Over the past week, I’ve had the privilege of facilitating two unique business acumen simulation
workshops for pharmaceutical marketers, each centered around building and applying omnichannel marketing skills.
These simulations brought together marketers at various levels, from new hires to experienced franchise leaders, all aiming to better understand how to orchestrate meaningful and measurable engagement across an increasingly complex channel mix.
One of the most striking observations from these sessions was how the term 'omnichannel' can mean different things to different people. Even within the same organization, and sometimes even within the same brand team, definitions and execution approaches can vary widely. That’s why, for the purposes of this blog, we define omnichannel marketing skills as:
The ability to design and execute integrated, personalized customer engagement strategies across multiple channels, aligned to business objectives and measured by customer behavior change and commercial impact.
With that working definition in mind, here are five critical things every omnichannel marketer must know in 2025 and beyond, based on what we’ve learned in our simulations.
1) Omnichannel Strategy Is Not the Same as Multi-Channel Execution
This is critical and makes a huge difference in the way you design training and business simulations to build these skills. A truly omnichannel strategy begins with understanding the customer journey, not just deploying a bunch of messages across many channels. You may think it is aligned, but it is not to the target customer (most commonly a key opinion leader). In the simulation, teams that focused on sequencing and channel orchestration (such as email, rep visit, peer event, HCP portal, etc.) outperformed those who increased spend across all channels. The key insight: channel synergy is more important than channel volume.
Key Learning Point: Success comes from mapping behavior-based touchpoints, not from flooding every channel.
2) Segmentation Must Be Deep, Behavioral, and Actionable
Most teams began with demographic or specialty-based segmentation. But those who shifted to behavioral personas, such as skeptical prescribers, early adopters, or cost-conscious influencers, were better able to tailor their engagement strategies and improve response rates.
It was exciting to watch our teams struggle with this concept in the simulations at first and then “get it” as they started to achieve their desired results and key metrics of engagement.
Key Learning Point: Effective omnichannel marketing requires segmentation that informs action, not just insights and reactions.
3) Data Integration and Timely Insights Are the Fuel
Teams quickly discovered that lagging indicators (like quarterly script data) are not sufficient to drive timely omnichannel adjustments. Those who focused on integrating real-time data, such as email open rates, site visits, webinar attendance, and rep call feedback, were more agile in optimizing campaigns.
Key Learning Point: Building a marketing strategy without integrated, near-real-time data is like flying blind.
4) Cross-Functional Collaboration Is a Superpower
Participants often underestimated the amount of coordination required across Sales, IT, Analytics, and Market Access to execute omnichannel strategies effectively. In the simulation, teams that built internal alignment and shared KPIs between functions made better decisions faster, at lower costs of engagement, and with less rework.
Key Learning Point: Omnichannel is not just a Marketing responsibility; it’s truly a team sport that transcends the entire company.
5) Measurement Matters—But Behavior Change Is the Goal
Learners were challenged to differentiate between activity metrics (clicks, opens, reach, etc.) and impact metrics (prescriptions written, adherence, access pull-through). The most successful teams didn’t just optimize for engagement; they optimized for behavior change and the impact behavioral change has on the patient journey.
Key Learning Point: You’re not just tracking omnichannel performance, you’re measuring the customer evolution.
Summary
Designing and delivering simulations that reflect this level of nuance has been one of the most rewarding challenges we’ve undertaken. The best part? Watching learners shift from theory to action, connecting data to insight, and insight to execution.
As the pharmaceutical industry continues to evolve, so must our marketing skills. Omnichannel is not a buzzword; it’s a discipline. And like any discipline, it requires practice, experimentation, and continuous learning. We’re thrilled to support that journey!
