Unlocking Clinical Trial Marketing: Significance, Best Practices, and Some Key Insights

Clinical trials happen to be a crucial step in the overall drug development process, and they require serious investments in resources and time. However, even with all the investing, several trials struggle with the retention and recruitment of participants through the current methods for marketing and advertising. It can be due to a lot of factors, including misconceptions, a lack of awareness about clinical trials, and barriers to access. 

To be successful in trials and to increase the chances, one has to invest in effective clinical trial recruitment and retention strategies. By outreaching and engaging the appropriate participants with effective marketing techniques, pharma organizations can ensure the trial meets its enrollment targets and that participants stick throughout the study. This, in turn, can help ensure that the trial produces top-notch research data and leads to a successful approval. 

Deep Insights: Clinical Trial Marketing and Advertising Platforms

Pharma companies need to be aware of all the effective platforms or media through which they can carry out the best marketing strategies to run a successful trial. Here is a list of all such platforms that companies can choose for effective advertising and insights on how they work and why-

• Clinical trial recruitment companies- These enterprises approach recruitment from a wide perspective, which we will discuss later. For instance, a standard recruitment company might seek participants using partnerships or digital marketing, and focus on their particular expertise in the field of the company with which they have collaborated. 

These recruitment companies sometimes provide extra options that come in use too, like site identification or screening. They are the ones who have experience identifying the needs of a company’s participant base and marketing their services to them accordingly. They often partner with nonprofits, companies, and community groups outside of the research industry, offering them access to a wide range of candidates with several conditions. 

• Traditional advertising- We will see how digital media plays a significant role as a platform too, but traditional advertising has its advantages over it. It includes billboards, TV ads or radio, or posters in the subway, etc. Companies should know that traditional advertising doesn’t have to be a replacement for digital media. It can be a balancing factor for companies that want to catch the eye of the demographics who are not that much into social media or relative online platforms. Sites like doctors’ offices or public transport are proven to be effective too.

• Digital advertising- Most companies are aware of this medium, which focuses more on social media platforms. But even though they are well known to the industry, companies don’t have the bandwidth to put these platforms to the best of their marketing or advertising. Digital advertising comprises Google Ads, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or other social media platforms, and organizations need to come up with the best strategy to grab the attention of the target consumers with tailored material that appeals to them. 

The best advantage of using these platforms is that you (as a pharma company) can gather data accurately while running the campaign. It is also possible to gather insights on where and what your audience is looking for. This, in turn, helps companies like yours to make an interim shift according to the preference of their target market, driving better conversions. 

• Patient databases, automation, and registries- This is another platform where recruitment agencies can help pharma companies with, but it’s also something that companies can drive by themselves. This kind of database is fundamentally a searchable directory that your company can build, populating it with its contacts and candidates, or access at a price from other suppliers. 

There are databases that companies can access that specialize in particular conditions, and this can help them gather the information of those they want to recruit. If your company is maintaining its own database, then automation is the key. Automation and marketing programs are also available for emails, outbound calling, and other forms of outreach that work together to nurture your company’s database and keep your trials transparent to its candidates. These programs should be HIPAA compliant and built for the needs of your demographics. 

Clinical Trial Marketing and Advertising: Best Practices to Incorporate

Marketing for pharma companies is basically portraying their services and products in such a way as to grab the attention of the target audience. And this happens only when they convey the right messages that their consumers want to hear. 

In order to be able to execute this (i.e., aligning their campaigns to the preference of their audience), they need to understand their habits and pain points, which unlocks their motivation triggers. 

Accessing these triggers while eliminating misconceptions and uncertainties is the ultimate goal of a successful clinical trial marketing and advertising campaign. With that being said, here are some of the best practices-

• Comprehend that fact that patients want help and want to help too- pharma companies need to understand that patients need help in their medical condition, but what motivates them more is that their ideology behind their help towards contributing to the advancement of medical research. So, your marketing strategy should align with this altruistic behaviour. 
• Highlight the appropriate benefits- While financial gain can be a significant driver towards joining a trial, the marketing side of it has FDA restrictions, which are based on ethical grounds. 
• Understand the pitfalls- In clinical studies, inconvenience is the frequently reported disadvantage. Navigating a way to rank the candidates by what length they have to move, or other inconvenience metrics, will help you structure your marketing strategy accordingly. 
• Be accurate and transparent- As a part of your selection methodology, your ads should align accordingly. Attracting the wrong audience might lead to the wastage of both resources and time. So, it’s better to be upfront about the eligibility criteria along with the terms and conditions in a transparent manner. This strategic targeting might minimize your click-throughs, but will probably enhance the fit of those who showcase interest. 
• Relate to patients- When incorporating visual media, it is crucial to depict something that resonates with your target audience. If there is a rare disease involved, portray a common pain point that relates to your audience. Occasionally, the audience will be the patients, while sometimes it’ll be the HCP/caregiver, so it’s crucial to consider this difference when crafting the imagery. 

Ultimately, this will come down to how well your company has researched its patients and their community. Few diseases disproportionately affect certain races or genders, so reflecting this in your imagery is a great idea, as long as it’s not explicitly mentioned in the advertisement. 

• Do permutation and combination- There isn’t a single platform that will fulfill the expectations of your company in marketing and conversion. So, it’s better to opt for an omnichannel marketing model. Next, your company has to identify the strongest elements of each so that you can amalgamate them into an effective strategy. 

Conclusion

While there are multiple platforms through which clinical trial advertising and marketing can be done, the cost of it always remains a factor for the pharma companies. Balancing your ad budget against your recruitment needs can be a daunting task, but there are various ways to streamline the marketing process using a multitude of platforms. When strategized appropriately, it becomes more of a matter of organization and research rather than expenses. 

As a first step, companies should identify the candidate’s needs, then zero in on what they are looking for, and in particular, what they are seeking. Next, it’s all about tailored messaging and marketing that aligns with that data. 

Advanced pharma companies like Newristics are the need of the hour as it is driving state-of-the-art messaging services that cater to the patient-centric approach of pharma companies. With the correct messaging in place, companies are willing to collaborate to drive patient-centric strategies for better patient outcomes.