First things first. For all of you who have not been let in on my joke for April Fool’s Day, the FDA is not trying to shut down this blog. For those who are/were particularly upset at this prank, you might be wishing that it was. But I’m afraid I’ll be around a bit longer. All but two comments I got about this were positive, so we’ll just leave it at that. 

On with today’s topic, the “sneak preview.” We all love previews. People actually get to movies early to watch them. When you think about it, they’re just commercials, which we dutifully and angrily skip through at home. But we relish the chance to see them at the movies mainly because they’re interesting. However, it’s also because we don’t like buying things sight unseen. So the preview gives us a little chance to check if we might have an interest. It’s why we touch and pick up things in stores and why some people still can’t get used to shopping online. They can’t see what they’re getting and a couple of pictures are not enough.

I’m taking this insight over to healthcare. It seems like every drug now has some sort of ongoing customer relationship management (CRM) program. It’s typically a series of mailings or emails telling you more about the product, why it is important to continue your treatment, and often some tips for a healthy lifestyle or other disease management information. I applaud these programs. I think the right ones can be very successful. I also think many have a ways to go to be really meaningful, but it’s a good start. There’s always been one thing that’s bugged me about these programs though: the enrollment process.

First a few facts (if you like, you can add “in general” to the front of each statement): 

• People are very reluctant to share their personal health information online
• People don’t really trust “big pharma”
• People don’t trust the security of their information online

Knowing these facts, you should know that it takes quite a bit for people to trust any site with their information. Worse still, think of the barriers for them trusting a pharma company with their information. You’ve got to give something of real value for them to turn over this information. I took a look at the top five selling, branded, prescription drugs for 2007 to see how they handle this. The drugs were (in order of sales) Lipitor, Plavix, Advair, Enbrel, and Nexium. Here’s a brief rundown of each program and what it offers.

Lipitor

Lipitor features a program called HeartWise. The program is said to help you: “Receive Valuable Offers, Stay Informed, Achieve Your Cholesterol Goals, and Manage Your Heart Health.” All good things. Each part has a two line description and then there’s a link to join HeartWise. The link takes you to a page where you input your personal information and send it off to Pfizer.

Plavix

Plavix features a “Free Information Kit.”  The kit includes: “Introductory letter, Guide to blood clots, and Medicine guide.” There’s a small thumbnail the kit, but you can’t see what’s on any of the pieces you receive. Right on the page where you read what’s in the kit is the sign up area.

Advair

Advair has the Breathe Easier program. This program features some money saving offers and ongoing mailings that include: “Tips for living with asthma, Advice from asthma experts, Helpful asthma resources, Plus a reminder of how to use the DISKUS device.” Advair also has a small thumbnail layout of some of the pieces from the program, but like Plavix, you can’t read what they are.

Enbrel 

Enbrel has two different programs. The first, for people who have not started Enbrel, is short on details saying only: “We’ll send you important information and provide resources that can help you and your doctor decide if ENBREL may be right for you.” After that, you’re asked to give your personal information. For those on Enbrel, there’s a more robust program. It features:

• Registered Nurse phone consultation at no cost
• Insurance Specialist phone consultation at no cost
• Ongoing communications including newsletters and updates
• A complimentary Resource Kit, which contains an ENBREL handbook, step-by-step DVD instructions, a travel cooler, a travel card with tips, a Sharps® container, and a pamphlet with Prescribing and Patient Information for ENBREL.

To sign up for the program you have to call a toll free number. There’s no online sign up.

Nexium

Nexium has the PurplePlus program. It includes an offer for rebates on future prescriptions. In addition, the site tells you: “As a Purple Plus member, you’ll have access to interactive tools at PurplePill.com. There, you’ll find: Our reflux-friendly meal planner, The Recipe Trigger Checker, Expert advice from a registered dietitian, The Sleep Tracker, A Fitness Planner, and Real Patient Success Stories.” After this, you’re sent to a registration page.

