Jessica Henkel, Associate Account Executive, Palio

It’s Leap Day!  The last day of the month of love. We’ve eaten the candy, given and received the Valentine’s Day cards, and are thankfully done stressing out about what to buy our significant others.

Love is still in the air! But is it in your social media effort?

It’s a more important question than you might think, because what we know about love – that most powerful and social of emotions – can teach us a lot about what does and doesn’t work in social media.

You love what you take care of; people love what takes care of them. In a relationship, that might mean things like remembering purple is her favorite color or making sure the pizza place leaves the mushrooms off your order. In social media, it means listening to and honoring your users’ preferences, treating them as individuals rather than a set of aggregated eyeballs and communicating with them in a one-to-one tone. Think remembering your fans’ birthdays or other little touches don’t matter? Think again.

People in love like to talk. “People compose poetry, novels, sitcoms for love,” says Helen Fisher, an anthropologist at Rutgers University and something of the Queen Mum of romance research. “They live for love, die for love, kill for love. It can be stronger than the drive to stay alive.” The easy-to-see social media metaphor is that committed fans love to talk about your brand. However, relationships are a two-way street. Think about the brand talking to the committed fans, giving them reason to extend the conversation. Are you writing them sincere messages and making them feel special?

Love is not a static thing. It has stages, and how you react at each stage matters. The things you say on a first date are not the things you say to a spouse of 20 years; the familiarity of a long-term relationship allows you to do more – and learn more – in every conversation. In social media, the wisdom of Seth Godin’s groundbreaking 1990s book, Permission Marketing, often gets left by the side of the road in the search to wholesale sign up thousands of Facebook or Twitter followers. But the way you talk to a long-time fan or customer isn’t – or shouldn’t be – the way you talk to someone who’s just signed up for more information. Be polite, ask for information incrementally and provide lots of opportunities for feedback along the way. Take this approach and you’ll end up with committed fans that you actually know about and have the right information to hit their sweet spots.

“I love you, but not like that” doesn’t mean you can’t still be friends. If we’re drawing parallels between social media and romantic love, then it’s worth pointing out another parallel as well: Know when you’re in the “friendzone,” and live with it. Some perfectly good customers won’t become passionate fans. Others will be passionate fans but won’t want your never-ending tweets or wall posts. And all of this is OK – as long as you don’t become creepy. And what’s creepy in social media? Ignoring opt-outs and communications-frequency preferences, endless “we want you back” drip marketing and keeping the same isn’t-all-this-just-great tone after a user has a bad experience.

So on the last day of the month of love – sit back and think about really making a connection. You might be surprised at the results.

Palio is an advertising agency revolutionizing pharmaceutical and healthcare marketing to create experiences that will Never Be Forgotten.

by Paul Johnson, SVP, Managing Director, Account Services

In our “Client vs. Agency” series, we’ve looked at the differing views that can be taken regarding time,  money,  expectations, collaboration, creativity and getting started. I’m here now to give you some hidden secrets to a successful partnership.

Plan. No, more than just plan. Plan, plan and plan some more after that. And then, if you think you haven’t done enough, you’re still right. Agency leads must know the vacation schedules of their teams, they must know the contact information for everyone involved in the project, they must have already budgeted time and funds to prepare for every event that there’s foreknowledge of, and they must have done scenario planning with the client in case of the three likeliest crises they may confront. And those are just for starters. Clients aren’t off the hook on this one, either: Clients need to plan just as much.  Like, for instance, make sure you’re not asking for next year’s budget at 4:55 p.m. Friday?

Ask the right questions. This makes it possible for parties to do all that planning properly. Nobody’s going to always remember to keep you in the loop if you don’t ask. You need to insert yourself into the discussions sometimes. You’re going to have to be prepared to pound the pavement to find out what the future holds.

