How To Recruit Clinical Trial Study Participants

Table of Contents

1. The Importance of Recruitment

2. The Two Worlds: Online and Offline

3. The Research Organization’s Current Marketing Plan

4. Your Principal Investigators

5. Referrals

6. Support Groups

7. Patient Advocacy Groups

8. TV, Radio, and Print

9. Start A Blog

10. Social Media

11. Twitter

12. Facebook

13. Instagram

14. Craigslist

15. Google AdWords

16. Conclusion

1.) The Importance of Recruitment

How can my research clinic be better at patient recruitment? This question and all of its

derivatives is probably on my Top 3 list of most asked questions on my video podcast “The

Clinical Trials Guru”. It makes sense when you really think about it. So many moving parts

must be in sync for a clinical research site to be successful: you need a PI who is on board with

and understands the responsibilities that go into conducting research, you need at least one

competent study coordinator, you need to get a couple of actual studies in order to have this site,

and finally, you need to enroll actual study participants into these studies. It is the last moving

part of this recipe that this book will focus on.

Year after year and poll after poll shows that the number one biggest obstacle towards

completing successful clinical trial studies according to the actual pharmaceutical and biotech

companies is the lack of efficient patient recruitment. Study Sponsors want their clinical trials to

end on time as planned (or even sooner) in order to collect, analyze and perhaps present their

study findings to the Food and Drug Administration. Most clinical trials do not meet enrollment

targets on time. Many are delayed twice as long as initially projected. With so much money

being spent on clinical trial planning and execution, why is it then that research clinics are still

having issues with study participant recruitment?

I believe the answer to that question is simple: research clinics are having issues with recruitment

because it is difficult. The negative stigma intertwined with unawareness about clinical trials is

what makes it difficult to find people that are willing to commit to participating in a trial. What

makes it difficult in my opinion is the fact that study protocols are getting increasingly more

niche in the types of study participants they are allowing to enroll based on stricter than ever

inclusion/exclusion criteria. This translates into research sites having to develop unique,

sophisticated, custom-made recruitment strategies for each protocol as opposed to a constant,

year round, all encompassing marketing plan as some have been successful with in the past.

In 2014 (the time of this writing), study Sponsors are becoming more selective in the types of

study participants they are looking for, and ultimately in the types of research clinics they are

awarding these studies to. It boils down to this: you are going to need to excel at recruiting a

wide variety of study participants for a wide variety of increasingly difficult studies. Your

research company’s recruitment strategies will need to be adaptive and versatile. What may

have worked well for you in 2004 may not necessarily work in 2014. For the companies that

recognize this, they will continue to gain market share in their space.

When starting a new study, the last situation you want to find yourself facing is that after

promising the Sponsor that your company would enroll a certain number of study participants,

you are having issues finding just one! In panic mode, you now are looking for just about

anyone with a pulse to screen unaware of the fact that this subject will inevitably screen fail

which will only magnify the issue that you can’t deliver what you promised. Now the pressure is

really on and if your Site is unable to produce, the Sponsor will strongly consider not working

with you again in at least the near future.

Luckily, with the right tools and strategies, your company could be one of the few that actually

over-deliver on what they promise and in return, will gain that all-important repeat business from

the study Sponsors. Yes recruitment has become more difficult recently, but there are so many

tools available to you these days (many of them free) that can make even the most restrictive

study an opportunity for your company to shine! Let’s begin by looking at the two different

worlds in which we (and study participants) all live in now whether we choose to accept it or not,

offline and online.

2.) The Two Worlds: Online and Offline

Just about any business in these modern times, exists in two worlds: online and offline. The

offline aspect of business, specifically marketing, has existed since the advent of the concept of

business in general, probably stemming back to the caveman days when our ancestors would

barter with each other for goods and services.

Much like business in general, the offline strategies for recruiting clinical research participants

have been established and refined over the years since the early days of regulated clinical trials at

the turn of the last century. Many strategies and practices that worked back then still work

today. Physician referrals were one of the most successful methods for researchers to enroll

study participants into their trials, and not much has changed in that regard since.

Even better than outside physician referrals, physician referrals from within your own

organization, or even the private practice of the Principal Investigator himself can provide even

higher screening numbers for research clinics. The real challenge in these situations is how to

sort through all the potential candidates in order to find participants that will actually qualify for

the various studies. The next few chapters will introduce you to these concepts and outline some

tried and true strategies that have worked in the past and will continue to work in the near future

for as long as patients are likely to trust their own physicians.

Support groups where patients dealing with the same medical conditions meet on a regular basis

to share treatment options, coping strategies, and other such resources have been a fantastic

avenue for researchers to show up and provide information and guidance on the various

opportunities available and otherwise unknown to these patients in the form of clinical trials.

Much like support groups have proven to be excellent sources for finding clinical trial

participants, patient organizations and non-profits (sometimes having their own support groups)

are another. Patient organizations are typically non-profit organizations that have specific

missions such as raising awareness about a particular medical condition, aiding in the

advancement of treatments for these medical conditions, or providing services for patients with

particular medical conditions. Strategies for dealing with these organizations will be detailed in

a later chapter.

Television, newspapers and radio are traditional offline sources for recruiting study participants

as well, and many research clinics have (and continue to have) tremendous success when it

comes to implementing traditional media advertising campaigns to target volunteers for their

studies. The only downside to this strategy is the cost of advertising here is usually pricey,

unless of course, you can negotiate good deals. Rest assured, I will detail specifics in a later

chapter!

Not surprisingly, many of these offline strategies now also have online elements that can be

tinkered with and eventually mastered in order to provide the desired outcome: recruiting more

study participants. Even though many of these aforementioned tactics and sources for finding

potential study participants have existed offline for decades, during the past few years,

everything has been moving online, and those researchers who can understand how to utilize

some of these newer tools will find a highly scalable model for clinical trial recruitment going

forward. What are some of these tools you might be asking? Let me highlight some of them in

the next few paragraphs, and detail them in individual chapters later on in this book.

While the internet has indeed been around for some time, it is still in its infancy. People are only

now beginning to get comfortable doing many things which were once considered personal and

private online. Things such as banking, shopping, hiring, applying for jobs, selling, getting

roommates, and yep, you guessed it, looking for clinical trials, all used to be done exclusively

offline not even a decade ago. Now, it is not uncommon for us to do all these things and more

on the web.

On top of this, people are becoming more social in regards to talking about themselves and

consuming information online like never before. How often in the 1990’s or earlier, would

someone eat a Snicker’s bar and then call their friends just to tell them about the fact that they

ate a Snicker’s bar? None, and if they did, you might have considered a psychiatric clinical trial

for them. These days, simpler and more mundane things are getting shared online on platforms

like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Tumblr and more.

