Patient Recruitment is likely the single greatest point of failure in the clinical trials process.

According to a 2020 meta-analysis, “around 80% of trials fail to meet the initial enrollment target and timeline, and these delays can result in lost revenue of as much as US $8 million per day for drug developing companies.”

Online video marketing can be a highly effective tool in your patient recruitment efforts.  Video is the way consumers prefer to get information.  It greatly improves comprehension and retention and leads to higher engagement when used with websites, social media, e-mail marketing, direct mail, PPC paid advertising, in-office visits, events and more.

 

The study included a systematic review and meta-analysis examining the effectiveness of online recruitment of participants for clinical trials compared with traditional in-clinic/offline recruitment methods.

The study concludes that targeting potential participants using online remedies is an “effective approach for patient recruitment for clinical research. Online recruitment was both superior in regard to time efficiency and cost-effectiveness compared with offline recruitment.”

In contrast, offline recruitment outperformed online recruitment with respect to conversion rate.  This makes sense because offline activities often means ‘in-office’, where an existing relationship between the patient and the study site would lead to higher conversion rates.

Video can help engage, educate and convert patients whether online or offline. QR codes can add video to any printed document or image, creating  SocializedVideo.

Video content should be reflective of the user’s interest and of the nature of the study.  A user searching for ‘paid study in Houston” has far different motivations than someone searching for ‘Phase3 cancer study near me’.

Here is an example video for patient recruitment for a depression study.  This is not an actual study, nor do we recruit for studies ourselves. Creating content that reflects user interest and user intent is key to building initial engagement.