Pharma Marketing Network Advertiser News

Effective Email Advertising

2012-01-09T04:04:00.000-08:00

[Access the PDF version of this post, which includes the 2012 rate card, here.]

One of themost frequently asked questions about email advertising received by PharmaMarketing Network is similar to this one:

"You do a lot of conference blasts so I'mwondering if you could provide advice on how to get better open rates (whatsubject lines seem to work), and how did my click through compare to otherconference producers?"

What makes anemail ad effective depends on several factors. The subject line is just one.Other factors include the day of the week and the time of day the blast issent, which is the subject of this report. See the end of the report forfurther suggestions on how to improve open rates for email ad blasts.

In order todetermine which day of the week and time of day are optimal for sending outemail ad “blasts” to Pharma MarketingNews (PMnews) subscribers, we performed an analysis of our 2011 emailadvertising metrics. Specifically, we looked at the Open rates and Click-throughsto discover trends. The two questions we attempted to answer are:

· What’sthe best day of the week to send an email blast?

· What’sthe best time of the day to send an email blast?

Overview of Subscribers and Email Ads

Paid-advertisingemail blasts are sent to all PMnews subscribers who opted in to receive the adsas part of their free subscription service. The number of opt-in PMnewssubscribers at the start of 2011 was 7,400; the number at the end of 2011 was7,900. A total of 138 email blasts were made in 2011. Of these, 32 or 23% were“repeat” blasts, which are blasts sent to subscribers who did not open thefirst blast (see “Email Ad Options”; page E-1). This analysis excludes repeatblasts.

Definition of Terms

EmailDeliveries.According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), this metric attempts toanswer the question, "How many valid Email addresses actually accepted mycomplete message?" It describes how many emails sent out were completelytransferred to the intended recipient’s mailbox without generating a “bounce”or other delivery error. The average number of Pharma Marketing News advertising email deliveries per blast in2011—excluding repeats—was 7,555. The average bounce rate was 1.9%.

UniqueEmail Opens (UO).According to the IAB, this metric attempts to answer the question, "Howmany unique individuals viewed this Email campaign?" In our analysis, wecalculate a UO rate, which is the ratio of unique opens to deliveries (i.e.,UO/Deliveries) expressed as a percent (UO%).

Unique EmailClick-Through (UC).According to the IAB, this metric attempts to answer the question, "Howmany unique people clicked on a link or multiple links within this Email?"To illustrate, if one person clicked on two links, this would only count as oneunique click-through. If one person clicked on the same link twice, this wouldonly count as one unique click-through.

Click-to-OpenRate. This metricattempts to answer the question, “Of the Unique Email Opens, how manyindividuals took an action?” In our analysis, we express this as UC%.

What’s the Best Day of the Week to Send an Email Blast?

How do UO%and UC% vary by day of week? As shown in Figure 1 (below), UO % stayedvirtually constant over the course of the week. The UC rate, however, declinessignificantly after peaking on Tuesday with Friday having the lowest UC%.

Figure 1. Openand Click-Through Rates for All Ads by Day of Week. The numbers above the barsindicate the number of blasts sent on that day of the week during 2011(includes repeat email blasts). The actual UO% and UC% values are not shown(each horizontal line represents an increment of one percent). Clients receivethese data as part of the service we provide.

The UC ratewas greatest on Tuesday and declined about 28% relative to the peak onWednesday, another 15% on Thursday relative to Wednesday, and 26% on Fridayrelative to Thursday. Perhaps subscribers become less interested in clicking onlinks as they get busier during the week and as the weekend looms.

Based on thisanalysis, all other variables being equal (and they rarely are), advertisers maywish to schedule email blasts to PMnews subscribers at the beginning of theweek rather than on Thursdays or Fridays.

What’s the Best Time of the Day to Send an Email Blast?

We looked at UO% and UC% for email blasts sentat different times of the day. We divided the day into discrete time periods asshown in Figure 2 (below).

Figure 2. Openand Click-Through Rates for All Ads by Time of Day. The numbers above the barsindicate the number of blasts sent on that day of the week during 2011. Theactual UO% and UC% values are not shown (each horizontal line represents anincrement of one percent). Clients receive these data as part of the service weprovide.

According toour analysis, the open and click-through rates do not vary greatly by time ofday. Based on the limited data we have, we conclude that sending out blastsearly in the day (Eastern US time) or just prior to lunch hour is optimal.However, this rule applies only to blasts intended for U.S. subscribers. Wesend out email ads before 7:00 am (Eastern US time) if the target audience isEuropean.

How to Improve Email Ad Effectiveness

Although theanalysis summarized above collaborates much that has been said about B2B emailadvertising from other sources, you should not depend solely upon these data toincrease the chances that your email ad is opened and that links therein areclicked.

The best advice we can give to increase youropen rates—other than choosing the right day of the week or time of day to sendan email blast—is to make your email message specific to Pharma Marketing News subscribers. To help ensuresuccess, we only send out ads that we believe will be of interest to oursubscribers. Advertisers can also improve the success of their email ad blastsby offering our subscribers something special they haven't seen before such asspecial offers or discounts.

Often, advertisersgive us the identical ad copy and subject line they have used for ads they havesent to other lists. Since some PMnews subscribers are probably subscribed to severallists, they may get the same exact message twice on the same day! That's not goodfor our subscribers or for our advertisers. We also suffer because once in awhile a subscriber who receives duplicate messages will generate a spam reportvia Constant Contact, the email service we use to send out email blasts.

A few othersuggestions for advertisers include:

1. Composea message that is UNIQUE for PMnews subscribers.

2. Trymentioning "Pharma Marketing Newssubscriber" in your message or addressing the message to "Dear Pharma Marketing News subscriber.”

