Webisodes

Video Transcript: Marketing Matters: How Community Oncology Practices Can Expand Market Outreach in Economically Challenging Times

Webisode transcriptions completed by third-party vendor. AmerisourceBergen Specialty Group assumes no liability for the accuracy of the content.

Gina: Metrics for therapy compliance. Integrating clinical services with brand planning. The impact of government regulation. What internal consideration should pharmaceutical  manufacturers keep in mind to improve their patient adherence programs? What external factors can manufacturers influence to ensure program success? Join us to find out. “In the Know” starts now.
Hello and welcome to “In the Know,” your source for insight and analysis on the issues that matter to specialty pharma I’m your host, Gina Clark.

Today we’ll look at best practices for patient adherence program development, launch, maintenance and measurement. We’ll cover the importance of communication amongst physicians, pharmacists, patients and caregivers. We'll discuss how feedback from program users can be incorporated into current and future programs.

Returning to “In the Know,” is Jan Nielsen Joining us today is Jim O’Gara, Founder and President of OnMessage, an integrated marketing and communications agency.

Thanks for being with us today.

Jim: Glad to be here Gina.

At the risk of sounding too simplistic, what are the factors that are motivating the need for community oncology practices to reevaluate their approach to market outreach?

Jim: Well I think industries across the board are facing a lot challenges in this economic time. The oncology industry in particular is really facing challenges from multiple directions. You’ve got unprecedented government regulations; you have reimbursement pressures that they haven’t seen in the past. You also have practice consolidation happening for a wide range of reasons, so that combined with competitive pressures, relative to securing new patients and growing practices has made it difficult for oncology professionals to deal with the state of the market. I think one of the things we’re here to talk about today is how does that impact the way they go to market with respect to marketing in their practice. Needless to say those who do not engage in marketing and figure out how to use it as a growth engine moving forward, will continue to suffer from some the issues we just spoke about.

Why do you think the medical community—and specifically community oncology—has lagged behind other industries when it comes to the volume and sophistication of marketing programs?

Jim: Well Gina I think its happening for a wide range of reasons. I think the biggest one is they operate under the motto” if it aint broke don’t fix it” and for a long long time these folk have been successful. And without having to invest a great deal in marketing or spend significant marketing budget. But those times have changed, and changed significantly. With the advent of the web, there’s a lot more ways by which consumers can engage and consume information relative to who they go for medical treatment, the therapy plans that the follow, as well as just the medications in general that they should be taking. I think oncologist in general, have to relook at how they market their practices and become much more proactive in that. In the past, if you took care of the patients the rest kind of took care of itself. I think those day are gone, because the consumers are driving much more of the education and dialogue process.

How do practice leaders who are already pressed for time and resources find more of each to dedicate to something that’s typically outside their realm of expertise and comfort?

Jim: I think the bottom line is practices have to make more time. I think that can be tough again, going back to the fact that these folks are in business to practice medicine. Marketing is not something that you can flip a switch and it’s working overnight, so it does take time, resources and energy to do it right. I would definitely say that the folks watching the program today, need to understand marketing is no longer nice to have and it’ll be a difficult decision they going to have to make the difficult decision to make some more significant investments in this area. I relate it to some of the growing pains that these practices have experienced in the past.  They’ve had to have administrative support and processes, and now they’re getting told to add technology to automate significant business processes. They’ve experience pain in investments in the past and now its just time to acknowledge that they have to invest in marketing if they’re going to survive in the future.

Jim, many organizations in other industries have fairly clear points of differentiation compared to their competitors. Points of differentiation get far less clear in the medical world—at least for patients who may not even know what to evaluate when selecting an oncologist. How do community oncology practices overcome this?