What does all of this have to do with recruiting study participants? Well, nothing and absolutely

everything! You see, in the past, the first step of our goal of getting more study participants was

getting in front of them in the first place, getting their attention. Whether it was getting them

referred to us by a doctor, going to a support group, or even buying an ad in the paper, our first

priority was getting their attention. Once we captured their attention and built some dialogue and

context with them, we could “sell” them (or at least try to) on the idea of joining a clinical trial.

These days, with social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, we can capture potential

study participant’s attentions by listening first and then responding or interacting with them in

some way. We can also drive their attention to us by creating content that is specifically

designed to draw them to us. Websites like the Huffington Post and Tech Crunch do a great job

of this, and there is no reason why your organization shouldn’t have a hyperlocal, niche web

property. Later on in this book I will detail specific ways to use these platforms and tools to

build context, increase engagement, and ultimately (hopefully) enroll more people into our

studies! With that being said, let’s take a look at your organization’s study recruitment

marketing plan.

3.) The Research Organization’s Current Marketing Plan

Before we get into specific offline and online recruitment strategies, we should take a quick look

at your research organization, how it operates, and where you get the majority of your study

participants from. As the popular saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and this certainly

applies to clinical trial recruitment.

There are two main types of research companies that have a great interest in being successful at

clinical trial recruitment: research clinics and contract research organizations (CRO’s). This

book absolutely applies to both types of organizations or any others out there that may not

necessarily fit into one of these two categories. There are advantages and disadvantages to either

of the two groups. Larger companies may do better in their offline recruitment methods as they

have more physical resources and may be better known in their communities. On the other hand,

smaller clinics generally tend to have less internal bureaucracy and can move more freely when

it comes to some online (and even offline) recruitment strategies.

Regardless of what type of organization you are dealing with, some tried and true concepts will

be shared amongst the two. Concepts such as the fact that patients typically respond better to

clinical trials when recommended by their own doctor, or when recommended by a friend,

relative or other such individual. Another concept which probably goes back thousands of years

is the fact that people don’t like the feeling of being “sold” anything and our bullshit radars have

evolved into quite sophisticated tools by 2014. This means that, both online and offline, you

must be authentic and genuine. A whole new type of salesmanship has evolved with the advent

of social media and blogging called content marketing, and this book will teach you several

options with which you can experiment with. The days of using actors in your clinical trial TV

ads pretending to be doctors and study participants all having a wonderful time are coming to an

end. Heck, people are even starting to ignore the actual TV content itself! Also those giant

billboards that people used to pay attention to when driving to and from work have been replaced

by distracted motorists and their smart phones. Don’t even get me started on radio ads! People

are starting to ignore this kind of noise, so unless your marketing is providing some real value to

the end user, your days are numbered unless you can adapt.

Fear not, the rest of this book will provide strategies for you to tinker with. They may not all be

appropriate or even approved for your particular organization, but there will be enough in here

for you to at least try out a few. Luckily, for those organizations already experienced with

recruiting study participants, you probably still have quite a few strategies that work for you.

The intention of this book is not to take away from what you are already doing right, but to add

to your overall arsenal. You’ve probably already noticed that many of your current successful

recruitment tactics are not tactics at all, but stemmed from developing relationships with various

stakeholders over a period of time. No matter what business you are in, this strategy will

ultimately win in the end. It is no different in clinical research, so ultimately, your research

organization’s marketing plan should be to provide value and connect with your potential study

participants on a personal level. Let’s take a look at some of the ways in which this can be

accomplished.

4.) Your Principal Investigators

No doubt, if you are conducting even one clinical trial, you are working with a Principal

Investigator (PI). Did you know that the majority of Principal Investigators already have a

private practice of their own? Furthermore, according to ISR Reports, an industry trade journal,

72 percent of clinical trial participants are already patients of the study investigator. This means

that the vast majority of research organizations already have a goldmine of potential study

participants idling in their very own location. The reason more of these patients are not recruited

is generally a lack of effective communication between the research staff and the non-research

medical staff running the PI’s private practice.

Doctor’s offices are busy places. Chances are your research organization either revolves around

your PI’s private practice in the case of a research clinic, or you deal with numerous PI’s and

their private practices in the case of a CRO or other such similar organization. These PI’s most

likely have large databases of all their patients, and most likely see these patients at their offices

on a regular basis. Now, let’s suppose we have a particular study we are recruiting for. How

would we get some of these patients enrolled into the study?

The ideal way would be for the PI to remember what particular protocol she is recruiting for

while also keeping up with the actual treatment of her patients throughout the day. If you know

anything about doctors then you probably know that this situation, while favorable, is highly

unlikely. This is where the study coordinator or some other individual who has been delegated

the task of recruiting study participants needs to enter the picture. This coordinator should be

trained on all HIPAA regulations in regards to protecting patient confidentiality first. At that

point, the coordinator should make a “cheat sheet” where the basic inclusion/exclusion criteria

for the particular study can be easily referred to while they are going though the files of the

patients that are scheduled to come into the office that particular day to see the PI. While CRO’s

cannot necessarily be this “hands on” at a given PI’s location, they can encourage the study

coordinators to do so. Having some sort of a pre-screening log for potential study participants

may be a great place to start.

Once the coordinator comes across the file of a potential study participant, the file should be

flagged in order to remind the PI to further review the patient’s file, and then to discuss the study

opportunity with the patient if at all appropriate. In my own experiences at my research clinics,

we usually see a 50% success rate for subjects that qualify to enroll in the study who end up

agreeing to join once the PI brings it up to them. There is loads of evidence out there to suggest

the same; just do a simple Google search on the topic.

The problem with this strategy is that study coordinators, just like the PI’s, often get bogged

down with their own work. Whether it be dozens of other studies they have to manage, queries

they have to resolve, or taking care of their existing study visits, most study coordinators don’t

have the time to do this recruitment pre-screening task on a consistent basis. This is where I

believe a dedicated, onsite recruiter comes in handy and would provide a great value to the

research organization. Not only can they tap into the often under-utilized database of the PI, but

they can be tasked with spearheading the strategies in the upcoming chapters of this book as

well.

5.) Referrals

Study participant referrals can come from a variety of sources: other study participants, other

physicians in the community, pharmacies, support groups, patient organizations and just about

anywhere else you can think of. We will focus on support groups and patient organizations in

the next two chapters, but in this chapter I would like to focus on the concept of referrals in

general, and more specifically, how to increase the amount of referrals your organization

receives.

One strategy that works equally well whether you are recruiting online or offline is word of

mouth marketing. Word of mouth works only when you are doing something remarkable or

have something worth talking about. Being different than your competition can create word of

mouth marketing. Doing something that adds tremendous value for your study participants can

create word of mouth marketing. Doing what we discussed in Chapter 4 in getting referrals from

your PI may or may not create word of mouth marketing, it depends on whether the process was

remarkable in the study participant’s opinion.