3. Ifyou can't change the message, at least use a UNIQUE subject line.

Keep It Simple and Personal

It'sexpensive to create formatted, graphical versions of email messages with allthe clickable buttons, graphics, and other "bells and whistles" thatadvertisers believe will increase open rates. We have a little secret for you: asimple Word-formatted document with perhaps your logo on the top for brandingpurposes signed by a real person may be more effective than stylish graphicalmessages.

Of course,the message still should be uniquely addressed to PMnews subscribers. We canhelp you do that. The point is, it is NOT expensive to rewrite your message inWord format. You don't have to pay any designer, graphic artist, or HTMLprogrammer fees! Send us the Word document and we will create the HTML from it.It's still going to look like a simple Word document and will includeformatting (ie. bold text, italics, etc.) plus links and graphics, but no unnecessarybells and whistles.

Regardless ofthe format of the message, each email blast includes a personal introductionfrom John Mack, the Editor and Publisher of PharmaMarketing News. In a Pledge to Subscribers and Advertisers (see http://bit.ly/vAykHA), Mack has said: "Because PMNsubscribers are very valuable to me and to my advertisers, I will fight forspecial discounts for subscribers from advertisers and include a personal thankyou and endorsement in the ad when such offers are made. These days, every oneneeds a break and I pledge to pass along as much savings as I can to mysubscribers."

Anything advertisers can do to help us keep thispledge is bound to improve the effectiveness of email ad blasts.

[Access the PDF version of this post, which includes the 2012 rate card, here.]

Social Media Enable Your E-Mail Ad Blasts

2011-05-23T08:47:00.000-07:00

E-mail Ads (“blasts”) are ideal for promoting special offers, events, white papers, product news, press releases, and job openings to Pharma Marketing News subscribers who have opted in to receive such promotions.

There are many NEW options that have the potential to greatly expand the audience for PMN e-mail blasts.

For example, included with EACH e-mail blast order is ONE tweet sent to ALL Pharmaguy (@pharmaguy) subscribers. This tweet links to a Web version of the blast maintained by Constant Contact (the service we use to send out our e-mails). An example can be found here.

Over 9,400 people follow Pharmaguy (@pharmaguy) on Twitter as of August, 2011, and that number is growing rapidly (see a profile of @pharmaguy's followers here, based on a survey of over 2,000 followers).

NEW! A summary of each e-mail blast is ALSO posted to the Pharmaguy Facebook Wall, where hundreds of Pharmaguy's influential friends (specifically selected by Pharmaguy) can see an expanded synopsis of the e-mail blast (including an image such as a logo, brochure cover, etc.). An example is shown in the image below (click on image for a larger view):

The e-mail blast itself includes Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn "share" buttons, which enable viewers to share the blast with their friends, followers, and contacts. The result of is a vastly increased number of readers of the e-mail blast and increased clickthrough rates!

Also included with EACH e-mail blast order at no extra charge is an insertion in the PMN Sponsor Widget (see example at left), which is displayed on Pharma Marketing Blog, Pharma Marketing Network Forums, Online Conference Calendar page, and other pages throughout the Network.

The listing within the widget includes the subject line of the e-mail ad, short ad summary, and a link to the HTML version of the complete ad posted on the PMN portal site (see an example here).

On average, the widget gets 1,200 views per day.

In addition to Tweets and Widgets, e-mail blasts can also be social media enhanced through posts and announcements made to the Pharma Marketing Network Forums Site, which is both an online moderated discussion board AND a drug industry news aggregation site where newsfeeds from many different Web sites, publications, government sources, blog posts, and Twitter accounts are posted and archived.

As of May, 2011, there are over 6,700 registered Forum members and more than 40,000 Forum threads/posts. Each month, there are over 90,000 unique visits to the Forums and over 450,000 views of forums and posts.

Because the Forums are constantly updated with new content, they are visited often by search engine spiders. Consequently, PMN Forum content is often seen at the top of searches relevant to the pharmaceutical industry.

To take advantage of the Forums high search engine visibility and audience, EACH e-mail blast order also includes a posting to the PMN Advertiser Messages forum (see here). The post includes a short ad summary and link to the Web version of ad (see an example here).

Sponsored Forum Announcement
Another way to get your e-mail ad blast in front of a larger audience is to order a Sponsored Forum Announcement that appears at the top of a selected PMN Forum or Forums. An example is shown in the graphic below (click on the image for an enlarged view):

The announcement is a copy of the e-mail blast (HTML or plain text version if HTML not available). As opposed to a Forum post, which gets pushed down the list as more posts are made, an announcement remains at the TOP of the forum no matter how many posts are made to the forum. The announcement remains available for a period of ONE MONTH or longer, depending on the insertion order requested.

Announcements are posted by a member of the Forums. That member can be an identifiable person (eg, the client's sales contact) or an unidentifiable alias. Whether identifiable or not, the member can have a "signature" included in the announcement that includes whatever contact information is appropriate. If desired, the announcement can be made by the Forum administrator.

To find out more about these and other Pharma Marketing Network advertising options or to get a proposal to best suit your needs, contact us via e-mail at sales@pharma-mkting.com

Pharma Marketing Talk Podcast: More Than 15 Minutes of Fame!

2011-04-11T07:07:00.000-07:00

As reported in December, 2010, Pharma Marketing Talk podcasts have been listened to a total of 118,503 times (about 1,034 listeners per show). Of course, by now even more people have listened to these shows, which typically run from 15 to 30 minutes in length.

