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Leveraging KOLs Online

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Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs)Key Opinion Leaders can be crucial for healthcare and pharmaceutical companies. Respected in their field, these “thought leaders” are usually highly experienced and qualified physicians who influence their peer’s medical practice through articles they write or presentations that they give. It’s common that pharmaceutical companies engage KOLs during the drug development process, as they can provide advocacy and valuable marketing feedback.

Physicians often have to choose between a wide range of drug options for their patients, and often turn to key opinion leaders for knowledge, advice and guidance on pharmaceuticals, healthcare products and treatments. The credibility that KOLs possess is valuable and hugely desirable for pharmaceutical companies who wish to develop and distribute new medications. KOLs establish this credibility through years of experience and qualifications.

KOLs are incredibly important for medical and pharmaceutical companies, forming a critical part of any marketing plan. KOLs have a lot to add to a pharmaceutical marketing campaign, whether it’s bringing scientific studies into focus or creating an academic buzz for a particular product. Often this discourse can begin years before a drug or other product is brought to the market. KOLs can help establish the need for a drug, skew clinical trials in the products favour, downplay the side effect, neutralise critics.

KOLs Online

Leveraging the influence of a key opinion leader is a complicated process which requires an understanding of the KOL’s contribution to their industry or specialism, the ability to identify and understand their existing collaborations and relationships, as well as their degree of involvement with various institutions and organisations.

Often KOL management is based on the lifecycle of a product; KOLs involved in clinical trials might be emphasised in the early stages of a product’s life, followed by KOLs with publications at a later stage. Whatever credentials the KOL has, there are various ways of promoting them online, whether they are academic publishers or involved in clinical trials.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a subset of Google which allows users to search specifically for scholarly material online. GS locates journal articles, theses, dissertations, books, reports, papers and research materials from a wide range of sources including academic publications, professional societies, institutional repositories and databases. It’s a great place for physicians and medical professionals to find information about specific products and treatments.

Publishers of scholarly works can apply to have their site included in Google Scholar search, as long as some criteria are met, including providing an abstract of each work to non-subscribers. Libraries and publishes of textbooks can also have their content indexed on Google Scholar and Google Book Search.

Google Authorship

Google author tags were rolled out in mid-2011, and they enable websites to identify authors of content on their site and across the web. Webmasters just need to add simple tags to content which associates it with Google+ profiles. Google+ profile pictures are displayed alongside authored search results, along with a link to see more content written by this author. It gives visibility to authors in the search engine results pages (SERPs) and presents a great opportunity to utilise KOL relevancy and authority to promote search results on Google.

It’s through Google+, Google Authors, +1s and Google local pages that the search engine is increasingly becoming a social network. Ensuring good placing and visibility on Google is now not simply SEO – it’s about building a community of engaged audiences just like other social media activity. It’s thought that some sort of “author rank” will be introduced to identify the relevance and authority of various authors.

Twitter

Twitter is not the most relevant social network for healthcare and pharmaceuticals, but it is the most timely. On Twitter important real-time communications develop around news events and current affairs. This could include breaking news around clinical tests and new products in development.

Media-savvy individuals use Twitter because they know it is the best way to reach certain individuals who might be less likely to respond to an email.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn gives marketers the ability to connect with specific groups of people by employer, job title, location, gender and age. The difference in LinkedIn is that most of its users use the site in a professional capacity, and it’s not just used for HR and recruitment; discussion groups debate industry news and developments…

Posting in relevant discussion groups can create a conversation about a product, service, treatment, and KOLs can “weigh-in” on the subject with their professional credentials laid bare for the world to see. Professionals get taken seriously on LinkedIn.

HARO

HARO stands for Help a Report Out, and is an email service which helps reporters and journalists find sources for their stories. It’s the ideal opportunity for key opinion leaders to recommend products, services, treatments and “weigh-in” on important issues facing the associated industry. 30, 000 members, including journalists from the New York Times, ABC News and the Huffington Post, have all used HARO to find sources for their stories.

