- Managed
Care and Cyberchondriacs - Changing the Face
of Medical Marketing
By
Jennifer Beever, Marketing Consultant
© June 2003, New Incite Marketing Analysis and Design
The Internet is a key tool in medical marketing. This article
includes a discussion of how managed care and the Internet
have affected medical marketing and how to use online marketing
to promote medical products and services.
Managed
care in the healthcare industry changed the market requirements
for medical marketing. When managed care resulted in limitations
on doctors time and ability to control their patients
healthcare, patients began taking a bigger role in directing
their own care. After spending years and billions of dollars
marketing solely to doctors, pharmaceutical companies responded
by marketing directly to consumers in addition to doctors.
Patients began to bring information about drugs that they d
heard about on television, radio or through direct mail
to their doctors.
Soon
after managed care took over, the Internet began to grow
as a resource for information and research. By 1998, 54
million people were using the Internet for health related
inquiries. By the year 2002, 110 million people used the
Internet for health inquiries. Called cyberchondriacs
by one researcher, these people are searching for medical
news, symptoms and solutions, participating in online support
groups, and reading consumer watch information.
As a
result of managed care and growing Internet use, smart companies
that sell medical products and services have added two key
elements to their marketing strategy. First, they are selling
to both consumers and doctors. Second, they are investing
heavily in online marketing.
Medical
marketers used to sell directly to doctors through marketing
representatives. The reps made calls in person, establishing
relationships with the doctors and leaving behind samples
and promotional materials. The other way medical companies
got in front of doctors was by exhibiting at symposiums
and conferences, providing give-aways and hosting hospitality
suites. These methods of marketing were expensive and very
labor intensive.
Now,
like most professionals, doctors are more limited in their
time to travel and their time to take sales calls in their
offices. And, like the general population, doctors are turning
to the Internet to access medical information, communicate
with email, and even manage patient care and prescriptions
online. But doctors weren t exactly the first to adopt
Internet as a valuable resource. In 1998, fewer than 30%
of doctors used the Internet and email. Then, according
to a study by the American Medical Association, by December
2001 78% of U.S. doctors were using the Internet, and three
out of every ten doctors had a web site.
With
both consumers and doctors accessing information on the
Internet, medical marketers have tremendous opportunity
to advertise online. There are two key requirements to successful
Internet marketing for medical companies.
First,
the two audiences need different information. Doctors want
technical information from their peers and other credible
sources, including scientific research and study results.
They also need features on a web site that support their
practice, including easy-to-use product or supply ordering
capabilities, appropriate medical and lab forms, and suggestions
for how they can better support and retain their patients.
Patients
want information that they can understand, as well as a
support community focused around the illness or condition
that they have. Descriptions of treatments or medicines
written in lay-person s terms, online bulletin boards
or chat rooms for their illness or condition, stories from
other patients that relate how they fought or overcame disease,
pain, economic and psychological effects are all helpful.
Web sites that appear to be generic sources of information
(i.e. they do not appear to be sponsored by a major drug
company) are seen by most people as more reliable sources
of information than a company-sponsored site.
Second,
since 81% of people on the Internet find information through
search engines, medical marketers must optimize their web
sites to rank high on search results listings. Content designed
to increase relevancy, appropriate metatags, links with
keyword messages, and frequent content updates are all search
engine optimization tactics that improve performance. Marketers
should manually register their site with each major search
engine, because the search engines usually reject registration
done through one of the many automatic site submission programs.
When
New Incite began working with one of our medical industry
clients, a medical lab and practice providing reproductive
testing and treatment, they were receiving only 80 technical
hits per month. They were getting very few or no results
(new patients or orders from doctors for lab work) from
their web site.
To generate
online inquiries, we optimized the lab s site and
manually registered it with the search engines. We added
a bulletin board, which required time on the part of the
doctors to key in responses, but ended up attracting many
potential patients and made the site appear more popular
to the search engines. We created and optimized distinct
doctors pages that had more technical information
and peer testimonials about the lab s work.
Now
our lab client gets thousands of visitors (not just technical
hits) each month, and most of their patients come from inquiries
from the web site. Their site comes up in the top three
listings for relevant searches on most of the major search
engines, and they ve facilitated orders for lab work
by putting most of the required forms and information on
the web site.
An effective
website and online marketing are critical to any business
or organization that wishes to sell in the medical arena.
So is a clear strategy of targeting both doctors and potential
patients to sell a medical service or product. With both
of these elements in a marketing program, medical companies
will increase leads and brand identity, leading to increased
sales revenue.
Prior to founding New Incite in 1997, Marketing Consultant
Jennifer Beever spent 14 years in sales and marketing in
the software industry. For more information about how sales
and marketing can work together, please contact Jennifer
at
jenb@newincite.com or (818) 347-4248.
-
- This
article may be reprinted with permission of the author.
Please contact Jennifer Beever at 818-347-4248 or by email,
jenb@newincite.com,
for permission. Proper acknowledgement of the author, including
name, company, and contact information, must be made with
use.
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