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12. Mahdi-Rogers M, Hughes RAC. Eur J Neurol. 2014;21(1):28-33.
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14. Bunschoten C et al. J Peripher Nerv Syst. 2019;24(3):253-9.
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References
CIDP: chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy; ER: emergency room; Ig: immunoglobulin; IV: intravenous.
Abbreviations
Burden of CIDP disease and treatments
Many patients with self-reported CIDP missed work or school due to treatment administration.11
A UK study found that 17% required a wheelchair at the nadir of illness 12, while a population-based study from Iceland reported 10%.13
Burden of CIDP disease and treatments
Long IV infusion times
Poor corticosteroid tolerability11
Burden of CIDP disease and treatments
The truth about pharma emails: what HCPs really think
Once under threat by the rise of shinier, more algorithmic platforms like social media, email marketing in pharma has survived the test and prevailed.
In a survey by EMJ GOLD, 82% of HCPs identified email as a primary channel for staying current with medical education, positioning it as a resilient, trusted and essential tool for modern marketing and medical affairs teams.
Summary
Email compared to other channels
However, not all email efforts hit the mark with healthcare audiences.
Respondents identified overtly commercial messaging (44%), poor targeting (14%), cluttered and unstructured content (13%) and low-quality, non-evidence-based material (12%) as the key issues they want to see less of.
Source: EMJ GOLD, 2026
Preferred channel
44%
One of my main channels
38%
Used alongside others
14%
Occasionally used
4%
Cutting through the noise
More than 100 emails land in the average HCP inbox each day. Clinicians, skilled at making fast decisions under pressure, have adapted accordingly. They triage. They flag, bookmark and batch. Email is not something they sit down to read – it is something they process, in gaps between patients, on the commute, at the end of a long evening.
The survey lays this bare. Around 30% of HCPs decide whether to engage with an email within seconds. A quarter skim and return later. Another 26% save emails for dedicated reading time – which could mean late, on a sofa, on a phone. Only 17% give their full attention within the first minute. In the clinical inbox, the window to make an impression is small.
The story begins with a simple question: could pharmaceutical companies use email to promote their products online? In a 1997 paper entitled The Challenge of the Internet, Michael L. Rich raised this possibility, noting that the FDA was already beginning to shape policy for the emerging medium.
The fascinating evolution of email marketing
1997
First mention
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References
In the survey, we asked HCPs what drives them to open an email for professional learning purposes. The results show that relevance, trust and personalisation form the core of any strong strategy.
Trusted sender
The science behind email opens
44%
New evidence signal
29%
Personalised subject line
38%
52%
Clinical relevance
The implications are clear. Content must speak to day-to-day practice rather than abstract therapeutic interest. Sender credibility matters as much as the subject line. And the case for targeted, timely sends over spray-and-pray is plain.
What motivates HCPs to open an email?
The real driver of click-throughs
Driving opens is only half the battle. Once inside an email, doctors want clarity fast – and the data shows that what earns a click is not creativity, but relevance and efficiency. A sharp, relevant headline drives action for half of respondents, making it the most important element in the email. Time-saving summaries appeal to 38%, reinforcing the value of clear takeaways. Practical resources – guidelines, tools and the like – and access to full clinical data both motivate 29%, pointing to an audience that wants either a shortcut or the full picture, with little appetite for anything in between.
Half of respondents said a sharp, relevant headline makes them click
When HCPs engage – and where it happens
Another consideration is around time and place. When a medical education email lands in an HCP's inbox, marketers may hope it will be read at a desk, with time and attention to spare. The reality looks quite different.
Source: EMJ GOLD, 2026
38% of HCPs read first thing in the morning, making the pre-work slot a key window. While 25% read in the evening, 18% during lunch and 16% between seeing patients.
37% use a mix of devices. 34% read at a work desktop. 16% read on a smartphone, in motion. Only 10% read at home on a single device in calm conditions.
When?
Where?
In fact, emails are consumed across the whole day, in bursts, often under time pressure. Therefore, design for the worst case, not the best. An email that looks polished on a widescreen monitor may be unreadable on a phone at 7am. Dense text and heavy images are not just poor practice – they could alienate a key slice of your audience.
One associate professor with over 20 years of clinical experience emphasised this point in their feedback: “Titles are important, the images less”. The reason? Too many images lead to issues with saving and archiving content for a later date.
The basics that still make or break performance
While advanced tactics have their place, they cannot compensate for weak foundations. The core principles of effective email campaigns are neither complex nor new – they are, however, frequently overlooked.