Okay, so there is my random sample of programs taken from the top five selling drugs in 2007. Just pointing this out so it doesn’t appear that I’m stacking the deck in order to make my argument. Here’s my argument: you can dramatically improve the enrollment rates in these programs by providing some sneak previews of the information patients receive after signing up. I understand the need to have people sign up. It’s so you can capture their information for future communications. That’s smart. So, I’m not saying you should give away everything for nothing. I am saying that you need to give a little more to get a little more. None of the programs highlight here do this.

As I recapped earlier, people are reluctant to give out their personal information online (yes, their name and address is considered personal). They are ten times more reluctant to give this out to a pharma company. You know, big, bad pharma that has public trust scores on par with tobacco companies. People aren’t quick to give you more information about themselves. However, if they see value, they will give this information. Look at it like a trade. You give me this and I give you that. 

The problem is that the trade isnt’ really clear. The patients don’t really know what they’re getting. I’m making an assumption that the materials you send to patients are really valuable; that people get them and say, “wow!” So if this is the case, why not give them a sneak preview? Let them see one piece of the ongoing mailings. Put a PDF right there for them to download and say, “For a preview of the valuable resources you’ll receive, click to see last month’s newsletter about exercise.” If you did a great job on this piece, 100% of people looking at it will enroll in your program. If you didn’t do a great job, start by fixing that.

Without the sneak preview, I’ll guarantee that people get to the registration page and simply abandon it. They hesitate and don’t provide you the information you want because you haven’t shown what they get in exchange. That’s not good for anyone. There’s a simple way to see if you have this problem. Get out your website’s analytics reports and look at the exit rates for your registration pages. If they are much higher than the average exit rate for other pages, you’ve got a problem. Further, you can test my 100% sneak preview guarantee this same way. Analyze the users’ paths to see what percentage of people downloaded the PDF and registered. It’ll be a high number and it will instantly improve your exit rate numbers. It’s a 15 minute fix. Go do it and then come back. 

Still here, great. If you’re not getting the level of analytics I mentioned, you’ve got no idea about the impact of your website on patients. Perhaps someone else is watching that information for you. Figure out who it is and who’s job it is to analyze. If you’re not collecting this level of information (which is extremely basic and available within the free Google Analytics platform), you have a problem with how your site was developed, but it is fixable. Demand that it is of your current agency or contact me and our company will do it for you (sorry, can’t resist the occasional plug).

One final very important note. Don’t overpromise your program. If it’s a great program, then shout it from the rooftops. If it isn’t that robust, that’s fine, but be upfront about what it is and what people will get. Emphasize the parts you think are meaningful, but don’t make it out to be more than what it is. That’s a general word of caution. I have not received materials from any of the programs mentioned here, so I’m not saying that these sites are doing this, but I have seen it in the past with other programs. I will, however, call out my former colleagues at AstraZeneca and Nexium. Here’s a snippet of the PurplePlus information page:

They say, “As a Purple Plus member, you’ll have access to interactive tools at PurplePill.com. There, you’ll find: Our reflux-friendly meal planner, The Recipe Trigger Checker, Expert advice from a registered dietitian, The Sleep Tracker, A Fitness Planner, and Real Patient Success Stories.” In other words, once you join our program, you’ll get to use all of these tools. But look at the left navigation. I can already access all of the tools without signing up for anything. All of the things you said I get as a member are open to everyone. At the very least, it makes the savvy patient ask, “why join the program at all when I can get this stuff already?” Yes, there are coupons too, but why try to throw in these other things to make it look more impressive? For the less savvy patient who doesn’t discover this fact right away, he will. How do you think he’ll feel after giving you his personal information to access some valuable tools only to find out that he didn’t have to? Not great.

These CRM programs are a great place for “underpromise and overdeliver.” Get people to sign up by having a great offer and letting them see what they get in exchange for their personal information. Later on, surprise them by sending them things they never expected and are even better than what they saw when they signed up. That’s how you create loyalty, which after all, the point of these programs. Right?

Possibly related posts (auto-generated):

1. A Sneak Preview of My FDA Social Media Hearing Testimony
2. 2010 Dose of Digital Sneak Preview
3. Healthcare and Pharma Social Media: It’s All About E.V.E.