A clinical trial is only as good as its patient population. So, if prospective patients aren’t aware of potential trials or participation criteria, they can’t access the potential benefits. Therefore, patient recruitment is one of the most essential aspects of clinical trials.

Crucially, your patient recruiting marketing strategy determines whether those efforts are successful.

Clinical trial patient recruitment becomes limited when relying on traditional methods of reaching potential participants (i.e., via existing relationships between clinicians, caregivers, and patients). Patients who aren’t already known to providers or sites remain unaware, depriving research sponsors of useful information, patients of access to potential medical benefits, and society of dynamic future research.

However, clinical trial marketing campaigns that instead employ direct-to-consumer strategies—including digital and social media advertising—allow contract research organizations (CROs) to find their target audiences more quickly and, ultimately, to run more effective clinical trials. More effective clinical trials allow medical providers to continue helping patients and treating illness.

The Evolution of Patient Recruitment Marketing

Traditional recruiting methods generally rely on physicians and other caregivers or providers to facilitate patient referrals or spread the word about trials. While this can be effective on a case-by-case basis—as patient rapport with physicians likely creates greater trust—it creates one narrow path to a trial and leaves other potential patients behind.

This method creates a patient recruitment pipe rather than a funnel.

However, it hardly makes sense to still rely on the same trial recruitment methods first used to determine the effective treatment for scurvy in the mid-1700s when trying to develop a coronavirus vaccine successfully in 2020. New approaches are needed, and their blueprints can be lifted from other marketing strategies and adapted.

CROs and sponsors transitioning to consumer-focused patient education and recruitment have begun seeing major improvements in their efforts’ reach. In particular, clinical trial marketing on digital platforms and channels achieves much better engagement.

This is, in part, a response to broader digital transformations. Consumers now expect to experience much of their lives, from grocery shopping to scheduling medical appointments, via mobile technology—and potential research participation is no different. They’re also accustomed to being regular digital marketing targets, so patient education campaigns that reach them this way feel organic and familiar.

Leading this direct-to-consumer transformation, AutoCruitment’s patient recruitment services leverage digital campaigns designed to reach thousands of potential trial participants who may fall outside the limited scope of traditional efforts.

Benefits of Direct-to-Consumer Methods in Patient Recruitment

Above all, marketing study participation and treatment access directly to patients broaden the scope of clinical trial recruitment, substantially improving the overall quality of those enrolled. At its most basic, extending your recruitment’s reach with strategies like online advertising helps build an enormous initial pool of interested individuals from which to screen down to the most qualified and eligible.

In one example of the impact of direct-to-patient marketing, AutoCruitment helped a study on pediatric depression put together its initial pool of participants. Their marketing’s new reach resulted in gathering nearly 78,000 interested individuals. Through AutoCruitment’s technology and patient and site engagement teams, the researchers could leverage online and phone screening to enroll the 532 most qualified participants.

This achieved almost double the original enrollment, with AutoCruitment’s efforts contributing almost two out of every five randomized patients.

But CROs and sponsors will also see other benefits of direct-to-consumer digital patient recruitment methods, including:

• Speed: Rapidly gathering, screening, and enrolling thousands of potential participants is crucial for timeline adherence, especially when many trials experience delays of up to six months, which may cost pharmaceutical manufacturers over $500,000 to $8 million per day.
• Trust and improved communication: Digital patient recruitment marketing also raises awareness about clinical research, educates patients, earns their trust, and promotes a more proactive, patient-centric approach to digital health.
• Cost-efficiency: Targeted campaigns direct patient recruitment advertising messages squarely at the patients most likely to benefit from them. Direct-to-patient engagement also reduces the need to run additional campaigns or continue trying channels to determine which are most effective.

Adopting a direct-to-consumer approach to clinical trial advertising results in reaching more patients, educating them to prepare them, and keeping them active and involved—increasing patient retention rates in addition to producing higher-quality clinical trials.

Key Direct-to-Consumer Tactics for Patient Recruitment

Of course, taking patient recruitment marketing directly to the consumer is easier said than done. Reaching patients where they are means leveraging social media platforms (and analyzing consumer use of these platforms) to create precisely targeted patient recruitment ads.