Each podcast is promoted before and after the interview to the thousands of subscribers to Pharma Marketing News, followers of @Pharmaguy on Twitter, and readers of Pharma Marketing Blog. This promotion gives our guest clients much more than 15 minutes of fame within the online pharma community!

Here is how podcasts are promoted via the Network:

Podcast promotion page, which includes a summary of the discussion topic, lists of guests (including short bios), background information, list of topics and/or questions to be discussed, links to additional resources (eg, white papers, press releases, etc.) and, of course, information about listening or calling in to the live show. This promo page (see an example here) remains on the Pharma Marketing Network indefinitely.
The podcast is included in the Pharma Marketing Talk RSS Feed and posts made to this feed are AUTOMATICALLY posted as threads in the Pharma Marketing Talk Forum where it gets added social media and search engine visibility!
Listing the podcast in the online Conference Calendar. The listing includes the title of podcast, date and time of podcast, short description of podcast, photo of guest, and link to the podcast promotion page.
Same listing in the email Conference Calendar Update sent to all subscribers every 2 weeks.
Box Ad promoting the podcast before and/or after the interview (see Conference Calendar Update).
One or two Tweets about the podcast via the @Pharmaguy Twitter account is posted before AND after the live interview/discussion.
A Playback Widget for the show is available after the show is archived on BlogTalkRadio and iTunes. This widget is included in the podcast promo page so that the audio is played back as soon as the page is accessed. Guests can also copy this widget and place in on their web sites and/or blogs. If the guest has a Pharma Marketing Preferred or Category Sponsor Listing, the widget is also placed within in the listing.

For more information about Pharma Marketing Talk podcasts click here. If you are interested in being a guest on a Pharma Marketing Talk podcast, please fill out this ONLINE FORM today! or call 215-504-4164 or e-mail request@talk.pharma-mkting.com.

How to Post Threads to Pharma Marketing Forum

2011-02-21T10:36:00.000-08:00

If you are advertising your company or event via Pharma Marketing Network, a dedicated forum may be part of your campaign. With this option you can post any number of notices -- press releases, white papers, discussions -- as "threads" to the forum. The more posts or updates you make, the more likely your forum will appear in search engines. Also, we can Tweet about the posts you made to bring more attention to your forum.

Here, we show you how to make posts to your forum using an Events Forum ("Emerging PharMarkets Summit 2011 Mar 23-25, 2011") as an example.

FIRST, login to the forum by going to the Forum Main Page (here). See the following image, which shows you where to enter your User Name and Password, which were given to you at the start of the campaign (click image for an enlarged view):

SECOND, scroll down the page until you find your forum and click on the forum name as shown in the next image.

This will open up the forum ready for posting (see next image).

THIRD, click on the New Thread button as shown to open the editor window:

This will open the editor window ready for posting (see next image).

FOURTH, type in a title (careful, not too many characters!) and the body of the message where indicated in the following image. You can format the body message using the formatting tools (labeled A). Click on area marked B to see the formatted version of the post:

If this is all you want to do, click on the "Submit New Thread" button to post your thread. If you have been given moderator status, your post will immediately be available for all visitors to see. If not, your post will go up on the site after it has been approved.

In this example, we show how to add an attached file such as a pdf file, Word document, Excel spreadsheet, PowerPoint presentation, etc. Attachments are uploaded BEFORE clicking the "Submit New Thread" button.

FIFTH, scroll down until you see "Additional Options" and click on "Manage Attachments" to open the attachments dialog box (click where shown in the following image):

In the attachment dialog box you have the option to upload a file from your computer or type in a URL to load a file from a Web site. In this example, we will load a pdf file from a local computer.

SIXTH, click on the "Browse" button (see image below) to select a file from your computer by browsing your folders until you find the one you are looking for. It will appear in the window next to the Browse button. Then, click on the "Upload" button. When the file is uploaded you will see it highlighted in the "Current Attachments" box (see image below). You can upload more than one file at a time. Close the window when you have the corrected file uploaded and you will be returned to the Editor Window.

SEVENTH, in the Editor Window click on the "Submit New Thread" button and you will see the completed pots as shown in the image below:

Over 118,000 Pharma Marketing Talk Podcast Listeners!

2010-12-31T10:30:00.000-08:00

In 2010 Pharma Marketing Talk hosted 31 shows on BlogTalkRadio's Pharmaguy Channel. That's a little more than the yearly average number of shows produced since 2007 (see chart).

Since 2006, there have been 117 shows. You can find the list of shows organized by guest last name here and by organization here.

Listen to internet radio with Pharmaguy on Blog Talk Radio

Each show is archived as an audio podcast that can be accessed via several sites -- including iTunes (here) -- BlogTalkRadio (here) and also via widgets placed on many different pages throughout Pharma Marketing Network (including the one above).

These podcasts have been listened to a total of 118,503 times (about 1,034 listeners per show). Of course, the longer the podcast is available, the more listens it gets. The following chart shows the listeners per show for shows aired in each year since 2007 as of today (12/31/2010).

There are several ways to getting more listeners for your PMT podcast:

You can put a BlogTalkRadio widget dedicated to your show on your website (eg, see the widget on this page; it begins playing the show as soon as the page is displayed. Another option is to require that the playback button be clicked to start the streaming audio);
You can tweet about the show and link to it on the PMT promo page (eg, the same page as above);
You can order a Twitter promotion option from Pharma Marketing Network. That way, @pharmaguy will send out tweets about the show (with links to the audio) to more than 7,400 followers (as of 12/31/2010).

For more options, see "Leverage Your Podcast Interview."