The HARO email goes out daily, so marketers should have a look when they can if they don’t want to miss out on free PR and media opportunities.

The Benefits of E-Details

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The benefits of e-detailsThere is no doubt that face-to-face promotion and presentation has been the major sales method of most medical device and pharmaceutical reps for decades. But the chance to sit down for a leisurely chat with the average over worked GP is fast diminishing.   It is an expensive and time-consuming way of getting things done and of getting the message across.  Pharma and healthcare companies are clamouring for more and more people ‘in the field’ as it has been proven that the face-to-face sales approach is inevitably the best.   But with doctors often feeling  “ambushed” by sales reps, is there a better way of making personal contact with physicians and getting information over in a way that does not have them looking at their watches every few minutes?

The Internet offers an option in its global dissemination of information, but if a rep is not sitting eyeball to eyeball with the medical professional, can they be sure they have understood or appreciated the benefit of the information being given, or will they simply move on if they have a question that does not appear in the FAQ list?

Enter the era of presenting information using tablets like the iPad and Samsung Galaxy.  A survey carried out in 2011 found that 70 per cent of the doctors polled, either already used or planned to use an iPad in their working life in some capacity.  So, if a medical rep turns up to do his presentation with an iPad along with a truly interactive e-detail aid the possibility of engaging the medical professional will be increased.

Initially it might be a good idea to hold a brainstorm meeting and ask sales reps to list what they see as the benefits of using tablets. Get feedback from friendly KOLs too and then plan the content, along with a list of all the functional requirements that will be needed.

As you plan your presentation, design your e-detail aid to work and render properly on the various platforms, i.e. iPad, Android etc. This will mean using an intuitive interface. Focus on making any tablet based presentation work fast and elegantly. Don’t try to cut corners with this, you need to make a good first impression, to engage interest from the word go and if there has been any compromise on your design or material it will be obvious.

It is definitely not a good idea to introduce strata of intricacy by cluttering up the presentation with features that are not going to be important to the users. Trying to cram too much in is likely to be the biggest mistake, under the misapprehension that: “The more features your presentation has, the better it will look.”  This doesn’t work. The simplest detail you can manage will invariably be the most successful in terms of your viewer remembering the message and prescribing his or her intent.

The benefit of developing an e-detail specifically for a tablet is that this device has been built specifically for you to interact and engage with any content. For example, one idea that makes a good visual impact is showing how a medical device might work. You can present product catalogues, or perhaps provide a dosage calculator to enable interaction with the medical professional. You could think of including videos or perhaps 3D images.  Try to devise engaging ways to present clinical data and always try to include mode of action demos, and even, for the more fun-loving professional – educational games!

There is no doubt that arriving with a sleek iPad will make your presence feel less intrusive than struggling in with abulging briefcase full of large product catalogues and other sales aids.  As technology races on at pace, it makes sense for pharma and medical device companies to take advantage of the benefits tablets and e-details offer.

Using LinkedIn to engage with HCPs

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Using LinkedIn to engage with HCPsIncreasingly healthcare and pharmaceutical marketing budgets are moving to online spaces. In 2010 eMarketer predicted that online pharmaceutical advertising spending would rise to $1.52 billion by 2014. In 2011 spending rose 23.3% to $1.58 billion, and eMarketer are now predicting that online pharmaceutical advertising spend is likely to reach $2.48 billion by 2016.

Marketing healthcare & pharmaceutical products that tend to specific diseases will require niche marketing strategies. Online and social media present an unparalleled opportunity to reach a highly-targeted group of individuals, that include healthcare professionals (HCPs). Using the various digital media channels at their disposal, pharmaceutical marketers can now produce highly customisable campaigns which target specific audiences based on a number of factors and activities.

But online advertising is not just about selling; it could also be about recruitment, human resources, identifying key opinion leaders and reaching out to them. In terms of marketing to professionals there’s no better platform than LinkedIn ads, which has proved massively effective for B2B industries due to the wealth of personal, professional information which LinkedIn users provide.

