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| Stephanie Katzman |
"Healthcare,
overall, and pharma is definitely on the developmental side of the LinkedIn
spectrum, if you will, from an advertising perspective," said Stephanie
Katzman, LinkedIn's healthcare lead in its Marketing Solutions group. "But
over the past three years, we've seen a huge growth in having these companies
consider LinkedIn as a channel."
Many
drugmakers have taken a first step, usually by setting up a company page where
drugmakers can build up followers and create an audience with employees, colleagues
and associates. But pharmas are increasingly using LinkedIn for paid
sponsorships and advertising. Sponsored updates and InMail campaigns are
beginning to move from testing to a repeat marketing strategy among pharmas,
Katzman said.
InMail,
in which sponsored messages are sent directly to targeted LinkedIn members
inboxes, tends to be "safe" for pharma because email bypasses any
open comment possibilities, she said. LinkedIn will only send InMail paid
messages to a user's account once every 60 days, but Katzman said pharma
companies who test InMail more often than not will quickly line up for the next
opening.
Across
her three and a half years at LinkedIn, she said, in the first year there were
just two or three pharma companies using LinkedIn for paid advertising, but the
number has grown to about a dozen now.