Some thoughts for Memorial Day Weekend

May 25, 2007 – 8:31 am

So, to start your Memorial Day Weekend, I thought I’d load you up with some facts. You know, some fun conversation starters for your barbecues. I do hope a lot of you will have other things to discuss, like the Red Sox are still nine and a half games ahead of the Yankees, even after our visit to NYC. Anyway, back on topic.

The IAB and PriceWaterhouse Coopers released their 2006 Internet Advertising Revenue Report on Wednesday. Internet advertising revenue for the full year of 2006 increased 35% over 2005. The total was $16.9 billion. That is 5.9% of total US ad spending, up from 4.7% in 2005. We are expanding and when compared to broadcast television (1949 - 1960) and cable television (1980 – 1991) we are expanding quickly.

Internet advertising revenue surpassed cable in its third year of growth and broadcast television in its fifth year of growth. What does this mean? It means as marketers we need to quickly understand how to apply our marketing efforts to Internet advertising. Not an easy task, there is way too much going on. However, as I have mentioned before I do believe Search will continue to be a road-map for consumers. Make sure you are testing search. There is a lot to learn including:

  • How do people talk about my condition?
  • What messages and keyphrases do they respond to?
  • Should I buy broad keyphrases with low conversions but more branding opportunities or more targeted keyphrases?
  • What is the impact to my query volumes and conversions when running a national DTC or DTP campaign or sponsoring the health section of Yahoo?
  • How do I integrate search into my current marketing strategies? How do I integrate organic and paid search?
  • What is the consumers experience when they search for my brand?
  • I could keep going, but it is a holiday weekend.

Although not pharma related per se, here is some public information: Searches on Yahoo! for Cadillac Escalade jumped over 75% after the Superbowl. Cadillac was listed at the top of the sponsored search results and organic results. Search volume was up 105%, traffic volume was up 177%. Superbowl keyphrases generated 1.3 million impressions. Closing the loop is key. Am I beating a dead horse? Any of you planning a Superbowl ad? Any of you launching a DTC campaign soon?

By the way Search revenue accounted for 40% on Internet advertising revenue in 2006.

By Heather | Posted in Google, Healthcare Search, Pharma Marketing, Regulated Industries, SEM, Search Marketing | Comments (0)

Google invests in Sergey Brin’s wife’s company

May 24, 2007 – 11:18 am

It just keeps getting more interesting. On Tuesday Google said they have invested in a biotech company founded by Sergey Brin’s wife. According to 23andMe’s Web site, this company will create a common, standardized resource that has the potential to accelerate drug discovery and bring personalized medicine to the public. This will be accomplished by encouraging individuals to learn about their own genetic information. I must admit, sounds interesting. Other investors include Genentech!

By Heather | Posted in Google, Pharma Marketing | Comments (0)

comScore Health Search data is out

May 22, 2007 – 11:14 am

comScore released its health related search information yesterday. (GO) Here are some of the highlights:

The average monthly unique visitors online in the US is up 4% to 176 million visitors. The average monthly unique visitors looking for health information is up 12% to just over 55 million. WebMD leads the pack with NIH.org, MSN Health and Yahoo! Health (experiencing a significant jump over last year) following close behind.

When planning your Search campaigns, think Yahoo and MSN, particularly if you are engaged in display ads and sponsorships. In terms of search, Google is the ominous leader, however folks are using Yahoo and MSN as a health resource, so you can see how this may present a problem to Google - even though the co-op was supposed to solve this. Perhaps the reason that Yahoo and MSN are doing so well (they are the in top ten portals for visitor loyalty at roughly 17% each, NIH and WebMD are 22% and 29% respectively) is that the interface gently funnels the user into a health vertical and there are interesting value adds for the user like Yahoo Answers and MSN’s Ask the Experts.

Research demonstrates a significant increase in search query volume, click through rates and conversion after a consumer has viewed a display ad. Therefore, it is essential to make sure your online media shop is coordinating efforts with your search shop to maximize that synergy.

