eStrategy & eMarketing Strategy and ROI
What Is Your Corporate Web Strategy?
Health Care companies with established brands have much to decide on when creating their corporate Web strategy: • What percentage of the marketing budget should be diverted to the online strategy?
e-Strategy or e-Ad Hoc?
Sir John Harvey-Jones once commented, “Planning is an unnatural process. It is much more fun to do something. And the nice thing about not planning is that failure comes as complete surprise rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression.”
Compliance Issues: Can the Web Tackle These Effectively?
According to numerous studies, only half of those receiving a prescription still take their medication as directed one
year later. A recent report showed that this means, to keep Pharmaceutical sales levels, Pharmaceutical companies
are currently spending millions ‘plugging a leaky bucket’ and advertising to capture new customers with expensive
acquisition advertising tactics.
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What Is Your Online Business Model?
Many Health Care sites are created with the intention of ensuring lots of people visit and use the site, are happy with the experience and return repeatedly.
Challenges of Digital Strategy in Pharmaceutical Marketing
As more and more Pharmaceutical companies utilize digital strategies in their marketing plans, the challenges become more evident. An outline of some of these challenges will be discussed briefl y in this article and in more detail in future columns.
Justifying Internet-Enabled Strategy Spending to Senior Management
A common unifying challenge for e-Marketers is how to justify your spending on Internet and digital strategies to senior management who often do not understand the concept beyond ‘a Web site’.
Pharmaceutical e-Business Activities: Buy, Build or Outsource?
Many Health Care companies have been faced with the question of whether to buy a pre-existing e-Business system
or whether to build their own (whether internally or outsourced).
The Wireless Web in Health Care
The recent prediction of Cap Gemini that 78 percent of Net users will move to wireless web use by the end of next year, combined with the IDC prediction that there will be over one billion wireless Net users by the end of 2004.
Manage Your Customer Relationships - Online
The Internet has transformed business models in many industries. During this process many companies - for instance Merrill Lynch and Borders - were put at risk because they were late to understand the implications
The Importance of Web Site Strategy
As many Pharmaceutical and biomedical Web sites reveal, far too many companies have developed Web sites without a
clear Internet strategy resulting in a site that is not achieving results (see ‘Web Marketing Views’ in ‘Resource Central’ for
detailed discussions on achieving and measuring results from a Web site).
Effectively Choosing an Online Partner for Health Care Web Sites: Guide for Pharmaceutical Marketers
Pharmaceutical marketers are constantly bombarded with phone calls from sales people from online health portals claiming to ‘own’ their customers’ experiences (be it health care professional or consumer group). Most portal sites claim to be:
Who is Your e-Customer?
Who exactly are you targeting and who exactly is visiting your site? These days there are many tools to assist in answering these questions including technologies to profi le, personalize, analyze log files and traffic - and these do provide some answers.
Clarify Your Pharmaceutical Marketing Web Site Objectives
Many companies create Web sites without clarifying their objectives adequately. Web sites appear to be created with a soul aim of ‘being on the Web’ but the objectives for the site are not planned effectively.
Getting the Most From Your Health Care Web Site
A good medical Web site takes time and resources to create and requires a combination of medical, communication,
marketing and technical skills. Below is a breakdown of the most important areas to be taken into consideration if
your site is to be effective.
Getting Results from your Health Care Web Site - An Overview
More and more Health Care and Biomedical companies are using the Internet as part of their marketing strategies.
However, are they getting results? And, if so, what kind of results? Are they creating significantly greater awareness
about their products and the benefits of using them?
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Web Navigation Systems
After completing a recent SWOT analysis on competitor sites of a client it became clear that poor navigation is probably the main failing of a great many Web sites.
How is Your Online Customer Service?
The Web is a perfect medium for valuable customer service. It is about giving your customers what they need, listening to them and providing solutions to suit their needs.
Marketing To Online Communities
Online communities allow Pharmaceutical markets to be expanded through a combination of strategic use of increased in-depth information on customers (in exchange for something of value to them), more effective marketing customization (from this information) and increased word-of-mouth promotion from customers
Tips for Creating a Useful Online Community
Last month’s column on online communities provoked much feedback leading to a request for the column this month to outline some basic tips that even inexperienced Web masters can follow when attempting to build their own online community.
Building a Pharmaceutical Brand Online
Pharmaceutical marketers must keep in mind that the brand is not simply the name of a Pharmaceutical product but the value the drug has for Physicians and their patients.
Branding Pharmaceuticals Web Style
Branding is everywhere. Branding makes things easier for the consumer. When faced with many choices, consumers
are more likely to turn to a brand that they know and trust.
Understanding Your Health Care Users’ Needs
Once you have clearly identifi ed who your target audience is, it is important to ensure that what you believe their needs are is in fact what they believe their needs are to guarantee that you are catering to their real needs.
Is Your Site Link-Worthy?
Many site owners request links from other sites to theirs. This is sensible since many search engines are fl ooded with
millions of sites and, unless the site is ranked in the top few listed, it is unlikely to be found.
Online Marketing Principles Review
It seems timely to remind readers of the key principles that will continue in online marketing and how these may be expanded and enhanced in 2001. Each will be reviewed briefly.
Plan an Online Marketing Budget
As with all marketing tasks, start with the end objective in mind and work backwards to determine the online budget. Work this out from the aim of the online strategy and how the results will be measured.
Find Your Health Care Target Audience
A significant amount of time can be spent marketing your site. However, unless this is targeted, you have wasted your time and money.
Banners: An Effective Online Model?