Remember the “partner” in partnership. This isn’t a dry-cleaning service we’re talking about here; it’s your creative partner in the most important projects of your professional life. Your work with your agency isn’t a series of brief transactions separated by lengthy periods of non-communication. Or, at least, it shouldn’t be if you want it to be anything like successful. This is going to sound a little Dr. Phil, but it’s true nonetheless: You both need to be present for each other.

And as a corollary to that, trust. Clients need to believe in their agencies. They need to trust that they made the right decision in hiring people to provide strategic recommendations and tactical accomplishments. If they don’t do it, then you need to address that – but make it possible for them to give it their best shot. Agencies also need to trust their clients. It can be very easy to become jaded and think that you know what your client will say before it’s said. Don’t let the times you’ve been shot down before make you not want to try anymore.

Palio is an advertising agency revolutionizing pharmaceutical and healthcare marketing to create experiences that will Never Be Forgotten.

Gillian Slattery, Producer, Palio

On a sunny spring day in 1977, Girl Scout Troop 275 banded together with other local troops in an effort to clean up trash at local playgrounds and parks. Woodsy Owl encouraged us to give a hoot and not pollute; our planet was ours for protecting.

Fast-forward 35 years and the Girl Scouts continue their focus on going green and increasing environmental awareness. The organization has themed this year’s World Thinking Day as “We Can Save Our Planet.” Held each year on February 22, the purpose of World Thinking Day is to celebrate international friendships and work together for greater good.

Making strides towards saving the planet is everybody’s job. More companies are demonstrating their commitment through sustainability initiatives and encouraging employees to go green. Pharma is no exception, even though the industry has not, generally, engaged in the sort of high-profile green initiatives that many other consumer sectors have.

In celebration of World Thinking Day, what can you do to help your organization reduce its environmental footprint?

Go digital when possible. From marketing communication strategies to automating internal processes, going digital does more than fuel efficiencies and open new communication channels – it’s gentle on the environment. For example, companies that incorporate video interview technologies into their recruiting processes reduce the need for flying candidates in for interviews or driving to an office location. Technologies like FaceTime enable the sales force to get in front of individual doctors without having to get in a car. Take that, carbon footprint!

Please consider the environment before printing. We’ve all seen this phrase at the bottom of an email, but have we stalled on thinking of new ways to reduce reliance on paper? Whether personal or professional, it’s time to make a commitment to going fully digital, whether that is requesting electronic invoices from vendors or replacing a paper calendar with a smartphone app. Digital processes offer a host of benefits from conserving energy to increased efficiencies. They’re just kinder to the planet. At work and at home, shouldn’t we all be thinking before consuming?

Prevent environment-related illness. A clean, safe work environment ensures workers have the best opportunity to reach their potential. Think of the basics – clean air, access to healthy food, a workplace free of environmental hazards – but also consider the culture. Work stress, workplace bullying and even the wrong temperature can jeopardize morale and cause the best talent to flee. Whether its town hall meetings, engagement surveys or encouraging more frequent conversations, keep a pulse on company culture and address issues before they become problems.

Understand your partners’ business practices. Gain a better understanding of the processes of your suppliers to ensure they align with your commitment to accountability and green initiatives. From green chemistry to technology techniques, recycled packaging, and barcoding initiatives, use good green guidance across the entire supply chain. By working with like-minded partners, companies can show customers that they’re committed to being a strong corporate citizen.

From its inter-office practices to its physician-facing and consumer-facing marketing efforts, pharma has literally millions of processes that could likely be adjusted to reduce their impacts on the environment. How do you plan to think differently?

Palio is an advertising agency revolutionizing pharmaceutical and healthcare marketing to create experiences that will Never Be Forgotten.

Figure: Structure of a typical chemical drug molecule (left) and a biologic molecule (right).

