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The shift to digital advertising doesn’t make sense when pharmaproduct websites don’t meet consumers’ needs. From the research I have read and conducted over the last few years the answer is NO. TV is still the best way to introduce a new product provided it has a big audience.
SUMMARY: Online health seeker numbers are still very high, indicating that people are doing their research first before asking for a prescription drug. Online health seekers trust pharmaproducts but find product websites hard to read and inconsistent with their needs. Online ads for prescription drugs are unique.
Yes, telehealth has grown substantially, but that’s because patients are afraid of going into doctor’s offices. Let’s be clear about pharmaproduct websites. In a click-stream analysis earlier this year, I found that over 90% of online health seekers used other health websites to research treatments.
I’ve seen and researched cases where some products have really benefitted from DTC while others have not. Online research is used to evaluate new prescription drugs. The old belief is that patients who are interested in new treatments ask their doctor about them. But is this really true across all DTC?
Today, colossal budget product launches are not returning the same ROI as before. Product launches are going to need to be micro-targeted to specific audiences. What is the definition of a successful pharmaproduct launch? HCPs are more interested in all the data than the data that pharma wants them to see.
HERE’S THE PITCH: Guidelines surrounding effective frequency are different by every advertised product. For pharmaproducts, effective frequency is, for example, the frequency at which someone is going to go online to learn more about your product. TV alone is not going to sell your product.
I decided to research why this is happening at a client’s request, and I found two reasons. To their doctors for problems, follow-ups, and treatments because of the pandemic. Second, I see that in most markets and health conditions, micro-segments have different needs from online health sites, including pharmaproduct sites.
DTC marketers will do a lot of research on brand messaging, but what’s really important is what action your target audience will take due to being exposed to your message. Under no circumstances should ANY DTC marketer believe that a patient is going to ask their doctor about/for your product as a result of seeing your DTC TV ad.
Here are what I found in over two years of research with online health seekers. Consistently we heard that they like images of real patients or a REAL doctor with one key message communicated. These are just standard, overlapping needs and complaints I pulled out from our research. Users spend an average of 5.94
Earlier, the person had to fix an appointment with the doctor while seeking treatment for an ailment. With digitization, patients go prepared by doing online research. Hence, doctors suggest the patients these healthcare apps. They make things simple for both doctors as well as patients. Personalized health tracking.
My background for decades now is in the pharma marketing and branding space, working with all sorts of pharmaproducts, devices, diagnostics. Working in both marketing and advertising campaigns but also market research, strategic planning, workshop facilitation. Mark (83Bar): So that’s the challenge.
The same is true for pharmaproducts, yet they continue to waste a lot of money on display ads while the bounce rate and time on their product websites are dismal. Gone are the days, for the most part, of someone seeing a DTC ad and running to their doctor to ask for an Rx.
According to research company Lumen, only 9% of banner ads are even noticed for a second. Most pharma websites have ignored the other tactic of providing links to credible health information online, even if they provide information on a competitor’s brand. The key finding was that their doctor had recommended the medication.
I’ve been a huge supporter of having pharmaproduct websites include more health information, including informing people of the dangers of preventative health problems. Pharma should strive to get patients off some prescription drugs because they lost weight and are eating well, but we know that’s not going to happen.
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