health
interest
groups

In the early noughties, organisations debated the need for a web strategy. People were unsure at the time but these days, the answer is obvious: if you're not on the Internet, it's as though you don't exist.

In a similar vein, Eric Schmidt (Chairman of Google) now believes it's also a requirement to have a fully developed Mobile App strategy, as the average smartphone user now spends 5 hours a day on their Mobile device (Source: Flurry Analytics). Industry expert, Schmidt, feels it is especially so if you are an established organisation, as your audience not only expects, but demands it from you.

Further related benefits of developing own brand Apps include:

• Increasing visibility,
• Heightening the public's interest in one's offerings,
• Assisting the organisation to attract new customers/stakeholders,
• Adding value, and
• Standing out from rivals.

Whilst naturally dependent upon the subject matter/ultimate goal of the App, tremendous opportunities undeniably exist for Health Interest Groups to generate further sources of income in an exciting new industry that was worth over $118 billion in 2017 (Source: Statista).

As stated in the Services section of this site, Doctot offer complete App solutions to interested parties; expertly guiding projects from Idea Generation the whole way through to Post-Purchase Evaluation.

Providing rich, interactive material in addition to everything a printed publication can, an App can greatly enhance one's interaction with a brand. Downloaded with one simple click of a button, an App is immediately available on demand, thereby providing instant satisfaction. The prices of Apps are also usually very reasonable, so alongside being very user-friendly, they are typically perceived as an attractive, progressive product. The more enjoyment the end-customer experiences, the stronger the relationship the organisation can forge with him/her, which translates into not only a hooked fan but increased sales and profits.

In an increasingly paperless world, where getting what they want at the touch of a button is becoming ingrained in the public, Doctot envisage Apps actually replacing physical publications in time, thus enabling Health Interest Groups to make real savings on print costs, time and wastage.

To exemplify, an App is much more targeted (in that there is no wastage) and one can still charge for it. Across the globe, newsprint and ink prices are increasing year-on-year while paper costs also continue to go through the roof. Taking such into account, publishers face with the prospect of either cutting pages (which leads to an inferior end product) or eventually driving up the price of the literature until it goes beyond the price point that many are willing to pay. Such is where Apps truly come to the fore.

These two factors are undoubtedly of ever increasing importance in today's fast-moving world. People now prefer everything to be no further away than their fingertips, and HCPs are no exception. According to SDI's Mobile and Social Media Study, the majority of physicians (85% of whom have been using smartphones for over 5 years; Manhattan Research) with a mobile device use it for both accessing relevant medical information and for enhancing patient care.

Considering such, it is of increasing importance that Medical Apps are made available on tremendously popular Mobile devices such as iPhones, to meet the demand that patently exists for them.

In the majority of cases, mobile generates a much better response than other forms of communication, such as email and traditional letters. For example, video calls sent out to mobile subscribers are viewed as a very personal and engaging form of communication, hence their popularity.

In a variety of different ways (such as building a mobile community that creates interaction amongst fans), Doctot can help to strategise and implement such on the Health Interest Group's behalf.

Mobile advertising is being recognised as a great opportunity for brands, advertisers and publishers to engage consumers in a targeted and contextual manner, as it considerably improves their returns. Because of such, mobile advertising budgets have massively increased across the various categories and regions, growing from 0.5% of the business world's total advertising budget in 2010 to over 20% in 2017.

In monetary terms, worldwide mobile advertising revenue reached $134 billion in 2017 (and is forecast by analysts, eMarketer to reach $196 billion by 2019), a huge increase on the $3.3 billion generated in 2011 and the $1.6 billion in 2010 (Source: Gartner, Inc). Considering that over 2.6 billion people received ads on their phone as far back as 2013 and that 16% of mobile owners click mobile ads on a regular basis (Source: Sponge It Market Research), it is undoubtedly an attractive medium from an advertiser's point of view. In light of such potential, this medium opens up new advertising and marketing opportunities (such as AdMob, iAds and Advergaming) for brands attempting to reach their public.

Another benefit of launching a Mobile App is the concurrent development of a permission marketing database, which can be used by the Health Interest Group to further promote their activities and add value.

Through this medium, the organisation in question can create a new marketing vehicle that allows them to contact their public in a very direct way.