By Jim Mittler, PhD, Medical Director, Palio

The availability of generic drugs ensures free market competition and makes access to life-saving medications more affordable to millions of Americans. The Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act (aka, the Hatch-Waxman Act) was signed into law in 1984 and set forth the process in which drug companies could seek FDA approval of Abbreviated New Drug Applications (ANDAs) for a generic counterpart of a reference product (ie, an already-approved branded drug). Under this statue, the approval of a generic drug is solely based on showing comparable bioavailability (blood levels) between the generic and reference product. As such, there is an assumption that establishing similar bioavailability means the efficacy and safety of the generic is the same as the reference product. The intent of the Hatch-Waxman Act is to decrease the amount of time to bring less-expensive generic drugs to market by not requiring the generic company to perform traditional clinical trials to prove efficacy and safety.

Scientific advances in the field of biotechnology have led to the development of biologic therapies that are very much different than traditional chemical drugs (see Figure above). Most biologics are protein molecules that are orders of magnitude larger and structurally more complex. As such, they are considerably more difficult to synthesize and scale-up for mass production. Similar to the Hatch-Waxman Act that paved the way for generic drugs, the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009 (BCPI Act) was enacted by President Obama as part of the Affordable Care Act in March 2010 and creates an abbreviated licensure pathway for “generic” biologic therapies, termed biosimilars. Because biologic products are synthesized in living systems (eg, microorganisms or plant or animal cells), there is greater potential for differences in the quality of the protein structure and the type and amount of inactive components of the formulation between a reference product and a biosimilar. These differences can affect the stability of the manufactured product, the tolerability and safety, and/or the clinical effectiveness of the biosimilar.

Structure of a typical chemical drug molecule (left) and a biologic molecule (right).On February 9, 2012 the FDA released the first draft guidance to help the pharmaceutical industry navigate the statutory requirements added by the BPCI Act. Through the new approval pathway companies must demonstrate that their product is biosimilar to, or interchangeable with, a reference biologic product already approved by the FDA. There are 3 guidance documents that provide the FDA’s current thinking on important scientific and regulatory factors involved in biosimilar development. In order to set a higher standard for interchangeability compared to generic drugs that only require pharmacokinetic studies, the FDA advises that companies demonstrate biosimilarity based upon data derived from in vitro analytical studies, animal studies, and a clinical study or studies, unless FDA determines that certain studies are unnecessary. The FDA will use a “totality-of-the-evidence” approach to assess whether the biosimilar product can be expected to produce the same clinical result as the reference product in any given patient. This includes the risk in terms of safety or diminished efficacy of alternating or switching between the use of the biosimilar product and the reference product is not greater than the risk of using the reference product without such alternation or switch.

Cost is another story. Many biologic therapies are well over $10,000 a year and some are closer to $100,000 for a 3-month course (ie, Provenge [sipuleucil-T]). Given the higher burden of proof to show biosimilarity, the development costs will be much greater for companies that develop and manufacture biosimilar products compared to generic drugs. There are several therapeutic categories in which biologics are the standard of care and products are priced on the efficacy they bring. I think of Extavia (interferon beta-1b [Novartis]) that is used to treat relapse-remitting multiple sclerosis. Extavia is actually a branded bioequivalent (ie, same manufacturer) to Bayer’s Betaseron; however, it still commands near-premium pricing – it’s only discounted ~14% compared to Betaseron. It will be interesting to see how true biosimilars are priced when they come to market.

This new legislation will expedite biosimilar product development but there is a higher burden of proof required for the biosimilar companies to show interchangeability compared to generic drug companies, which is a good thing. As a former scientist, I know the complexities of recombinant DNA technology and protein engineering. The FDA guidance certainly makes me feel more comfortable should I ever need a biosimilar therapy.

Palio is an advertising agency revolutionizing pharmaceutical and healthcare marketing to create experiences that will Never Be Forgotten.

by Jim Mittler, PhD, Medical Director, Palio

It was a banner year for FDA drug approvals. The approval of 30 new therapeutics is the second highest number in the past decade (2004 saw 36 approvals). There were 24 new molecular entities and 6 new biologics that address major unmet medical needs, hit new molecular targets, and/or leverage molecular profiling to add a degree of precision to the art of medicine. Analysts highlight the high degree of innovation in the 2011 approvals, which includes 11 first-in-class products and 11 orphan drugs.

