The most important job of any DTC team is selling DTC internally to people who need help understanding its importance. Our job is to educate the skeptics by helping them understand how and why people are making treatment decisions. Here are some helpful pointers.

The number of online health seekers has remained high for several reasons. Patients today want to understand health conditions and treatments. However, each health category has its unique characteristics regarding patient and caregiver behaviors.

Step 1ne: Educate your organization about why your audience is going online and what they are looking for.

Where are people within your target audience going for healthcare information, and how are they making decisions? Your market research team should have this information readily at hand, and you need to put it in a form that tells a story to internal decision-makers. This is not a one-time initiative. It needs to be ongoing and encompass off and online.

Step 2wo: What’s important to YOUR audience?

While we like to believe that statistics are enough to sell your brand to your audience, they are looking for something more. “How will it affect me?” “What’s the difference between your brand and competitors?” and finally, “How much will it cost?”. Using the same message repeatedly is not enough. It’s best to evolve your message strategy over the product life cycle.

Step 3hree: How are we measuring our DTC results?

This has become a more significant challenge for DTC marketers over time. The skeptics in your organization want to understand how to measure the dollars you’re spending. You need to work closely with your agencies and challenge them to provide data correlating your spending. There are different ways to measure your DTC, and you should discuss them with market research regularly.

Step 4our: Have your agency prepare DTC marketing dashboards

I’ve found that most agencies have a wealth of data on DTC marketing and how people make decisions. It would be best if you leveraged this in a series of mini-reports. Could you explain what competitors are doing and why? Are people coming to your website, and what top pages are they reading? Try and present at lunch and learns or in executive meetings.

Step 5ive: Don’t expect budgets; work for them.

The best way to get a bigger budget is to show success with past initiatives. Don’t expect management to give you millions to use “as you see fit.”

Step 6ix: Don’t let doubters take you down.

Some people always know the cost of everything but need help understanding its value. Rather than ignore these people work harder to win them over with data. Let them draw their own conclusions and ask essential questions.

DTC is here to stay, but the path between awareness and taking action has become more complicated. As industry challenges mount, we will have to work hard to do what we know is correct. Like it or not a huge part of our job is communicating what we know and take for granted. It requires work and skill, but the reward is worth it.