Many of those tasked with managing patient recruitment for clinical trials become frustrated with the apparent impossibility of their responsibility. Unlike a retail business with a large advertising budget, a research trial site needs to minimize marketing expenses while quickly recruiting the prescribed number of volunteers for each study. The key to accomplishing this ideal is to “reset” the goals of a recruitment campaign, focusing on targeting strategies rather than reaching a large but random audience.

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A basic understanding of marketing might lead a manager to assume that patient recruitment for clinical trials can be achieved by imitating successful retail advertising policies. But broadcasting a TV commercial to an entire city is not cost-effective for research trial recruitment—the huge majority of the commercial’s viewers do not qualify for the study, and there is no way to ensure that those who do qualify will see the ad.

Instead of reaching as many local residents as possible, sites should work toward singling out those people in the community who are most likely to qualify for a study and desire to volunteer. The most important factor in such an effort is a mailing list made up of people who have self-reported to have a given indication and to be interested in clinical research participation. Such a mailing list can be further filtered to focus on smaller age groups, ethnic groups, or one gender.

The postcards or flyers sent to the addresses on this mailing list have far higher value than a media advertisement to the general public. They focus the site’s marketing dollars on people who are highly likely to volunteer and ultimately minimize the amount of money that must be spent on an individual campaign. Sites and CROs interested in streamlining their patient recruitment for clinical trials can contact Clinical List America for more valuable information.