Rare and ultra-rare diseases face problems most brands do … turned up to 11. Budgets? Smaller. Patient pool? Even smaller. Healthcare providers (HCPs) who understand the condition? Sometimes even smaller than that. Treatment options can be limited, access can be hard to find and diagnosis time can sometimes be measured in decades rather than months. It’s a perfect storm.
To succeed, rare disease marketers need to provide useful education – but do so while using innovative engagement strategies.
HCPs often balance gaining a better scientific understanding of new treatment options with considering what’s best for their patients. They don’t want to be told what to do by advertising.
But many are – naturally enough – unfamiliar with rare conditions and may be unconfident in diagnosing or treating them. Those that do often rely on treatment protocols that don’t allow for fully individualized therapy, and can even delay access to the few advanced therapies that are available.
Content assets – both prelaunch and launch – that create genuinely useful, data-driven, resonant educational material can do a service to patients, caregivers and HCPs, and build critical trust as they do so. Disease awareness is key in a field where so many patients are undiagnosed and misdiagnosed.
This empowers patients and caregivers, after long and winding journeys of confusion. It permits HCPs who may be seeing the only case of this condition in their career. And it creates a common language for everyone, sharing information about a disease’s causes, consequences and control mechanisms that can lead to effective treatment.
That’s the “what.” But what about the “how”? This content needs to be delivered in highly targeted and personalized ways, and that targeting and personalization need to be uncommonly accurate.
For patients: Advanced patient-finding tools can help identify and reach the right populations – perhaps even before diagnosis – with educational information. Working alongside patient advocacy groups ensures alignment with real patient needs and builds vital relationships of trust with the real experts in rare disease communities.
For HCPs: Cutting-edge tactics such as AI-powered KOL videos and digital learning modules can make it possible to disseminate critical disease and treatment information to HCPs. And applying behavioral science to messaging can activate diagnosis and treatment, particularly in low-frequency rare conditions. It can also be used when advocating for updates to treatment guidance, paradigms, protocols and standards of care.
Because of smaller teams, tighter budgets and harder-to-find audiences, marketing efforts must be hyper-targeted to reach the right HCPs and patients efficiently. Rare disease marketers must build trust to be effective. By prioritizing credible education, leveraging innovative tools and aligning with patient and HCP needs, marketers can create real impact in rare diseases. The key is accurately targeted engagement that’s helpful, resonant and respectful.