Simon Grime, managing director of
communications for Doctors.net.uk,
explores how pharma can develop a
new
relationship with doctors
Pharma is becoming increasingly reliant on digital marketing channels, according to recent research from Cegedim Strategic Data, which showed a 40% increase in digital spend in the industry worldwide in 2012. However, as pharma relies more and more heavily on the internet to gain access to doctors, what are the barriers to engaging with them in this way and how can they be overcome?
A survey conducted for Doctors.net.uk shows that while doctors would like to access the wealth of knowledge, data and evidence that pharma companies hold, trust and transparency is still a major stumbling block. Only 3% of doctors surveyed by medeConnect think online pharma resources are credible and 42% never visit pharma websites.
So why is this the case and how can pharma develop more trusting relationships with doctors?
One of the key issues is that while pharma companies hold a wide variety of information and scientific data that are of interest to the medical profession, it is often hard for doctors to access. This is because many pharma companies only engage with doctors when they have something to sell, hence their information often has a heavy promotional bias and does not meet the doctors’ need for impartial, independent, evidence-based resources.
This problem is particularly true of pharma-branded websites. While such sites can play a useful role in the multi-channel mix if designed and implemented correctly, they tend to be too promotional and often consider only a narrow aspect of a disease area without first assessing the market knowledge and information need. As a result, many doctors regard them with scepticism.
Peer-to-peer privacy is also a big trust issue for doctors using pharma networks. Evidence shows that doctors are not willing to discuss sensitive issues in an online environment that is owned or sponsored by pharma. They want to network in the safe knowledge that the opinions and information they share with colleagues will not be passed on to third parties, and that they are not networking with unknown or unauthenticated individuals.
Rather than trying to push doctors to join their own sites, experience shows that it is much more time and cost-effective for pharma to fish where the fish are – ie. to engage with doctors via their most trusted online resources. So what digital resources are doctors currently relying on and why?
Statistics show that, in the past few years, more than 3 million doctors worldwide have turned to independent professional online networks, with the highest number of users in the UK and Germany. This growth has been fuelled by two key issues – the need for credible, independent information and doctors’ desire to network with like-minded colleagues in a secure environment that cannot be accessed by anyone else.
Research shows that independent online networks are second only to peer-reviewed journals when it comes to the level of trust that doctors place in them. By being independent, online communities are not only well placed to assist doctors with their daily work ie. prescribing and helping to make patients better – they can also provide insights into what the latest KOLs have been saying, not to mention ongoing education, news, conference highlights, peer-to- peer discussions and so on.
Multi-channel marketing
These networks can play a valuable role in the multi-channel marketing mix for pharma by enabling it to form a new, mutually beneficial relationship with doctors; one that helps companies to establish a thought leadership position by imparting knowledge, information and expertise in subtle, independent, yet fully transparent ways that really add value to a doctor’s clinical practice.
Such promotional or educational tactics could include a mix of e-details, branded micro-sites, sponsored clinical papers, accredited online CME or arm’s length education. They can be adapted to support a variety of sales and marketing needs from a brand launch to extending the long tail of sales for a mature brand. They could be run separately or as part of an integrated promotional and educational campaign, provided, of course, that they are fully compliant with the ABPI Code in the UK.
However, the value of independent online networks does not stop there since they enable pharma to extensively measure and evaluate doctors’ knowledge levels at any stage of a campaign. This enables pharma to ensure that its resources are not only tailored to meet doctors’ needs from the outset, but are also continually optimised in response to ongoing feedback and to provide maximum value. Such intelligence can be gathered via a variety of sources and tools ranging from polls that gauge a quick view, to more formal tools such as omnibus surveys that provide a scaled up picture of current attitudes and activity relating to a specific disease area.
Discussion forums can also be mined for key sentiments and terms that may have been discussed around a particular topic, while groups of specialists can be gathered for an online bulletin board discussion. Accredited educational content can also be used to identify specific knowledge gaps.
By taking this kind of ‘push and pull’ approach to its sales and marketing activities, and sharing more of its scientific data in a trusted environment, pharma can begin to establish a two-way conversation with doctors. This enables it to deliver what doctors really want from the industry – an improvement in knowledge and levels of education against a backdrop of falling training budgets and the need for pharma to be transparent and build trust. This provides a far deeper level of engagement and ROI and builds equity for brands.