For regulatory reasons highly-targeted marketing in this form is very appealing to pharmaceutical companies that want to engage with HCPs. LinkedIn allows advertisers to serve ads to users with certain qualifications or titles, as well as the types of groups they have signed up to and the industry sectors they work in. It means that advertising spend can be extremely efficient and that specific people can be targeted for specific ads.

As well as the professional information which most users submit when using the site, there are also company pages and discussion groups on LinkedIn, which can be great place to engage audiences. LinkedIn groups encourage users to use LinkedIn for longer sessions of reading and sharing information, and promotion through groups can be a good way of targeting specific individuals while they are thinking/talking about a particular issue or topic in a group environment.

The difference with LinkedIn when compared to other social media platforms, is that LinkedIn is business-orientated. Whether recruiting or networking to promote products and services, most users on LinkedIn are acting in a professional capacity, and as such, it is a unique social platform in this respect.

With LinkedIn advertisers have the ability to target campaigns focusing on a particular company, a particular job role or even by geographical location. You can also target members by gender and age. There are over 1.5 million healthcare professionals on LinkedIn, and a quick search can identify:

  • 261, 514 users whose job titles includes the word “physician”
  • 151, 088 users who list themselves as a “medical specialist”
  • 267,883 who identify themselves as a “doctor”
  • 103, 273 who identify themselves as a “clinical specialist”

Because LinkedIn is so business-focused, its user data is ten times more accurate than any other social network’s registration data. It means that most LinkedIn users are being themselves in order to connect with work colleagues or other professionals, and so need to be honest and open about their employer, their job role, academic qualifications and experience. Accurate profile data makes targeted campaigns work – reducing wastage and keeping to budget.

LinkedIn & Google DoubleClick

LinkedIn has also partnered with the Google double click Ad Exchange, which means that targets can be identified based on job titles and employers, and they can be marketed to across Google’s network on a cost-per-click basis. Combined with Google-support capabilities such as re-targeting, this could prove a wise tactic for pharmaceutical and healthcare companies looking to target healthcare professionals.

Pfizer and Grunenthal bag brand new digital pharma awards

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Pharma giants Pfizer and Grunenthal have won a new award for excellence in digital pharma marketing.

Senior employees at the two companies were winners at the PharmaTimes Marketeer of the Year Awards. Grunenthal’s UK Senior Marketing Manager Matt Lowe was named Digital Innovator in the UK, while Pfizer’s European Brand Director Robert Collingbourne was awarded the European title.

This marks the first year that PharmaTimes has officially recognised digital excellence in the pharma industry. The magazine says that the awards are for those who “embrace the new opportunities presented by digital marketing in an innovative and ground breaking way but within the spirit and code of the relevant regulatory frameworks”.

Other finalists nominated for the new awards include people from Shire, Roche, MSD, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim and Amgen.

The value of digital marketing in a high-cost environment

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The cost of developing new drugs has increased dramatically whilst the number of drugs in late-stage development has continued to decrease.

According to a new report by professional services firm Deloitte on the world’s 12 largest pharmaceutical companies, the average cost of bringing a product to market rose by more than 25% to more than $1bn (£630m) this year, from $830m in 2010.

Meanwhile, the number of drugs in late-stage development dropped from 23 to 18. Ten of the 12 companies have also experienced a drop in returns from research and development (R&D), going from 11.8% last year to 8.4% this year.

Julian Remnant, head of Deloitte’s European R&D advisory practice, said that the news was not all bad: “While this picture reflects a snapshot of the very real productivity challenges the industry is facing, it belies some underlying successes. Of the 12 companies we analyse each year – the top 12 research-based pharmaceutical companies globally – nearly two-thirds succeeded in realising more value from product commercialisation than has been lost from late-stage product failures.

“Also, across the 12 companies, non-R&D costs have declined, resulting in a higher operating margin – which helps to free up cash flow that could be reinvested in R&D.”

