Kudos has been helping researchers, institutions and publishers gain insight into different discovery channels for well over a decade now. Our platform has become a trove of fascinating data around the different ways that audiences such as researchers or healthcare professionals discover and reach publications – across different career levels, job roles, subject areas and countries.
Comparing different channels fairly
One of the things that sets Kudos apart is that we provide this insight across both online and offline channels, and across open and closed systems. So however research is being communicated, and however audiences are discovering it, our users and partners can make like-for-like comparisons between channels and formats. For example, will you reach more readers by holding a focus group or by sending an email? Does a poster at a congress engage more people than a video summary? Has readership from academic or practitioner networks overtaken email discussion ‘listservs’? Which social media platform has the most engaged or relevant audience for your content? And how do all these things vary by job type or country?
You’ll note that I touch on formats there as well as channels. Kudos can help you make meaningful comparisons there too – are people more likely to read a plain language summary or watch a video? Do they want an infographic or a handful of slides? Do they want a spoken commentary or an annotated graphic?
Having consistent metrics, that can be fairly compared across multiple channels, is the key to an effective omnichannel strategy for your content, whether that is research publications – or medical education content, for which Kudos is increasingly being used to optimize discovery (see for example this summary of the MARIPOSA phase 3 study that evaluated the efficacy and safety of amivantamab plus lazertinib, for which Johnson & Johnson have partnered with Kudos to support discoverability).
What is omnichannel?
It’s one of those words that has suddenly become omnipresent – though often with slightly different meanings. “Channels” have usually meant the medium by which information spreads – word of mouth, email, radio, television, events, social media. In current parlance, omnichannel often includes the format in which the content has been created – text, video, audio, articles, graphics. I’m using omnichannel in that broader sense – covering both the different channels through which audiences are coming to content, and also the different formats in which they consume content.
I imagine omnichannel as a transportation network: everyone may be heading to the same destination (trustworthy medical education content) but they take different routes (communication channels) and different modes of transport (content formats) to get there. We need to ensure we are putting the right content in the right channels and formats, so that everyone in our target audiences can find it in the way that works best for them.
Ultimately when people talk about “omnichannel” they are not just talking about using lots of different channels and formats - they are talking about integrating them, so that you interweave different content types and different ways of reaching your audience. This is the key to putting information in the places where people are looking for it, and in media that they prefer.
Why are people “going omnichannel”?
A solid omnichannel strategy can make a vital difference to ensuring that critical research findings are effectively found and acted on, whether by healthcare professionals making clinical decisions, or by other researchers or audiences for other kinds of research. With lots of experimentation underway, capturing consistent metrics about effectiveness is essential to making the right decisions about the right content in the right place for the right audiences.
Learn about using Kudos to manage your omnichannel strategy: https://info.growkudos.com/pharma