Cancer had the highest number of new drug approvals with 8, and analysts note that the approval rate for cancer drugs is higher than in the past. Seven of the 8 newly approved cancer agents had received orphan drug status, which might have expedited the path to regulatory approval. Also notable is the approval of 2 cancer drugs – Xalkori^® (crizotinib [Pfizer]) and Zelboraf^® (vemurafenib ]Roche]) – that have companion gene diagnostic tests, which define patient populations who can respond to the drug and exclude those who will not. Therapeutic-diagnostic codevelopment programs led to shorter clinical trial development time and speedier FDA approvals in these 2 cases.

While most of the newly approved drugs/biologics were sponsored by large pharma, smaller biotech companies found success in getting products approved. Notable is the approval of Vertex’s Incivek^® (telaprevir) for the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Incivek has been pegged as a blockbuster and is expected to change the face of HCV treatment. Despite the successful approval of biotech products in 2011, launch success has been poor. Human Genome Sciences launched Benlysta^® (belimumab), the first new treatment for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in over 50 years but market uptake has been poor; perhaps due to high expectations on the part of investors and/or poor perception of the benefits on the part of physicians.

Overall, the FDA was efficient in their review of new drug applications (NDAs) and biologics license applications (BLAs), generally hitting their PDUFA timelines. Nineteen drugs were approved in the first round of review. There was an unusually high percentage of approvals in 2011 (>80%) compared with recent years (typically ~50%). Analysts expect fewer approvals in 2012.

Annual reports like this get me thinking about new business opportunities. There’s opportunity to seek out therapeutic agents that have great potential and several things we can take away from the recent crop FDA drug approvals:

• There’s opportunity with orphan drugs. One-third of the 2011 FDA approvals were orphan drugs. The high approval rate of orphan drugs has been a clear trend over the past half-decade, which will continue given the shift by drug developers towards potential “niche busters.” There’s a distinct business opportunity with orphan diseases in that there’s a small population of patients, but there’s significant market exclusivity for approved products
• Drug compounds with companion diagnostic tests could provide a unique business opportunity. We’ve all heard about the promise of “personalized medicine” for years. Personalization of therapeutics per se is a bit of an overpromise at this time for all but a few diseases; however, “precision medicine” is viable right now. Guiding the clinical use of a medication by using molecular profiling approaches is very beneficial from a marketing perspective. First, it can expedite the FDA approval pathway as we saw with 2 of the cancer drugs approved in 2011. Second, it inherently presents opportunity for unbranded prelaunch initiatives required to bring an understanding of the molecular pathway involved in the disease process and subsequently exploited as the mechanism of action of the drug. Third, once launched, a drug with a companion diagnostic test will reset the risk/benefit equation by identifying those patients who are most likely to respond to therapy or are at most risk for a particular side effect. There is a bit of a give and take. The product will be niched for a smaller patient population; however, the barrier to use of the drug would be substantially lowered when clinical outcomes can be predicted. This is particularly advantageous for new products where the long-term risk/benefit is unknown. Lastly, drugs with companion diagnostics will create the need for clinical decision support tools given the complexity of genetic information typically generated by advanced diagnostic testing
• Don’t discount small biotechs. Biotechs are coming of age. Consider Vertex with its newly approved HCV treatment, Incivek. The company was founded in 1989 and only now has a potential blockbuster. Human Genome Sciences’ Benylsta is a product that has emerged from the biotechnology boom of the mid-1990’s. Biotechnology is a powerful tool for drug discovery efforts that allows for better identification of lead compounds. The technology is constantly evolving, becoming more powerful. I anticipate more potential drug candidates come to fruition with small biotechs that have focused drug discovery efforts through the application of modern biotechnology
• Small biotechs need help with product launches. SLE is typically treated with general immunosuppressive drugs and has been the standard of care for 50 years, so the poor uptake of molecularly targeted Benlysta is surprising. But analysts have said that all biotech launches have been “very poor” last year, with the exception of Incivek. One reason could be that the phycisian audience doesn’t correctly perceive the benefit of the drug. Looking back, I cannot recall as much prelaunch conditioning for Benlysta as there has been for other big pharma–backed biotech products; specifically thinking about the prelaunch campaigns on the role of interleukin-6 in rheumatoid arthritis or RANK ligand in osteoporosis, which preceded the launch of Actemra^® (tocilzumab [Roche/Genentech]) and Prolia^® (denosumab [Amgen]), respectively. Perhaps the smaller biotechs do not have the prelaunch budgets that big pharma has, but clearly these initiatives are important and can be uniquely leveraged from a marketing perspective. Not that all this can be done on a shoe-string budget, but there’s a potential business opportunity to package a suite of prelaunch tactics aimed at the smaller biotechs

