I recently read a great article, “What Are Search Engines Saying About Your Brand?”,
“In the offline world, companies make it a priority to influence the message people see in the media. However, in the search marketing world, very few companies make an effort to influence the message seen in search results pages. Instead, many companies ensure their website(s) are at the top of page one, and leave Google, Yahoo and MSN free to determine what to display in the remaining positions.”
What is pharma to do? I know, I know as I am talking with many of you about SERP (search engine results page) reputation management, the answer is regulatory won’t let us look, let alone influence. If you are not from this industry, that seems crazy, but it’s what we are all grappling with right now.
We are afraid of the FDA, we are afraid of our internal regulatory committees (perhaps afraid is the wrong word). “What about adverse effects?”, they will ask with disdain. Who wants to fight that battle? We do. We are marketers, and it is in our blood to make sure we understand our market, develop and protect our brand. So, again, what is pharma to do?
Step One: To protect your brand and your company be aware of the threats - monitor the SERPs
Step Two: Assess the threat - analyze the SERPs
Step Three: Take action to remove the threat in the SERPs. How?
- Contact Yahoo and Google Trademark Concern Team to remove paid search violations.
- Optimize other brand assets to push the negative organic results/threats off the first couple results pages.
In the mean time, become an evangelist at your company. Create a solution that your regulatory team can live with, perhaps even present it to the FDA. Hire a firm to help you develop a corporate policy. Or start with baby steps, Step One in 2007.
The last thing our industry needs is another black eye. A real possibility is somewhere on the internet a person reads erroneous or old information about a drug and gets sick. We know what is next - the law firm!