A Twitter Campaign Can Reach a Whole New Pharma Marketing Network Audience

2010-11-26T06:38:00.000-08:00

Over the past year, I have noticed that Twitter has been used by more and more Pharma Marketing Network advertisers to promote their events, white papers, expertise, and even their products and services.

Many advertisers have their own Twitter accounts, but a few also take advantage of Pharma Marketing Network's Twitter account (@pharmaguy) to have "Pharmaguy" send out tweets on their behalf. DISCLOSURE: In case you didn't know, Pharmaguy is me, John Mack, Publisher of Pharma Marketing News. You can find an archive of Pharmaguy tweets here.

Factoid: The use of Twitter among the nation’s largest corporations has nearly doubled: 60% of companies listed on the 2010 Fortune 500 have a corporate Twitter account with at least one tweet issued in the previous 30 days, up from 35% who did so a year earlier, according to research from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. Meanwhile, 56% of Fortune 500 companies have a Facebook profile.

Over 8,600 people follow Pharmaguy on Twitter as of May, 2011, and that number is growing rapidly. Pharmaguy now has MORE Twitter followers than there are subscribers to Pharma Marketing News (see chart below).

Over the years, the Pharma Marketing News subscriber audience has proven to be very receptive to messages from our advertising clients. I have previously published recommendations on how to improve the response to e-mail ads sent to PMN subscribers (see here and here).

The growing importance of Twitter, however, forces me to consider it as an equally-effective channel for reaching an entirely NEW Pharma Marketing Network audience; ie, Pharmaguy's Twitter followers. To learn more about this audience, every new Pharmaguy follower is asked to complete the Pharmaguy "Getting to Know You Twitter Survey." About 1,400 have complied and given valuable feedback about who they are and what they are interested in (see a detailed summary here).

One way I leverage Twitter is to include with every e-mail blast a tweet from "Pharmaguy" that links directly to a Web page version of the e-mail blast message. Here's an example of such a tweet:

"Fraud & Abuse in Pharmaceutical Sales & Marketing: Current laws & tips on compliance. 30% discount on CD purchase. http://conta.cc/aDBQhz"

Note that at the top of the ad page are several social media "sharing" buttons that make every Pharma Marketing News e-mail blast social media enabled!

A single tweet, however, is fleeting; the vast majority of Pharmaguy followers may never see it. What's better is to have a Twitter "campaign," which is INDEPENDENT of the e-mail ad and links DIRECTLY to the "call to action page." In the above example, the Twitter links to the ad, which links to a registration page for ordering a CD. An independent Twitter Campaign may include SEVERAL tweets that link directly to the registration page.

The typical Pharmaguy Twitter Campaign includes 6 tweets sent on different days/times to Pharmaguy's followers. Each tweet is uniquely worded as in the following example (this campaign is not related to the CD offer above):

Check out the aggregate results of the ePrints Medical Marketing Survey commissioned by Reprints Desk: http://goo.gl/tb94 [Sent 25-Oct, 10:30 AM]

Top 2 uses for eReprints 4 physicians according to ReprintsDesk survey are Websites & portals; slide 5: http://goo.gl/tb94 #epharma [Sent 27-Oct, 10:30 AM]

Multiple contact pts., diff licensing T&Cs r top probs in use of clinical eReprints by pharma says ReprintsDesk survey: http://goo.gl/tb94 [Sent 28-Oct, 10:30 AM]

Good Promotional Practices Alliance (GPPa) is sponsored & managed by Prolifiq Software and Reprints Desk. #gppnews http://goo.gl/X3kO [Sent 28-Oct, 1:45 PM]

#FF @GPPnews For best pharma collaborative practice 4 sales, marketing & reg compliance. Also C http://goo.gl/X3kO [Sent 29-Oct, 9:45 AM]

Visit Good Promotional Practices Alliance forum 4 resources re balanced approach to sales, marketing & compliance. http://bit.ly/dkE10C [Sent 3-Nov, 10:30 AM]

Note the use of hash tags and short, trackable URLs. This helps us track how well the campaign has done (more on that in another post to this blog).

I recommend that you consider adding a Pharmaguy Twitter Campaign to your Pharma Marketing Network promotional mix. Here are a few reasons why:

The majority (62%) of Pharmaguy's followers are pharma marketing professionals working within a pharmaceutical company or a pharmaceutical marketing agency or consultancy. These are people you want to reach.
About half of them are looking for "new ideas" for drug marketing; ie, just the sort of information you may have.
Only 24% of Pharmaguy's Twitter followers are subscribers to Pharma Marketing News, which means that at least 76% of them may not see e-mail ad supplements that are sent to subscribers.
It's less expensive than an e-mail campaign, especially when you are considering sending more than one e-mail blast to Pharma Marketing News subscribers. It's even less expensive than a "repeat" e-mail blast.

If you are interested in learning more about ordering a Pharmaguy Twitter Campaign and pricing, please Request a Media Kit & Rate Card here.

How to Increase Your Email Ad Open Rates - Part 2

2010-10-08T04:37:00.000-07:00

In Part 1 (see here) I discussed how you can increase your Email open rates by keeping your message simple. Here, I'd like to focus on how to make you Email ads more appealing to the Pharma Marketing News (PMN) subscriber audience.

Suggestion #1: Offer special discounts to PMN subscribers in promotions.

In "My Pledge to Subscribers and Advertisers" (pdf file) I promised to offer subscribers (and advertisers) more value-added services. Specifically, I said:

"Because PMN subscribers are very valuable to me and to my advertisers, I will fight for special discounts for subscribers from advertisers and include a personal thank you and endorsement in the ad when such offers are made. These days, every one needs a break and I pledge to pass along as much savings as I can to my subscribers."

