One of the many ways that we immerse ourselves into a client’s business is by monitoring what people are saying about their company, their healthcare brands, and their competitors’ brands.  Social media search engines — including Social Mention, Omgili, WhosTalkin, and Samepoint— are excellent resources to “hear” what consumers, patients, and healthcare professionals are thinking.  We also “listen” by monitoring relevant communities, message boards, and forums.

I am not saying that market research does not provide important insights.  It can.  But the level of honesty from people who share their emotions, desires, and frustrations on these social media networks often transcends what I hear from facilitated focus groups.  It’s also a reason why companies like Radian6, ListenLogic, SAS^®, and others are staking their futures on providing healthcare marketers with in-depth, drilled-down social media analytics.

We at The Core Nation have always been driven by the search for truth, wherever it can be found.  Listening is a fluid process and requires being open to everything that we hear.  Because when brands speak honestly to people in ways that resonate from the head to the heart, you build enduring trust.

There is no greater truth than that.

SAS is a registered trademark of SAS Institute Inc.

Managing e-mail madness

AwayFind liberates you from the never-ending burden of checking your e-mail.  When an important message arrives, you are alerted with an SMS on your mobile device or a digital voice call.  You can create filters and customized auto-responders to let contacts know that you will get back to them sooner, later, or perhaps much later.  Basic service is free, and paid options range from $4.99 to $49 a month.  A low-tech alternative to avoid constant interruptions is to only open your e-mail program a few times a day.

Your to-do list — on steroids

Trello picks up where the banal Day-Timer^®* leaves off.  This collaboration tool organizes all of your projects onto editable cards that can be dragged and dropped onto project boards on your computer screen.  Trello lets you see:

• What’s being worked on
• Who’s working on what
• Project status updates

It’s easy to add priorities, checklists, notes, activities, videos, and links.  About setting priorities: on crazy days I ask myself, “Is this action or expense directly tied to my business mission?  Will it help me achieve my goals for the year?”

On the money

Mint is a free tool that brings all of your financial accounts together in one place online or on your mobile device, including your savings, checking, investments, auto payments, and mortgage.  It automatically categorizes transactions, lets you see your budgets, and offers ways to save.  It even tracks your spending with color-coded pie charts that you don’t have to waste time creating in Excel^®*.

Save big, save often

• You never have to clip newspaper coupons again to save on hundreds of items and services with printable coupons and savings cards at Coupons.com
• ZingSale is a free price alert service that notifies you when that item you’ve been coveting goes on sale
• You no longer have to drive around to find inexpensive gas prices in your city, thanks to GasBuddy
• BarkingDeals works just like Groupon, so go ahead and spoil Rover

While other healthcare communications marketing firms are having difficulty adjusting to doing more with less, adding value while saving clients money has always been status quo for The Core Nation companies.  Contact Me anytime to hear how we can work more efficiently for you in 2012.

1. Watch out for that last step, it’s a doozy – That cliff you see in front of you, it’s not the coast of Scotland, it’s an expiring patent. Some of the biggest grossing medications in the last decade are going generic, and this means big changes for those of us who market them. We are all going to be expected to do more with less. This translates to marketing teams facing bigger challenges with smaller budgets. These folks need our help, but often do not see it, until its too late. Make them see it.

2. For the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world – When I see this quote, a modern image that comes to mind is of pharmacists, because they are emerging as key decision makers in thousands of patient lives. Pharmacists see medications and then see their prices—what they sometimes do not see are the differences between 3 or 4 drugs that they may believe are equal. If we believe our product will serve patients better, we need to target pharmacists aggressively, because they often have the patient’s ear, and their opinions matter.

3. Dancing with the right partner – I never understood why some of my more seasoned colleagues were not as excited as me every time we got an RFP. The answer was, I learned, that they were much better at reading the tea leaves, and they knew what was worth (or not worth) pursuing. What I learned was that “just because you got invited to the dance does not mean you are going to dance.” So how do you decide if it’s time to throw your hat into the ring? Here are a few ideas to keep in mind:

• How did they hear about you? – If no one at your agency knows anyone of importance with that brand or the parent company, stay away, you are an interloper.