Palio is an advertising agency revolutionizing pharmaceutical and healthcare marketing to create experiences that will Never Be Forgotten.

Source:

The source article for my quick summary above, and my own food for thought, was published  (February 2, 2012) in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery.

Mullard A. 2011 FDA drug approvals. Nat Rev Drug Disc. 2012;11(2):91-95.

by Mike Smith, Digital Strategist, Palio

Most people have heard the quip about “doing well by doing good.” There’s a reason for that – across a wide array of business and marketing situations, it happens to be true.

Call it Corporate Social Responsibility, a charitable giving program or just doing good, there’s no denying that engaging your customers with a demonstrated commitment to relevant causes makes sense. But how do you do it effectively in the age of social media? It’s a challenge for marketers of all stripes, but pharma faces the added burden of regulatory uncertainty, leaving many companies in the space unsure of the way forward.

Whether your company is taking a “market first, wait for regulatory clarity later” approach to social media or is testing the waters more conservatively, there are some solid principles for tying your company’s charitable activities to your social network:

Remember that it’s a conversation, not a press release. There’s a tendency for even socially savvy companies to revert to top-down messaging when it comes to their charitable activities and CSR. That’s not to say you should make decisions about giving a purely democratic exercise for your fans and customers, but it does mean talking about your decisions, and taking a regular, critical pulse online to find out what customers think of your efforts.

Be responsive. Activity matters in social media, but it’s particularly relevant when talking about your charitable activities. Why? Because the act of giving draws out strong opinions in others and you need to be ready to respond to both kudos and critiques. Responsiveness has also been shown to boost engagement, and engagement is the force multiplier that spreads your results far and wide.

So, what’s the definition of “responsive?” It comes down to process and resource allocation – the former means that everyone involved with the social media effort has a clear idea of how to respond to a range of inquiries and issues, and the latter means there are enough people manning the effort. Create a routine where you hit your social media accounts at least a few times each week, and set up a schedule that assures you push out new content out a few times during the week, send out a handful of tweets every day, and respond to Twitter @replies, blog comments, and Facebook messages within 24 hours.

Be authentic. Although this is already a carved-into-stone truth for all of social media, it simply can’t be emphasized enough for activities related to charitable giving and CSR. Activities such as these humanize and personalize the organization, offering a real chance to bond with customers’ values – but all of that flies out the window if we engage in carefully couched legal-ese in our social conversations.

Encourage sharing. That means consistently putting out quality content, and leading by example. The former is obvious — share lots of high-quality content with followers, and they’re more likely to spread it to their friends. The latter, though, is just as important. Customers, fans and friends of the organization will be more likely to share if they can simply follow your lead. If you want your friends to share what you put out, you should share out the relevant, quality content that they publish. In the end, the rules for promoting and expanding your charitable giving activities via social media turn out to be nearly identical to those for successfully navigating the social world in general. That makes sense, because charity is an inherently social act.