I'm not sure how much my personal endorsement is worth in terms of getting more responses to advertisers' Email ads, but I know that everyone appreciates special consideration and money-saving deals. So, offering special discounts to PMN subscribers is very effective in increasing the effectiveness of your promotions to my subscribers.

Hopefully, this discount is unique for my subscribers. If it is, I can make a big deal about it in my upfront personal endorsement. I may even Tweet about it to my Twitter followers, many of whom are NOT subscribers to PMN. I not only do this to help my advertisers, but also to recruit new PMN subscribers. It's a win-win-win situation.

Suggestion #2: Avoid sending the SAME EXACT message to multiple lists.

I know that many of my advertisers send messages to other subscriber lists. Often the EXACT SAME message is sent to EVERY list. Many of my subscribers are on multiple lists. Consequently, they are likely to get the same message multiple times. This is a problem because these subscribers will think they are being spammed even though they have agreed to receive ad messages in exchange for a free subscription. They may not realize that the messages are coming from different sources and will think that PMN is sending them the same exact message over and over again. This is exacerbated when the advertiser uses the SAME subject line and times their message to go out the SAME day to multiple lists!

Therefore, I suggest to my advertisers that in addition to providing special offers and discounts to PMN subscribers, that they also:

Compose a UNIQUE message for PMN subscribers. Try at least mentioning "Pharma Marketing News subscriber" in your message or addressing the message to "Dear Pharma Marketing News subscriber:". If you need help and more specific suggestions, ask me (call 215-504-4164 or email editor@news.pharma-mkting.com).
If you can't change the message, at least use a UNIQUE subject line.

Although I cannot PROMISE that advertisers who follow my suggestions will get a better response to their promotions, I can promise this:

I will give your message the best personal endorsement I can
I will reward you with better discounts

As a last resort, I reserve the right to REFUSE to send an Email promotional message to my subscribers if I believe it is not in the best interest of my subscribers. Keep in mind that ALL Email sent to PMN subscribers comes from me (John Mack, Editor) personally. And I don't want to be perceived as a spammer!

P.S. I realize that some advertisers may not think it is fair to offer PMN subscribers discounts that are not offered to members of other lists. Hmmm... what can I say? PMN subscribers may be more valuable than members of other, less focused lists. Therefore, PMN subscribers may deserve special treatment. If you don't buy that argument, then at least you should offer PMN subscribers the SAME discount you have offered to other list members that receive your promotions. Also, you can make the offer more specific by using a special discount code for PMN subscribers. This way you can track whether or not the offer was successful.

Just-In-Time Publishing Means Greater Display Ad Visibility

2010-08-06T10:14:00.000-07:00

Now that Pharma Marketing News (PMN) has a NEW "Just-In-Time Publishing Plan" (see details here), advertisers can get greater visibility for their display ads without paying more. Before I explain how, let me review what a "display ad" is.

A display ad is a clickable graphic image (300 pixels wide x 250 pixels high; 72 dpi; jog, gif, or png format) inserted in the email "Executive Summary" version of Pharma Marketing News, as shown in the example below:

Just-In-Time Publishing
OK, now it's time for me to explain what I mean by "Just-In-Time Publishing" and how it increases the visibility of your display ad.

An electronic publication such as Pharma Marketing News does not need to be constrained by a monthly publishing schedule as is common with printed trade publications. Under the new Just-In-Time Publishing plan, Pharma Marketing News articles are published as soon as they are ready, instead of waiting until 3 or 4 articles are finished and ready to be bundled into a monthly issue. Pharma Marketing News already beats many print publications in reporting on and analyzing current issues. Now it will be even more timely.

Under the plan, when each article is ready for publication, an Executive Summary is sent by email to all subscribers. This includes a summary of the article plus a link to the pdf version of the full article. It also includes other summaries of topical pharma industry news and opinions such as posts made to Pharma Marketing Blog.

A Social Media Enhanced Online Directory

2010-07-31T13:09:00.000-07:00

Did you know that when you purchase a listing in the Pharma Marketing Network Vendor Directory, we use social media applications (ie, blogs and online discussion boards) to increase your company's visibility on the Network and on search engines such a Google?

Before describing how this works, you may like to learn more about the Vendor Directory Listing options, which are ENHANCED, PREFERRED, and CATEGORY SPONSOR. The boxes below summarize each option. Click on the names above to learn more about each option.

CASE STUDY
Recently, HM Marketing, a company that supplies promotional products, opted for a Category Sponsor Listing on the the Promotional Products Providers page of the Vendor Directory. As you can see from the partial (downsized) screen shot below, HM Marketing gets top billing on this page (banner ad) and a spot in the Preferred Vendor Menu area.

The listing itself looks like this:

When you search Google on "pharma promotional marketing," the PMN Vendor Directory Promotional Products Providers page is at the TOP of the natural search results list. Because of its top billing on that page, it's likely that HM Marketing will get substantial attention.

All this is pretty much standard when you purchase any online listing. But when you purchase a listing on the Pharma Marketing Network, we post a summary of your listing in the Pharma Marketing Vendor Blog as shown in the following sample:

We do this for several reasons:

The summary blog post with its links directly to the company website AND to its full listing in the PMN Vendor Directory is easily found when doing a Google Blog search. It also increases the visibility of the listing in a regular search (ie, it may appear as a second natural search result).
An RSS feed is automatically created from the blog post. This feed is then published in the Pharma Marketing Network Vendor Forum. The forums are aggressively crawled by search engine spiders and get a lot of visitors. A sample is shown below:
Also, the RSS feed summary is published within various Widgets located on several pages of the Pharma Marketing Network Web site. These widgets are like mini ads:

Needless to say, all this adds greatly to the visibility of your Vendor Directory listing on Pharma Marketing Network AND on major search engines. It's the most cost-effective advertising you can buy!