• Are they too big for you? – I think we all like to believe in the fairytale, that the little agency that could was able to bring a billion dollar therapy to market. Big pharma likes to hire big agencies, because they are more comfortable wrapping themselves in the security provided by a big bureaucracy. Deal with it and move on.

• Take a good look in the mirror. Do you have the experience to help? – We all think that there is no challenge we cannot overcome, but that thought may be a little self-serving. The question we should be asking is do they think we can help them? If you have not succeeded in a space that they can personally relate to, it might be better to pass.

So we have come to another years end. Hopefully, it has been one filled with personal and professional success, and that you can find some time to reflect on your good fortune while remembering those who might be less fortunate. Here’s to a happy and prosperous 2012.

Pharma can learn valuable lessons from the work of Steve Jobs. Home electronics and pharmaceuticals have a few justifiable similarities: the target audience is large, there is a lot of competition, and they are both dominated by brands that can deliver a “wow factor.” What that “wow factor” is can take on many forms, but its importance in undeniable. As more and more brands vie for space in the American medicine cabinet, pharmaceutical marketers need to convince patients they should want (or even need) what they are selling.

So how does pharma capture and use some of that Apple magic? In the pharmaceutical space, it comes down to two basic elements: an educated consumer/patient and brands that deliver more than just the essentials.

Consumer/patient education: We are all consumers in one way or another, but not all of us are patients. A patient is a consumer who has been diagnosed with a disease, disorder, or condition. Are these groups separate or are they two sides of the same coin? In the United States, almost 19 million people have been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes mellitus, and this makes them patients. However, an additional 86 million are either undiagnosed diabetics or have a condition known as prediabetes. Technically speaking, these are not patients, but I believe we can agree that they could benefit from educational programs and communications on a disease that could make them consumers of antihyperglycemic medications.

Bang for the buck: Years ago, you could have 5 or more drugs in a therapeutic class competing for market share with little differentiating them. Most of the time, the data available for decision-making were limited to common endpoints used in the registration trials for FDA approval. Furthermore, since little or no head-to-head data were available, medication choices were only “lightly” based on evidence. Therefore, if you want your target audiences “to want” your product, you need to give them a reason. These reasons do not need to be clinically based*, but can take on other forms with surprising effectiveness. One place we are seeing growth is in the number of brands providing financial support to patients in the form of prescription rebates and coupons. A brand that can reduce a burden, in this case a financial one, may find itself with many fans.

The take home message today is simple – if you want to succeed and you exist in a crowd, you need to be noticed. In pharma, you need to offer your providers, customers, patients, and payers a reason(s) to buy what you are selling. It worked for Apple, and it can work for us.

Rest in peace, Steve.

*However, these are always the best places to begin.

Now Google is presenting a new challenge with its recently launched Google+ platform, a service that fuses search with social media. While Google+ is not yet available for use by businesses (no word on when this will occur), conversations about how the platform will be integrated into pharma marketing have already begun. Here are a few tips for approaching this new challenge.

1. Develop a strategy

When Facebook announced that it would require pharma companies to allow fan comments beginning August 15th, many companies pulled their pages offline to prevent any wall posts that would risk regulatory backlash. Since companies and marketers alike were anticipating official FDA guidelines, they did not have a strategy in place for managing fan posts, causing them to remove the pages while a strategy could have been developed.

This scenario can be avoided with Google+ pages by developing a strategy now. Start by determining how messages will be delivered and how much interaction there will be with each circle (ie, each audience). Although users currently have the capability to disable comments on posts and prevent other users from sharing posts, be prepared to manage circles if Google+ follows Facebook’s lead and permanently allows posts by all users. Having a strategy in place from the beginning could avoid having to close dozens of circles and forfeit thousands of followers.

2. Use Google+ Circles to target messages for different audiences

Google+ Circles gives you the capability to segment people by creating custom circles by audience type, interests, disease state, etc. These circles represent social networks within the Google+ platform, allowing you to have an entirely separate relationship with each circle. Take advantage of this segmentation option and develop targeted messaging that focuses on what will appeal to that specific audience.

3. Add +1 buttons to your website and SEM metrics

The +1 button resembles Facebook’s “Like” button and can be placed on any website page. In less than 6 months, more than a million websites have added the +1 button, resulting in more than 4 billion impressions per day. Create a “call to action” by encouraging visitors to click on the button. Every click acts as a positive review for your website and will show in Google’s search results as well as on the visitor’s Google+ page, thus increasing credibility and visibility among new visitors.

Adding the +1 button to your SEM metrics will measure how many people are clicking on the button and will help determine how effective Google+ is working. By breaking down the metrics by webpage, organic search and paid search, you will be able to determine how effective Google+ is at driving new traffic to your site and what content appeals to most visitors.

4. Re-evaluate your text, display and video ads

The +1 ratings will also be applied to text, display and video ads, adding another factor to Google’s search result algorithm. So it may be time to take a closer look at your paid search campaigns to ensure that they are up to par.

The +1 ratings will work by showing how many users have clicked on a particular ad or website when one of their friends searches similar keywords. The expectation is that this will increase credibility of the paid search ads and drive more traffic to this area of Google’s search results page. Clicks on the +1 button will also influence ad rank in search results, making it a double-edged sword. Not only will there be pressure to stay ahead of the competition’s ratings, there will also be pressure to increase +1 clicks just to stay on the first page.

5. LISTEN

Google+ is still in its infancy, so we should anticipate many changes to the functionality and interface over the next couple of years. Users have the most influence in determining what these changes will be, so pay attention to what different circles are talking about and the suggestions that are made, so you can adjust your strategy accordingly. Also, don’t assume that the way one circle is using Google+ is the same as the others. Every user has different needs and expectations when using Google+ (or any social media platform), and this applies to each individual circle. Although it can require a fair amount of time to monitor and evaluate how each of your circles is functioning, it may be the most important tactic of your Google+ strategy. Google+ is not based on fancy creative, so those who are able to consistently provide a personalized experience for each of their circles will be the most successful.

While this is still a moving target, here are some guideposts to consider:

Start establishing value-based metrics, such as how well HCPs understand patient types and optimal therapies. IMS Health reports that this is a better driver of market share than frequency of use of materials. Improving performance on this metric alone was worth 3.5 TRx share points to one company. It involves measuring how well (and how helpful), the sales rep has been in achieving the desired outcome, which is educating HCPs.

Assess built-up equity in physician relationships. This will need to be measured over time rather than simply gathering perceptions from the most recent sales calls. Some areas that can be measured include increased accessibility to hard-to-see physicians, identification of key business drivers, and establishment of advocates. Another important metric is whether sales reps are successfully influencing HCPs to make a long-term commitment to your brand. It’s not just about getting new customers; it’s about keeping them — and keeping them happy.

Remember to consider patient satisfaction. Times have changed, and HCPs have come to expect that they will be seeing more knowledgeable and more informed patients. Sales reps can provide HCPs with tips on answering patients’ questions, and they can be measured on how well they are adding to the patient experience.

Know the impact of training on your business. It is important to identify areas where your efforts are succeeding or where they need improvement. This includes qualitative assessment of potential SFE, as well as traditional quantitative measures, such as the amount of sales. Another important, but often over-looked, metric is whether your training is inspiring the confidence, trust, and motivation of your sales force.

See how peer-to-peer influence can help. Being a team player may not be measurable, but sharing results of sales calls with peers is. You should be able to track whether increased communication is positively influencing SFE.

Once value-based metrics are in place, the next challenge is how you evaluate them beyond the traditional measurement of increased sales. One approach is by using a multi-rater survey. This allows you to get feedback not just from HCPs, but also from other stakeholders, including sales managers, sales peers, and even sales reps’ self-assessments.

The biggest challenge with any survey is getting HCPs to participate. An appealing incentive may help, but you will only succeed if you can convince HCPs that their input will result in greater value for them.

But that’s really a win-win because what’s good for them is also good for us.

