Healthcare Digital Marketing

Hoist the mainsail!

2011-02-01T02:38:00.000-08:00

This blog appeared in the January 2011 edition of Pharmafocus

Organisations move slowly. Customers move quickly.

Customers can change their behaviour with the wind, while organisations have procedures in place to ensure that change is deliberate and controlled.

The cost of change is great for an organisation and if you make a wrong turn it’s expensive to correct.

For the individual, diverting one way or the other is quick and simple.

They follow instinct, trend and interest.

That’s why we have a lot of catching up to do and always will.

Individuals are yachts while organisations are super-tankers.

In this case, size matters and the spoils go to the most agile.

I say this because there is a greater recognition of the importance of digital media and change is happening slowly.

We are now past the early-adopter stage in digital marketing.

Digital activities are now essential to certain branding and communication scenarios.

We are seeing how they can deliver real returns and glimpse the full potential of engaging with HCPs online.

We are also seeing how digital can be highly targeted and provide multiple touch-points in a campaign.

The change is something we should get used to.

This is not a problem to be solved and then left.

We’re not going to see someone say “Here it is, I’ve found the answer.”

Heterogeneity and fragmentation are only going to increase.

That’s the way media evolves.

New devices will come along, new types of devices even, new online channels.

Achieving reach and share of voice will not get easier, while the transferability of successful activities decreases in a landscape which is ever changing.

The biggest opportunity is comes in changing our approach.

It’s in realising that we can provide a different type of value to customers, can have a deeper and richer level of communication with them and that the change can be a good thing.

Playing your cards right

2010-10-01T02:31:00.000-07:00

This blog appeared in the September 2010 edition of Pharmafocus

A wise man once said “The secret to surviving is knowing what to throw away and knowing what to keep.”

OK, you may disagree with my choice of metaphor but bear with me.

As we proceed relentlessly through one change after another, how do you know which activities to invest in and which to leave behind?

It cannot be possible to “do” digital in all its hues and shades and still do everything that has traditionally been done.

Put another way, increasing media choice and fragmentation goes hand in hand with a decline in traditional media domination, rendering many activities poor value.

The difficulty is we are in new territory, with new and unfamiliar rules. It is virtually impossible to find relevant precedents with ROI.

I mean, if Rupert Murdoch can be intimidated enough to try charging for something that everyone else is providing for free, what chance have we?

Finding the right questions to ask is one way.

At a tactical level, can digital enhance what you are doing?

Can online activities get through to those hard-to-reach customers?

Can two-way dialogue add another level of engagement, or can new media convey your more complex message with greater impact?

Ultimately, certain objectives may be better achieved by moving to digital completely.

Thinking just about efficiency and effectiveness, though, isn’t enough.

It’s not just a case of doing things better, or even doing different things to achieve our goals. It’s about re-examining our goals.

The best manager I ever worked for used to say, “Challenge your assumptions”.

Aside from helping him win arguments (with me), it caused people to think differently.

Digital requires us to challenge our assumptions.

It was previously unfeasible to have a customer-initiated one-to-one dialogue at anytime from anywhere.

It was unfeasible to hold an effective ad board of 15 members without any of them leaving their city. Digital changes that.

It’s not necessarily better or worse, just different.

More than ever though, playing your cards right requires intuition, innovation and boldness.

Going Digital

2010-08-01T02:20:00.000-07:00

This blog appeared in the July 2010 edition of Pharmafocus

I’m not a fan of proprietary products or companies that try to lock you in with their own technology, which is why it took me until recently to buy an iPod Touch.

The decision was finally made when I needed to test a pilot project we’re developing for clients.

I soon realised why it’s such a success: it’s cool.

Yes, you must have iTunes to use it and you can only synch it with one computer, ever, but I quickly forgot about that as I was drawn in by its incredibly engaging interface.

Of course, it’s great for email and music.

What’s most impressive though is the ‘apps’. With these I can read ‘pushed’ news at any time on any topic and stay connected with Social Media.

With 180,000 apps to choose from and 4 billion (yes, billion) downloaded to date, these really are the gateway to this device.

The digital marketing world is awash with speculation that mobile might be the next big thing. The huge success of the iPhone followed by a host of competitive devices is creating great noise and anticipation.

It certainly will feature in our market. Think of the 21^st century doctor demographic - smart, forward-thinking, having to keep up-to-date and in touch whether at a desk or not.

A study last year by Manhattan Research said around two-thirds of US doctors had smart-phones, up 20% on the previous year. Medscape, ePocrates and Doctors.net have their own apps I’d expect others to follow including branded versions.

Google’s Android is sure to affect the market here. In the US, Android smartphones are already out-selling the iPhone.

Importantly, this system is open rather than proprietary, so the same solution will run on the many devices being announced by major handset vendors (like Windows on PCs).

Meanwhile, Apple seems bent on creating a new mid-size market with the iPad. One million iPads were sold in month one - half the time it took to sell the same number of iPhones.

It seems the proprietary argument is no big concern for many out there.