Not everything has to generate word of mouth marketing. The strategies from Chapter 4 will

still get study participants in your study with or without word of mouth marketing, but word of

mouth marketing can compound your results and make it easier in the long run. As an example,

let’s take other physician referrals from the community as a case study. Most research

organizations understand that other physicians can be an excellent source of study participants,

so they usually approach them and try to convince them to send referrals their way. What is

remarkable about this strategy? Some physicians may think it’s cool that there is research going

on in their community, but that is not really remarkable. Now what if you approached these

physicians and told them that in addition to conducting research your organization also hosts a

monthly support group for patients with (fill in the blank) medical condition? Starting to get

more remarkable! Approaching these referral sources with more than one value proposition is a

great way to build context with these physicians and hopefully get them talking about you to

their patients more often.

Another way to generate word of mouth marketing is to get your current study participants

interested in sending referrals of their own. The best way to achieve this is to make their study

experience as remarkable as humanly possible. I understand that we all have to follow protocols,

IRB guidelines, and company policy, but try to give your existing study participants the best

customer experience they can have. Be proactive with them in regards to any questions they

might have about the study, respond in a timely manner when they have complaints or are

reporting adverse events, don’t make them wait in the waiting room too long (better yet have a

study participant lounge separate from the private practice patients), provide transportation or

child care throughout the course of the study, do whatever it takes to keep them happy and then

don’t forget to ask them to refer anyone else they can think of who may be interested in the

study. Referral fees may be frowned upon and even illegal in many organizations, but find other

creative ways to generate this word of mouth buzz. Have monthly raffles where anyone who

refers someone gets a raffle ticket. Have prizes that you would want to have, don’t be cheap

here!

At the end of the day we all know that someone will be much more open to the idea of joining a

clinical trial if they hear about it from someone they trust such as a physician, family member or

a friend. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but even if you are the greatest saleswoman in

the world, you still cannot compete with genuine word of mouth marketing, so instead of trying

to fight it, use it to enhance your recruitment methods that are already working.

6.) Support Groups

Support groups are a great place to find study participants because people go to support groups

specifically to learn more about alternative treatment options, amongst other things. As a clinical

researcher you have several options, the most obvious of which is to start going to support

groups for the specific medical indications that you are trying to recruit. Some research clinics

try to get in touch with the support group administrator ahead of time in order to schedule a

formal presentation in regards to the studies that the clinic may have ongoing at the particular

moment. Other research clinics may hire a dedicated study recruiter and go incognito to the

support groups disguised as an actual patient or family member of someone who may have the

particular medical condition. Whatever the case may be (what has worked best for me has

always been full transparency by the way), the important take home message here is that you

must try all outlets in order to put the word out that you are a viable option.

Many people attend support groups for the most obvious reason, support, but also to look for

other methods of treatment. Many are unaware that clinical trials are viable treatment options.

The stigma that surrounds what being a participant entails has discouraged many people from

utilizing this option as a method of treatment. When presenting to a support group, the first and

foremost objective should always be to educate. The audience should be engaged and believe

that the main goal is for educational purposes. When educating your audience about clinical

trials, ease into talking about the specific clinical trials going on at your site. There are many

questions to consider. What are the legal concerns a participant might want to know about? What

are medical concerns they should think about? What happens to the information after the trial?

Will they be able to continue using the drug after the trial? What is the humanitarian purpose for

being involved in a clinical trial? The main point is to address the benefits in participating. It is

vital to debunk myths that are behind clinical trials. In addition, explaining whether or not a

subject gets paid and reimbursed for travel is often a frequently asked question.

Many people are unaware of what clinical trials actually entail. Usually if a person does not

know about something, there is a negative stigma and natural fear that follows it. It is important

to talk about the different phases in clinical studies and the life changing medications could not

have come about if people were not willing to put themselves through clinical trials. It is vital to

help potential subjects understand that it is highly beneficial for them to join a study. If they are

qualified let them know that it could not only potentially help their quality of life, but it would

also help other people who are suffering from the same disease. Interact with the patients that

are attending the support group in a friendly manner and make it a goal to help the patients by

having them gain your trust. It is in your best interest to talk about clinical studies in the sense

that the patient makes all decisions about joining a study.

As a forewarning, some support groups like to give their patients options and there may be other

speakers that may talk about preventative medicine. You must always be prepared for the worst.

If you are invited to speak in a debate setting, be ready with a rebuttal. It is very important to let

the patients know that this is only an option that does not only affect their lives with all of the

medications that they may be taking, but also the lives of others. In order to prepare when

speaking in front of support groups, it is absolutely necessary to make sure to think of all the

possible questions that could be asked and the answers. It is always important to be prepared and

do your research to find out about the organizations that hold these support groups.

7) Patient Advocacy Groups

There are many patient advocacy groups, also known as patient organizations, which serve to

raise awareness about specific medical conditions and aid in educating patients about different

treatment options. Patient organizations are usually non-profit and are both local and national,

serving as sources of information to patients. The organizations are open to the public to serve as

an advocate to patients. Organizations aid as academic health centers to educate patients. This is

advantageous in that as part of educating patients about different treatments, it can be used to

educate patients about clinical trials and help in recruiting them. Almost all the time, there are

organizations for particular medical conditions that will help target a specific group of patients.

There are two different types of patient advocacy groups: traditional and entrepreneurial.

Traditional patient advocacy groups support a broad range of activities including research &

training to help build fields. Examples of these are groups such as the March of Dimes,

American Cancer Society, and American Heart Association. The second type, entrepreneurial

groups, focus primarily on developing products. Examples of these organizations are Myelin

Repair Foundation and Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Many organizations however use both

approaches, such as the infamous Susan G. Komen for the cure foundation. These organizations

all have patient registries and a shared database, which holds a plethora of potential patients.

When making connections with these patient advocacy groups, the most important step is to do

your part in researching about these organizations. It is vital to learn about the organization that

you are connecting with, in order to show interest in their goals as a group. This will help to turn

the relationship into a mutualistic relationship. Work with the patient advocacy groups to

establish educational processes that systematically reach out to, support & educate for these

roles. You should not make it a point that you are only interested in the organization for

advertising purposes, but to help make aware the different treatment options available to the

people that are suffering from the medical condition. Make sure to come across in a sympathetic

tone. Take a genuine interest in their cause. Remember that people are actually suffering from

these medical conditions so you do not want to make it a point that you are only trying to benefit

from these organizations solely from a business perspective.

Partnerships & collaborations can bridge different parts of the patient advocacy groups with

clinical research. This relationship can facilitate the information of the treatment options that are

available to the patients. Since many of these organizations already have their own support

groups, it is a straightforward method to recruit patients and successfully enroll them in studies.

Many of these groups will be delighted to have you join their cause as they can stay informed

about the most cutting edge treatments coming out on the market and in clinical trials.

