Today, digital marketing channels are widely used by consumers (doctors and patients) in everyday of life at home and at work, using computers, tablets and smartphones. To be more successful, pharmaceutical companies has able to deliver the brand’s message across different marketing channels, including digital channels (websites, social networks, mobile apps, email, electronic publishing, and online advertising) on different groups of consumers with different preferences, from the point of view of which channels prefer information. This principle is based on multichannel marketing (multichannel marketing). Its motto is fair, which is contained in the right moment for a good consumer in the most appropriate way.
Nowadays, marketers are confronted with old communication marketing channels, which are losing their effectiveness, and digital marketing is becoming more and more popular. One of the benefits of digital communication channels is the ability to receive customer feedback that helps improve the characteristics of products and services by monitoring and analyzing relevant information.
According to a study companies that successfully use all available digital channels, on average, more profitable on 28% compared to their less advanced counterparts. The same report analyses the intensity of the use of digital technologies in marketing for different sectors of the economy. According to the results of the study, the pharmaceutical industry is among the newcomers in the development of digital marketing opportunities. There are also no clear rules for the interaction of pharmaceutical companies with consumers through the Internet and the social networks of the Food and Drug Administration.
The lack of clear rules for online advertising of pharmaceuticals for medical assistance is not the only reason why many pharmaceutical companies are slow to rely on digital communication channels. One reason may be that the introduction of innovative technologies in the short term has a low economic impact (in terms of return on investment). In the context of the loss of patent protection for many best sellers, which has resulted in lower profits, leaders in the pharmaceutical industry do not tend to make high-risk decisions.
Even though many pharmaceutical companies are beginning to communicate with consumers via digital channels, some major players are already successfully using a wide range of interactive digital technologies in their advertising strategies. In addition to the dialogue with the target group, pharmaceutical companies for doctors can also take advantage of the opportunities offered by digital marketing technology in these areas:
- Conduct clinical trials (creation of a free information flow);
- Digital services as aspect of the product
- Promote health applications using tactics borrowed from gaming (games).
Digital Marketing Tools for Doctors
Digital marketing services are a way to increase customer loyalty to the company, to stand out from the competition. In this context, some companies create wellbeing mobile applications. They offer a wide range of wellbeing applications that provide information about drugs for applications that turn a smartphone into a mobile device for medical diagnosis working as an imperative tool for doctors.
However, by adding special sensors to the smartphone turns it into a diagnostic device. Then, the collected data is analyzed by a special application. The use of a smartphone as a device for collecting and processing clinical data makes this procedure more accessible and less complex. Here is a list of capable gadgets that turn a smartphone into digital marketing consulting for doctors, as explained below:
- An accessory for a smart phone perform the ability to make an electrocardiogram (ECG) (a device does not replace the standard 12-pin ECG, but shows a high quality single-channel of ECG)
- mobile ultrasound system, an ultrasound system that is connected to a mobile phone via the USB cable, and transmits the ultrasound image over a hospital network, Wi-Fi or directly to a work computer
- Overlay on the phone so you can control your ears through the smartphone’s camera, it is thus transformed into a small high-resolution microscope with the app, and you can independently explore the outer and middle ear areas and transfer the data to the remote doctor as well.
- A mobile glucometer device can monitor diabetic blood sugar levels. Consequently, the device is connected to a phone or tablet, a test strip with a drop of blood is introduced. Therefore, patients can monitor carbohydrate intake, inject insulin and glucose levels.
- Device to determine visual acuity;
- Mobile sphygmomanometer;
- Weighing from Wi-Fi to communication with a smartphone or tablet
- A mobile application that allows you to monitor blood pressure, save data and send it as a graph.
The concept of digital marketing
Digital marketing is the promotion of services, products or brands of the company through one or more digital multimedia resources. Your main task is to guarantee the maximum presence of your company in the network. Digital marketing is a new step in the development of medical product advertising for doctors. Of course, information technology has become an integral part of the modern world. In the healthcare sector, the use of digital technologies covers many areas such as clinical research, communication with social networks, and promotion of mobile medical applications. Most representatives of the pharmaceutical market are still wary of these innovations.
However, the fact that consumer demand already accustomed to the use of technological innovations is quite high, hopes to promote growing pharmaceutical products, the integration of digital technologies into the strategy. The growing participation of doctors and patients in social networks forces pharmaceutical companies to keep pace with the times and develops, among other things, this sense, which leads to excellent results.
According to a survey, the use of all digital marketing channels to interact with customers for corporate profits of companies that only use traditional methods of influence on the public has increase by 26% per year. These data only confirm the opinion of how important it is to make your company to represent on the Internet, because without it many potential customers have little chance of knowing the existence of your organization.
Advantages of effective digital marketing for doctors:
- Interaction with a wider audience.
- Possibility of more perspective to send a marketing message in less time.