Jim: Well, I might challenge you a little bit on the challenges associated with differentiating medical services or oncology practices, in general.  I really think folks need to look at oncology practices as a product. Just like you would market any other product. It has its own strengths, it has weaknesses, and it has unique attributes that make it different in the mind of the consumer. And more importantly, in the minds of specific segments within the patient and the consumer base. So, it’s very important to know who you’re speaking to when you’re trying to create points of differentiation. We say that the cancer of marketing is lack of focus. If you’re going to try to be all things to all people with your messaging, your not going to come up with compelling points of difference, and be able to differentiate yourself with the practice down the street.  When it comes to positioning and messaging and really getting your story out there, I challenge Oncologists to spend as much time on that practice as they do other critical aspects of their practice. It’s not an easy task, but it can be done in specifically in the medical industry.

From a budgetary perspective, how much should practices expect to spend before they see any measurable impact? Or phrased a different way, what considerations do they need to have in mind as they decide how much they will ultimately dedicate toward marketing?

Jim: That’s kind of the magical question, isn’t it? How much does it take in order to move the needle? When it comes to marketing, I wish I could have the answer. But there is no simple answer, it’s going to differ based on practice to practice. The reason that is, is because each practice is at a different stage of its maturity cycle, and its also going to have its own unique strategy for growth. There’s going to be a different strategy and budget, associated with a practice that’s trying to grow geographically. There might be a different strategy and marketing budget associated with one that’s trying to merge with other practices or join a hospital system, I cant answer that, I wish I could and give everyone the magic number on what’s the right amount to spend. I will tell you whether it’s dollars, time, or energy; it’s time to spend a little bit more. While I’m not encouraging everyone to go out and spend a huge lump sum of funds, I am encouraging the audience to go out there and take some action. Because there are things you can do to move the needle without spending a significantly large amount of money. Things like spending the time as we talked about in messaging and positioning, getting out in the community and doing more community engagement work and activities to get our brand and message heard. Getting your opinions and thought leadership published, whether it be in news articles or producing webcasts on your website, or podcasts or white papers. These are ways where you can spend a little and get a lot, relative to serving the patients and the perspective patients that want to learn about you and what you have to offer.

How can marketing success or impact be measured in an efficient and effective manner?

Jim: I think the thing that we tell our clients, is the marketing process doesn’t end when a campaign is launched or when you’ve launched your new website, it’s actually just the very beginning. You have to spend as much time on the back end as you do on the front, measuring what counts most. The first thing I tell folks is, you’ve got to set specific goals and objectives before you spend a penny. And anybody that tells you that marketing can’t be measured should be put in a stray jacket. Anytime there’s action, there’s a cause and effect. Some of it might be soft and some of it may be hard dollars relative to a return on investment from a marketing standpoint, but you have to track data. Just like they’re tracking data in other areas of their practice to improve processes and patient outcomes. It could be from anything like measuring the number of unique visitors you want to attract to your website to hear your story.  It could be, “how many patients do I want to generate referrals from that are at a given disease state or have a certain medical condition.” There’s just a wealth of ways that you can track the results of your activities, but you have to know what you’re tracking up from.

The practices that are doing things right: What are they doing? Can you give any case examples of best practice organizations or the tactics they’ve employed?

Jim: I would say that the best practices that I’m aware of are those practices that are taking action sooner than later. I would encourage practices to evaluate their strategy first, what are they trying to achieve?  And it comes down to really the stage that practice is in at that given stage of the lifecycle. Are they looking to transition a practice to another set of practitioners or partners? Are they looking to merge with another practice or multiple practices? It really is going to differ, so there is no tried and true marketing mix and best practice for how to grow your practice through marketing.  I will say that there is one constant and that is as I said earlier, are those that are taking action and not just action one time, but it’s a continual process. Marketing is a journey it’s not a destination, it’s something that has to be measured and monitored and really methodically attacked over time. I relate it to something that hopefully the audience can relate to, and that is patient therapy. When physicians think about therapy, they think about adherence and they think about persistence and there’s a reason for that. When a patient adheres and is persistent to a drug regimen, the outcomes are better and they get better results. The same holds true for marketing. If you stay true to your course and your game plan, the results will come. But if you think you’re going to spend a dollar today and get ten tomorrow, then I think you’re setting yourself up for failure.

