing sharing to other outposts, networks, and influencers. Drawing visitors to your website via your content channels is the objective.
• Act uses those content channels and a clear customer journey map to ensure your marketing materials are relevant, inspirational, have utility, and ultimately result in lead generation.
• Convert brings your prospects to the point of making a purchase decision and then guides them through that process. Investment using CRO, marketing automation, and remarketing ensures continued contextual relevance and drives conversion.
• Engage seeks to turn converted customers into enthusiastic brand advocates. Existing and satisfied customers are the key to an active social media presence, social proof marketing, repeat sales and referrals.

"We designed RACE so that it can be customized and applied to all sizes and types of B2B and B2C businesses from small businesses and startups to larger organizations working on digital transformation,” added Smart Insights. "Our Business Members apply the RACE Framework to their marketing planning and strategies in all sizes of businesses across many different sectors. RACE is growing in popularity today due to its practical nature and flexibility in supporting a variety of business aims and objectives.”

RACE for Pharma

In the pharma and healthcare sector, RACE can be deployed to help brands in the space connect with healthcare providers and patients through marketing, optimized data and analytics, content marketing, and advanced technology deployment across all channels.

With a substantial number of pharma brands choosing to connect directly with patients – dedicated readers will have already read our previous article covering this topic in more detail – the need for a structured omnichannel strategy which covers both B2C and B2B pipelines is become an increasingly critical element of marketing. Several big brands in the space have found the RACE framework to be incredibly useful in achieving this goal.

"I really like the Smart Insights RACE framework since it gives me a multichannel marketing framework that we can adapt to our different business opportunities,” said the Senior Global Digital Director at pharma giant, GlaxoSmithKline. "I have found it really easy to use for developing plans and the feedback from the business has been very positive. After using Smart Insights myself, I found real value in the resource and therefore expanded our subscription to the rest of my team”

Final Thoughts

Establishing a simple to use yet comprehensive framework such as RACE to guide marketing planning and decision making is an ideal way to break down siloes and create strategies which leverage the absolute best of traditional and digital marketing. With the pharma business increasingly focused on both B2C and B2B audiences, and subsequent global challenges transforming the ways people and businesses purchase products, the need for such a framework has arguably never been stronger.

RACE and other marketing frameworks are sure to be part of the conversation at Future Pharma 2023, being held in June at The Westin Copley Place, Boston, MA.

Download the agenda today for more information and insights.