- Bidirectional communication with clients with the ability to determine their needs and receive quick responses.
- Involve users and influence them more.
- The trust and loyalty of the client can be increased for the brand and service by providing free useful content.
- Improve the company’s position in the network compared to the competition, using only standard methods of impact on customers.
- Transparency and measurability of the results of the marketing campaign in real time and the possibility of making the necessary changes.
- Reduce costs compared to traditional campaigns.
- Join in new medicine buyers and promote sales.
Essential Advices of Digital Marketing for Doctors
The utmost vital thing in the current situation is the dynamics of change. The more changes in the clinic are adapted to the trends, the more opportunities will be differentiated from the competition. It is better to control over development because the rest will just go with the flow. However, the rapid development of technology meant that interaction is no longer with potential customers, even in one or two directions, but with the use of a wider range of digital marketing communication channels. Let’s find out what digital marketing is, and we will try to explicate the 11 reasons of its importance for the promotion of medicines for the doctors:
- For successful medical business advancement it is important to use modern marketing technologies for clients, public sanatoriums, private clinics, diagnostic Centre’s, medical preventions and rehabilitation foundations of patients to fight for life. However, without promotions, no business can exist and develop successfully. Increasing public awareness of the activities of your Centre or clinic through digital marketing will attract new patients.
- One of the key criteria for a doctor is the selecting of a clinic for a patient by the price of services. And this cannot be ignored. In the mind of most people the private treatment is associated with a high expenditure of money, so ordinary people prefer to go to local hospitals, hoping to save money. When you create a price list for medical services through digital marketing, you know the prices offered by the market today. However, so consider the wage levels of the population in this or that region while posting on the social media. It is very important to justify the cost of services. Therefore, when creating the price list, you need to provide a detailed interpretation of your clinic’s service package through digital marketing.
- Usually, marketing development in the healthcare sector is slow because most of the clinics use same advertising channels, suggesting that this is sufficient. However, the rapid development of competition between clinics has significantly increased the cost of traditional marketing channels. Despite the effectiveness of tools such as contextual marketing, advertising on search engines (SEO) and social networks each year become more expensive. In a new reality, it is necessary to use less competitive channels.
- Company website is the company’s face. This should be simple, informative and understandable for every visitor. Do not fill it with graphic elements. Keep in mind that most people use the Internet through tablets and phones. As a general rule, the data transfer rate in such devices is rather low. Therefore, you should not display any additional graphic load on your company’s website, otherwise it will not open. Do not forget to provide the address and phone numbers of the clinic, the program on the website. It is also very useful to present a team of professionals working in your clinic. The website should be as informative and understandable to users as possible.
- Brochures and booklets plays and imperative role for marketing. These printed materials simply need to be in every medical facility. They can provide complete and at the same time necessary information on the list of services provided. Furthermore, the brochure should contain a brief description of the Centre’s activities and its competitive pluses.
- External advertising, television and radio advertising. Ideally, you should use all three types of advertising on the whole, which guarantees a quick result. However, this can be quite expensive from a financial point of view. So when you choose an ad, make sure that advertising outside the home is the cheapest, has a large audience, but usually is badly remembered. The most effective, however, is the most expensive television advertising. Therefore, select an appropriate kind of advertisement for display on electronic media for clinic.
- Printed advertising is a fairly common and effective way to make a statement to a large audience. Choose a thematic medium. The effect of this advertising is much greater. In addition, you can be sure that your ad reaches the public. According to statistics, this is advertising in a newspaper or thematic newspaper that becomes the strongest reason for a patient to communicate with a particular medical institution.
- There is the estimation that the internet is a salvation for pharmaceuticals, especially in the conditions of an economic crisis. And medical representatives can boldly deny new, cheaper and more effective advertising channels of marketing.
- For clinical decisions, 72% of doctors prefer digital sources. But communication with a medical professional is not considered a very valuable source. Especially when more than two years have passed since the beginning of medicine. But in the first two years, 53% of doctors visiting with employees of the pharmaceutical companies concerned (immediately after the launch, in the first days and months of communication with the medicines are much higher around 72%). Two years after the departure only 28%.
- Approximately 80% of the directors of pharmaceutical companies believe they fully understand their customers. Among the customers, only 6% agree with this statement. Although the tools that allow an almost accurate portrayal of a potential buyer are more than sufficient for digital marketing. In addition, the perspective of doctors regarding this situation is foremost vital because they are acknowledged of the utmost superior medium in the interest for their patients. However, the apparent simplicity of their application means that the promotion of electronic channels often leads to higher costs for pharmaceutical companies and reduces interest for the buyer.
- Personal contact is always more effective for the doctors. Digital tools can be a supplement that must be used competently. But the myth that in a crisis it is necessary to reduce medical representatives and completely switch to the Internet, where everything will come out immediately, can lead to positive results for doctors.
