We built a website now what do we need to do?

Aug/28/2007 06:40 Filed in: Internet & DTC Marketing
tier_190.2
By far the most common misunderstanding of the Web is that once you invest in and build a website management feels that you shouldn't need anymore money. We have come so far in eMarketing but we have so far to go. The reality is that a great Web strategy requires continuous investment to ensure it meets both patient needs and business objectives. think of it this way: If you spend a lot of money to develop a Website and then don't continually invest in online initiatives then your initial investment is worth $0 and you are telling your customers that their needs are not important to you.



The great think about the Web is that it is a living and breathing entity. It is consistently evolving as defined by the needs of users. For some reason most pharma marketers feel that they can use the Web to "push" information to consumers and that they don't need to update websites as they learn more about patient needs. They don't segment messaging and feel that "one brand fits all". To make matters worse it takes an act of God just to get initial Web funding so once DTC marketers are over this hurdle they feel like they have just competed and won a marathon !


There are so many things you can learn from your website visitors that your website can provide you with a lot of information on what your prospects are thinking and the decision process they go through in deciding if your product is right for them. You can look at site navigation maps to learn what information is really important to your users and delete information that is not being used. For example one of the most visited pages in pharma product websites are side effects. This tells me that people want to learn what the side effects of taking your product are so that they can compare it to other medications. The problem is that most side effect information is directly from the label and is hard for a PHD to decipher let alone an average consumer. Has pharma tried to make it easier to understand...hell no !


So you have all this information on what people are doing on your website, how much time they are spending and where they going. Why the hell wouldn't you use this information to make a better brand experience for your customers? Why wouldn't you segment and then segment again to provide personally relevant information? The answer is because to do this requires more money which requires lots more Power Points which requires a lot more time and DTC marketers just think it's not worth it. It's at times like these that I remember it's about my patients not about the business.


I am not sure that Pharma will ever understand the value of the Web. When you have pharma companies that continually take great marketing people and make them work in sales for 2-3 years "for the experience" something is dreadfully wrong. Pharma is too much like a business today and less about patients. Wall Street is more important than our customers and that's too bad because in the end all Wall Street can do is look at numbers..not the people behind those balance sheets.


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