As with any form of digital advertising, there are some essential clinical trial marketing best practices to keep in mind:

• Understand the ideal patient profile (and exclusion criteria) early on
• Keep an eye on campaign optimization and return on investment (ROI)
• Use SEO and analytics to reach participants and drive traffic to trial sites
• Integrate mobile-friendly landing pages to streamline recruitment
• Harness the power of social media, encouraging testimonials and sharing via personal networks

While clinical trial ads are designed to recruit patients and drive them toward potentially life-saving clinical research, the best techniques aren’t so different from the direct-to-consumer tactics that work well in other contexts—they are merely adapted for the appropriate HIPAA compliance, data privacy rights, and other healthcare-specific considerations.

The more CROs know about their audiences and where they live online, the better their patient recruiting marketing will be.

Addressing Barriers in Direct-to-Consumer Recruitment

There is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to patient recruitment, and no methods will easily address any and all barriers or pain points. For example, skepticism toward medical practitioners and treatments remains an ongoing issue in healthcare.

As patients increasingly use web-based sources and digital platforms to answer their pressing questions about treatments, drugs, and other forms of healthcare, skepticism must be expected and proactively addressed.

One way to do that is through increased transparency and visibility. Clinical trial marketing campaigns that are calibrated to reach as many prospective patients who are well-suited to specific trials as possible should provide relevant information in clear language, explain studies fully and honestly, and offer specific details about benefits and drawbacks.

Successful digital marketing for clinical trials will also take ethical and privacy considerations seriously. As a patient’s first interaction with a trial or sponsor, these campaigns must establish trust and display professionalism.

A commitment to empathy, inclusion, and transparency will also ensure that messaging resonates across diverse demographics. Reaching a diverse patient population strengthens future trials, increasing minority patient recruitment and overall enrollment and retention rates.

Case Studies: Successful Patient Recruitment Campaigns

Autocruitment’s unique combination of end-to-end technology and sterling patient recruitment services make clinical trial marketing smoother, faster, and more successful.

It’s a formula with demonstrated results. More than 700 trials have been completed to study more than 120 medical conditions.

AutoCruitment’s campaigns have improved outcomes in many different areas of medicine, including:

• Endocrinology: A Type I diabetes study struggling to enroll randomized patients required a three-month targeted online recruitment campaign, leveraging digital platforms to place clinical research opportunities directly in front of a targeted audience.
• General medicine: An episodic migraine trial benefited from deep qualification through customized patient screenings and support throughout the enrollment process, re-engaging patients who had previously disengaged from the study.
• Neurology: For a Phase III study on major depression disorder (MDD) with especially stringent exclusion criteria that needed to reach a specific population, a direct-to-patient online recruiting campaign produced a 99% enrollment increase.
• Psychology: A study on schizophrenia, a condition that can impact cognitive and social function and render traditional recruitment methods less effective, leveraged a personalized screening approach to refer more than 400 qualified patients.
• Women’s health: A Phase III uterine fibroids study that required five treatment groups and 600 randomizations overcame a 90% screen failure rate with a direct-to-patient outreach campaign focused on transparency.

AutoCruitment’s engagement with sites, specialized recruitment plans, custom screenings, and industry expertise lead to reduced recruitment timelines and increased enrollment rates.

Drive Enrollment With Direct-to-Consumer Digital Marketing Campaigns

Digital marketing may be splashy, ubiquitous, or memorable, but it’s only effective if it drives consumers to take the essential next step. For clinical trial marketing campaigns, that means engaging with patients and supporting them through additional screenings, enrollment, and trial participation.

Moreover, direct-to-consumer methods are easier to personalize, target, and monitor. AutoCruitment’s expertise in this area is invaluable to sponsors, CROs, sites, and patients. By implementing detailed, individually tailored marketing strategies, AutoCruitment can boost enrollment and retention rates while slashing timelines and minimizing patient disengagement.

Interested in learning more? Contact AutoCruitment today to transform your patient recruitment process.