5 tips to optimize your collabs with digital opinion leaders
If you're a marketer, working with digital opinion leaders is essential to your strategy. Today, the influencer market is over $21 billion and growing rapidly.
In oncology/hematology, DOLs include Dr. Aaron Goodman at UCSD, Dr. Estela Rodriguez at University of Miami, Oncology Brothers and many others.
Why use influencer marketing? 2 reasons:
Brand awareness. HCPs trust their colleagues' opinions more than any other source. The best way to generate awareness is when HCPs post about your brand on social media.
Reach. Working with digital opinion leaders can extend your reach and help you engage with HCPs you might miss out on otherwise.
"63% of consumers trust influencers' opinions about products more than what brands say about themselves." – Edelman
5 tips to maximize your ROI with digital opinion leaders
1. Define your goals
Set clear goals for your influencer initiatives. Be specific about which metrics you're targeting whether it's brand awareness, engagement, opt-ins or something else. Share your KPIs with your DOLs and ask for their suggestions.
2. Be an early adopter
Digital opinion leaders prefer long-term relationships with brand teams. The sooner you can develop relationships with your DOLs, the better your competitive advantage and ROI in the long run. Long-term partnerships are more impactful than one-off collabs.
3. Choose the right DOLs
The right influencer can make or break your campaigns. Look for DOLs whose audience is aligned with your goals and build mutually-beneficial relationships. Medical.watch can help you find the right influencers in your disease.
4. Optimize for going viral
If your team creates an engaging post with a DOL, the algorithm might pick up on it and boost your reach, making the content go viral. This can drive a huge increase in engagement with no additional investment. 🙂
5. Repurpose and reuse your content
Consider repurposing the best influencer content across your paid and owned channels. Since the content is already designed for social media, it's easy to share on your own social channels.
"Influencers are the new brands, and they have the power to make or break your product." – Adweek
Bonus tips
Consider working with emerging digital opinion leaders that have fewer but highly engaged followers. Emerging DOLs can often generate a higher ROI than established influencers.
When you set goals, don’t just set KPI-based goals. You should also set experiment, project and operational goals. Start planning for your project goals (i.e., large campaigns) well in advance.
Check how well your campaigns are meeting your KPIs and make adjustments as necessary. Test different content formats, posting schedules and influencer partnerships to get the best results.
"In some cases, the ROI we’re seeing for influencer marketing is 5:1. It just can’t be ignored anymore." – Greater Than One
Want more suggestions? See our post on How to work with digital opinion leaders.
Get social media insights for your brand. Sign up for Medical.watch. 🙂
What we're reading
Social Shepherd post, "28 essential influencer marketing statistics you need to know in 2023," December 18, 2023
Digital Health Coalition infographic, "Predicting trends 2024," December 18, 2023
Digital Health Coalition podcast, "Short takes with Dr. Ashish Rana," December 12, 2023
PharmExec article, "Keys to success for social media in healthcare advertising," December 1, 2023
OptimizeRx white paper, "The holy grail of winning HCP attention," November 15, 2023