The figures do however point to a need for pharmaceutical companies to find more cost-effective ways to develop and market their products in order to maximise on returns.

One way to do this would be to practice more digital marketing, where products can be promoted for relatively little cost but to a very wide audience.

Pharma company uses YouTube game to heighten brand awareness

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A pharmaceutical company in the States is getting its message across via the innovative use of YouTube videos.

Zyrtec, a Stateside allergy medication, used the video channel as a forum for launching a social media game in order to raise awareness of the brand.

It launched a YouTube game called Parks Unleashed on 5 September, the date acknowledged the US as the start of the autumn allergy season.

The premise of the game is that dogs have buried Samsung Galaxy Tabs all over the park and that the game player (the user) has to find them. The user is spoken to by various characters throughout their gaming experience and is allowed to make choices in their responses to the questions that the characters ask them. These choices determine the direction of travel for the game.

Whilst the game does not actually talk about pharmaceutical issues – largely because of strict guidelines governing what pharma companies can and can’t discuss with customers over the internet – its mere presence engages users more deeply with the brand.

The Zyrtec YouTube channel has collected 2.2million views so far, almost all of which happened as a result of the game – and in a short six-week period too.

Colleen Sellers, senior brand manager at Zyrtec, said: “YouTube is one of the most powerful channels online and using it for Zyrtec to reach such a massive audience, via Parks Unleashed, is a big win for us during the important fall allergy season.”

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

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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.

To learn more about how to market your business on search engines like Google download our white paper: A Director Level Guide to Search Marketing for Healthcare & Pharma Businesses

You can also listen to Jens talk about digital on YouTube

Healthcare trust could stream meetings on YouTube

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Scottish healthcare bosses are considering broadcasting their board meetings on YouTube in a bid to boost public interest in their work.

NHS Lothian wants to increase public involvement in its business and particularly wants to see more members of the public attending their bi-monthly meetings.

Their meetings typically involve debate and decisions involving hundreds of millions of pounds of public money – yet few members of the public are currently willing to come along to help influence how their money is being spent.

The health board has previously tried reaching out to the public via roadshows, taking its meetings around the region in order to make it easier for all local people to come to meetings. However, that strategy proved unsuccessful.

Bosses are now considering webcasting the meetings as another way to get people interested and involved.

This could have implications for web designers looking to market pharmaceutical products on behalf of pharmaceutical companies.

If NHS Lothian does go ahead with the move, it will be the first healthcare organisation in the UK to do so.

Alan Boyter, director of human resources at NHS Lothian, says: “We have been asked to consider the possibility of webcasting board meetings.

”Streaming them on the internet is one option – we don’t know of any other health board which does this.

”It would be done on a trial basis, then, after a couple of meetings, we could see how much interest there has been and present the findings.”

Mobile platform to ease prescription communication for US doctors

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Smartphone for medical useA healthcare communications network in the USA has revealed a new mobile platform for managing prescription plans.

NaviNet, a web-based provider of health messaging systems, will be using a system called Mobile Connect for PBMs (Pharmacy Benefit Managers) to allow pharmaceutical companies to communicate with doctors and insurance providers.

Mobile Connect for PBMs lets doctors check their patients’ insurance plans during check-ups to see which drugs they can and cannot administer according to their plan.

Doctors will also be able to receive information on whether patients are sticking to their medication schedules based on refill data from the pharmaceutical and insurance companies.

This will help them to improve their levels of care for each patient. It also enables them to access this vital information quickly and easily, saving them time on research and administration that can be better devoted to clinical practice.

Although the medical system is slightly different in the USA than it is in the UK, Mobile Connect for PBMs shows how smartphones can be used to improve communication between pharmaceutical companies and their end users and stakeholders in order to improve both sales and service.

Around 80% of doctors in America use smartphones, a figure that is expected to be replicated in the UK within the next couple of years. It’s clear that healthcare companies’ IT and marketing strategies need to embrace the smartphone and all it has to offer.