Gaining doctors trust online content is king
Reaching and gaining the trust of doctors online doesnt take overly impressive, polished web sites or incredibly inventive approaches, according to Carwyn Jones, head of pharma for Doctors.net.uk. But it does require close consideration of physicians needs and preferences and loads of valuable content, he reports.
Speaking at eyeforpharmas recent eMarketing Europe 2009 conference, Jones offered a barrage of tips and insight on how to create loyalty and engagement among the pharma industrys most sought after customers specialty physicians.
Jones vantage point is a valuable one for the pharma industry. Doctors.net.uk is the largest online community of doctors in the UK. Each day more than 34,000 unique physician visitors frequent the website, representing 50 specialties. In 2008, doctors engaging with the site visited, on average, more than 45 times each month and spent an average of 25 minutes per visit. The numbers are enough to make any pharma marketer salivate.
So how has the online community built such an impressive following? Jones says Doctors.net.uk began by assessing what doctors want. And their needs have proved fairly simple at least in concept, he says. It can all be boiled down, he reports, to three simple Cs: content, convenience and credibility. And those three factors practically guarantee engagement, he says.
Research by Jones and his colleagues finds that online education (31%) is at the top of doctors lists of needs, followed by other types of content (29%), online market research (14%), email (11%), applications for mobile devices (8%) and networking services (6%).
Content is king glossy is not, he says.
What makes a good website?
Websites dont have to be sexy, Jones says. He points to Google as a prime example.
Googles page is the companys name and a box, he reminds us. We dont use Google because it looks sexy; we use it because its brilliant.
Other deceptively simple, but highly successful websites include: ebay, Facebook, Wikipedia and Medscape, he says. Wikipedia and Medscape, in particular, he says, are loaded with content, not whistles, bells and glossy designs.
According to webreference.com, what all good websites do, Jones says, is:
Provide credible, original content in as many forms as possible
Provide valuable, timely information that is updated regularly
Share everything thats learned and heard with users
Custom-tailor information to user preferences
The future is one-to-one websites that adapt everything content, advertising, even look to individual users, he says.
It all seems pretty obvious and basic, I guess, but its what doctors want, Jones says.
What makes an online community tick?
In a June 2008 survey of more than 3,700 of its member doctors by Doctors.net.uk, participants indicated that the top five requirements for a good online network are: clinically relevant content, benefits to their clinical practice, timely and topical content, a clear indication of the source of the information and content that is targeted to their profiles.
Doctors dont care whether the source is pharma or independent, as long as its clearly stated, Jones says. In fact, in a TNO Research survey among nearly 800 doctors conducted in December 2008, participants even indicated that online communities positively impacted their clinical practices by, among other things, making them more aware of pharma products and devices.
But Jones is quick to stress that if you give doctors bad information or information that they dont want, they dont remain loyal to a site. Meeting doctors needs develops trust, he says. But it is difficult to do. As he explains, Doctors.net.uk has more than 20 services providing information, education and collaborative tools to its community network.
Doctors collaborate on the network in a variety of ways, Jones explains. A good example is the sites medical image library, which contains more than 2,200 images uploaded by physician participants as an educational and collaborative catalyst for discussions about treatment options and strategies.
The site also offers chat room-type discussion forums that have generated more than 2.5 million posts, allowing doctors to interact in real-time, often after hours at their own convenience. It offers immediacy and a live element thats quite different than a rep pushing to get in during their busy work day, Jones says.
He says doctors also love the aggregation capabilities of the community. In an area for oncology specialists, for instance, users will find a conference calendar, access to the medical image library, the latest journal articles, news, useful links, forums, education, and sponsored information all tailored to their specialty. The site even features Google medical searches in which the first 200-250 sites searched are ones recommended by members in the online network. That kind of tailored content cant help but encourage engagement, Jones says.
With Doctors.net.uks track record of meeting doctors needs online for more than 11 years, Jones says hes a little surprised more pharmas havent asked for advice on how to reach the physician audience and keep them coming back.
If you go back to the top five requirements doctors have for online communities that we talked about, then you have to realize that pharmas top five requirements for communities have to be the same, he says. Its not easy, but if you can do it if you can meet their needs they will definitely engage with you online.