The data: Healthcare and pharma marketers say their biggest challenges in engaging healthcare professionals (HCPs) online include delivering personalized messages and reaching them through their preferred channels, according to a February 2026 report from Medical Marketing + Media (MM+M) and Multiview based on 2025 survey data.

• Timing: 69% of respondents cited pinpointing exactly when HCPs are ready to engage or make a decision, making it the most commonly identified challenge.
• Resonance: 62% said it’s difficult to know which types of content and digital experiences resonate with HCPs.
• Messaging: 54% cited differentiating their messaging from competitors as a challenge.
• Preferred channels: 45% also said it’s difficult to understand where HCPs spend time online.

Why it matters: Reduced in-person physician access and increased HCP engagement with online medical content have pushed healthcare and pharma marketers to ramp up B2B digital marketing investment—posting double-digit annual growth throughout the decade before moderating to 9.3% YoY growth to reach $2.3 billion in 2026, per our estimates. Through online channels, marketers inform HCPs of their latest drugs, clinical trial updates, and important medical evidence like safety profiles and treatment protocols.

However, medical marketers operate in a fragmented digital environment, which only compounds marketers’ challenges in reaching them effectively. Digital sources account for 84% of physicians’ weekly reading time, but that engagement is spread across professional portals, medical journal sites, walled-garden HCP social networks, industry websites, email newsletters, and other channels, according to a September 2025 study from M3 MI.

And HCPs have high expectations when they’re hit with medical content—they want it to be relevant to their specific practice and delivered in trusted environments. 68% of physicians say they feel burnt out by pharma emails, per data from tech company Highp—suggesting much sponsored content feels generic and disconnected from HCPs’ specialties. Meanwhile, when pharma ads appear on digital channels, HCPs prefer to see them where they’re already researching drugs and treatments.

Implications for healthcare and pharma marketers: The volume-driven approach to HCP campaigns must give way to more tailored messaging by clinical specialty.

AI tools are starting to enable this personalized outreach while helping identify signals of HCP intent through content consumption patterns, search activity, email engagement, and prior prescribing behavior. This allows marketers to deliver more relevant information at the optimal moment in the decision-making process. Marketers should prioritize evidence-based content—such as research reports, whitepapers, and case studies, which MM+M survey respondents rated among the most effective formats—and distribute it through trusted HCP channels, including professional social networks, industry publications, and non-promotional follow-up emails after rep visits.

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