With doctors spending an estimated eight hours per week online attending webinars and participating in social forums, targeting them via email has become a popular marketing tactic for the pharmaceutical industry. In fact, our metrics show email is the fastest growing channel used to engage and influence physicians and other practitioners.

During the second half of 2010, SK&A deployed more than 1.53 million email records across 11 campaign types on behalf of its customers. The results of this effort provide insight to which campaign types are most often deployed, what specialties are most commonly targeted, and which campaign types are more likely to be opened and clicked.

In the second half of 2010, product/service announcements, representing more than 70 percent of deployed emails, was the leading campaign type. Survey campaigns, subscription offers and webinar invitations followed in second, third, and fourth place, respectively. These four campaign types accounted for 88 percent of SK&A’s email volume in the six-month period.

Among emails sent specifically to physicians, the most targeted specialists were family practitioners, internists, otolaryngologists, cardio specialists and oncologists/hematologists. Among medical office staff personnel emailed, office managers, administrators and medical directors were common targets. In the hospital setting, C-level executives, administrators and purchasing directors were common targets for messages.

With open and click-through rates varying widely, the key to success for email campaigns is to deliver the right message to the right audience with a strong offer or value proposition.