Main Subject - Internet and Businesses Online

Forums are great for learning, sharing of ideas, and generally masterminding with peers, but give some thought to the impact they can have on your lead generation efforts, as well as on your customer relationship management activities.

Joining an active forum can significantly accelerat

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

e your rate of learning – whether you are a newbie or an experienced practitioner.

For newbies - even if you merely ‘lurk’ in the shadows and don’t post on your forums - you will learn a lot by reading questions by others, and the helpful replies by experienced forum members.

The benef

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

Examples of combination products may in

it for the experienced members can be thought of as a web version of masterminding - ideas can be shared and validated, and various techniques can be discussed with peers – often on different continents and in different time zones – something not nearly as feasible in the physical world.

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

Apart from the information sharing and networking that forums offer, they have the potential to both positively and negatively impact your marketing efforts, levels of customer satisfaction, and the overall sentiments towards your customer relationship management.

The remainder of thi

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

article will give you some ideas as to how you can use forums in a positive way to improve your marketing initiatives. A follow-up article (Forum Perils for Customer Relationship Management) will cover how to avoid the negative impact forums can have on your business.

Forums can positi

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

Combination pro

vely impact your marketing strategy and initiatives in the following way:

* Conduct Market Research / Investigate Market Reputation

Search engines make it so easy to research what is being said about both your products, as well as those of your competitors.

Simply type in the name of

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

the product of service you want to research, followed by ‘comments’, ‘review’, ‘scam’, or any other relevant term. Within seconds you will have a list of website reviews, blog postings, and forum comments.

Ignore the first two (many are by affiliates just punting the product hoping to e

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

rn a fee) – the ones to read are the forum conversations, where you will invariably get some pretty honest feedback – good or bad – about the product.

If you get some glowing comments in public/membership forums for your products, contact the individuals to see if you can post these as

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

testimonials. Negative comments should also be reacted to – once again, contact the individuals and see if you can rectify the situation. Often a ‘fixed’ bad experience can convert a vocal detractor into a fan – most people can tolerate a mistake, what makes them irate is when you ignore

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

them, or pretend that no problem or grievance exists.

* Customer Relationship Management – use for Satisfaction Tracking

If your business markets a product to quite a large user base, it makes marketing sense to set up a product-specific forum, and actively promote the forum to your c

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

stomer base.

Once active, the postings by your customers will give you a good indication of the overall sentiment towards your product, as well as your service levels. Prospects can also use the forums as a gauge of product popularity and level of active support.

Your forum will also p

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

Following aspects would a

rovide you with a communication channel to your customer base. You can use it to conduct quick polls – essentially a free customer relationship management alternative to paid-for satisfaction audits by market research firms.

* New Product Ideas / Launches

Whether your website has a for

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

um or not, it is worthwhile to join a couple of the more active forums related to your market. By monitoring questions, complaints, and cries for help, you can possibly identify the need for new products or services. A forum can also be a no-cost way to launch a pilot for a new product o

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

r service. You can get some early sign-ups/purchases without a major investment in marketing, and at the same time use the opportunity to get some quick testimonials.

* Positioning As An Expert / Attracting Traffic

Beyond merely identifying needs, you can use these forum questions as a

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

opportunity to position yourself as a helpful expert. To do this, you need to monitor the most active threads (gets the most readership), and where you have the expertise, provide quality responses to posed questions. This will help grow your reputation over time.

If you ensure that yo

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

ur signature includes your website address – preferably with a short tagline indicating your USP – this can prove to be a very useful method for lead generation, and importantly, one that delivers qualified prospects.

If you notice frequently repeated newbie questions, consider setting

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

up a FAQ section on your site, and then direct the enquirer to the page, rather than providing a comprehensive answer in the forum.

* Finding JV partners

Monitoring active forums has another positive marketing spin off - it will help you identify potential JV partners. In the same way

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

ou are being assessed as to your expert know-how, you can use the postings by your peers to identify those with whom it would make sense to explore setting up joint ventures. This could get you access to mailing lists that you currently do not have, and in so doing, significantly broaden

.

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

your marketing reach.

If you are adding an online component to your offline business, or starting to investigate an online business opportunity, consider how you can incorporate the points listed above. For those suggestions that have a nice fit with your market, make a decision to tak

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

e action and include them in your marketing activities. By actively and consistently applying these forum tactics you will find that both your lead generation and customer relationship management initiatives will be far more productive.

© 2005 Intellinova (Pty) Ltd. - All Rights Reserve

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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