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

Another way to use social media to call attention to your services is to have @pharmaguy announce your Vendor Directory listing via Twitter! Inquire about this effective Social Media Promotion option that can be added to your Vendor Listing purchase.

How to Increase Your Email Ad Open Rates - Part 1

2010-07-23T08:06:00.000-07:00

One of the most frequently asked questions from my advertisers is very similar to this one I received recently:

"You do a lot of conference blasts so I'm wondering if you could provide advice on how to get better open rates (what subject lines seem to work), and how did my click through compare to other conference producers?"

The best advice I can give to increase your open rates is to make your email message specific to the Pharma Marketing News list of subscribers. Offer them something special they haven't seen before.

I know that lots of times my advertisers are giving me the exact same email ad copy and subject line they have used for other lists. Since some of my subscribers are probably subscribed to a few of these lists, they will get the same exact message and maybe on the same day!

That's not good for my subscribers or my advertisers. I suffer too because once in a while a subscriber will generate a spam report via Constant Contact, the email service I use. The subscriber thinks he or she is being spammed because of receiving the exact same message multiple times. Often, subscribers don't realize it's coming from different lists and they don't care. It's all spam to them.

Therefore, I strongly advise my my advertisers to avoid sending out the same ad copy to different lists. However, I do understand the monetary restraints. It's expensive to create new HTML versions with all the clickable buttons, graphics, and other "bells and whistles" that advertisers believe will increase open rates.

But I have a little secret for you. A simple Word-formatted document with perhaps your logo on the top for branding purposes signed by a real person may be more effective than stylish graphical messages. Of course, the message still has to be uniquely addressed to my subscribers and I can help you do that. The point is, it is NOT expensive to rewrite your message in Word format. You don't have to pay any designer, graphic artists, or HTML programmer fees! Send me the Word document and we will create the HTML from it. It's still going to look like a simple Word document and will include formatting (ie. bold text, italics, etc.) plus links and graphics, but no HTML bells and whistles.

In case that doesn't appeal to you, may I suggest a Repeat Email Blast option? A Repeat Email Blast is an EXACT copy of a previous email blast that is sent ONLY to subscribers who did NOT open the first one. For more about that option, please read "Repeat Email Blast Option" Saves You Money, Increases Open Rates, & Does Not Annoy Subscribers.

Leverage Your Podcast Interview

2010-07-14T08:12:00.000-07:00

Here's a typical scenario editors and publishers like me often encounter.

A PR person calls my phone number (215-504-4164) and tells me about her client's new product or service. She is following up on the press release she just sent me by email (publisher@pharma-mkting.com). I tell her that I usually don't publish press releases in Pharma Marketing News, my monthly electronic newsletter. I suggest that she have her client Sponsor a Forum dedicated to the company. She will then be able to self-publish (post) all her client's press releases, white papers, etc. She read this blog post explaining how to do that and is interested, but urges me to speak with the founders or CEO of the company.

What can I do? My readers want me to inform them about new products and services that may help them in their jobs. Also, I want PR people to be successful, especially if it helps me and my readers. Therefore, I agree to a phone interview.

If the fit is good and the founder or CEO knows his or her stuff, I usually invite him or her to be a guest on the Pharma Marketing Talk live BlogTalkRadio Show and podcast. I've done over 100 of these shows. You can find a complete list of archived shows (podcasts) here.

Usually, there is no charge for being a guest on my show or it's part of a larger campaign such as an "Advertorial" (for more information about that see "Promoting Your Products & Services" and download this pdf file).

A fair amount of promotion is included with each show I produce. First, there's the show information page, which includes the title of the show, brief description, guest bios and photos, date and time of the live show, background information, list of questions or topics to be discussed, and instructions for participating LIVE by phone or online. After the show, this page includes a "widget" that automatically plays the podcast when the page is viewed. There's also a link to the BlogTalkRadio page where you can hear it. See "Solving the Medical Marketing Blues" as an example.

Pharma Marketing Talk (PMT) shows are also listed prominently in the online Conference Calendar and in the Conference Calendar Update sent by email every two weeks to subscribers of Pharma Marketing News. I also notify my thousands of Twitter followers about the show. The show information is also posted in the Pharma Marketing Talk Forum under Events.

All that promotion occurs before the live show. In this busy world, however, who has time to listen live, especially in the middle of the afternoon when most of my shows air. Of course, I could change the air time to make it more convenient for live listens, but it's still not likely that more than a few dozen will show up. [BTW, people can listen live online via the Web or call in to listen and/or ask questions live during the show.]

Most people listen to the podcast audio archive of the show, which is kept online indefinitely and is available to download (mp3 format) for listening on mp3 devices such as the iPhone or iPad. The promotional page also stays on the PMN site indefinitely and there is a list of show archives available as well. This makes it easy for PMN visitors to find shows and for the shows to be indexed by search engines.

If you search for "Sanofi-Aventis facebook" on Google, for example, you will find the PMT podcast interview of Dennis Urbaniak, VP US Diabetes at sanofi-aventis, in the #2 position with a link to "What Sanofi-Aventis Learned from Its FaceBook Experience & What the Experts Recommend It Do Now." The #1 link, BTW, is the Pharma Marketing Blog post "Disgruntled Patient Shuts Down sanofi-aventis Facebook Page," which explains the issue being discussed.

As a result of all this promotion, the Sanofi-Aventis facebook podcast has been listened to over 1,300 times since it was recorded. The PMT show had 130 live listeners via the web and 37 people calling in.