Do this
Write for a small screen and a short window. If it would not hold up on a phone between patients, it will not hold up at all.
Have a clear call to action. What is the goal of the communication?
Lead with the point. HCPs do not have time for a warm-up.
Avoid this
Dead ends, emails with no clear path forward. If you cannot click through or explore further, the email has failed.
Dense paragraphs. White space is not wasted space. It is breathing room.
Subject lines that bury the lead. The subject line is the headline, not just a compliance clause.
But don't just take our word for it...
In the survey, a senior cardiologist with over four decades in the field described their expectation simply:
Relevant and up to date information concerning my field of expertise
An experienced haematologist made the counter point as plainly, revealing what devalues an email instantly:
Too much unnecessary detail, especially when the main point is hard to find
Going the extra Mile
Nevertheless, best practice sets a standard, not a ceiling. The emails that drive the most engagement may do something unexpected within the constraints of compliance, such as interactive elements, embedded polls or dynamic personalisation.
Alternatively, they may simply deliver content that HCPs say they actually want. The research saw respondents identify case reports, guidelines, meta-analyses and study summaries as their favoured formats – among many others.
%
36% of HCPs said case reports, including interactive ones, were their favourite content format
Metrics that actually Matter
In email marketing overall, metrics are what signal success or failure, but in pharma, the full picture isn’t always considered. A 15-20% open rate may be the goal, but it means nothing if no one clicks. A high click rate means nothing if the landing page loses them in five seconds. Therefore, it is key to measure the full journey, not just the first kilometre.
Audience reach
Match volume with
reaching the right HCPs
Website sessions from email
The first indication that content moved someone to act
Top clicked links, ranked The most honest signal of what your audience actually cares about
Scroll depth and time on page
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Congress campaigns: email at its most effective
Congress season is when the stakes are highest – and the budgets to match. For pharma teams, it represents one of the most intense periods of the year – expensive to execute, difficult to measure and over almost as soon as it begins.
Here, email is the mechanism that multiplies that financial and human investment – before, during and after the event – filling seats at the symposium, delivering live updates from the ground and extending the research’s reach beyond the congress hall.
Open rate
A verdict on subject line and preview text
The secret to winning congress communications
Timing
prioritise the
pre-congress period
Content
22%
20%
only want communication during the live event
9%
care most about post-event
communications in isolation
46%
Post-event summaries
41%
On-demand recordings
30%
Real-time highlights
25%
Pre-event session previews
Interestingly, the data confirms what might seem counterintuitive: more contact, not less, is what HCPs want around these events. Nearly half expect to hear from pharma at all three stages – before, during and after – which challenges the instinct to pull back and avoid crowding the inbox around a busy event.
On the content side, the appetite for post-event summaries and on-demand recordings is perhaps less surprising. These are the two most valued formats by some margin, reflecting a simple reality: not every HCP can be in the room. For those who cannot attend congress live, receiving the content to their inbox is the next best thing.
IQVIA shares another reason as to why post-congress messaging matters. In a study, 90% of HCPs said post-event materials help them apply new medical approaches faster. That is not a marketing metric. It is a clinical one, making the post-congress email one of the most consequential sends in the pharma calendar.
The key takeaway
The key takeaway
Research methods
EMJ GOLD conducted a targeted online survey via email with 91 healthcare professionals, spanning a range of ages, specialities, genders and nationalities.
The wild west
After the millennium, email arrived in pharma as a scrappy, cost-effective experiment – a way to extend the reach of sales reps without putting them on a plane. Adoption was patchy. In-person relationships still ruled. And the campaigns that did go out were often unbalanced, scientifically thin and poorly targeted.
2000
Regulation chases its tail
In 2009, the PhRMA Code introduced voluntary standards for promotional conduct. However, voluntary was the operative word. Adherence was inconsistent, enforcement was fractured and the gap between what was happening online and what was permitted in print remained wide.
2009
Compliance is king
In the last decade, the industry has tightened its approach. A study of Norwegian HCPs found that clinically relevant and accurate claims in pharma emails rose from 48% in 2004 to 78% in 2023–24. The challenge no longer compliance, but creating compelling content within rigorous approval processes that can take 10 to 30+ days.
2016-2026
52
%
36
47%
HCPs want communications before, during and after
Source: EMJ GOLD, 2026
Source: EMJ GOLD, 2026
Source: EMJ GOLD, 2026
Taken together, the message is clear: signal value early and make it obvious. An email that buries its best content three scrolls down already risks losing its audience.
