Why don’t pharma companies focus on patient insights on their disease awareness websites?

I’ve got Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS), a chronic disease that causes inflammation of the joints. Sometimes it hurts like hell, yes, but here a few other things to my disease apart from pain:

• I don’t personally know anyone else who has AS
• I get a whole lot of symptoms but no one I read about on forums seems to have the same combination of symptoms as me
• I need to maintain a positive attitude and accept AS as a part of my life
• I worry that people think I am faking my disease so that I can get out of stuff
• And lots, lots more…

So what’s my point here? This blog isn’t a place for disease sufferers to air their thoughts. My point is that these are my insights about my disease. They are patient insights – small nuggets of reality for a patient that are not necessarily common knowledge to non-patients.

Consumer packaged goods marketers spend millions researching consumer insights and focus on these in virtually everything they do: online activities, advertising, packaging, product development, in store etc. But in the pharmaceutical industry this often doesn’t seem to be the case. For example, many disease awareness websites offer a medical overview of a disease but don’t contain much in the way of insights. You may get a patient story with an insight or two (this is a good start) but often you don’t even get these. I wonder sometimes how often real patients have been involved in the development of these sites.

I think pharma and healthcare is missing a trick. Well researched patient insights would make for much more relevant, engaging and useful disease awareness sites. What’s more, the patient insights are out there for the taking. The disease forums are full of them.

Another superb blog post – or why you should avoid big claims

Internet and intranet sites with news on their front pages often feature short introductions to the articles. Readers are then expected to click through and read the full text. 

It follows that writers and editors need to make these introductory blurbs or teasers as enticing as possible, to encourage click-throughs. 

Like any advertisement, your blurb can either show people why they should read on, or it can tell them. 

Showing would mean describing what they’ll find when they click through. Telling might mean assuring the reader it will be worth their time. 

Telling might involve saying “this fascinating article…” is “unmissable” … “essential reading” … “a scoop”.  

Telling people why they need to read your article can be highly effective, but is hazardous for the following reasons: 

1) People might not believe your blurb. Readers are used to big claims about what they’ll find when they click a link, and may treat them with scepticism. 

2) You risk inflating the language. If you describe an article as “essential”, how are you going to describe the next article and still hold your readers’ attention? “More essential”? 

3) You risk disappointing the reader, thereby diminishing your future credibility. If the reader decides an article you told them is wonderful is in fact a woeful mess, they’re less likely to believe other claims on your site. 

The bottom line? Use big claims sparingly. Show people why they might be interested in your post more often than telling them they will be. 

You can read more about blurbs on this weblog here. 

And there’s good advice from Poynter here.