Banner advertising has been one of the most popular ways of reaching a target audience. However, with click through rates continuing to decline (offi cially they’re 0.68% although estimates as low as 0.10% are also reported), many are beginning to question the validity of banner ads as an advertising model.
Make the Most of Banner Advertising
Banner advertising is everywhere. Most high-traffi c sites that you visit have some form of banner advertising. But how often do you click on the ads you see? Do you even take in what the ads say? Do you take any notice of them?
Opt-In e-mail Beats Banners
Opt-in e-mail (also called permission e-mail) is being shown to be far more effective in terms of reaching potential clients than banner advertising.
ROI of E-mail Marketing
The high achievable response rates of targeted e-mail marketing are widely recognized. This fact has led many companies to begin to utilize this form of online marketing.
Traditional Advertising of Health Care Web Sites
Most Web site owners with big budgets tend to utilize traditional advertising to build brand awareness. Of course, this is sensible.
Effectiveness of Dot Com TV Advertising in Health Care
By now everyone has heard about the demise of Boo.com. In December 1999, Boo.com conducted an extensive and costly television advertising campaign for Boo.com in both UK and US.
Understanding the Online Health Care User
The CEO of General Electric, Jack Welch, once stated ‘We have only two sources of competitive advantage: the ability to learn more about our customers faster than the competition and the ability to turn that learning into action faster than the competition’.
Maximize Your Web Site Marketing
For effective Web site marketing results, the mix of media used must be matched to the specific target audience. This means that simply using the Internet to market a Web site can be a costly mistake.
Search Engine Tips and Traps
Although well targeted Web site marketing is probably the most important area of Heath Care and biomedical Web site marketing, it is also useful to ensure that your site is listed to general and medical search engines under relevant keywords.
Strategic Linking and Its Importance
Strategic linking is an important part of establishing a successful long term presence on the Web. The reason for this is that around 80% of Web sites are found from links from other sites.
List Services ~ How Useful Are They in Marketing?
A valuable source of information for individuals and businesses has been made easily accessible by the advent of electronic list services.
Don’t Forget To Sign
One of the cheapest (free actually), effective and often overlooked methods of online marketing is to add an e-mail signature to your e-mails.
Using Press Releases Effectively for Health Care Web Sites
Press releases, when well constructed, often generate more interest than advertising and many other marketing techniques.
Create Effective Press Releases
All too often press releases are written to refl ect a bias of the person writing them. Therefore, the person writing them feels that they are newsworthy but it is not necessarily the case for other people who read them.
Protect Your Company Image
Pharmaceutical companies are prone to poor PR with the general public. The image of a Pharmaceutical company being solely obsessed with profi ts and not its customers is a common misconception due to the inherent profi tability of the industry..
Ethics On The Net
News travels fast on the Net. Maximize the possibility that any news about your company is positive by not abusing the trust of your users.
Benchmarking of Online Pharmaceutical Marketing
All marketing (both online and offl ine) should require objectives, justification and results measurement for all efforts. The method of results measurement should be determined at the beginning of the planning.
WebMetrix - Measuring Results
Measurement is the only way to establish the effectiveness of an Internet site. But what should be measured? There are many forms of measurement that can be employed -- log fi le analysis, user analysis,
Personalize Your Web Marketing The High-Tech Way
With a plethora of high-level personalization software tools now available - such as BroadVision, FireFly and many others - real one-to-one online marketing is now much more than simply an idea.
Online Marketing Principles Review
It seems timely to remind readers of the key principles that will continue in online marketing and how these may be expanded and enhanced in 2001. Each will be reviewed briefly.
Why is e-Learning so ‘hot’ for Pharmaceutical Companies?
Is e-Learning taking off in Pharmaceutical companies because it provides convenient “24 hour by 7 day” access without the need to travel just when most Pharmaceutical company employees are travelling less but have become accustomed to accessing the Internet in their daily routines?
'Push’ Lightly and Carefully
‘Push’ is simply a term to describe a technological means of delivering a message directly to a person rather than making them go and find it (known as ‘pull’). ‘Push’ can be extremely powerful but there are inherent dangers in using ‘push’ if not carefully considered.
e-CRM ~ Separating the hype from the reality
Never has so much been promised by so many that has been delivered by so few than the recent hype surrounding e-Customer Relationship Management (e-CRM). Potentially, e-CRM offers Pharmaceutical companies powerful tools in managing its myriad interactions with its plethora of customer groups involved in infl uencing prescribing decisions.
e-Technologies in Clinical Practice
Many Physicians do not fi nd digital applications particularly exciting or relevant to their clinical practice - primarily
as a consequence of simply being so busy with patient care that they fear adopting new technologies will be a timeintensive
effort that they are unwilling to invest the time in learning..
Consumers and Patient Groups: How Key Are They for Rx Marketing?
Because of the DTC regulations in EU, European Pharmaceutical companies tend to focus the bulk of their marketing efforts on Physicians.
Online DTC for AIDS, Asthma and Diabetes in EU
Earlier this year, Dr. Trevor Jones, Director General of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, said that he expected that legislation relaxing about DTC advertising was at least five years away.
The 'Online Patient’ Does Not Exist
It is now official -- There is no ‘online patient’. The types of needs and wants from consumers (both patients and caregivers) in terms of online activities differ dramatically depending on disease area.
Advances in Applying ‘Direct From Consumer’ Pharma Marketing Strategy
One marketing method that is often under-utilized for prescription products with strong tolerability and effectiveness advantages is ‘Direct From Consumer’ (DFC) marketing.
Create an Effective Online Survey
Many companies, in an effort to understand user’s needs, create site surveys. This can be very useful in understanding the needs and wants of the target audience - if carried out properly.
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7 Secrets