Others - Writing and Speaking

6. Use Photos: This is something I very recently started doing. It makes sense as, as human beings, we are visual beings.

A photo works much like a great headline/article title – it draws readers in.

Tip for selecting

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

photos: Of course, make it pertinent to the story. Also, make it funny if you can. Making people laugh is almost never a bad idea.

7. Don’t Be Afraid of Running Out of Things to Say: I wish I had a dollar over the las

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

two years for everytime someone has written to me, “If I update my blog more often, I’m afraid I’ll run out of things to say.”

This is particularly true if they blog within a niche.

All I can say is, don’t be afraid of this

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

LIFE will provide you with topics to write about. Once you start to write regularly, strangely enough, you will have MORE to say, not less.

A prime example -- this list. When I first sat down to write about what I’d learned

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

ver the last two years of blogging, I had five initial points that I wanted to make. BUT, once I started writing, the ideas kept flowing.

And, as I’ve said elsewhere, when you write on a regular basis, you will pick up topic

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

deas from everywhere – eg, watching the news, talking to friends, reading other blogs, reader queries, etc.

You’ll just have to trust me on this point – you will not run out of things to say.

8. Longer Posts Fare Better:<

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

/b> In my post 10/10/06 post in my blog (inkwelleditorial.blogspot.com), Article Marketing: Long or Short Articles -- Which Is Better?, I explain this in detail, so I won’t rehash it all here.

The gist of it is, shorte

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

articles don’t explore a topic in enough detail to be beneficial. And, as you’ll remember from Part I of this article (Point 6), I advise all bloggers to respect their readers enough to give them useful information not found

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

nyplace else.

9. Don’t Stress about Feedback: I’ve been blogging for two years now, and only get a few comments on my posts. Does it mean that my blog is not popular, or that nobody’s reading it?

Not from the amount o

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

email I get. If your blog is but a slice of your marketing efforts, then whether or not you receive massive amounts of feedback shouldn’t bother you. That’s why I advise bloggers to figure out why they blog (Point #1 in Part

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

).

If your blog is your living like Darren Rowse over at ProBlogger.net, then if you know that going in, then you can start marketing it like the from the beginning.

As my blog is only a part of my marketing plan, it serves

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

its purpose just fine. Massive amounts of feedback/interactivity is not what I need from my blog.

10. Clearly Define a Niche for Your Blog: Some may disagree with what I’m about to say, but I’m a firm believer in niche

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

marketing. Why?

According to the CNNMoney.com article, Getting pizza coupons by text message: "The average customer is targeted with more than 3,000 marketing messages a day, so people have developed a resistance," says Erik

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

auser, CEO of Swivel Media, a creative agency which has done mobile marketing work for clients like Wells Fargo.

We are inundated. One of the most effective ways to get through is target marketing – ie, target people who have

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

a pre-disposition to hearing what you have to say. How do you do this?

Become an “expert” in your field (eg, niche it) and build up a relationship of trust over time with a highly targeted market. In the October 2003 article,

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

Calling All Marketers, on FastCompany.com, Bill Blundon, chief marketing officer of Extraprise, a consulting firm in Boston says:

"It's time to get back to understanding your customers . . . When I get a call from American Ex

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

press, I always listen to what they have to say. I have a 23-year relationship with them."

While some blogs achieve popularity without being niche blogs, eg, Kottke.org, these are rare. Jason Kottke, the owner of Kottke.org,

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

ad been blogging for years as a hobby before he tried to make money off his blog. According to his site, he has updated his blog almost every day since 1998 – that’s 9 years.

How many blogs do you know that have been around t

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

at long?! Most flame out after four or six months because there’s no immediate payoff. Blogging is no easy road to riches. Anyone who has a successful one will tell you that.

Blogger Makes History! Jason Kottke has qui

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

e an interesting story – in 2005, he quit his job as a web designer to blog full-time. While this may not sound like news now, it was big back then -- he was among the first to do this.

Stay tuned for Part III of this article

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

Tags

Links

Others - Lessons Learned from Two Years of Blogging (Part II of III)

Related Articles: