Health Number one upstream search

According to Hit-Wise the number one upstream search is for health information (44.5%) up 11% from last January. What does this data tell us?

By Richard Meyer on Feb 26, 2009

According to Hit-Wise the number one upstream search is for health information (44.5%) up 11% from last January. What does this data tell us? Well it tells us that as less and less patients go to see their doctors that they are in fact going online for health information and self diagnosing problems. And where do they go and whom do they trust? Well more information from eMarketer and Manhattan Research suggests that they are going to sites like Web MD. In fact pharma product websites are rated last in credibility among online consumers.

With DTC budgets likely to be cut further this year there is a a major opportunity to reach out to patients through the use of integrated content. Rather than spending dollars on trying to get patients to come to a product website marketers should be taking the message to patients where they are online. Case in point-Cialis: When I was on the Cialis team I understood that a lot of men surf the Web at work and that going to an ED site may not work in a cube environment. We therefore developed Rich media banners that took the message to our audience where they were online. It was essentially a minisite that did not require someone to click through to the product website.

However today patients are consumers of healthcare. As such they are going to several health websites to learn al they can about health treatment options including medications. This means that marketers need to ensure consistency of messages to patients where they are online. It also means that a level of transparency is needed which pharma has not embraced as of yet.

The Internet is the future of healthcare in so many ways but an investment is needed now in the infrastructure to support the Web in DTC marketing. Until pharma understands that empowered patients are going online in more numbers they will continue to use outdated marketing techniques to reach patients