360DigitalInfluence

If you have been around the Internet for some time and saw the acronym “P2P” - that might conjure up images of Napster and the whole illegal peer-to-peer file downloading movement mostly focused on music. In the healthcare context, however, P2P may represent the next big wave of opportunity for organizations who can think beyond the traditional sales rep model for pharma brands or trade and direct marketing for others. But what is P2P marketing in a healthcare context? Two things:

Physician to Physician Marketing
Patient to Patient Marketing

Logically, this makes perfect sense. The one truth that most organizations already know is that word of mouth is king in all things related to healthcare. Doctors ask one another for advice and refer patients, and patients (even before the Internet) look to one another for advice and support as well. Once you add the Web and social networking into the mix, this truth becomes even more paramount.

Word of mouth is the real influential network that drives healthcare decisions, and it has been happening for decades. If you want just one big reason why social media matters in healthcare, here it is: Social media more easily enables physicians to speak with other physicians and patients to influence one another. The problem with most healthcare marketing is that is only manages to influence this conversation peripherally and often only by accident. Launch a big physician awareness campaign and hopefully that will drive them to share knowledge amongst one another. Build a website with patient information and perhaps it can entice a few patients or caregivers to find it useful enough to recommend.

We know these referrals matter but for some reason we don’t focus our efforts on making them happen. Instead we try to reach people individually and often don’t take into the account the network effect. That needs to change. If you could change your approach, what could you do differently? Here are three ideas for how to focus on P2P marketing that should factor into your marketing strategy in the future:

1. Create materials that are easy to share. Whether you consider printed materials or websites, typically the top priority is getting a list of key messages across. We tend to focus so much on our messages, however, that we forget about the idea of shareability. Does your website include an easy way to send a link to the site to a colleague via email? Is there a button that allows someone to share a particular page on Facebook? Can you drive people from a piece of printed literature online to a place where they can easily ask for that printed piece to be sent to someone else? Simply asking the question of how shareable your online and offline materials are can help you to increase the frequency with which your messages are shared from person to person.
2. Understand who the influencers are. Central to the idea of P2P is the idea that there are going to be key influencers in any disease or condition category. These are the people who are publishing their opinions online or sharing their voices actively in communities. Unless you know who these people are, you can’t craft a marketing strategy in order to reach them. This means putting the right research and listening tools in place so you can find these people and tailor a marketing strategy to reach them effectively and authentically.
3. Participate in the right way. When it comes to really unlocking the power of word of mouth, part of the challenge for most brands is knowing how to participate and when to just get out of the way and let the conversations happen. Building a philosophy for this into any program you build from the beginning will go a long way to helping it succeed without getting your brand unintentionally in the way. This is not to say you shouldn’t participate at all, but focus on learning the best way for your brand to add value into anything you do or participate in and you can ensure that you will be helping and not hindering the conversation.