Part 2 : "Healthy" marketing, customers and advertising

You're the Vice President of Marketing for MediSpecialty.com; are there differences in marketing and developing a medical information website as opposed to a sole product based website?
Yes. We develop a number of product specific sites for clients and there are huge differences. With our main site, we market ourselves as a resource for information and communication. Our goal is to develop our audience and to provide a marketplace for companies to promote their products.

In the early days, many companies thought they had to develop these types of resources, just to get consumers coming back to their site. Their goal was to sell their product or service, but they began creating publishing models to get customers. We are like a magazine, TV show or trade show.

Companies that sell products are still advertisers. Product websites should support the sale of these products or services and should focus on benefits, contact or distribution information, lead generation or sales, to name a few. They should not lose sight of what their ultimate goal is, to get customers, improve communication and keep them.

Why do you think medical websites are important to the general Internet user?
There has always been plenty of medical information that gets published and distributed to medical professionals in certain regions. What the Internet does is enable worldwide collaboration, as well as allowing information to be published in a timely manner.

Online discussions are a very valuable tool. Medical professionals and patients now have the opportunity to share views, get second opinions or share experiences. This has a great impact on the general Internet user, as they now have access to information that was once only accessed through doctors' offices, libraries or other areas that were not easily accessible. Web search tools, as well as the search function on websites, make it easier to find very specific resources.

Do you think there has to be a balance between ethics and advertising on medical websites?
Most pharmaceutical companies are very cautious. They are all regulated and know what they can say and to whom. I think there definitely needs to be a balance between published content and advertising, though.

Do you have any opinions on why some health related websites fail and others thrive? For example, DrKoop.com?
Interesting example. We could very well have been DrKoop.com, if we had wanted to desert our medical professionals and instead tried to be a one size fits all site for US consumers.

We stayed focused on bringing together medical professionals, patients and industry in individual specialties. Many other sites took the attitude of trying to address all health and focus on consumers only. What most of them have succeeded in accomplishing is creating a number of sites that all license the same sources for general medical information, with the goal that they would herd people in and sell advertising to drug companies.

What happened was, too many companies took the same short-sided approach, raised a bunch of money, built very general sites without much depth and ended up having to spend massive amounts of their money on advertising. Many of them have begun to run out of money before they could start generating revenue.

Further, it is difficult to sell to clients that have specific products for specific conditions when your audience is dispersed. The next year or so should see more failures, but they will mostly be those that had bad business models to begin with.

As a matter of fact, despite all the money drkoop.com has spent on advertising to become the most popular health site, they have currently dropped to #6 most popular health site. Our site, obgyn.net climbed to #11 last week (11/09/00) according to 100hot.com, despite the fact we are specialized.

Do you feel it is important that the public has access to as much unbiased medical information in the form of forums, websites, medical web boards as possible?
Yes. I think access to information is empowerment and can help the public become more informed about what is available, before they visit a doctor. Consumers should check to see who is supplying the information or if medical editorial advisors or boards are available, websites should be sure to make this information accessible and medical professionals should be sure to advise patients to consult a physician, in person, if needed. I think the Internet can be a great adjunct to medical care.

Is there a gratifying experience to providing and marketing a health website for professionals as well as the general public?
We have attended conferences around the world and have met many of our 200+ contributors, as well as medical professionals that regularly use our site. We have seen doctors that have communicated on our site meet for the first time, have been told how valuable our site is to the medical community and have made a great number of personal relationships with very caring people.

We have developed special interest sections for rare conditions that many people thought they were alone in experiencing and through forums and quilts have brought together patients that have shared experiences. It definitely adds a personal side to health care. It is very rewarding to know that you help people.

MediSpecialty.com owns and maintains the world renowned OBGYN.net - which has received numerous awards including the prestigious Mining Co. Women's Health Best of the Net Award, and was chosen as a three star indispensable site in the BioMed link database - what is the key to its award winning success as such a user friendly website?
Specialization, depth of resources and community, to name a few. It is a lot of work to do one thing right. What has kept us from getting into many other specialties is that there is always more you can do within any one area of interest. If general health sites are a mile wide and a foot deep, then we would be a foot wide and a mile deep.

When someone has something seriously wrong with them, they don't want a one page definition of it, they want to know everything they can about it. You have to really care and be focused. There is no easy solution to developing an award winning website. It is very hands on.

What's your least favorite thing about advertising on websites in general?
Most of it is very general and not targeted to my interest or current needs. Also, I'm in favor of animation, but I hate the ones that are too distracting, like monkeys running back and forth.

What kind of advertising do you think works best for websites?
Select journals or publications and other websites, for targeted audiences. If you can market through a targeted group (doctors) to reach a larger group (patients), that is good too.

Why do you think there are still those out there who are so hesitant to join the "Internet Revolution" so to speak?
It is easier to hide from something you don't understand and hope it goes away. In 1996, many people thought it was a fad and put off any reason for pursuing it. Many of those same people are embracing it, now, because they know it is not going away. It's really not all that difficult to figure out, but I think most people get caught up in the fact that is on a computer and has to be programmed. People are not resistant of TV, even though it involves radio frequencies, cathode ray tubes, filming, editing, etc... I think people need to get past the point that they don't have to know how the "Internet" works to use it.

What is the number one aspect of "selling" a website?
To the audience, you have to provide something of real value. To clients, you have to show them that you have the audience they want to reach and that you are so valuable to them that they need to work with you.

Continued...