Dear boburkel:
I have four ideas for you:
First, there are a lot of people using the Internet to find health
care information. One survey of people seeking health care
information found that 49% of them use the Internet for a second
opinion. These people strike me as exactly the sort of people you are
looking to attract your service. Therefore, I would think that paid
placement in targeted search results for common serious medical
conditions and online advertising on popular health information sites
would be effective.
Second, most major health conditions have one or more patient advocacy
groups with web sites and publications. For example, the Arthritis
Foundation has an extensive web site and a substantial magazine that
is sent out to its members every other month. Frequently, people
newly diagnosed with a condition will receive information from their
physician about such groups, and they will visit their web site and/or
receive their publications to learn more about it. Advertising on
such groups' web sites and in their publications will again target the
type of people you are looking for.
Third, there are a number of health-oriented publications of a more
general nature, such as Prevention magazine, that health-conscious
consumers buy. These probably cost somewhat more to advertise in, and
are probably not as targeted as the previous two ideas, but still may
be worth doing.
Finally, don't overlook Harvard itself. Harvard publishes a Harvard
Health Letter, a Harvard Heart Letter, a Harvard Mental Health Letter,
a Harvard Women's Health Watch, and a Harvard Men's Health Watch. The
subscribers to these publications would be extremely interested in the
opportunity to get a second opinion from a Harvard physician since the
Harvard brand-name obviously is meaningful to them. The Mayo Clinic
and others publish similar newsletters, but I don't know if they would
accept outside advertising for something Harvard related.
I hope the following links are useful in helping you better understand
consumer usage of the Internet for health topics. Also, note that
Europeans are also avid consumers of Internet health care information,
so you may wind up reaching the English-speaking ones with your
efforts to attract US consumers.
Good luck with your business
Wonko
http://www.health.harvard.edu/
Information about the various Harvard health publications mentioned
above.
http://www.hon.ch/Survey/8th_HON_results.html
Health on the Net Foundation
49% of the respondents to the survey use the Internet for a second
opinion.
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905358606&rel=true
Manhattan Research: US consumers plan health care on the Net
"Nov 27 2002: The number of Americans visiting hospital and health
plan websites has tripled in the past year, according to a new
Manhattan Research study.
The research indicates that 10.3 million online consumers have used a
hospital website in the past three months, up from three million last
year.
In addition, 38.5 million other consumers are interested in receiving
information from a hospital website in the future."
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905357995&rel=true
TechNews.com: Americans use Net to look after themselves
"May 27 2002: Newsbytes reports that 73 million US adults go online to
research health-related topics.
According to new research from Pew Internet and American Life, around
72 percent of women use the Net to look for health information,
compared to 51 percent of men."
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905358381&rel=true
BBC Online Network: Growth in numbers seeking health info online
"Sep 16 2002: The BBC reports that more people are turning to the
Internet to look for health information for themselves and their
families.
This is according to a new study from Datamonitor.
The research company surveyed over 4,500 adults in France, Germany,
Italy, Spain, the UK and the US, and found that 57 percent of
respondents had consulted Internet sources when looking for health
information." |
