Digital marketing has long been the backbone of clinical trial recruitment. What’s evolved is not the importance of digital but the sophistication of the landscape itself. AI is changing how we create content. New platforms are appearing, and patient behaviors are changing.
It’s not enough to just be online anymore. Clinical trial sponsors and CROs need skilled patient recruitment specialists. These specialists must adapt, choose the right channels, and create suitable content for each patient group.
That’s where Clariness comes in. We’ve mastered the use of digital marketing for clinical trials, deploying bespoke, targeted online recruitment strategies that combine social media campaigns, an intuitive patient recruitment platform, and localised patient targeting. The result? Faster enrollment, broader reach, and more relevant, reliable and effective trial patient populations tailored to your specific clinical trial.
In this article, we break down the most effective clinical trial marketing strategies and tactics, explore how they optimize the patient journey, and share best practices for driving diversity, compliance, and measurable results.
Key digital online recruitment strategies for clinical trials
Successful online recruitment strategies for clinical trials relies on understanding people on either side of the campaign both the CRO launching the campaign and the patients engaging with the campaigns. It demands precision, adaptability, and insight into patient behavior, privacy constraints, and emerging digital channels.
Clariness has over 20 years of experience recruiting patients globally across 175 indications. We know that no two recruitment strategies are the same. Here are some of the most effective digital approaches that continue to evolve when implemented with care.
Diversity and digital accessibility
Improving participant diversity in clinical trials is an ethical necessity and a practical imperative for generating reliable data. Yet reaching underrepresented populations requires more than just intent; it requires a deep understanding of the people we hope to engage, strategy, localisation, and the ability to translate interest into access.
That’s why we invest in building data-driven patient profiles using real-world data and literature reviews to identify barriers, motivators, and demographic nuances across different trial types. These insights guide both our digital outreach strategies and the way study materials are created, from visual representation to tone of voice.
We further elevate this approach through our annual Patient’s Voice Conference, which brings together patients from diverse backgrounds to share their lived experiences in clinical trials. This direct feedback loop helps sponsors and sites better understand participation barriers, such as distrust, logistical complexity, and health literacy.
These insights allow us to design more accessible and inclusive studies, which is especially critical for rare disease, oncology, and cardiology trials, where patient journeys are often complex and recruitment windows narrow.
Here are some of the ways in which we increase trial diversity and inclusivity:
Expanding reach through omni-channel approach
While digital advertising plays a key role, we understand that not all patients have equal access to technology. To address this, we extend our campaigns into offline spaces, leveraging print materials and engaging directly with healthcare providers and community groups.
This multichannel approach reduces geographic and digital literacy barriers, ensuring patients from rural or underserved areas aren’t left out of recruitment conversations.
We also partner with online patient communities and advocacy networks to create a more organic presence in trusted spaces where patients already seek information and support.
Facebook groups for specific diseases and local healthcare centers help us connect with patients. These places provide support and information. This is important for building awareness and encouraging participation.
Culturally tailored, multilingual campaigns rooted in lived experience
Clariness designs recruitment campaigns that go beyond translation, they are grounded in cultural understanding and patient perspective. Every study creative is medically accurate, culturally adapted, and written in region-specific, patient-preferred language to ensure resonance and relevance.
With delivery in 35+ languages, our campaigns are designed to make participants feel seen, not just targeted. We also work closely with community leaders and patient advocates to co-create content that reflects local customs, health beliefs, and lived experiences, addressing cultural concerns, correcting misinformation, and building trust in communities that have historically been excluded from clinical research.
This culturally intelligent approach is a cornerstone of our digital marketing for clinical trials, helping us engage diverse audiences with authenticity and care.
Designing for real-world access
All websites and digital assets are designed with accessibility in mind, offering screen reader compatibility, adjustable font sizes, and alternative text for images to accommodate participants with disabilities.
We also ensure that digital forms and study content are mobile-friendly, recognising that many underserved populations rely on smartphones as their primary internet access point.
Geo-targeting to align outreach with site access and capacity
Even the most compelling campaigns won’t convert if patients can’t participate. That’s why geo-targeting isn’t just about focusing on areas with diverse communities, it’s about targeting outreach around active clinical sites.
Interest without access won’t drive enrollment. We use precise geographic targeting to prioritize areas near study locations, and manage campaigns based on site capacity to avoid overwhelming smaller facilities. This ensures that marketing reach is matched by operational readiness, turning awareness into actionable, site-ready interest.
Community partnerships and local engagement
As highlighted in the our patient diversity article, partnering with local organizations, healthcare providers, and advocacy groups is critical. These trusted partners help bridge gaps in awareness and trust, serving as cultural liaisons who can vouch for the legitimacy and safety of clinical trials.
This grassroots approach is especially effective for reaching racial and ethnic minorities, rural populations, and other groups with historically low participation rates.
Eligibility criteria and protocol design
Increasing diversity isn’t just about outreach. It’s also about reducing eligibility barriers. Clariness works with sponsors to review and, where possible, broaden inclusion/exclusion criteria without compromising scientific rigour.
This may include allowing for comorbidities, adjusting age ranges, or providing flexible visit schedules. Digital pre-screeners can be quickly updated to reflect these changes, ensuring that more patients have a fair opportunity to participate.
Patient education and trust-building
Many underrepresented groups have legitimate concerns about clinical research, stemming from historical abuses or misinformation. Clariness addresses these concerns head-on with clear, transparent educational materials that explain the purpose, risks, and benefits of participation. We use patient stories, FAQs, and explainer videos in multiple languages to demystify the process and empower patients to make informed decisions.
