Main Subject - Business

Many a home business owner has spent sleepless nights thinking of ways to turn his venture into a higher profit-making unit and build it to be his primary source of income. This is never easy for a home business because most start-ups face initial lack of money and cash flows. A small cash strapped business would als

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

o find it a little uphill to get outside funding. The best way, anybody will tell you, is to advertise... all big companies do it, and get good returns. Undoubtedly, advertising, even PR, has a great impact on sales, but for a home business owner these may be cost prohibitive in the beginning. The trick is in getting

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

a little creative and using low cost – high impact strategies. Go through help sites on the Internet and you’d be spoiled for choices.

We suggest putting direct marketing on top of your list. Why? There are several reasons:

- It is more cost effective than mass media strategies like Advertising

- There is lesser “

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

spill – over” than mass media like advertising and public relations

- You can “measure” the effects of direct marketing

Solving the direct marketing riddle

By definition direct marketing is a sales and promotion technique in which the promotional materials are delivered individually to potential cust

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

mers via direct mail, telemarketing, door-to-door selling or other direct means. Direct marketing is one of the most effective marketing tools a home business owner can employ to expand his business and make it more profitable. It can help you create visibility for your company and educate the targeted audience about

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

the products and/or services you sell.
www.onlinewbc.gov/docs/starting/glossary.html

Direct marketing is not a complicated, puzzling marketing option that will leave you frustrated and down with a few thousand dollars. If executed with proper planning, focus and some creativity, these tools can do wonders for

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

your home business. Some of the most popular and time-tested direct marketing tools are:

Brochures: A brochure is your sales person in paper. It gives your potential client all the information he needs on your company; an opportunity to evaluate your products, services, your expertise and a platform t

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

get in touch with you for more information. A brochure created with serious forethought and meticulous detailing can do all of this and more for you. A few tips:

A compelling covering letter is a must to getting the prospect to read the whole brochure
A well-designed brochure must keep the target audi

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

nce in mind, the level of sophistication in style and content and the market you are operating in.

A brochure must be aimed at finally getting the prospect to send in a business enquiry. Don’t forget to add the contact details; a postage paid business reply envelope attached with the brochure would be a good id

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

ea.
http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol134/brochure.htm

Direct mailing: Direct mailing involves sending out sales letters, fliers, reply cards and other promotional literature through snail mail, to a pre-decided mailing list of potential customers. If targeted to a precise audience, it can get yo

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

faster responses and does not have to cost much. The most important part of direct mailing is building a robust mailing list with the right names. You could either develop this list yourself through your own records or buy lists from a List Broker. You could also try and take help from the SBDC (Small Business Devel

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

pment Center), a government program sponsored by the SBA that provides expertise to small and home business owners and has access to targeted mailing lists, which it can offer you as an SBDC client. Take a look at www.sba.gov/sbdc http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,317818,00.html

Telemarketing:

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

For telemarketing you can use the same list as for your direct mailers. Take care to suit the message to a telephone call; keep it short and conversational. Telemarketing, by far gets you the quickest result. One phone call can get your sales team appointments for demos or a meeting to talk about your company. Anothe

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

valuable response it can get you is a confirmed negative answer. This will help you fine-tune your list better and not waste any more time or money in trying to contact a person who really doesn’t need your services or is plain not interested.

Postcards: One of the biggest advantages of using postcards i

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

its “openness”, literally. Use compelling and creative copy on postcards. Team it up with visual content, and nine times out of ten, the receiver is more likely to give it a read rather than dump it in the bin immediately. It is an effective and a very affordable way to contact and keep in touch with your existing a

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

nd potential customers.

Email: With the WWW being the life source of home businesses, can you ignore email? It is easily the most affordable and time saving direct marketing tool, that can get your message across to thousands of people and allow them to respond just as easily. Decide on the copy very care

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

ully, so that it stands out above all the junk mail that account holders receive every day. You can buy mailing lists, again from list brokers. Fine-tune your message so as to be able to pack in the most relevant information in a short paragraph. Add visuals, links to your website and contact information. This should

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

include a phone and a fax number a postal address and a contact person’s name.

Before you begin a direct marketing exercise, spend considerable time on evaluating what tools would be the best for your business; effective but not cost-prohibitive; how would you tailor your message for brochures, mailers, emails

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

etc., so as to break away from the clutter and maximize impact. Once you are through with this, spend time on creating the mailing list with the right names. If you are able to bring down the cost of your direct mailing exercise to even 30 cents, but have a mailing list of 20, 000 people, all wrong nam

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

s…. every cent has gone down the drain! Someone once said, “There is a difference between Efficiency and Effectiveness. Efficiency is doing the right thing, but Effectiveness is doing the thing right!” So work at making an effective direct marketing plan and see your business expand and become financially more robust

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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What if you could find jobs that hadn't even been advertised yet! Do you think you could get your resume in front of the HR department before they put the word out? Learn how.

The one thing to remember when asking businesses for donations is that businesses don't give donations. People give donations, and sometimes those people work for or own a business, and donate on behalf of that business.

If you want to make money in the mailing list business, you should contact the state and federal government for sources of lists.

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