Influencers in healthcare marketing?
Followers of blogs often perceive its author as his of her friend. They follow its author closely, trust in their narrative and are influenced by his or her opinion. Whilst organizations within the medixal and pharmaceutical industry aim at appearing reliable and in doing so often enjoy significant influence on their target group, they often lack the large reach ot achieve this. As such, it would be possible for actors in this industry to use the large range that online influencers nowadays have. However, recent developments with regards to the rules attached to the promotion of goods and services in this specific secotr has made such possibilities more complicated. In this article I will elaborate on this, and discuss the potential possibilites that influencer-marketing has within this sector.
So far, research on the opinion of customers, as well as employees within this sector has revealed a moderately positive attitude towards the pssibility of influencers in the heathcase industry (1). It thus remains unclear as to whether it will catch on.
The opportunities for the medical, healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors
In an e-patient’s search for medical information that is useful and reliable, he or she ends up on various websites, forums and social communities. Medical, healthcare and pharmaceutical organizations could use an influential blogger to talk, in exchange for a fee, about a product, service or illness. In this way such organizations benefit from the wide range and reliable appearance of the influencer. Many blog websites and social media channels of influential bloggers are modern, up-to-date and SEO-technically well-put-together, which also makes the findability in Google relatively easy.
Blog
A good example of influencer marketing within the medical, healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors is the blog. In a blog, the influencer can add a link to a website or YouTube channel with information on a certain desease or a medical product or service. You could see it as an online advertorial.
Through social media the blogger shares the blog to reach his followers. The more followers/readers he or she has, the further the message reaches within the target group.
For example: a health blogger with a large following writes about a self-care product that works well for him or her (e.g. vitamin pills). This will benefit the brand-awareness and reputation of the brand in question (in this case a pharmacist). The followers of the blogger will percieve the information they read as truth and will, just like the blogger, adopt an increasingly positive attitude towards the brand.
In the case of the promotion of a drug, an influential blogger/vlogger can talk about a clinical picture, without mentioning the drug. In this way, awareness for the clinical picture is created whilst no rules with regards to such promotions are broken. The promotion of self-care products is subject to less strict regulations than certain medication. The various rules are laid down in the legislation and regulations of the pharmaceutical sector.
YouTube
Social media is essential to make influencer marketing as effective as possible. YouTube, for example, is a useful channel for this. The number of subscribers to the popular channels of influential video bloggers (vloggers) are often very high. The use of video is thus interesting for the medical, healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors. If an influential vlogger proclaims a medical, healthcare or pharmaceutical related message in one of his or her videos, the target group has the potential to be reached effectively by the authoritarian image. Moreover, moving images and sounds could potentially make the message come across even better.
A second social media channel where influencer marketing can potentially be used is Twitter. There are many influential twitterers with a large number of followers and therefore a large range. Organisations within the medical, healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors can pay the influential bloggers to write about certain healthcare products, services or illnesses for specific target groups.
Een tweede social mediakanaal waar influencer marketing in te zetten is, is Twitter. Er zijn veel invloedrijke twitteraars met een groot aantal volgers en dus een groot bereik. Organisaties binnen de medische, zorg- en farmaceutische sector kunnen de invloedrijke bloggers betalen om te schrijven over bepaalde zorgproducten, diensten of ziektebeelden voor specifieke doelgroepen.
With over 44,000 followers, the Matthijn Twitter account has a large following and thus authority in this field. Matthijn blogs about health and lifestyle and his tweets give his followers tips and inspiration for the healthiest lifestyle possible. For a healthcare institution, medical producer or pharmaceutical company, it is smart to use a microblogger like Matthijn on Twitter in order to create awareness about a product, service or clinical picture. The message has the potential to reache a large group of people interested in health, and is often quickly deemed as reliable.
Influencer marketing in healthcare marketing strategy
In my opinion, there are many opportunities for the medical, healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors to utilise the field of influencer marketing. Laws and regulations must be taken into account, but the opportunities are too great not to take advantage of them. As a medical manufacturer, healthcare institution or pharmaceutical company, consider which influential person is best able to get your message across to a wide audience. Know the background of the person, the size of his or her following-base and know what type of individuals are in this group. Only then do you know that your message will reach the right people and the investment in influencer marketing will come into its own.