Pharmaceutical companies have never had more channels, more content, or more customer data at their fingertips. But despite this investment, many health care professionals (HCPs) say their interaction with the industry is fragmented, generic and difficult to navigate.
They say pharmaceutical companies can’t add value to their work, don’t collaborate with them and they aren’t making a positive contribution to medicine and patient outcomes.
The reason is simple. Many pharmaceutical organisations operate with a campaign mindset in a world that demands something very different. HCPs want interactions that fit their workflow, respond to their needs and respect their time.
This is where Next Best Action (NBA) in pharmaceutical marketing becomes essential. It connects omni-channel, personalisation and customer experience into one cohesive strategy. 
The problem with multichannel marketing
For decades, pharma marketing has been all about cyclical planning, broad segmentation, and channel activation to drive brand objectives.
Here’s how it might look:
- The marketing team sends an email campaign
- Sales sends follow-up emails
- Another team runs a webinar series
- Medical sends clinical updates
- Patient programs send alerts
No wonder HCPs feel frustrated. An AusDoc survey of over 1000 Australian doctors presented at the October 2025 Next Summit found they rate pharma poorly.
72% would not recommend the pharmaceutical industry in Australia as making a positive contribution to medicine and patient outcomes. High on their list of concerns is a lack of collaboration, value and relevance.
This isn’t just an Australian problem. One McKinsey report found 81% of doctors are dissatisfied with their interactions with pharmaceutical companies and two-thirds say they’re bombarded with generic messages. An Accenture survey found 65% of doctors feel ‘spammed’ by pharma digital content.
Omni channel marketing and the Next Best Action model changes this. It moves pharma from “What should we push?” to “What does this HCP need right now?”
What is Next Best Action and omnichannel marketing?
Omni-channel marketing means all marketing channels work in sync, adapting to the doctor’s needs. Instead of sending whatever the marketing team planned months ago, it sends what the individual doctor needs next. It’s not about campaigns and or another email trigger.Next Best Action recommends the optimal action for each individual HCP at any given moment. It connects the right person to their next best action, whatever it may be. How does it do it?
It uses a combination of real-time data, predictive AI models and decision logic. This may be through how they’ve previously interacted with campaigns or templated surveys to determine:
- What are their clinical interest areas?
- How do they prefer to engage with marketing?
- What are their triggers for more information?
- What do their patients need?
- When do they need information and why?
From this, the system identifies one next step.
What Next Best Action actually means in practice
It’s all about personalisation and how that identifies what the doctor needs.A Next Best Action model:
- Allows the HCP to interact in a conversational way whenever they need.
- Lets HCPs interact where they are, whether it’s online, over the phone or through SMS or WhatsApp
- Uses a performance media approach to help those doctors find what they’re looking for.
- Personalises future learning by understanding their preferred topics and personalising their education models
- Aims to better understand them and help them take their next best action.
- Instantly provides insights and follow up actions for reps and brand teams.
Their sales reps:
- Reached previously unresponsive HCPs
- Uncovered new opportunism with other HCPs
- Discovered the right time and content on digital channels maximised engagement
- When there are coherent touchpoints, pharma communications feel connected, relevant, and respectful of the HCP’s time.
The Next Best Action maturity problem in Pharma
Most pharma organisations in Australia aren’t yet operating at full Next Best Action maturity. Many organisations often work in siloes, with brand teams and medical teams not sharing meaningful data. It means marketing and field execution are disconnected and gives limited visibility into HCP preferences.
There’s also a concern with measurement. The Next Best Action model harder to measure and don’t necessarily provide the same level of reach that traditional pharma marketing campaigns can.
But it’s important to consider relevance before reach. By understanding what HCPs and their patients value, pharma companies can engage more effectively in a more meaningful way. The real measurement of success is whether HCPs come back and re-engage. If they’re proactively reaching out to pharmaceutical companies, it shows value is being added.
It’s about always considering what the HCP wants, not what the brand wants.
How RoseRx can improve your Next Best Action
More emails, more campaigns and more content don’t lead to better HCP engagement.
What the industry needs is better decisions that are aligned to what each HCP genuinely wants and respond with relevance, not volume.
The Next Best Action model enables that shift. It simplifies complexity, aligns teams, and delivers more meaningful interactions through every channel.
At RoseRx, we help pharmaceutical companies identify high-value audiences, surface behaviour-driven insights and deliver real-time recommendations that guide the next bex action across omnichannel journeys.