Palio is an advertising agency revolutionizing pharmaceutical and healthcare marketing to create experiences that will Never Be Forgotten.

Paul Johnson, SVP, Managing Director, Account Services, Palio

“The day you sign a new client is the day you start losing them.”

Fictional ad men Don Draper and Roger Sterling (from the AMC drama Mad Men) cautiously celebrate a new client win by agreeing that the beginning of a client engagement is often the start of the end. Still, relationships matter – even those that are destined for separation at some undefined moment in the future.

At Palio, we appreciate the longevity of our client relationships. But even good relationships can meet an untimely demise because things change. Reorganizations, mergers, takeovers, downsizing and economic circumstances can impact even the best relationships. In other cases, the relationship was destined to be short term – for a project, a season or to achieve a specific business goal.

Breaking up is hard to do, especially when it’s not the result of dissatisfaction with work product or team members. But, since goodbyes are destined to occur, it’s important to have a strategy that supports a graceful exit and keeps your reputation intact. Properly managing a departing client can be as important as attracting new ones and how you handle that transition can determine future success.

Good manners prevail. While it seems simple, remember to say “thank you for your business.” The relationship has contributed to the betterment of your company – perhaps you made connections with new resources, learned a different facet of an industry, developed a capability you didn’t have before or simply kept the lights on. People may not remember what you’ve said or done, but they’ll remember how you made them feel.

Maintain status of professionalism. If you’re parting under less than stellar circumstances, keep your emotions at bay. Stay the course and be as professional as you were the day the relationship commenced. How you handle challenges and difficulties can say a lot about your strengths and character. Today you’re saying goodbye, but who’s to know when your paths will cross again?

Facilitate a smooth hand-off. A commitment to excellence in a partnership means you leave each other in a better position than when you started. In our knowledge-based economy that requires a plan for knowledge transfer so the client can maintain business momentum after you depart. Provide clients with pertinent files, ask what format they’d like them in, and do what you can to ensure they’ll be put to good use.

Keep the lines of communication open. A substantial amount of communication about performance and deliverables took place at the start of the engagement. Ending a relationship requires that same level of communication. Find out what you can do to make the transition easier as well as ways to improve your own performance.

Many times, clients return to former partners for the same reason they leave – circumstances change. If you’ve let go gracefully and leave them with the impression you’re a class act, you might be able to take advantage of future opportunities and continue the relationship at another point in time.

What are your tips for successfully moving on?

Palio is an advertising agency revolutionizing pharmaceutical and healthcare marketing to create experiences that will Never Be Forgotten.

Maureen Wendell, VP, Account Director, Palio

Twenty years ago: 1991.

You go to the doctor. Your chart is a folder stuffed full of papers, one of hundreds in the office. You leave with a prescription, which your physician wrote on a small piece of paper, and you carry it to the pharmacist. The pharmacy – unaffiliated with any larger chain – takes your paper, files it, and fills your prescription. If it’s for a “scheduled” drug, like a narcotic, you sign your name in a large ledger.

Today: 2011.

That chart is likely to be a digital file, and your prescription is equally likely to be transmitted electronically to your pharmacy, where it is filed digitally and cross-checked against your prescription history, for contraindications, and your personal history, for allergies. Your input is either verbal or digital – an answer to a question that you’re asked, which is typed in, or a digital signature. Some people do have a “care team” structure where their different health providers interact directly, but they’re likely to be extremely well-off, or dealing with a serious and specialized issue such as cancer.

Twenty years in the future: 2031. What will your healthcare experience look like?

Despite too many years of legislative hang-ups and politicking, we’ve finally attained a unifiedsystem of electronic health-care records. From your patient profile to your visit report to your prescriptions to your reviews of your experiences, it’s all digital, searchable and shareable.

Your physician and pharmacist both access the same data. Also included are your massage therapist, who helps you with your bad back, and, of course, your insurance. Your dentist or your allergist, however, have different permission levels. The only one who can see everything is you.