We will see more of an account management approach to sales. What healthcare professionals (HCPs) really want is help to better manage health outcomes, while ensuring maximum profitability for their practice. This means that sales strategy needs to be redefined and realigned to meet specific needs of HCPs, payers, and patients. Sales reps must understand a customer’s whole business and be able to help them see how their products can be used together to improve health outcomes and increase value for patients. Placing a greater emphasis on portfolio-based selling is one of the many ways to start making this transition.

We will need to clarify what a “trusted partner” can offer. I think this goes beyond just adding more medical science liaisons who can talk peer-to-peer with HCPs. The ability to create value for HCPs requires defining their business value. To achieve a competitive advantage, sales reps should be able to translate a thorough understanding of their customers’ competitive pressures. They also need to be able to propose contingency plans and counter-competitive tactics.

Sales forces will have to be even more agile and probably more regional. The traditional paradigm of managing from the top down may need to shift to allow regional business units to have more control so they can quickly address individual customer needs. I think we will also see more pharmaceutical companies working to provide 24/7 access to both product information and their account specialists through remote media (such as customer interaction centers and websites offering live-chat functions) to provide timely practice management support.

Sales rep competencies must increase rapidly. Job descriptions will be rewritten, methods of recruiting sales reps will be revamped, and training curricula will shift toward developing a more customer-centric approach to selling. Competencies determine the ability of sales reps to perform their jobs most effectively, but incentives will be needed to help them follow required processes or motivation and productivity will ultimately suffer. I will talk more about that in my next post, as well as tackle the question of how we will measure ROI.

Merriam-Webster has three main definitions for strategy. I will include the only one that does not involve a reference to warfare:

• Strat-e-gy (noun)
  • A careful plan or method
  • The art of devising or employing plans toward a goal

By definition, strategies are definable, actionable and measurable — but too often, they are none of these. They are the thinking and planning behind the tactics that help us get from where we are to where we want to be. Strategies are not objectives, they are not key success factors, and they are certainly not tactics.

Part of the problem is that too many agencies try to develop strategies in a vacuum. This should never happen. Instead, the process should be seen as a progression toward a final goal or outcome. Strategy can be seen as one of the “stations” along a predefined route to a final destination. Here are the stations the “thought train” should always move through: Objectives, Key Success Factors, Strategies, Tactics, and Outcomes. Like a train, our thoughts should always move through one station at a time to prevent a derailment. If your strategy is not defined, how can you possibly plan tactics that will achieve good outcomes?

Here is a simple example.

Objective: I want to drive a new car.

Key success factor: More money each month to cover a high car payment.

Strategy: Cut expenses and/or raise income (see, these are definable, actionable, and certainly, measurable).

Tactics: Reduce dining out by 50% and spend $200 less each month on clothes.

Outcomes: $450 more cash each month to put toward a new car.

It is easy to see that if the key success factor were different, maybe, “Need to learn how to drive,” then everything following would also change.

Now, let us put this into pharma-speak for an imaginary 432nd-to-market antidepressant, Brand X.

Objective: Patients currently on SSRI monotherapy switch to Brand X.

Key success factor: Prescribers and patients recognize that Brand X has comparable efficacy but superior tolerability to SSRIs with respect to insomnia.

Strategy: Refocus sales force activities on HCPs who are high-decile prescribers of SSRIs associated with high rates of insomnia.

Tactics: Update digital and printed sales pieces emphasizing low rates of insomnia.

Outcomes: Increased sales and satisfied patients.

Again, a change in any one of the previous steps could have a profound effect on what the strategy looks like.

Objectives are too often intertwined with strategy and implementation in a way that makes it difficult for an agency to decide where to start. We at The Core Nation have found success with setting objectives and then developing strategies to achieve them. Others often look for a winning strategy and then carve out objectives from their understanding of what is achievable. Such confusion about where to begin causes planning paralysis.

What has been your experience with strategy development? Do you agree with our approach or does something else work for you? Share your thoughts with us.

In the closing years of the 20th Century (ok, it was 1992), the scientific world was exploding with work performed with new molecular biology techniques. These were the days when new methods such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis and site-directed mutagenesis were getting into the hands of everyday researchers. They were so much fun to use! We spent a lot of time impressing one another by doing experiments that showed off the capabilities of the technology.