8) TV, Radio, and Print

In today’s world, technology is used for just about everything, especially when it comes to

advertising. However, what about the older generation of people? How do you target them to get

the word out? As previously stated television, newspapers and radio are traditional offline

sources. When it comes to this method of recruiting, it is important to think about the target

audience and how to get information out to them. Television, radio and print can reach older

patients who have not yet transitions to the world of technology. This is especially important

when it comes to studies that are for older patients such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s

disease, etc.

Although the offline methods may be a little more costly than online methods it is a great way to

reach out to different groups of people. Using strategies such as having in-house bi-lingual

television and radio productions can help get the information out to more people. (In-house

means filming the ad on site rather than paying a company to produce a television ad) This

strategy will make sure that 100% of the advertising budget can go directly to airing the

message. This can potentially help improve public attitudes and knowledge about clinical trials

and provide clear information about clinical trial phases that isn't too technical.

Through television, radio, and print, it will publicize eligibility requirements and provide culture

and language-appropriate informational materials. It will also provide geographic targeting.

People in an area may not be aware of the different clinical trials that are being conducted in

their community. Through radio and newspaper advertisements, it would be very effective to

reach out to them and explain the benefits of participating in a trial. It is vital to always talk

about the benefits of joining a trial, in order to lure in and retain an audience that will take the

extra step to contact the clinic. Explain that this is a way to advance medicine and provide

meaningful cadence to day-to-day living as well as the ability to gain access to leading

specialists in a particular type of medical condition.

The most important factor to think about when recruiting through offline methods of television,

radio, and print is negotiating a price. It may cost more to advertise through these methods, but

patience and persistence will help the process go as smoothly as possible. Make sure to make

connections with people in the industry to use for further advertising. While I am certainly a big

believer in social media and web strategies when it comes to clinical trial recruitment, I do

understand that there is still a place for traditional advertising-as long as the price is right! I

cannot emphasize this point enough. Call tv and radio station reps and ask them if they have any

discount rates for short notice inventory. These companies have a set amount of ad inventory

they must sell every month and often times you can negotiate a great deal and squeeze in at the

last minute. The same is true for print media. Establish a relationship with a few of the sales

reps from these companies, find out when their deadlines are for submitting your ads and call

them on those dates as that is when they may have some excess inventory that they need to sell

quickly. This is your opportunity to jump in with your pre-made ad and get a nice return on your

investment. As with everything else, just work a little harder than your competitors and you will

be just fine!

9.) Start A Blog

“Content is king.” This is one of the more popular statements being thrown around these past

few years in regards to information and getting found in the noisy online world. These days the

number one enemy of small businesses is obscurity. If no one knows about your brand, then you

have just become a commodity, something that can easily be replaced with another similar

service and no one would notice any difference. That is what we are trying to avoid, and in the

next several chapters I will guide you to ensure that this will not occur with your business.

The first order of business when it comes to clinical trial recruitment is getting found by the

people in your area who are searching for things related to either their medical condition or their

community. Notice how we are not even focusing on people who are searching for clinical trials

because the vast majority of your future study participants don’t even know what a clinical trial

is! That is one of the biggest problems I see from research clinics when they try to promote their

brands online. I am not saying to never mention that you are conducting clinical trials, but the

majority of your content should be focused on trying to find specific patient populations in your

immediate geographic region. Once you have them looking at your content and interested in the

information you are providing to them, then it becomes ok to let them know about the studies

that your clinic is conducting. If your clinic conducts diabetes studies, you should set up a blog

that specializes in diabetes content. Make it the “go to” source for diabetes information in your

community. You should feature videos, podcasts, interviews with industry experts, newsletters,

ebooks, and any other form of content that people with diabetes in your area are looking for.

Don’t worry about whether or not you will enroll these people into your studies, provide valuable

content that you would want to see if you had diabetes and give them more of it, every single

day!

It is important to note that this undertaking will take a tremendous amount of effort, and perhaps,

will require more than one individual from your research clinic to become involved with. I

would recommend that you do NOT dump this project onto your study coordinator’s lap as they

probably already have a ridiculous workload, unless of course, the study coordinator asks to be

involved. Typically the blog should be managed by one of the members of the management

team, the recruiters, and perhaps even the owners/directors. This job will be very important and

may take quite a bit of time to begin producing results, so it must be done consistently and with a

level of quality in order for it to be successful. Get your Principal and Sub Investigators

involved and have them contribute a guest blog post from time to time. If they are too pressed

for time, have someone in the office interview them on camera for a 5-30 minute video, do

whatever it takes on a consistent basis and your target audience will find you.

In addition to blogging about specific medical condition topics, you may want to blog about your

particular community and mix up the content a bit so that the major search engines will attribute

“diabetes and your local community” to your blog in order for it to rank higher in the search

results. Have someone conduct a weekly podcast regarding some upcoming community events,

little league games, and things of that nature, or have another review some of the lesser known

restaurants in the area. Both of these types of content will attract the attention of people in your

community and make your brand well known in your geographic region. If you need further

specific help in this area, shoot me an email dan@theclinicaltrialsguru.com and myself along

with my consulting team can get involved.

You probably want to know some of the technical details for setting up a blog. You can do it for

absolutely no money, or you can spend a few dollars on it, it’s all up to you. Your company

most likely already has a website which means it has a hosting plan. That is a great start. I

suggest you make the blog the homepage of your website. Chances are, your website is not

ranking very high on Google when people are searching for a specific medical condition in your

area. We are about to change that now! Go to wordpress.org and get a free plugin so that you

can easily manage your blog. I use word press for my blog “The Clinical Trials Guru”

www.theclinicaltrialsguru.com and it is extremely easy to update, even from a smart phone or a

tablet. Play around with the design a little, and make sure the rest of your website seamlessly fits

into the new layout. In this instance, you may want to dish out a few bucks and get the blog and

your website set up to look and operate smoothly, but it doesn’t have to cost a lot of money.

Anywhere from $5 to $50 should get it done, go to www.fiverr.com www.odesk.com or

www.elance.com and find someone to do it for you. In addition to Wordpress, and if you want

to keep your blog completely separate from your main website, get a free hosting plan at

www.tumblr.com. Tumblr is great because it has a built in social network where you can get

followers and interact with people already using Tumblr.

I suggest you find whatever form of content you and your team are most comfortable with and

go with that. If you guys enjoy writing, obviously make it a primarily written blog. If you guys

prefer video, use video and host your videos for free on YouTube. If you’re camera shy but

don’t like writing, perhaps do an audio podcast and host it on www.stitcher.com like my podcast

http://theclinicaltrialsguru.com/blog1/my-bio/ (you can see the Stitcher player about halfway

down the page). Remember, the most important thing is to be consistent and deliver high quality

content for your potential study participants. In order to be successful you have got to produce

top notch, keyword rich content for at least one year so dedication and consistency is key!