Let’s talk a bit more about social media, given its relatively low cost compared to traditional print, TV and radio advertising. What can providers do to gain traction in this area? How do they maintain momentum and authenticity with how they approach popular social media channels like Facebook?

Jim: I kind of have a grin on my face, the main reason why is because social media is all the buzz. I hate to say it but right now I think social media is just a buzz. I relate it to a hamster running on a hamster wheel, a lot of people are jumping in and they’re spending a significant amount of time and energy but, they haven’t done the up front thinking in relative to “What am I intending to do with this new media platform?” I am not discounting the power of social media; we’ll talk about it a little bit more, because it is incredibly powerful if it’s used right. But, you shouldn’t just jump in. I think you’ve got to know the same thing using social media you do about any other marketing medium. That is, who are you trying to reach? And what are you trying to accomplish? And more importantly, you better be damn sure that what you’re saying is adding value to the person on the other end, or you’re really just wasting your time.  Social media is extremely powerful, it is a medium in which consumers are taking control, they’re taking control of your message and they’re really driving the process of engagement. The question I would ask those watching is are you going to watch the conversation go on by?  Are you going to started and engage in it? But don’t do it because everyone else is, make sure you’ve got a strategic intent in what you’re trying to accomplish.  The other myth that I’d like to break down is that social media is cheap and inexpensive. And while it may not require a huge outlay of upfront cash, it does require a consistent deployment of time, talent and energy. Don’t think that its cheap relative to the investment you’re going to make, because to do it right you have to be dedicated to creating a value adding constant stream. That is content that is insightful, educational, and really engaging in respect to the community you’re trying to reach. That’s what you’re trying to do, you’re trying to build a loyal community that will follow you and then pass on the word.

To what extent do changing patient expectations and increasing levels of consumerism in healthcare impact all of this?

Jim: Consumers are having conversations right now about your brand, about your practice, about your last patient experience that took place in your office.  You’ve got to be more proactive with respect to auditing these communication channels and being on top of them. We talk a lot about in this medical field the ability to convey thought leadership. That I think is a great platform for social media. That is a channel where you can really funnel your opinions, and I have not met many medical professional that do not have strong opinions when it comes to the best way to treat patients, or the best way to achieve long-term successful health outcomes. So relative to consumer engagement, the game has changed, there’s no doubt about it. It’s a question of how can you dedicate the time and resources to become an active participant and an ongoing active participant in that conversation? There’s LinkedIn, there’s Facebook, even Google from that perspective is adding some social component to its platform, so it’s easy to jump in it’s not easy to define upfront what you’re trying to accomplish before you do so. 

How do practices balance the promotional aspect of their web marketing with the educational aspect, given how much patients are going to the web to find out health information?

Jim: I think it goes back to thought leadership; we are in a self-service consumer driven world. The last thing that a consumer or a patient wants to do is pick up the phone right now and talk to someone before they’re ready. As a medical professional, you have the opportunity to still engage and convey your opinions and thoughts relative to why you are the best alternative for their treatment, by producing thought leadership content on the web. We’ve got several practices, I think, that are doing a great job at that and they’re producing a consistent stream of educational content. Webinars, where they’ve got their physicians and their practice administrators talking about things that are important to patients on a week to week, month to month basis. These are vehicles that consumers can self absorb. And once, they’re convinced, you are talking the right talk and are relevant and appealing to them, they’ll pick up the phone and they’ll be in your office. It’s those practices that are using webcasts, podcasts, clinical papers, and things of that nature to educate their consumers and their patients well before they walk through the front door.

Jim, this has been great insight—thank you for taking the time to share your expertise.

And thank you for joining us—we’ll be back soon with an all-new webisode. Until then, if it’s on your mind, it’s “In the Know.”

Close Transcript