The successful marketing of your clinical trial can make or break a product launch. But let’s face it: clinical trials are not always the easiest sell.
The successful marketing of your clinical trial can make or break a product launch. But let’s face it: clinical trials are not always the easiest sell. By focusing on promoting not just your clinical trial, but also your research department and overall “brand,” you gain enhanced opportunities to engage and retain clinical trial participants.
A Closer Look at the Four Ps
Any marketing major is familiar with the 4Ps of marketing: product (or service), place, price and promotion. Consideration of the 4Ps is an essential part of defining an optimal marketing mix. The objective? Create and promote a product that matches the public’s demand at the right time, place and price.
But if you’re jumping to the last P without considering the former, you’re putting the cart before the horse. In particular, if you’re not promoting your research department as part of your product, you’re missing a valuable chance to build your brand while engaging potential participants at a meaningful and lasting level.
The Importance of Engaged Patients
Research shows that patient engagement plays a critical role in the overall continuum of care. In fact, patients who are also active stakeholders in the decision making process lead to better industry results across a variety of factors, including patient recruitment, enrollment periods, drug delivery timeliness, and public perception about the medical and pharmaceuticals industry.
Improving patient engagement through the presentation of an unparalleled product is essential, and the research team is an integral part of this: the more positive interactions participants have, the more likely they are to enroll or continue in another clinical trial.
Why YOUR Clinical Trial?
The overwhelming majority of patient surveys cite “Physician Influence” as a reason for participation, according to research from the ECRI Institute. Promoting your research department should be an innate part of your brand statement and marketing strategy. Because while patients want to know what participating in your clinical trial can do for them and for the field of medicine, they also want to trust that you can execute. This is where the research team comes in. Viewed as resources, your faculty, researchers and facilities all contribute to the efficacy of your products, and — ultimately — the marketability of your clinical trial.
Patients have many choices when it comes to clinical trials, and the competition is steep: in fact, only a small fraction of patients participate in the approximate 4,000 active clinical trials currently underway in the U.S. Factor in patients’ unprecedented access to digital media and social media, and the challenges continue to grow.
The combination of access and information influences decisions about patient care in new ways while simultaneously raising patient expectations for their own healthcare. By including your research departments in your marketing efforts, you can capitalize on your assets and promote trust, confidence and invaluable patient engagement in your clinical trials.