The entire purpose of setting up and consistently updating your blog is to eventually recruit study

participants, right? Of course! Therefore some call to action prompts are necessary either in the

sidebar of your blog, or in the actual blog post itself. You can encourage people to call your

clinic if they want to learn more about some of the new research studies in the field, or email you

if they would like to be notified of potential trials. Whatever it is, make sure you capitalize on

your opportunity and hard work by letting them know very prominently on your blog that

clinical research studies are available for them, and then lead them to even more content on your

website that you hopefully have (if not make it!) that can educate them on the entire clinical trial

process. I highly recommend you add an email capture form in the sidebar somewhere such as I

have on my blog www.theclinicaltrialsguru.com where people are encouraged to opt in to your

subscriber list. Once you have a decent number of subscribers, start emailing them newsletters

or notifications of when your new blog posts are published, or even when you have new studies

starting up so that you can keep in contact with them and keep them involved with your brand!

Aweber www.aweber.com is an excellent email signup service that can manage your entire email

list for you. My only regret is that I didn’t start using them sooner.

Once you have set up and are consistently updating your blog your work is over, right? Nope!

Now you have to start promoting your pieces of content all over the internet because simply

relying on Google to do it all for you would be uncivilized! It’s time to get familiar with social

media, how to utilize it properly, and how to not annoy the crap out of other people when you are

using it. On to the next chapter…

10.) Social Media

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you most likely have heard about social media and all

the miracles it can do for your business. Much of what you’ve heard is probably overhyped

nonsense. If you’re like most people you might even think that it is all a giant waste of time, and

for the most part, I would agree with you: most businesses suck at social media. For these

businesses it probably is a waste of time, and they may actually be better off by not using any

social media platforms. The most intuitive way of using social media is to broadcast your blog

posts and other pieces of content from your website to the masses. It’s all about push marketing,

and in this day and age, people are learning to tune this noise out!

Unfortunately, push marketing is still the majority of what we see from brands on social media

presently. Brands do it because it is easy, takes no creativity, and gives them an excuse to tell

people that they use social media. What I want to teach you to do is how to use pull marketing in

your social media marketing. The next several chapters will take into account some of the most

effective social networks at the time of this writing (2014) to recruit clinical trial study

participants. It is unlikely that the strategies I teach here will be irrelevant any time soon, after

all, social networks may come and go, but these principles will last a lifetime.

Let me start off by saying that it is perfectly okay to use push marketing in your social media

strategy. The problem becomes when brands only do push marketing and nothing else. For

example, let’s assume you spent the past hour writing a very good blog post about a medical

condition that you are also doing a study for. It is perfectly ok to post the link on Facebook and

Twitter. Once you do that however, your next five or so Facebook or Twitter status updates

should be updates where you are encouraging people to interact with you as opposed to just

asking people to click on your website. If you engage in the former (pushing) as opposed to the

latter (pulling) you are almost guaranteeing that everyone will begin ignoring your updates in the

future, and that is exactly the opposite of what you want to accomplish.

So what is pull marketing exactly and how does social media allow your brand to engage with

your potential study participants? Pull marketing is all about connecting with your target

audience in the most humanly way possible. I understand that your research clinic is not a

human, but it consists of humans and its customers are humans, so when online, it too should

behave like a human. This means that it should listen more than it talks, and when it does talk, it

should respond in an authentic manner. Think of social media as a giant cocktail party. People

are there to mingle, share some conversations, laugh, maybe learn a thing or two and have a good

time. The goal is to be the person at the party that everyone wants to talk to and be around.

Nobody likes the know-it-all that talks the entire time and brags about himself nonstop. That’s

essentially what push marketers are doing on social media: broadcasting about themselves to the

entire world every opportunity they get. Everything that they update or tweet is all about them.

On the other hand, pull marketers are the ones at the cocktail party that actively listen and engage

with their audience by asking relevant and authentic questions, introducing them to other people

that may help them and ultimately demonstrate that they are genuinely interested in what their

audience has to say.

When it comes to potential study participants online, your target audience is anyone with a

certain medical condition living in a certain geographic area, and also everyone in your

geographic area who may know someone that may want to participate in a clinical trial. When

you find these people on social networks (and many will find you by the way), you want to

engage with them as you would at a cocktail party and let them know that you are willing to

engage and listen to them talk about what is important for them at that particular time. There is

no immediate need to direct them to your website right away, or tell them about a study you are

recruiting for (unless they ask), that can happen later. For now, you need to get them to know

who you are and follow you. That is half the battle, and if you can do that effectively, your

clinic will be well on its way to escaping from obscurity. How can your clinic, which is brand

new to social media, find people to engage with online? Let me introduce you to my favorite

social network of the moment, Twitter.

11.) Twitter

If there ever was a social media platform that truly captures the “cocktail party” spirit, it is

Twitter. In 140 characters or less Twitter users can tell a story, engage with their followers,

promote their website, share pictures, video, audio, and break news before anyone else. I started

using Twitter in June of 2009 as a way for me to keep track of people that I wanted to know

more about, at that time mostly athletes and musicians with a few businesspeople (Donald

Trump!) sprinkled in between. Back then I rarely ever tweeted, instead, I used twitter as a news

feed to keep me both entertained and informed as things happened in real time. If someone on

the Clippers (my favorite team that I will own someday) got injured, I learned about it right

away. I still remember the day that Michael Jackson died, I was sitting at my desk in my

research clinic checking out Twitter and all of a sudden, my news feed started blowing up! “RIP

MJ”, “OMG I Cant Believe It!” where a few of the tweets I kept seeing in my stream over and

over again. I ran to tell some of my coworkers and they went to Yahoo to see if it made the front

page. Sure enough, several minutes later, Yahoo had the story on their homepage as well as

CNN on the television. What was most striking to me about this was that Twitter allowed me to

break this news to my colleagues. Twitter got this information to me faster than Yahoo and

CNN did. I still remember one of my colleagues asking me how I found out about it so quickly

before major outlets were confirming the news. My response, “Twitter dude!” This event made

me realize that Twitter had some serious potential, and I started looking at it in a completely

different way ever since.

Even now I still use Twitter for similar purposes, in addition to marketing like a madman of

course. Living in California we get a lot of earthquakes. Whenever I feel a tremble and try to

figure out if what I just felt was an earthquake or not, I turn to Twitter and I will get it confirmed

way before the local news channel does a breaking news story. The point here is that whether

you believe it’s valuable to let the world know that you just ate a candy bar or not, Twitter has

some tremendous real world applications, and can drive in some serious real world business for

you as well. It’s not my goal to try and convince you that Twitter is amazing, but it is my goal to

teach you how to generate some awareness around your brand and perhaps get some study

participants recruited for your studies.