Obviously, not every show is as popular as this. On average, podcasts of shows that aired in 2010 have been listened to 486 times (aver live listeners = 19; aver call ins = 9).

As time goes on, this number will increase.

The question is How can you increase the number of listeners to YOUR podcast? Here are a few suggestions:

You can promote the podcast to your clients via email and/or via your website. You can place the BlogTalkRadio widget -- the same widget I use -- on a page on your website and even in your HTML-formatted email messages! It costs you nothing to link to the podcast or download the widget.
If you order a Preferred or Category Sponsorship Vendor Listing (see here for details), we will include the podcast widget within your listing. For an example of this, please see the Reprints Desk listing. Note that this company also had a video that was embedded in the listing.
If you order an Advertorial Promotion Package (see "Promoting Your Products & Services" and download this pdf file), a podcast may be included. The article will include a box ad about the podcast with a direct link to the podcast promo page on PMN.
A sidebar ad can also be included in a reprint of a relevant Pharma Marketing News article reprint (past or upcoming article) that includes a link to the podcast.
Order a text transcript of the interview. You can then easily create a summary of the discussion to post on your website or as a press release.

If you are interested learning more about the Pharma Marketing Talk show and how to leverage the podcast archive to reach more PMN subscribers, please Contact Us and we will be very happy to discuss the details and get you a quotation/insertion order.

"Repeat Email Blast Option" Saves You Money, Increases Open Rates, & Does Not Annoy Subscribers

2010-07-12T09:04:00.000-07:00

Promotional email is an effective means of reaching the many thousands of Pharma Marketing News subscribers. Email advertising has many advantages, which are listed on the PMN Email Ads page.

During the recent economic turndown, PMN pledged to continue sending very relevant email ads to subscribers and to keep the number of such messages as few as possible (see "My Pledge to Subscribers and Advertisers"; pdf file). In 2009, PMN sent sent 70 promotional email blasts ("AD Supplements") on behalf of advertisers to newsletter subscribers, two-thirds of whom agree that the ads provide useful information.

Considering all the email that we all receive, it's no wonder that many email messages are lost in the shuffle and are not opened by as many recipients as we would like. In the first half of 2010, for example, the average open rate for promotional email sent to PMN subscribers was 12-13%, which compares reasonably well with other rates reported by Constant Contact (the email service used by PMN).

Many advertisers try to increase the number of people seeing their message by sending multiple emails (aka, "blasts") promoting the same event or service. Often the message in these followup blasts is very similar to the message in the first blast. Many of the same people who opened and saw the first blast may open and view followup blasts, which is fine because people often require reminders before taking action.

[For hints on how to improve your email marketing, download the pdf file "Get the Most Out of Your Promotional Spend," which focuses on how to improve the open and click-through rates of email "blasts' sent to Pharma Marketing News subscribers.]

More often than not, however, multiple email blasts sent to the same people cause them to feel that they are being "spammed" even though they have opted in to receive promotional email in exchange for a free subscription to the newsletter. This problem is amplified when the advertiser is also sending the same message to lists other than the Pharma Marketing News subscriber list. There may be substantial overlap in these lists.

Pharma Marketing Network/News needs to balance the needs of our advertisers with the expectations of our subscribers. For example, how can we help advertisers reach MORE of our subscribers with their messages while not sending the same message over and over again to the same subscribers?

The answer is simple: Send the SAME message, but ONLY to those subscribers who have NOT opened the first message! We call this the "Repeat Email Blast Option." We offer this Option at 35-40% of the cost of a standalone email blast. That's a savings of 60% or more!

With the "Repeat Email Blast Option" (Repeat Blast) you do not have to create or submit any new ad copy. The same approved copy that was used in the original blast is used for the Repeat Blast. Thus, you do not have the expense of creating new copy (HTML formatted as well as text-only) and we do not have to test the blast again before sending it out. We merely send the same blast to a new list of subscribers -- ie, ONLY those subscribers who did not receive the first blast.

Here are some data from an actual campaign that was run in June, 2010:

The original blast was sent on June 2, 1010 to 7,430 subscribers. 7,193 subscribers received this blast (3.2% bounce rate) and 891 subscribers opened it.
A Repeat Blast was sent on June 14, 2010 to 6,576 subscribers (the 891 subscribers who opened the first blast were not included in this list; new subscribers, however, were included). Of the 6,376 subscribers who received the Repeat Blast (3.0% bounce rate), 308 opened it.
The total opens was 891+308 = 1,199 opens.

In this case, the Repeat Blast increased the number of opens by 35%. We know that these were NEW opens by subscribers who did NOT open the first blast.

Compare this with the alternative of sending a second email blast to the SAME list of subscribers:

First, you pay full price for the second blast (versus 35-40% of list price as with the Repeat Option)
Best practice is to prepare NEW copy with new offers. This adds to your expense and time required to create the ad.
The new ad must be tested before being sent out to subscribers. More work for you and for PMN!
The second blast may be opened by many of the same subscribers who opened the first blast. If these people did not respond to the first blast, will they respond the second one?

I am not trying to discourage my advertisers from sending multiple email blasts to the full list of subscribers. That strategy may work for many types of promotion, especially if the followup blasts include NEW information, reminders of deadlines, etc., which were not included in the first blast.

My goal is to offer PMN advertisers another effective option at a lower cost.

If you are interested learning more about the Repeat Email Blast Option and how it can help you reach more PMN subscribers, please Contact Us and we will be very happy to discuss the details and get you a quotation/insertion order.