According the study, the top searches are: Pregnancy, Cancer, Fitness, Cold and Rash. I would venture to say that Flu, Fitness and Cold are seasonal. Flu and Cold, as it is flu season Q1 in most of America, and Fitness as the warm weather is coming? Next on the list is Nutrition and Weight loss, no surprises there. Finally the list wraps up with Diabetes and Depression. The recent Avandia news notwithstanding, I have to give GSK kudos - even if they’re not a client - because they are ranking page 1 in Google organically for both those keyphrases. I would estimate the one listing for each of those highly searched keyphrases brings the site about one million visitors a year. GSK had the foresight about ten years ago to purchase both depression.com and diabetes.com. What URLs do you have in your closet?

By Heather | Posted in Healthcare Search, Pharma Search, Search Marketing | Comments (8)

Pharma, are you watching your brand?

May 18, 2007 – 8:57 am

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?

  1. Contact Yahoo and Google Trademark Concern Team to remove paid search violations.
  2. 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!

By Heather | Posted in Brand Monitoring, Healthcare Search, Pharma Marketing, Pharma Search, Regulated Industries, Reputation Management | Comments (0)

Google Universal Search raises the search stakes

May 18, 2007 – 8:19 am

So Google introduced “Universal Search” (GUS for short). So what it is? Instead of using separate search pages for photo, video, maps, news, scanned books, images, and of course websites, Google’s Universal Search will find links to all of those sources in a single search. This is big news as this is the first major revamp of the site and its underlying architecture in several years according to Sergey Brin (Google’s co-founder). Equally significant, according to Marissa Mayer, Google’s VP of search products and user experience, the Google home page eventually will have ads featuring more than just text ads, display and video. So what does this mean to pharma?

Here are some results:

“ear anatomy”
http://www.google.com/search?q=ear+anatomy - images integrated into results

“high blood pressure”
http://www.google.com/search?q=high+blood+pressure - Coop results… and a news item! (halfway down)

It means every asset owned by your company and brand should be maximized [read:optimized], or I guess I mean digitized! Just like other industries we need to increase the breadth of our readily accessible digital content. As I have mentioned before, pharma has some great videos, MOA, patient testimonials, lots of press releases, make sure your search shop is optimizing every available asset. Search is evolving, the digital space is evolving and the mobile consumer is coming (according to MMetrics 35+ million consumers are using mobile browsers). Additionally, the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) are going to become more interesting with display and video ads. Make certain that when you achieve great Search results you also engage your potential consumer or existing patient. Finally, a shameless self promotion, make sure you are working with an agency that specializes in Search Engine Marketing.

By Heather | Posted in Google, SEM | Comments (1)

Consumers are using social computing for health info

May 10, 2007 – 1:57 pm

Thanks to a client who read my last blog posting I heard about a recent Forrester report. The report stated:

“19% of all US online consumers with a medical condition use Social Computing for health information.” (source)

Well there you have it. Let’s get prepared, because Gen X (proudly my generation - just made it at 39!) and Gen Y (who use it more frequently, 27%) are quickly taking up social computing because of its instant gratification and interactivity. However, as we get older, our parents (Baby Boomers) get older, I believe this number will dramatically increase. Again, it all comes back to search as the road map the road map for all (well, at least for information). In fact Forrester reports that consumers who are using social computing like blogs, wikis, forums, chat rooms [insert next big thing here], etc, for health are much more likely to start their online health research with a search engine. In the years ahead that search engine will ost likely be on a cell phone or mobile device; but that’s a blog for another day.

By Heather | Posted in Healthcare Search, Pharma Search, Social Networking, Social Search | Comments (0)

Is pharma ready for communities?