The best part of Twitter for me now, even though I love the breaking news applications, is the

search function. Yes you heard that correctly, I think Twitter’s best feature is the often ignored

search bar. Let me tell you why. Twitter is a platform where people come to tweet many

different things at all different times, basically whatever they feel like sharing and whenever they

feel like sharing. Unlike Facebook, which we will discuss later, Twitter is specifically designed

for short bursts of news or information. Whatever type of business you may be in, you can find

new customers through Twitter’s search bar. Let’s take as an example, oh I don’t know, a

research clinic. Your research clinic recruits study participants from the local community, so do

a search for your community in the search bar and start interacting with your potential customers

or referral sources! Yes, it is that easy, and it’s a numbers game so the more people you can

engage with, the better your brand will become known in the area. When you start finding

people in your community on Twitter, you don’t have to tell them about clinical trials right away,

that would be pushing. Instead, just talk about what they are already talking about. One thing I

like about Twitter is that, unlike Facebook, it is perfectly acceptable to jump right in to people’s

conversations. In my experiences on Twitter, most people will respond back in a pleasant way if

you are genuine in your approach. Remember, for now all you want is for people to know you

exist, that’s it. You will get plenty of opportunities to let them know about what you do later but

you don’t want them to start ignoring you after they barely began to follow you!

Another way a research clinic can use the search bar to find potential study participants is to

search for specific medical conditions. You will be surprised to see just how many people are

tweeting about either: their own medical condition, or a loved one with that condition. This

would be a great opportunity for you to start engaging with and following these Twitter users. I

once used this example for a client I had who was doing some Parkinson’s research. I “audited”

their Twitter profile and noticed that they did very little to engage with their own followers much

less random people tweeting about Parkinson’s. I searched for Parkinson’s on the Twitter search

bar and immediately got someone who just minutes ago tweeted about his brother and how he

was seeking a different treatment for his illness. I engaged by pulling the brother towards me. I

never tweeted about how I do clinical trials or how I am recruiting for a study, but he ended up

seeing that I was involved in the research industry and we chatted back and forth for a good 10

minutes. At the end of the day, I got a new follower (so did he) and if I ever wanted to discuss a

study with him I could do so more comfortably now that we have had some context together.

Provided that I continue to engage with him such as replying to his tweets (most of them are not

about Parkinson’s), I am continuing to build up my reputation with him and he may be more apt

to suggest his brother to consider a clinical trial. At that point, guess who he would go to for a

study? The obscure research clinic that doesn’t blog or me? I am using this example not to brag,

but to show you that these social media platforms are real and can drive real results for your

business. As long as you don’t try to sell everyone every minute of the day on clinical research,

but actually engage with them and have real discussions much like you would do at a cocktail

party, you will get these people naturally interested in what you do. This is where your bio in

your Twitter header can do the selling for you. Write a little about what your clinic does, and

include a link to your blog in the header. You will be surprised how many people will take an

interest in you if you take the initial interest in them!

12.) Facebook

There is no way around it, if you want to truly make your research clinic known online you will

need to create a Facebook Fan Page. Having a Facebook Fan Page for your company is good for

a number of reasons, and unlike Twitter, Facebook is a great platform for gradually telling your

brand’s story to your “fans” day in and day out. Also unlike Twitter, there is not a 140 character

limit to your posts, so you can share content in longer form, although I would avoid having status

updates that go on for too long. Try and think of the reasons why you go on Facebook: to

connect with friends or family, to get some relief from occasional boredom, to see what has been

going on in the world lately (or at least what your friends think about what has been going on),

and to be entertained. When you first build your Facebook Fan Page you will be tempted to start

posting content that is very similar to advertisements such as: “Our clinic is now recruiting for

study XYZ!” or “Welcome Dr. SuchNSuch to our team” or perhaps “We specialize in treatments

for XXX medical condition since 1999!” While these types of status updates are important to

convey to your audience from time to time, what you want to do the majority of the time is to

post content that your potential study participants like that is not necessarily related to clinical

research or even healthcare for that matter. While this may seem counterintuitive and perhaps

even a poor use of your time, let me tell you why I think this is important.

Your current study participants and future study participants most likely have some type of

shared interests outside of their medical condition. Just as you or I have a wide variety of things

we enjoy seeing on Facebook that extend far beyond our work life, so do your current and

prospective trial participants. Try to think about the demographics of your study volunteers (we

do it all the time when we fill out feasibility surveys): what is the typical age range, gender,

ethnicity, etc? What type of food do they like to eat? Who are their favorite actors and

musicians? Where do your study participants live? Do they tend to root for a particular sports

team? These are all topics that you can build your Facebook content around in order to get

maximum engagement from your fans (that’s what Facebook calls them). In addition, this

allows your fans to perceive you as not just another brand, but as someone who actually

understands, and even likes, the same things they are interested in. Then when it is actually time

to post a status update regarding a new study you may be recruiting for, you are more likely to

have your post seen by your fans as well as a stronger chance of having them respond to it in one

way, shape or form. Facebook is a business at the end of the day and it is their job to make sure

that people who log in keep coming back day after day. Because of this, Facebook uses

algorithms that let them know which people or brand’s posts are getting seen and which are

getting ignored. If you start posting too many status updates that keep getting ignored, Facebook

will simply stop showing your status update in your fan’s news feeds because they are assuming

(and correctly) that nobody likes your posts. On the other hand, if your posts are constantly

getting likes and comments, Facebook will continue showing your posts with greater frequency

on your fans’ news feeds as well as their friends’ feeds. As you can see, it will pay dividends to

provide compelling content that focuses on things besides clinical research or healthcare a vast

majority of the time.

Let us assume that your research clinic is located in Oklahoma City and specializes in asthma

trials. By analyzing your internal database of existing trial participants, you determine that most

are within the age range of 25 to 65 and 70 percent male. You can safely assume that many are

probably sports fans from this information alone. Start posting status updates about the

Oklahoma City Thunder, University of Oklahoma Football team, and other similar type of

content. If your clinic volunteers is more evenly split between males and females, have sports

content AND home decorating content. Take it up a notch and get hyperlocal with your content

by sharing your staff’s favorite restaurants or coffee shops in the area. If you can’t come up with

good status update ideas, ask some of the staff around the clinic to share some of the things they

are interested in, it could be anything at all (although generally avoiding in overly explicit

content may be a good idea) and then post content that revolves around those topics. Keep

experimenting with ideas until you find something that resonates with your fans, you will know

by the amount of “likes” and comments that a particular post gets. Once you find what they like,

post more of it! Sounds simple enough, but I see many brands across all industries that are

absolutely terrible at being human on Facebook. Many think that it would be a waste of time to

promote content that has nothing to do with their particular business, but I would argue to the

contrary, this strategy can help you actually get closer to your customers, let’s them see that you

are a company that is being run by actual human beings just like them, and will allow for your

recruitment posts to get noticed and more likely responded to. Try to use Facebook as a platform

to deepen your relationship with your customers on a more intimate, informal level, and allow

you to gain better insights into who your study participants actually are.