Use Social Media to Promote Your Conference, Webinar, or Other Event

2010-07-09T14:23:00.000-07:00

If you are a pharmaceutical conference organizer or a company that is organizing an event or webinar, you of course should have your event listed on the Pharma Marketing Conference Calendar (here). This page has high visibility on search engines such as Google. Go ahead - search for "pharmaceutical conferences" on Google. You'll find this page near the top of the natural search results list. It's at the very TOP of the list when you search for "pharmaceutical marketing conferences."

The same calendar is sent via email to about 7,500 (as of July 2010) subscribers of Pharma Marketing News every two weeks. This Conference Calendar Update also highlights upcoming conferences and/or podcasts -- see recent Update here.

Of course, getting your event listed in the Pharma Marketing Conference Calendar is just one element of your promotion plan. PMN offers customized promotional packages that include email blasts to subscribers, display ads in Pharma Marketing News, and other ways of reaching our audience. For more on that, see "Promoting Your Event."

CASE STUDY: IIR's ePharma Summit
You can reach an even larger audience and generate a lot of interest in your event using social media tools such as a blog, Twitter, and/or Facebook account. This is what the Institute for International Research (IIR) does to help promote its ePharma Summit annual conference. See the ePharma Summit blog and the ePharma Twitter account.

IIR leverages its syndicated social media content on Pharma Marketing Network through the dedicated Institute for International Research Event Forum. RSS feeds from the ePharma Blog and ePharma Twitter account are automatically posted to this forum periodically.

Before, during, and after the ePharma event, IIR is posting relevant information to the blog and to Twitter. Summaries of these posts from the RSS feeds also appear in the IIR Forum on Pharma Marketing Network under the name of Allison Rigels, who is a Senior Marketing Manager at IIR. Because of the number of posts under her name, Allison has reached the Platinum level of membership (see her PMN profile).

Rigels is also able to manually post other information to the IIR forum. This could include the conference agenda, list of speakers, registration information, call for presentations, program changes and other notices.

Once you have a PMN Forum dedicated to your conference, you can consider it your very own publishing platform hosted by Pharma Marketing Network. We can give you moderator status, which means that your posts will be live as soon as you click the post button (no waiting for approval by the PMN uber-moderator!). You can also do the following:

You can "stick" certain posts so that they stay at the top of the list of posts. Sticky posts could include important information such as how to register for the conference.
You can have a poll associated with a post.
You can format your posts easily with the tools provided. Different font, colors, sizes, bullet lists, etc. are available.
You can insert graphics (for an example see "ePharma Summit: Chairman's Address").
You can attach pdf, Word, Excel, or PPT documents. Very good for attaching program brochures.
And much more...

If you are interested in setting up a Forum for your conference or event, please Contact Us and we will be very happy to discuss the many options available.

Sponsor a Forum

2010-07-08T12:22:00.000-07:00

Practically every day I get a press release in my email inbox that announces a new product, service, or person being hired or promoted. The hope is that I will write about it in Pharma Marketing News or Pharma Marketing Blog or possibly post it to the "Industry News" forum (here).

I'd be happy to write a story about your company or service as part of an Advertorial package (see "Promoting Your Products & Services" for more about that). Of course, you must have a compelling story that can be summarized in an editorial article. Not every piece of news you have about your company warrants such coverage.

The "Industry News" forum is usually reserved for feeds from select news media and organizations such as BIO and PhRMA.

Another option that can be very effective in helping you get your messages out to the Pharma Marketing Network community is a Forum Sponsorship. For more information about PMN Forums, see "Join the Discussion or Just Lurk & Learn!" and "An Online Community to Call Our Own."

Most forums are open to all visitors and do not require membership or logging in. All posts made to forums are moderated. You won't find spam in these forums.

Aside from organizing discussions around various topics of interest, Pharma Marketing Network Forums are useful for posting news and other bits of information from various sources. These sources can be RSS feeds as mentioned above. Members may also post informational messages to these forums, but commercial messages (eg, ads, press releases, and other promotional pieces) are not allowed UNLESS they come from a sponsoring company.

Let's say you are company that specializes in providing interactive services to the pharmaceutical industry and your PR agency publishes a press release about the CEO giving a presentation at an upcoming conference. This might be of interest to the pharmaceutical marketing community and especially to those who are interested in eMarketing. The best place, therefore, to publish that press release in the Pharma Marketing Network is the "eMarketing Forum" (see here).

As a sponsor of a forum, you get the following:

You are the EXCLUSIVE sponsor of the Forum.
If a Forum does not exist that is appropriate for your sponsorship, we can create one that is.
A message is posted to the Forum that announces the sponsorship (eg, subject: "This forum is sponsored by ABC Interactive"). This message remains at the TOP of the list of messages throughout the sponsorship period.
Creation of a user account that allows you to post messages -- including attached files (eg, pdf files, PowerPoint files; great for white papers) -- to the forum at any time. You can post an unlimited number of press releases, commentaries, polls, etc.
Each message that you post through this account includes your "signature," which is similar to the signature you might include at the end of your email messages. It can tell readers how to contact you or can link to your web site. Of course, each message you post can have links as well!
Visitors to the Forum can click on your username and see more information about you and your company. the more messages you post, the greater your reputation and visibility in the community. You have complete control over your profile and privacy settings.
If you have a blog, Facebook page or any other syndicated content that includes an RSS feed, we can set up the Forum so that items from this feed (or items selected according to keywords) are posted automatically to the forum whenever the feed is updated.
Your Forum sponsorship will be announced by @pharmaguy via Twitter to thousands of followers!

Currently, the term of a Forum sponsorship is one year. If you are interested in pursuing this option, please Contact Us and you will be sent pricing details (very reasonable).