Reaching physicians on the internet

The lure of interactive, engaging, two-way marketing has been building for decades but the promise has only recently been fulfilled. Historically, the Internet arguably lacked the necessary reach required to connect with enough patients and physicians to move the prescription sales needle. In years past, those selling on-line programs were often met with the objection of inadequate reach, regarding the 50 year-old high prescribers that were not on-line. Today, those objections of 15 years ago have lost their validity. The “35 year-old” young doctors are now 50 and the “50 year-olds” of that era are now 65 and retiring.

Over the last 15 years, the Internet has delivered not only on the promises of precision targeting and interactivity, but has exceeded expectations for reach, and is now arguably the leader in targeted reach to almost any niche audience one can define. If the niche is small enough, and fragmented enough, the Internet is often the only practical means of reaching that target audience cost-effectively.

[Callout]According to Manhattan Research, 99% of physicians are on-line[Callout]. 90% of physicians access the Internet daily. 90% have broadband access either at home, in the office or both. 77% consider the Internet “essential” to their practice. Physicians today, spend more time on-line and rely on the web daily. It is also widely reported that this physician audience is more Internet savvy than the patient population. This research compels us to ask the question, why is there disproportionate spending of on-line media dollars towards the consumer when the power of the prescriber herself is so engaged on-line?

One reason cited is the inability to reach the physician market online - the needle in a haystack argument. However, the Internet is infinitely more targetable than most other forms of media. There is a cadre of research by organizations like Manhattan Research and Perq/HCI documenting where physicians go on-line and what they do. Furthermore there are robust aggregation network, such as e-Healthcare Solutions, who will efficiently manage your media spend to deliver your message across its network of sites inclusive of: The American Medical Association, over 200 Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins journals including the professional journals of the American Heart Association and the American Academy of Neurology, Ascend Media publications, American College of Surgeons, assorted Elsevier publications, and more.

Physicians themselves, through focus groups, at trade shows, and through other interactions will tell you, when asked, where they go and what they do online. According to Manhattan Research, 76% of physicians, well beyond just the early adopters, are using blogs, podcasts, webcasts and video. Growing portions of U.S. physicians are joining private physician-only discussion forums.

While not all of these vehicles offer clearly defined opportunities for the pharmaceutical marketer, most can be readily utilized to reach your prime target audience, without whom prescription are not dispensed.

Companies such as e-Healthcare Solutions, by packaging aggregated advertising, sponsorship and e-mail opportunities across numerous targeted physician journal and web-sites are taking the guess work out of managing campaign effectiveness, and making execution of an on-line physician targeted campaign a turn-key and painless process.

e-Healthcare Solutions works with its medical association and publisher clients to maximize value for the advertiser and push the envelop for acceptable online practices. e-Healthcare Solutions and the American Medical Association in early 2007 announced for example that they are offering pharmaceutical advertisers the opportunity to reach the AMA audience through interstitial on-line advertising. Interstitials are highly prominent full-page on-line ad units that appear as users transition from one page to another. As traditional publishers embrace on-line initiatives, they are offering increasing ways for pharmaceutical companies to reach and engage with their core customers – the physicians who prescribe their products.

Other products include the inclusion of sponsored text and links in various “eTocs” or electronic table of contents alerts emails that are send to subscribers as new publications go to press. These electronic table of contents for publications just as JAMA, Circulation, Neurology, and others are often received by the recipient ahead of the print version, so they are highly valued and read by the busy practicing physician.

Additional advertising options on the forefront in the physician space include “Homepage Roadblocks” whereby a sponsor may secure exclusive multi-position advertising on a given journals homepage for a pre-determined period of time. This is a fantastic highly recognized brand-building tool for launch products and coming soon announcements. A Roadblock used in conjunction with an eToc can be an extra powerful one-two punch for a launch.

Like patients, the physician and healthcare professional markets are online and can be effectively segmented for marketers seeking to reach a niche audience. The long awaited promise of the Internet is finally here. The question is have your marketing strategies and tactics kept up pace? Visit and contact us to learn more – www.e-healthcaresolutions.com