May 1, 2007 – 11:54 am

So the big boys are jumping into communities, “Just Do It”, marketers say. However, we are still struggling in the pharma industry. I could talk ad nauseum about why we should just do it, but instead I will present a couple options moving toward a solution. I know, I know. What about adverse effects? So how do we figure this out? I definitely do not have all the answers but here are a couple things to consider:

  1. Leverage existing assets/services: “To find appropriate resources to put toward managing a blog, companies should extrapolate from their current structure”, according to Patricia Pesanello, chief knowledge officer, BusinessEdge. “The same areas of business that address 1-800 calls could moderate and manage a company’s blog.” Pharma has this service in place!.
  2. Come up with standards/ best practices that your organization is comfortable and present it to the FDA. I know it’s a big job so hire an agency to help you develop these best practices.
  3. Baby steps - “ research firms are predicting video will represent 50% of the content on the Internet in ten years. We have plenty of video assets, patient testimonials, MOA videos, TV commercials and even very humorous videos.

I hear you, what is the ROI? Unfortunately, TBD. However, other industries are ahead of us and are beginning to measure the impact.

As I have mentioned in a previous blog entry, we are experiencing a User Revolution. We need to experiment a bit. When you see “The Finance Guy” coming with his excel spreadsheets, hit the button and play one of my favorite Jefferson Airplane songs, “Got a revolution, got to revolution”. I have to relive my college days once in a while. :)

Seriously, as the world becomes more personable, hold your company and your communication to a higher standard of relevance, value and transparency.

By Heather | Posted in Healthcare Search, Pharma Marketing, Pharma Search, Regulated Industries, Search Marketing, Social Networking, Social Search | Comments (0)

ROI is highest for digital so why is Pharma slow to spend?

April 27, 2007 – 4:35 pm

I was talking with a couple of Jupiter Research analysts this week and they told me their recent research suggests the biggest barrier for pharma to reallocate additional marketing dollars to the digital space is ROI. I hear that quite often from our clients and prospects.

Perhaps I can provide some thoughts on the topic.

Demand (I was an Economics major in college):

  1. There are almost 302 million people in the US; 70% of them are on line, 211 million. Second, in terms of numbers, is China with 137 million people online (10% of total population). As you would expect, in terms of population penetration percentages (say that three times fast) combined with population, the US has the strongest online presence. Furthermore, according to comScore the 18+ demo is 100% online. Our customers and prospects are online.
  2. 80% of folks online use the internet as a resource for health information: 168 million
  3. 67% go to those folks go to the search engines FIRST: 113 million

There are 113 million people using the internet to look for health information.

It’s easy to find out your condition “demand” via searches and blog posts to start. A very active online condition is herpes, searched almost seven million times a year and 35,376 blog posts in the last 90 days.

OK, so I’ve spoken about this topic ad nauseam.

Supply:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)/organic search is not an imperative marketing initiative for the majority of the large pharmaceutical companies, as you can see in the research we just published. However, those pharma companies that have a cohesive SEO strategy have a clear cut competitive advantage. I know most of the pharma companies currently have a paid search strategy, however not many have a comprehensive organic strategy (more than just meta tags and title tags ).

Recently Enquiro published some search behavior research worth mentioning (Enquiro always has great research). The data demonstrated that people click on organic listings 100% of the time when they are researching and 50/50 paid and organic listing when buying. The research phase is an important one as we all know, reach a potential patient, caregiver early, higher in the buying funnel.

Thinking beyond acquisition, perhaps, for those that are on a drug and may not be satisfied and are doing more research, SEO could aid in compliance issues. I do not see a lot of pharma result in the first three pages of Google today.

ROI

comScore presented some ROI information at a CBI conference I attended in January. First they stated that according to their research, online strategies benefit the consumer by providing good information, better choices and high levels of satisfaction. They discussed their scope of benchmarks for the ROI analysis: 15+ studies over three years, 10+ Rx brands/therapeutic areas, $100 million - $3 billion brands, 7 pharma companies, all consumer no HCP.

