Pharma marketers can leverage their brand messages by taking promotional efforts online where users are increasingly searching for healthcare information, top marketers said during the recent MM&M webcast titled Five Big Reasons for Taking Pharmaceutical Marketing Online.

Webcast speaker and Merck director, multi-channel marketing, Doug Everson, noted that nearly all physicians are online in every capacity. “ The Internet has now become so important to these physicians that the majority of them feel this has advanced their clinical knowledge and is just as common to them now as the use of a stethoscope.”

Meanwhile consumers continue to spend their time in the digital world in a dramatic way, said webcast speaker Mary Ann Belliveau, director, health sales and operations at Google. “(Consumers) are turning to search engines and online and finding that healthcare information is being made increasingly discoverable by pharmaceutical marketers and content providers,” she said. “They are looking for potential side effects and experience from consumers in terms of keeping up to date with information for drugs and really making sure that they are well-versed.”

To view the webcast on demand, visit the events page at www.mmm-online.com.