Google expert says that pharma companies ‘are not leveraging’ the internet

Pharmaceutical companies are not leveraging the potential of the internet for digital marketing, according to an expert from Google.

Jens Monsees, head of consumer goods and healthcare at Google, told an audience at the PharmaTimes Digital meeting that there were numerous areas where pharmaceutical organisations could do more to optimise its presence online.

He said that pharmaceutical-related content needed to improve and to be delivered in context in order to differentiate between web pages aimed at healthcare professionals and patients receiving care. He said: “If the content is right then people will read it. If it is wrong, then no one will be interested.”

Monsees also said that pharmaceutical companies spent too little on their websites and that this needed to change, particularly because industry marketing needed to shift away from sales reps and push marketing and onto digital marketing.

He said that pharmaceutical companies could tailor their marketing messages more easily by analysing healthcare search trends on Google. In particular, he suggested that marketers in the industry take advantage of filtering keywords and specific terms in order to understand this search behaviour, both of healthcare professionals and patients. He commented: “Pharma companies are not leveraging even five per cent of this potential.”

Monsees called for collaboration between his company and pharmaceutical companies in order to collect data on what doctors actually search for online.

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You can also listen to Jens talk about digital on YouTube