Engaging cancer patients with email marketing

Inflection Point

Our client was tasked with patient marketing for a complex cell therapy in a highly competitive landscape. During the treatment decision-making window, more than 80% of clinically-eligible patients dropped off and received an alternative therapy. With limited media budget, a direct email campaign represented a meaningful opportunity to engage patients on the therapy and its benefits, over the critical weeks where treatment decisions were made.

How We Helped

Working with a third-party vendor, we designed and implemented an email marketing campaign with two streams. Depending on opt-ins and journey stage, respondents received a series of emails that led them through information about cell therapy as a treatment option (unbranded emails), before introducing them to our client’s specific product (branded emails).

While the third-party vendor handled implementation, we designed the program’s overall architecture and the individual emails, including medical, legal and regulatory approvals.

As the program ran, we were able to monitor email analytics and take an iterative approach to improving performance. To boost engagement, we explored a variety of different subject lines and email headers, different sizes of buttons and other visual elements, and layouts that prioritized images and video content.

Outcomes

For a relatively low dollar spend, this program reached a significant number of appropriate and engaged patients and their caregivers. After the first year, nearly 300 patients had subscribed to the email program, representing over 10% of the company’s annual target for new patients.

With over 2,000 emails sent, program metrics were strong: