I talk to clients, potential clients and partners a LOT. On the phone, in person, in pitches, speeches and via social media and interviews. In all this talk I spout a lot of statistics and facts (and tell a few good stories) – trying to spread the word about health care professionals and mobile.

And some days I truly wonder, am I talking to myself?? Sure, everyone at One Eleven has drunk the kool-aid, but does pharma buy it? Lately, I’ve been wondering.

Today my friends, a miracle happened! A potential client called about mobile optimizing web sites – and said, “You know, Janet, 65% of physicians are accessing information via smart phones*, so we need to be there.” I’ve repeated that statistic until I was hoarse and my fingers nearly fell off from writing, blogging and emailing – but apparently, the word has gotten around.

When I was a sales rep, my district manager used to say, “it takes at least 10 visits to a doctor to convince her of ONE point you are trying to make” – well, I have come to realize that it takes at least that many exposures to pharma folks to make a point.

Well, stubborn is good for something – so, now that I have made THAT point,  on to the next one…

*My thanks to Mark Bard of Manhattan Research, who kindly provides the latest statistics for HCPs and their use of mobile.

I’ve been finding inspiration all around me – maybe I’m looking for it or maybe there is just a lot of positive energy flying around for anyone to grab if they want it.  I met one of the founders of LittleMissMatched last night at a neighbor’s SuperBowl party – if you don’t know what this company does, go to www.littlemissmatched.com – they make unmatching socks…on purpose and in odd numbers – so if the dryer eats one, so what?  All entrepreneurs pray for that “big idea” – to actually see people wearing your idea…that’s so cool!!

What was fun was that I was able to give her some ideas about going mobile – mobile optimizing her site, mobile search and mobile marketing – all of which would be great for her business.

I think if I saw a doctor tapping on her iPhone, getting samples via SampleServer Express (our mobile sampling solution) I would probably faint from joy – I know those doctors are out there – it would be a thrill to be ubiquitous.

Everyone says we are passionate about online/mobile marketing. We are…but not just because it is exciting — it is downright practical! Think about traditional fax-back/mail back programs for sampling:

1. Print out a form.
2. Get a doctor’s signature.
3. Fax it back (eventually – or if not done within 10 days or so, the request is nullified).
4. Wait for samples.
   Note: between 20 – 40% of printed forms are NOT faxed back – so you lose a giant chunk of customers from the get-go.

Let’s contrast that to mobile sampling – since the doc has an iPhone on their hip and because they’re already registered, and e-signature is in place, the sample request is as follows:

1. HCP gets text message that samples are available.
2. HCP enters login information.
3. Confirms sample order.

Done. Just do it (this slogan works well for mobile sampling!).

It’s not every day that someone writes a recommendation for you and then puts it up for the whole world to see (on “Linked In”) – Karl Schmeider, Principal of MessagingLab is a really bright, talented and downright interesting guy – for him to give us this endorsement, well, it made my week:

“Janet and I have gotten to know each other over the years.. seeing each other at events… telling each other about what we were working on. When she first told me about what One Eleven Interactive (OEI) was going to do, especially for the mobile channel, I was very interested. Now, that I’ve seen the progress, the mobile products — especially the iPhone apps — I am blown away. When people talk about the future of Direct to Physician – professional – advertising, OEI is it. The OEI solutions blow the competition out of the water. It’s only a matter of time before all physicians are getting their drug-related information on a mobile device. And OEI will likely be the force behind that information.”

Maybe it is Olympic fever (or the full moon) but we have one of the wildest weeks ahead and I am absolutely beyond excited about it!  It started today with two solo events – tomorrow is full of team events, as is the rest of the week.  I think I probably would have gotten gold today, if these meetings were medal events – I was so excited to talk mobile, that even a little tired, I really felt like I was on fire.  People are listening…things are happening…By early September, One Eleven will be a company people are talking about – and we deserve it.  We are going for the gold – and I’m pretty damn sure we’ll get it.

And here I thought we were talking to ourselves…people in pharma have actually been listening!  It was an exciting week – we have corporations (yep, the whole shootin’ match) that are looking to mobile optimize, brand/franchise sites that are seeing the light and even a cutting edge (not to mention world leading) marketing research company that has realized mobile marketing provides another DIRECT channel to their customers and will catapult them over their competition.  We’ve been discussing really interesting and helpful mobile apps – that speed up the paperwork physicians must complete in order to prescribe some products.

It’s been a good week – thanks for listening.

I have no intention of this blog being a crapfest on pharma. Au contraire, I (and I am speaking on behalf of my team – we) want to bring truth and light to pharma…really. So, here it goes…truth and light. No one, I mean no one, has mobile optimized their sites, not brand, not corporate (OK, we did – go to oneeleven.mobi) – even the guys who have drunk the Kool Aid haven’t done it yet. One pretty smart guy I know reported that only 5% of people access his unoptimized site via mobile and thus he wouldn’t be making it a priority to optimize his site. His IQ dropped a few points in my mind. Um, if your site WAS mobile optimized, the people who do come via mobile – obviously their channel of choice, would be happy and clearly, more people WILL be coming to those sites, because smart companies/brands will ensure that their info is available no matter HOW people are coming to the site.

The moral of the story – build the content once and let it go across ALL channels – let your customer select their channel of choice and make it the best experience possible.

I just got a really big wake up call. We have been talking to most of the pharma companies out there about mobile marketing and for the most part, they are really excited about it – contrast this with the meetings at most of the major agencies. We had a meeting today where I thought we might need to bust out the defibrillator – I wasn’t sure these people were alive. And they sure as hell were not “getting” mobile – from the looks on their faces, I had to make sure I hadn’t accidentally started speaking in tongues. Of course, they pointed out that they had lots to think about regarding the print campaigns they were dreaming about.

Maybe the moral of the story is that I should be selling stuff that they know and “get” – like an eDetail…or maybe a podcast…yeah, that’s the ticket. We always say, “No one got fired for hiring IBM” but where is IBM now? Selling what you know is easy, selling the future is hard.

One of my colleagues at One Eleven forwarded me a link to an article from the New York Times – it had a quote from Barney Pell, CEO of Powerset (his company had been acquired by Microsoft) – In discussing mobile applications Mr. Pell came up with a truly beautiful observation:

“The small screen forces you to be even more ruthless and focus on usability almost like a haiku. That’s what happens with design for the small screen. You have to think about what the most important thing the user is doing is.”

I used this quote in a pitch today (yes, I sourced it – I thought using it made me look smart enough!) it really captures the essence of what mobile is all about – I have a feeling I’ll be using this quote again in my next mobile marketing pitch.

Link to article:
On a Small Screen, Just the Salient Stuff

Some days it is really hard to have the right idea, at the right time, with the right team. When I talk to clients, they spend a lot of time in the devil’s advocate chair – and I know why they do it, but do they ALL have to play that role? I’m looking for a hero – someone who is willing to ask the smart questions and then take ACTION. We are not talking about jumping over buildings here or outracing freight trains – just a little willingness to explore opportunities we all know make sense. NO, I don’t have all the stats (yet) – NO, I don’t have ROI (yet), NO, no one else has done it (YET!)…but I’m working on it. By the time you trade in your red costume with the tail and horns, one of your competitor’s will have eaten your lunch and I can’t wait!