This report reviews physician use of manufacturer corporate sites, product sites, and HCP portals and provides insights and case studies to help marketers approach this important piece of the physician promotional and customer service puzzle.
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Topics Covered:
I. Landscape: Physician Adoption of Pharma Online Resources
- ePharma Physician Population Growth
- Continued Growth in the ePharma Physician Population
- Physician Adoption of Pharma Online Websites
- Frequency of Using Online Sources for Health Information
- Comparing Frequency of Visitation to Pharma-owned Properties to Other Information Sources
- Physician Use and Interest in a Customer Service Portal from a Pharma Company
- Physician Visitation to Pharma Sites by Specialty
- Top Specialties Accessing Pharma Corporate or Product Sites
II. Outlook: Leveraging Physician Preferences to Optimize Online Marketing Efforts
- Physician Use and Interest in Features on a Pharma Website
- Physician Preferences for Interacting with Manufacturers
- Activities Physicians Prefer to Conduct Online vs. with Rep
III. Most Popular Pharma Websites for Physicians
- Today’s Top Product Sites
- Reach and Relevance of Product Sites Visited by ePharma Primary Care Physicians
- Top Corporate Sites
- Reach and Relevance of Corporate Sites (among all ePharma Physicians)
- The Landscape for Customer Service Portals
- Top Customer Service Portals Visited by Physicians
- Frequency of Visitation to Top Pharma Customer Service Portals
- Top Specialties Likely Accessing a Customer Service Portal
- Companies from which Physicians Would Use a Customer Service Portal
IV. Best Practices and Examples
- MerckServices Aggregates Merck’s Physician Offerings
- Januvia’s HCP Section Maintains Product Site Look and Feel but is Connected to Merck Services
- Pfizer Serves Physicians with the PfizerPro HCP Portal
- Viagra.com Leads HCPs to Viagra Content within PfizerPro
- Levaquin360.com Acts as an HCP Portal for Levaquin
- Intuniv.com Links to HCP Content on Medscape
- ShireConnect Gates its Content for Authenticated Users
Excerpt
Leveraging the online channel for physician-directed marketing is a top priority for most pharmaceutical, biotech, and device manufacturers (pharma) in 2010. Increasing reliance on online resources among physicians and intense pressure to maximize revenue, among other factors, are driving a more aggressive approach toward online marketing among many brands. Moreover, with leading manufacturers rethinking their overall sales and service approach, the role of the digital channel has become a central issue.
In looking to optimize online investments and marketing strategies, the effectiveness and role of pharma-owned properties, including corporate sites, brand product sites, and customer service portals, inevitably emerges. At the core of the issue is the fact that, while physicians use and derive value from pharma online resources, they don’t use them nearly as often as third-party online resources. The value of customer service portals, in particular, is commonly debated because of their cost and centralized-portal nature, which many argue goes against the distributed and fluid web of today.
One point of view is that brands should aim to leverage third party content and resources as much as possible and focus on directing pharma-bound traffic to these destinations. The opposing view is that brands have to play in both camps, and do their best to manage costs and quality in an integrated multichannel world just as the travel and retail sectors do.
The goal of this module is to offer the reader a snapshot of physician online behavior around pharma online resources today in order to help this debate progress.
Manhattan Research's reports cover important trends in physician and consumer use of digital media and technology for health. The reports draw from interviews conducted with thousands of physicians and consumers about their behaviors, attitudes, and future interests as it relates to their use of the Internet and other technologies for health and treatment decisions. Each PDF report includes a written analysis, supporting graphs and data, and strategic takeaways. For more information about reports from Manhattan Research, please visit here, email sales@manhattanresearch.com or call 1.888.680.0800, ext 2.