Start your e-marketing plan 12 months prior to Rx approval

Start your e-marketing plan 12 months prior to Rx approval

An e-marketing roadmap for launching a new product online should span the 12 months before and six months after its FDA-approval, said Darrell Wakefield, associate director for Novartis, and Elizabeth Izard Apelles, managing partner at interactive marketing agency Greater Than One. During the period prior to launch, pharmas should prime the online market for their new drug with unbranded educational content, they said during CBI's e-marketing conference Tuesday. Companies should also be sure that their unbranded Web presence is scalable so it can grow with the brand, Wakefield said. During the launch and post-launch phases, the Web content should be branded so the company can focus on patient acquisition and retention.