We in pharma marketing are now experiencing something eerily similar. A technology explosion has delivered us Twitter, Facebook, iPads, tablet PCs, smartphones, and an entire blogosphere. Each of these technologies is ripe for use as a tactical vehicle to achieve our brand objectives. Moreover, we are tripping over one another in a race to plant our flag in the social media space. (As an aside, there is still no guidance from the FDA on how social media can be used. Unfortunately, I am not convinced that we are using it correctly, and I am feeling that the rush to use social media is at the expense of useable content.)

New technologies are great, and they will help us achieve many goals, but they need to be used correctly. Let us resolve to tailor the content to the technology and not the other way around. Remember, the tag line for the New York Times is “All the News that’s Fit to Print” and not “All the News that Prints to Fit.” Here are three ideas for you to consider:

1. Brand messaging should be tailored to the media stream. As we say often, the one-size-fits-all approach does not work. Your grandmother is not likely to be on Twitter, but your 18-year-old niece can certainly communicate in 140 characters or less. If both are diabetics, you need to reach them in ways that mesh with their sensibilities and behaviors. This approach will increase the likelihood that your messages will be seen and understood.

2. When using social media, remember: EVERYONE is watching. In the old days, brand messages were found in medical journals, sales aids, and other vehicles that had restricted access. In the world of new technology, once the “Tweet” button is clicked, it’s out there for the world to see. At this point, anybody, including a competitor or just someone in a bad mood, can cause trouble if they want. The FDA’s Bad Ad program wants the public to report activities and messages that they consider false or misleading. You have been warned.

3. Make your audience want to learn MORE. Let’s be frank for a moment. You can say only so much in 140 characters. Thus, your brand’s presence in social media is only successful if it stimulates your target audience to learn more. It is that simple, and without it, you have missed a great opportunity to create a lasting relationship.

What has been your experience using social media? Are you looking before you leap? Please share your thoughts with us.

1. Segment your lists and your selling propositions

When customers sign up to get your e-mails, make sure all your information bases are covered, such as their health habits, their current level of engagement, and any other information that will help you get to know them better. This will help you find the “emotional trigger” that compels them to open your e-mail and enable you to maintain their interest with messages that are tailored to their specific needs and interests.

2. Set a social standard

Include linking icons in every e-mail to connect customers to your social media offerings. Make it “all about them,” highlighting the value they will receive by following you. For example, add a newsletter sign-up box on your Facebook business page. A recent study by one e-mail marketing company reveals that incorporating at least three sharing options generates a 55% higher click-through rate than traditional e-mails.

3. Give it away

Everyone loves to win something. Think about incentivizing your audience by creating a fun contest or perhaps a random prize drawing if your customers complete and return a survey. You want to give them a reason to keep coming back to you.

4. Get viral-trigger-happy

Every e-mail you send should include a “send-to-a-friend” option so customers can share your content. Have them land on a branded page that includes a form permitting them to enter several e-mail addresses. Remind customers that you will not give their friends’ e-mail addresses to other marketers. Another tool to extend your reach is on-site social bookmarking, which allows customers to easily bookmark your pages on all their social networks.

5. Liven things up

Think about embedding a YouTube video in your e-mails. Videos have been shown to increase click-through rates by as much as 96%. A truly stellar video also has more of a chance of going viral, increasing your reach beyond measure.

6. Promote an event

Incorporating event-triggered e-mails that are highly relevant to your customers is another great way to engage them. It is easy to set up your customers’ e-mail preferences so you can alert them about an extra-special event. Or increase good feelings by wishing them a happy birthday. You can also set your program up so that your customers have the ability to send event-related e-mails to others in their network (such as wishing Grandma a happy birthday).

7. Content is king

With one template, you can customize hundreds of different e-mails, tailoring your messages and visuals to match your customer profiling data. But your content must always be highly relevant. The more individualized your messages are, the higher your click-through, response, and conversion rates will be.

Keep on talking…

These are just a few top-line ideas. Keep talking to your customers to learn more about their healthcare needs and preferences so your e-mails are informative, relevant, and add value — so they consistently get clicked.