These strategies not only expand reach but also ensure that clinical trial populations better reflect the real-world diversity of those affected by the conditions under study. By combining advanced digital tools with community engagement and patient-centred design, Clariness is helping to set a new standard for inclusive, accessible clinical research.
Challenges and ethical considerations
While patient-centric marketing in healthcare offers unprecedented opportunities on digital channels, it also introduces new challenges and ethical considerations. Data privacy is paramount. All digital recruitment efforts must comply with regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, and the EU AI Act.
Misinformation also presents an ethical challenge in clinical trial recruitment. Addressing this requires a proactive approach to patient education, empowering participants with the knowledge they need to make truly informed decisions and fostering long-term trust in the research process. Clinical trial marketing strategies must prioritise transparent and accurate messaging, providing clear, accessible information about study protocols, potential risks, and anticipated benefits.
At Clariness, robust compliance protocols are in place to ensure the highest standards of ethical communication and data protection. All digital campaigns are developed in close alignment with regulatory requirements and every piece of patient-facing material is submitted for review and approval by relevant ethics committees worldwide before deployment. In addition, only non-personally identifiable data is used for AI-targeting. By combining transparency, regulatory rigour, and patient-centred communication, Clariness safeguards participant privacy and upholds the integrity of every recruitment effort.
The Clariness patient recruitment journey
Successful clinical trial recruitment today relies heavily on the precision, scalability, and adaptability of digital marketing. At Clariness, we combine advanced targeting technologies with patient-centric creative, near-real-time data, and localized execution to drive results.
Our digital recruitment journey is designed to engage the right patients at the right time, through the right channels, from awareness and pre-screening to enrollment and site follow-up. Here’s how our end-to-end digital marketing for patient recruitment works in practice:
Step 1: Research study population
Every recruitment campaign begins with a deep understanding of the target patient population. Clariness leverages a wealth of data sources, including surveys of over 5 million patients, 15 million annual engagements, 1.5 million active users, 80 clinical trial registries, syndicated electronic health records (EHRs) covering 520 million data points, and medical panels.
This comprehensive research phase enables us to define precise patient profiles, anticipate recruitment challenges, and tailor our clinical trial marketing strategies to each study’s unique requirements.
Step 2: Reach
With the target population clearly defined, we activate our digital ecosystem to reach potential participants where they are most active. Our campaigns span more than 40 digital channels, including social media platforms, online communities, health apps, and clinical trial registries. This multi-channel approach ensures broad visibility and the ability to connect with diverse, often hard-to-reach patient groups, both locally and globally.
Step 3: Educate
Education is a cornerstone of effective recruitment. We provide clear, accessible information about clinical trials to potential participants, addressing common questions and concerns. Through tailored content and direct communication, we empower patients to make informed decisions about their participation. This educational step helps demystify clinical research, builds trust, and sets realistic expectations from the outset.
Step 4: Pre-screening
Not every interested patient will be eligible for a given trial. That’s why our process includes robust pre-screening tools and processes, often delivered via mobile-friendly digital forms. These pre-screeners are designed to match the right patients to the right studies, using key inclusion/exclusion (I/E) criteria. Effective screening helps reduce the burden on sites and ensure only qualified candidates move forward.
Step 5: Site selection
Once pre-screened, eligible patients are given the choice to select the trial site that best suits their needs, whether that’s based on location and convenience, or personal preference. This patient-centric approach improves satisfaction and increases the likelihood of follow-through.
Step 6: Registration
Registration is streamlined through secure, user-friendly digital platforms. Patients can sign up quickly and easily, often using social authentication to simplify the process. This reduces drop-off rates and ensures a smooth transition from interest to enrollment.
Step 7: Enrollment Success Team screening
After a patient registers, Clariness’ Enrollment Success Team acts quickly, typically reaching out within 20 minutes or at a time the patient prefers. This rapid response helps maintain patient motivation and minimizes drop-off between registration and the next steps. The team is made up of local language experts who are thoroughly trained on each study’s protocol and inclusion/exclusion criteria, ensuring that every pre-qualification call is both clear and accurate.
A core goal of the Enrollment Success Team is to schedule site visits for 90% of eligible patients. This proactive approach has been shown to triple the likelihood of successful randomisation, as it removes logistical barriers and keeps the patient engaged. Throughout the process, the team tracks each patient’s progress and communicates closely with research sites, ensuring a seamless transition from pre-qualification to site referral.
The Enrollment Success Team combines speed, skill, and personal support. This improves recruitment efficiency and enhances the patient experience. As a result, it leads to higher retention and better outcomes in clinical trials.
Step 8: Site referrals & randomization
The final step is seamless site referral and randomization. Referrals are sent to research sites using our intuitive ClinLife® portal, and progress is closely monitored by our dedicated Site Success Team. This ensures that every participant is properly tracked and supported throughout their journey, and that sites have the information they need to proceed efficiently.
Why this process matters
This structured, technology-enabled and human-supported approach delivers measurable benefits for sponsors, CROs, and research sites:
- Higher recruitment rates: By casting a wide net and pre-qualifying candidates, Clariness consistently delivers more eligible patients, faster
- Enhanced diversity: Multi-channel, multilingual outreach helps ensure that study populations are representative and inclusive
- Superior patient experience: Education, user-friendly registration, and personalised support foster trust and engagement, leading to better retention and study outcomes
Ready to optimize your trial recruitment?
With decades of experience, a multilingual team, and proprietary portals like ClinLife®, we empower sponsors and CROs to overcome complex recruitment barriers. From precision targeting and culturally tailored creative to performance tracking and site coordination, our digital marketing for clinical trials is built to recruit smarter, faster, and more inclusively, at scale.
Partner with Clariness to implement digital patient recruitment strategies that deliver measurable results for your clinical trial.