Estimating Response Rate in Clinical Trials Marketing

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The road to success for your clinical trials marketing campaigns begins well before the first piece of mail reaches the home of a potential volunteer. If you are conducting one of your first clinical trials, you may feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of planning and calculation that it takes to get qualified participants in the door for a study. Even if you have managed many campaigns, you are always looking for ways to streamline and accelerate the marketing phase. One of the most critical points to consider in the earliest planning stages is the issue of response rate. Response to Direct Mail In general, industry experts calculate the normal rate of response to an effective, well designed direct mail effort at about two percent. After years in clinical trials marketing, we place that number a little lower for our particular field—between one and two percent. This means that, if you need 10 people to participate in your study, you should start your planning with a mailing of between 1,000 and 2,000 pieces. This is only a baseline number, though. As you will see, the demands of the clinical research industry will usually require a larger mailing. Obtaining Qualified Volunteers Getting people to respond to your mailer is, of course, only one step along the way to success. Those interested in the study must meet all of its specific requirements, some of which may not have been indicated in your mailer. Schedule conflicts, travel difficulty, and other issues will cause some respondents to decline participating in the study. Finally, even some of those who enroll and begin the study could be forced to drop out because of illness or other unpredictable events. Summing up all of these possibilities, the clinical trials marketing industry advises that only ten percent of respondents will qualify, enroll, and complete a given trial. Your Marketing Campaign Adding these considerations to your clinical trials marketing campaign increases the size of your mailing by quite a bit. At minimum, your effort to recruit 10 participants will require a mailing of 5,000 pieces. In order to ensure success, the final number should probably be closer to 10,000 pieces in anticipation of a one percent response rate. There may be yet more factors to consider if your campaign includes efforts other than direct mail. Placing local television and print advertisements, as well as participating in community events, may lower the number of mailers that your direct mail effort requires. Make sure that you know the standard response rates for those additional projects and take them into account as you plan the size of your mailer. The less experience you have calculating the size and scope of a clinical trials marketing campaign, the more assistance you need in order to achieve your goals. We look forward to partnering with you! Give us a call today to discuss your marketing budget, target audience, and other details. We will help you design an effective mailer, get it to qualified recipients, and process responses in preparation for a successful clinical trial.