Lots of good info, but the most important info is:

Visitors to brand.com/disease.com converted to a drug 5.6% higher than control
Patients to brand.com/disease.com have a significant incremental impact on adherence/next fill among existing patients, 18%.

“Organic search visitors tend to be the more qualified and therefore converts at a higher rate.”

So there you have it, an ROI model. The example comScore walked us through generated a 2:1 ROI (and yes that did include the cost of the site).

In a new media world, healthcare still trending toward the old, let’s impinge that trend.

Finally – Go Red Sox!

By Heather | Posted in Healthcare Search, Pharma Marketing, Pharma Search, ROI, Regulated Industries, SEM | Comments (1)

Is it time for Pharma Marketers to rethink online spend?

April 26, 2007 – 8:53 am

As Beth Herskovits mentioned in her Pharma Exec article on Apr 18, 2007, Pharma’s Fortunes Fine–For Now, patent expirations are looming and pipeline forecasts are not robust…therefore revenues for the pharma industry will dramatically decrease by 2010-2012. I am hearing rumblings that the industry needs to begin strategizing on how to operate as a smaller, more nimble industry.

Perhaps I can humbly offer an opinion. Many of our client’s website traffic is derived from search engines. Of course, one reason is they are well optimized in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Page), but also because many people are researching diseases and treatments. I would estimate over 50% of our clients’ traffic comes from the SERPs (of course this varies during a large DTC or DTP campaign).

Consumers are actively searching for health information, in fact research says that up to 95% of people online look for health information. We may need to reconsider how we market to consumers. Awareness and branding on a broad scale are undoubtedly important; however, I don’t think there is a single employee at Catalyst watching TV commercials. Granted we may be a bit biased but the question remains: is the consumer tolerance changing?

Perhaps pharma marketers need to invest more money into search and into a website that responds to a search visitor. We create sites for those that see our DTC ads, yet most of our visitors come from search engines. Every conference I attend (about one a month) I hear pharma markets mention the internet is the most cost effective way to reach a consumer or patient, yet we continue only to invest 5% of our marketing budget to the digital space and there is rarely a “digital strategy”.

The future will force us to look at alternatives and perhaps the visionary marketers in the pharma space (and I know there are many out there) will anticipate this shift and begin investing in a different marketing strategy. Perhaps digital strategy will drive the marketing strategy in 2010?

By Heather | Posted in Healthcare Search, Pharma Marketing, Pharma Search, Regulated Industries, Search Marketing | Comments (0)

Google’s expanded broad match; Pharma marketers beware.

April 23, 2007 – 8:47 am

As many of you know I get up on my soapbox and tell anyone that will listen, it is critical that pharma companies use vendors that specialize in pharma. In my world that means SEM vendors that specialize in pharma, like Catalyst online (unabashed plug!) are a must because the space is highly targeted, regulated, and conservative. As pharma search marketers, we have to zig every time the search engines zag to make sure that our campaigns don’t suffer and our clients’ marketing goals remain on target.

Take for instance Google’s broad match. Google’s paid search broad match allows marketers to buy a keyphrase like “osteoporosis.” Basically, any time that keyword is searched your ad appears. If not well thought out, broad match is a dangerous buy for the pharma industry. For example, both Actonel and Reclast (not yet approved) are indicated for post-menopausal osteoporosis. However with Google’s broad match option, these drug ads would appear for “men’s osteoporosis”, “children’s osteoporosis”, results, etc. and this is not the approved indication (not too mention a waste of marketing dollars).

Expanded broad match takes this concept one step further. As defined by the GoogleAdWordsHelpCenter, “With expanded matching, the Google AdWords system automatically runs your ads on highly relevant keywords, including synonyms, related phrases, and plurals, even if they aren’t in your keyword lists.” The bottom line is: There is a benefit to testing terms with broad match, just make sure you or your agency has created an expansive “negative keyphrase list” in order to ensure litigation avoidance.

By Heather | Posted in Google, Pharma Search, SEM, Search Marketing | Comments (0)