Most medical companies I know do not do focus groups very often, and they have good reasons. Focus groups take up a lot of time, they are difficult to set up, you need to do a ton of preparation, and they cost too much.

Well, who says you have to do a focus group right? I don’t mean to do one blatantly improperly, but there are lots of ways to get the benefits of a focus group without investing a whole lot of money. True, these may not be the purest forms of focus groups. But they still work.

Here is how to do a focus group on the cheap (and easy):

1. Does your company ever host meetings or training sessions for doctors (or nurses, technicians, others)? Why not carve 10 or 15 minutes out of that training session to treat the body as a focus group? To do this well, you need to work with a marketing professional who ca help you maximize your time. Find out what you want to know, arrange a test or experiment, and collect the data. This might involve showing the group of clinicians a series of ads and asking for input; it could involve having them browse through several papers (then take them away and ask which ones they remember); it might involve them watching two 30-second DVDs and stating the one they preferred.

2. Does your company have employees that fit your patient demographic? For instance, if your company makes female birth control, you could pick employees in your patient demographic (who are not in the marketing department) and have them review different patient-facing ads for you.

3. Do you attend trade shows and conventions? You can often get good survey participation in these meetings by offering a prize. That’s already great data. But let’s kick it up a notch.  Why not occasionally set up times when participants can join your “focus group” at the convention booth? Spell out what you want (10 minutes of time to help us pick out our new TV commercial), offer some kind of incentive to participate, and then keep the meeting brief and to the point. Again, it is best to work with a marketing or statistical person to make sure you maximizes the opportunity and get meaningful data rather than just rambling input.

4. Do physicians, clinicians, or sales reps visit your facility? While most focus groups are groups, there is nothing that says you can’t conduct a serial focus group and meet with individuals. Set up your focus group scenario and then when a visiting VIP shows up, ask if you can sit down with them for 15 minutes to go over some ad concepts or get their input on a new brochure. The key to this (like the other ideas) is to have your part completely choreographed so that you’re not wasting their time and you’re getting the right input.

5. Does your company have a physician’s advisory board? When they meet, arrange to get some “focus group” time on the schedule. You don’t have to call it “focus group.” You could call it “New Ad Presentation” and you present a couple of concepts and collect input. You could call it “Brainstorming” and you show three brochure comps and let them add their ideas. You could call it “Website Presentation” and show some new things you’re thinking of adding to the company’s site and asking for their input.

Focus groups offer great insight because they give you fresh eyes and ears to look at your project. Most focus groups have the annoying quality of catching you flat-footed, in that they can often pinpoint obvious shortfalls in your project. They may surprise you, too. At any rate, you can’t really have too much data when it comes to marketing and there are ways that even the most frugal enterprise can benefit from some “focus group” activity.

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