Facebook is best used to tell stories. As I mentioned previously, the majority of your Facebook

posts should not be used to sell to your fans in the form of recruiting for a study, but to engage

and create better context and trust with them. This is generally accomplished by posting content

that will not be ignored. For this reason, many brands that “get it” post lots of images that

convey a story. Images are good because they tend to stand out when people are scrolling

quickly through their news feeds. I use my actual Facebook profile as my Fan Page (Facebook

allows up to 5,000 friends until they require you to have a real Fan Page), although for your

company the only option is a Fan Page. Feel free to add me as a friend on there, just search for

Dan Sfera. Notice in my Facebook status updates I typically always use photos to go along with

my content. I learned that you are much more likely to generate engagement with your posts by

using images. They could be funny images, thought provoking images, or images that generate

shock value. Experiment with images and videos until you find a particular type that generate

engagement from your fans. Another good Facebook strategy is to ask for engagement in your

posts. Something like “Our PI is looking for a nice Italian restaurant around town. Anyone have

any recommendations?” This is basically asking for engagement, and the more comments your

posts end up getting, the stronger your content will appear in Facebook’s algorithms, which will

essentially guarantee that your future posts will show up in all of your fans’ news feeds.

Encourage your staff to participate in the engagement if at all possible. Have them comment on

your posts so that your posts will now appear in their friends’ news feeds. Tell your existing

study participants to “like” your company on Facebook and encourage them to engage with you

as well. Do whatever you can do to generate comments and likes as this will only help you later

when you post about a new study that you are recruiting for. Give prizes and have contests

based on who guesses the right answer to a Facebook post trivia question. Get as creative as

possible and have people genuinely interested in your brand and service. Have them see you as a

true resource on Facebook and not just as another annoying company that just posts

advertisements all day long. If you want to get really creative, partner with other small

businesses in the area and offer to give free prizes from those businesses if you are able to get

some of your fans to visit their stores. It may be worth it for them to potentially gain a new

customer, it will help you out by being a valuable resource for your fans, and your most

dedicated fans will get free things! Works really well and it’s a win-win-win situation.

The sky really is the limit on Facebook and remember, I am not suggesting you follow this

advice because you will look “cool” as a result, or because I necessarily believe in artsy-fartsy,

let’s-sit-around-the-campfire-koombaya nonsense, I suggest you follow this because I know it

will work in getting you more study participants when it really matters. I am a businessman and

that is the absolute bottom line! I would like to focus a bit more on the powerful use of images

in social media going forward, and what better place to share your images than on Instagram.

13.) Instagram

Instagram is an application available on all Apple iPhones and Google Android devices. The app

is very simple to use, you take a picture with your Smartphone and upload the picture to

Instagram. In a matter of seconds you can share your picture with your audience, and through

the use of hash tags (words following a # sign), you can share it with the world. Instagram was

the fastest growing social network in 2012 and came so close to threatening Facebook’s market

share that Facebook ended up buying it for a billion dollars. Since then Facebook has allowed

Instagram to operate independently and Instagram has created its very own unique culture.

If Twitter is a place to primarily listen and engage with your followers and Facebook is a

platform to tell a powerful story every day, Instagram is the perfect platform to build an even

deeper bond with your potential trial participants and perhaps even get discovered by new ones

through the use of your creativity. Unlike Facebook, people go on Instagram several times per

day to see what images are being uploaded by their friends, but unlike Facebook, by strangers as

well. This makes Instagram a great place to get discovered by new potential study participants.

Instagram users tend to tag every photo with hash tags in order to get discovered by people who

share similar interests. This is another platform where you would be best served by proactively

discovering what your potential study participants might be interested in. Since Instagram hash

tags are searchable by anyone in the world and your research clinic is likely only located in a

particular geographic location, I would recommend including your city or local region as a hash

tag when posting your image. Instagram does not limit the amount of hash tags you can use so

get crazy with it and include as many hash tags, as you deem appropriate. One of the hash tags I

constantly use to promote my own brand is #clinicaltrialsguru and I always throw in

#clinicalresearch and #clinicaltrials as well.

Just like Facebook, it will be tempting to constantly post “advertisement like” images filled with

call to action instructions. For example, uploading your company logo and telling people to call

if interested in participating is not likely to gain any attention. Unlike Facebook, there is no way

to post a clickable link under your image caption. You are only allowed one link in your

biography section, so you must get extremely creative to have people interested enough to not

only notice your pictures, but eventually also check out your biography. This requires some

effort on your part but the rewards are definitely worth it as Instagram is a much less crowded

space to play in than both Facebook and Twitter.

As long as you respect the culture of the platform and are able to “speak the language” of your

prospective trial participants, you are likely to do well on Instagram. Instagram also allows 15

second video clips to be uploaded as well and this recent development can have greater

implications for promoting your branding and company message. Some ideas for Instagram

could be quick informal tours of your research clinic, pictures of the staff doing funny things or

posing as a #groufie (group selfie made popular during the 2014 Oscar Awards). The non-

clinical images have great potential here as well such as images from the local community,

images of food and beverages, sports pictures, inspirational quotes, funny memes and more.

Instagram is a place very few research clinics venture and it is a shame because you can really let

your hair down on Instagram and have some fun while still remaining professional. Make this an

opportunity to be the first clinic in your area to get on Instagram, truly embrace the culture, and I

believe you will be rewarded for your efforts.

14.) Craigslist

Almost every research clinic that I know of has used Craigslist at one time or another to recruit

clinical trial participants. On Craigslist, unlike my other internet platforms I discussed

previously, there is nothing fancy going on at all. If you have never seen a Craigslist clinical

trial recruitment ad before, go in the “Volunteers” section of your town or nearest urban city and

you will quickly spot the postings. I usually publish the ads in the volunteers section, but I have

seen some of the more aggressive research clinics advertise in the “gigs” section or “labor”

section. Use caution when advertising on Craigslist as Institutional Review Boards (IRB’s), the

organizations responsible for overseeing the overall ethical conduct of research clinics may be on

the lookout for any ads that have not been IRB approved or ones that may be interpreted as

coercive.

I have spotted some pretty aggressive ads on Craigslist that I am pretty sure would not have been

approved by any IRB. This tends to occur in some of the larger cities where competition is

fierce amongst the various research clinics. While you may get a higher response rate from these

more aggressive ads, I believe the potential risk (IRB audit) is not worth the extra screenings you

may receive out of it. Just to be on the safe side, if you are recruiting for a particular protocol,

run your ad through your IRB for approval before posting. There is some debate in the industry

in regards to which Craigslist ads need IRB approval and which do not. It is my belief as well as

the belief of many in the industry that generic ads promoting your specific research clinic do not

need IRB approval but any ads that recruit for a specific protocol do indeed need approval by an

ethics committee. When in doubt, even for an ad promoting your clinic’s areas of expertise to

the public run it through an IRB just to be sure.