You aren’t a lone ship sailing from port to port to manage your healthcare anymore. Your care team can be linked as closely as you would like them to be.

This helps them to address red flags and head off health problems. They’re compensated more highly for preventative work than for curative or palliative care, so they are able to focus accordingly.

Paperwork is minimized, allowing back-office work to be replaced by true patient care. Visit lengths have grown from under 20 minutes to half an hour, and waiting time has shrunk from nearly an hour to 10 minutes.

Because information no longer requires physical housing, many physicians are reverting to house calls, a practice that appeals especially to the elderly, parents of small children, and professionals working long hours.

Because each patient owns the repository of their health data, a variety of tools have sprung up to help them parse and utilize it. Digital scales, thermometers, sleep monitors, blood-sugar monitors and other small wireless tools feed that repository effortlessly, making it ever more useful in predicting and monitoring your health.

What are you working on that can help this future arrive sooner?

Palio is an advertising agency revolutionizing pharmaceutical and healthcare marketing to create experiences that will Never Be Forgotten.

Joe Arcuri, Director of Multi-Channel Services, Palio

According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project eight in 10 people have gone online looking for health-related information. It seems everyone is hitting Google to research medical conditions, locate a physician, find new treatment therapies, or learn about the latest fad diet. Search is the gateway technology to other social media and inspires action. From search, people discover communities, make decisions about a prescription or treatment, increase their ability to perform self care, etc.

Beyond thinking about what someone would type into Google, getting the most from your search campaign requires understanding your target audience, knowing where they interact and gather information, and then getting them to do something, whether that’s visit your company website, make a purchase or enroll in a clinical trial.

How can companies get the most from their search campaign?

Increase digital landscape knowledge, gather information about the population you’re trying to attract and offer them something of value. The challenge is to figure out where your demographic is online and focus your communication strategy around it. Be careful not to pigeon-hole your strategy. Multichannel, multi-audience campaigns require customized SEO efforts. When you deliver value to your customers they’ll be encouraged to share their experience with others.

Create profiles on social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Flickr, YouTube, and LinkedIn and take time to periodically review and update them. There are different places and opportunities to increase visibility. Search engines are just one way users find information – remember to think about other avenues such as social networks, linked data, mobile apps, social bookmarking sites like Reddit, StumbleUpon and Digg, online directories, and industry publications.

Know what words and phrases your reader is searching for and craft well-written copy for every Web page. High-quality information will ensure people return to your website and share it with their network. Well-written content creates higher levels of engagement, search engine rankings and promotes the likelihood of links from other sites. Create a list of targeted keywords and use them throughout your content and in various titles. Run keyword audits on competitor sites as well, particularly if they rank higher than yours in major search engines. Titles should be interesting to read, but clearly communicate what the reader can expect to learn.

First-page SEO ranking is important and requires ongoing management and optimization. If your site is appearing at page three for a given keyword phrase, it’s time to make some changes – most people don’t look beyond the first page of search results. Because rankings fluctuate, depending on competition and changes in the Google algorithm, it’s important to monitor rankings over time, and determine if you need to make changes in order to maintain top positions.

Measure everything. Providing value and information of interest to patients, medical professionals or other targets is of primary importance. Use these criteria to build searches on your company, products, and competitors and adjust your search strategy accordingly. Beyond rankings, measure conversations, engagement, brand advocates, influence and links. Appearing at the top of organic search results is a bonus, but achieving the goal you set out to achieve in the first place is a more important measure. Your position in search results or the number of followers on Twitter is meaningless if your campaign isn’t producing intended results.

Together, search and web analytics are important precisely because they are consistently and quantitatively measurable. They should be a top priority not only because they can drive your online marketing success, but because they can be a topline indicator of how successful your offline efforts are as well.

Palio is an advertising agency revolutionizing pharmaceutical and healthcare marketing to create experiences that will Never Be Forgotten.