Mobile strategies for marketing to doctors

Mobile devices are all around us, at every moment of the day. According to Business Insider, 91 percent of adults are within immediate reach of a smartphone at all times. This presents marketers with a vital, if not necessary avenue to reach customers.

Doctors are some of the biggest users of mobile devices because they often have no fixed desk to return to throughout the day. Kantar Media reported that 81 percent of physicians utilize a smartphone for professional purposes - 72 percent of whom use their smartphone to receive medical news and 74 percent who use their smartphone to access drug reference information.

How do doctors consume peer-reviewed research?

For the majority of doctors, reading is part of the job. In fact, 98 percent of physicians reported that reading medical literature is very important to their practice, according to Doximity. In fact, 75 percent of surveyed doctors reported changing their practices quarterly or monthly based on what they read.

Physician reading habits are far from limited to printed materials. Doctor's consume peer-reviewed articles via journal apps and mobile-optimized websites as well. Indeed, the only way to be sure you are reaching the majority of your audience is to direct your marketing efforts through all three channels.

Doctors tend to consume medical-related media on mobile devices.

To reach physicians, you need more than one mobile strategy

Successful medical advertising strategies incorporate both print and digital avenues, but it's not just a two-pronged approach. Each avenue must be broken down further. In print media, a campaign might include a run of book ads in addition to inserts. Mobile strategies also need multiple touch points.

Display advertisements are one way medical advertisers can reach physicians. Within a peer-reviewed platform, these ads have high visibility. To prepare for conversions - users interacting with an ad and following it to a landing page - advertisers should develop mobile-optimized pages that answer quick questions about the product.

For example, if a doctor taps on an ad for a new allergy medication, the landing page should explain what the medication is for, how it's used, potential side effects, etc.

"Smartphone users spend three hours a day on their devices."

According to Google, micro-moments are a cornerstone of how users interact with the web. A micro-moment can be something simple, such as a user looking up a recipe as they prepare for dinner. In the world of medical advertising, micro-moments are about answering questions quickly.

In the previous example, it is unlikely that the doctor wants to spend lots of time learning about the new allergy medication. He or she probably just wants a few quick pieces of information before returning to the journal. By providing quick bites of information on the landing page, the user has a positive experience with the brand.

In a Google survey, 69 percent of consumers agreed that quality, relevance and timing of a company's message influenced their perception of the brand.

According to marketing firm Zumobi, smartphone users spend an average of three hours a day on their devices. Grabbing just a fraction of that time is all you need to do start building interest around your pharmaceutical product or medical device.

Once you've implemented your mobile marketing strategies, you'll need to track incoming data to optimize your tactics and learn more about your physician audience.

Track your mobile campaigns

Google reported that leading marketers bring in data from multiple sources when planning future campaigns. In fact, top performers are 83 percent more likely to use cross-device analysis in their analytic models.

What does this mean for medical marketers? If you want to optimize your future campaigns, you need to track everything you can. By determining which of your mobile strategies is most effective you can fine-tune your sales funnel and gain more leads from your target audience.

These are just a few of the ways you can use mobile strategies to boost your medical advertising. For more ways to leverage peer-reviewed media, visit elsmediakits.com.