The most important strategy for a Craigslist ad is consistency. You may post a different ad as

frequently as you would like as long as it is not very similar to your previous ad. The strategy is

to have your ad as close to the top of the page as possible as Craigslist posts the ads in the order

in which it receives them. For example, if you place your ad at 9am, your ad will be on the top

of the page until someone else posts their ad. I generally have 20 different ads that I run on

Craigslist on a consistent basis. If you keep posting the same ad over and over again, Craigslist

will remove your ads. The safest strategy is to keep changing and tweaking your ads in order to

constantly have at least one of your ads on the top of the page every single day of the week. This

can be tough to do in some markets but having more ads is definitely better than fewer ads.

The basic way to construct a Craigsist ad is to have a catchy title and then a body that clearly

communicates either what kind of study is being conducted, or what kind of studies your

research clinic is recruiting for. There should be a phone number, a link to your website (or

better yet your blog!), and a general email address that people can contact. Sending them to a

particular page on your website based on what trial your ad is recruiting for may be a great way

to convert leads into study participants. For example, if you are recruiting for a Parkinson’s

study, you should have a “squeeze page” on your website that explains the study and who may

qualify while also having a contact box where interested persons can enter their name, phone

number and email in order to be contacted about the study. In your Craigslist ad you should link

out to your “squeeze page” based on the corresponding study. Therefore, if you have 5 different

studies, have a squeeze page for each study (don’t forget to get these IRB approved) that you can

link to from each different ad. If you are running a generic ad promoting your company in

general, you can link out to your home page or your blog. Adjust and tweak your ads as needed

and keep track of which types of ads perform better on which particular days and at which

particular times. Get geeky with it, after all, Craigslist is free and unlimited to use!

15.) Google Adwords

If you have recruitment budget to work with for a particular study, Google Adwords may be a

fantastic option for you. I suggest going to www.google.com/adwords and look at some of the

features that they offer. Depending on whether your targeted patient population is web savvy,

Google Adwords may actually be a better option than TV and radio due to the fact that your

budget will stretch further. The way Google Adwords works is you place a bid on various

keywords and create a small ad which typically consists of 20 words. Based on the competition

as well as your geographic region, the keywords and the price that you will pay per each click

could vary from time to time. I suggest including as many relevant keywords as possible which

include the words “study” “clinical trial” followed or preceded by “your medical condition”.

You can also have “your medical condition” without the words “clinical trial” in order to cast a

wider net based on the words that people are actually searching for. Google offers a free

keyword search tool where users can analyze which words are searched for most and in what

geographic regions. You can find the keyword planner at

www.adwords.google.com/keywordsplanner . Give it a try and you will be amazed at how deep

Google can provide you with insights as to which keywords to bid on.

Adwords gives you two methods of paying for your ads: cost per impressions (CPI) or cost per

click (CPC). I have only used CPC and I suggest you do the same as you will only get billed

when someone clicks on your ad and ends up on your squeeze page that you should build based

on my previous chapter. When coming up with keywords to bid on, I strongly suggest that you

do NOT bid on the generic terms “clinical trial” or “clinical research” unless you are a large

research clinic with many studies at your disposal. If you are like most Sites, chances are you

specialize in a few niche therapeutic indications and having a wide variety of people looking for

different types of studies that you may not offer will only eat into your budget. If you are one of

those larger Sites with a bigger advertisement budget, I suggest you check out Trada

www.trada.com (I have absolutely no affiliation with them) as they provide an excellent service

of managing your Google Adwords campaigns for you.

My favorite feature of Google Adwords is the ability to limit your target audience to certain

geographic locations as you can tell Google what specific mile radius from a certain zip code you

would like the ad to target. This ensures that if you have a small clinic in Alabama, your ads will

only run within a certain radius of your town and not in places like Los Angeles, Las Vegas or

other irrelevant places for you. For those with smaller budgets, you can also set a monthly or

even daily limit for how much you would like to spend. I suggest starting out with a ten to

twenty dollar daily budget and have multiple ads in order to test which ad receives a better

response. You are allowed to include one link from your ad to whatever website you choose and

I strongly suggest having it point to the specific squeeze page that you built for each study or

therapeutic indication that you specialize in.

It is important to understand that Google Adwords are hit or miss, and there are many strategies

that companies use in order to improve their conversion rates. As a general rule I have

established for my research clinics, for every one hundred dollars that you spend on Google

Adwords, you can expect one or two study participants to actually screen. You may get a lot of

“curious clickers” who land on your website but ultimately decide to not even leave any contact

information. Having a good squeeze page is essential in order to try and capture their contact

information. Ultimately, I believe that Google Adwords are the best use of your advertisement

budget, as TV and radio can get pretty costly while perhaps producing the same results. Google,

in my opinion is better than TV or radio because it signals a powerful force called intention. In

other words, people watching TV that may see an ad, at that particular moment, are not

interested in learning about a clinical trial or a medical condition, they just want to watch their

TV program. On the other hand, someone who is searching Google for particular keywords has

every intention to learn more about their medical condition and any possible treatments or

derivate terms associated with their search. This intention typically attracts better and more

motivated individuals who are doing more than just passively watching TV. I believe that

Google Adwords, if used properly, is at least worth a very serious consideration when it comes to

allocation funds to various advertisement sources!

16.) Conclusion

Congratulations for taking the first step towards ensuring that your company is on the

right path to successful recruitment. By purchasing this book and researching the

different methods and tools that are available for you so you can deliver the number of

patients that you have promised will bring you closer to this goal. As an added bonus for

buying this book, check out this link for a very effective and simple recruitment strategy

that works! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mcKg2NJl40&feature=youtu.be. Lack

of awareness about available clinical trials is the largest hurdle for recruitment. It is vital

to know about all of the tools, methods, and strategies available for recruiting potential

patients. Following the recruitment strategies provided will allow you to steer your clinic

in the right direction to produce positive and successful outcomes. Should you ever have

any questions or concerns regarding clinical trial recruitment, or perhaps even be willing

to discuss different strategies for facilitating recruitment, send me an email

dan@theclinicaltrialsguru.com . Thanks for reading and I hope to connect with you at

some point. Here are some places where you can connect with me:

http://www.twitter.com/TheRealDanSfera

http://www.linkedin.com/in/dansfera/

http://www.facebook.com/dansfera

About The Author

Dan Sfera, BS, MBA has been working in the clinical research industry since 2000. He

has owned and managed several different research clinics in the Southern California area

and currently owns a CRO which specializes in study participant recruitment, consulting,

CRA staffing, site support materials and is also an advisor to several research

organizations throughout the country. In addition, Dan is a licensed REALTOR® in the

State of California and enjoys real estate and investing. His ultimate goal is to purchase

the Los Angeles Clippers and move them to San Diego. He currently blogs at

http://www.TheClinicalTrialsGuru.com about research and at

http://www.SferaRealEstate.com about Real Estate. Dan can be reached at

dan@theclinicaltrialsguru.com or by calling (949) 415-6256.