Complimed Clinic — development marketing strategy

Intro

In the summer of 2019, MIM:AGENCY was approached by people looking to open a private clinic.

A comprehensive marketing strategy had to be developed, implemented, and provided ongoing marketing support for the clinic.

Hypothesis

The business owners had a hypothesis that in Odesa will be in demand for a clinic aimed at professional medical examinations. During the first stage of marketing strategy development “Market Analysis” and competitors it was necessary to confirm or deny this hypothesis.

Challenge

To conduct marketing research confirming the prospects of the chosen direction for the clinic, develop positioning and marketing strategy.

Result

Fig. 1 Structure of the Ukrainian market of medical services. Source: Kyiv International Institute of Sociology

1. Market and competitors analysis.

The market research was conducted by analysing secondary open and closed information.

According to research companies the market of medical services in Ukraine has a growing character, in the period from 2016 to 2017 the market volume grew by 20% and amounted to about UAH 80bn.

According to experts’ estimates, only 30% of the market relates to private medical centres (Fig. 1).

This indicator has also been growing steadily over the last few years (Fig. 2). The growth of the private medicine market ensures the emergence of new players and the growth of trust in private medicine against the background of falling to state medicine.

Fig 2 Dynamics of Ukraine’s private medicine market, UAH billion.Source: Data of research agencies

In turn, private medical institutions are mainly represented by dental, diagnostic and dermatological clinics, as well as gynaecological offices (Fig.3).

There are about 50,000 private medical centres in the Ukrainian private healthcare market.

Of these, there are about 10 large network multidisciplinary clinics. Territorially, most of the private clinics are located in large cities, in low populated areas (up to 100 thousand) the percentage of private clinics is not more than 10%.

Fig. 3 Structure of the Ukrainian market of private medical services.Source: Kyiv International Institute of Sociology

According to sociological surveys, about 65% (Fig. 4) of respondents continue to use the services of state medical institutions not only because of cheapness and habit, but also because of trust

to certain highly qualified doctors. According to the study “Health Index. Ukraine – 2018”, the highest level of satisfaction with the work of doctors in public polyclinics is observed in such areas as paediatrics (77.6%) and family medicine (75.8%). In other areas, the percentage of satisfaction with services is low, in particular with regard to the care provided in hospitals and the services of narrow specialists.

Fig. 4 Affiliation to type of medical centre. Source: Kyiv International Institute of Sociology

The data from these surveys also allow us to draw quite characteristic conclusions about the dependence of the degree of satisfaction with medical services depending on the type of medical centre, where patients of private clinics remain satisfied in 93% of cases. This suggests that private medicine in Ukraine is already showing a high level of growth already and has great prospects due to the high loyalty of patients.

Fig. 5 Assessment of the degree of satisfaction with the services of public hospitals. Source: Kyiv International Institute of Sociology

Fig. 6 Assessment of satisfaction with services of private clinics. Source: Kyiv International Institute of Sociology

Speaking about the problems of medical institutions, it is worth noting that the survey results most accurately describe the common shortcomings of service in public hospitals: queues, poor condition of medical equipment, unaffordable price of medicines (Fig. 7). This is also an additional incentive to switch to private clinics.

Fig. 7 Assessment of the problems of Ukrainian medical centres. Source: Centre for Economic Strategy

As for the main reasons for choosing a particular doctor, the majority of respondents consider the doctor’s qualifications, recommendations of acquaintances, and the quality of service to be the most important criteria.

This data can be interpreted as the importance of a good reputation of the clinic, brand advocates, as well as a high level of service and qualification of specialists in order to have a stable flow of patients.

Fig. 8 Reasons for choosing a doctor/health centre. Source: Research “Health Index. Ukraine.”

When building a strategy for attracting clients from the Internet, it is also important to understand the differences in making a decision in favour of a clinic in the online environment and what to pay attention to when building such a strategy. According to the results of the research it can be noted that users when choosing a clinic online more often pay attention to the following points: reputation of doctors, brand of the clinic, cost of services, reviews, service and location. 

Therefore, the main task in online promotion is to fulfil the user’s need to have this information about your clinic available on the Internet.

Fig. 9 How do users choose a clinic online?

The next thing to consider when planning marketing activities is the seasonality of services. Among the declared range of services, medical examinations for children to school have a clear seasonality with a peak in August-September (Fig. 10), the same seasonality can be expected for the service of medical certificates for university applicants, as well as a slightly less pronounced seasonality for swimming pool certificates. This information should be used when planning advertising campaigns for the relevant CA segments for this period.

Fig. 10 Seasonality of the query “school certificate”

The competitors’ sites were analysed according to the relevant search queries in the organic rendition of Google, as well as 2GIS, Google Maps. Among the detected direct competitors can be distinguished three main groups:

• Websites providing the service of “buying” any kind of certificates with delivery to any region, usually these are sites of very low quality, with a large number of direct entries for the query “make a certificate -/-“, which explains their presence at the top of the search results.
• Websites of large multidisciplinary clinics (for example, Into-Sana), which have developed both in terms of usability and SEO sites, and also have authority among patients.
• Websites of small clinics specialising in issuing certificates, where the flow of clients is provided by recommendations of acquaintances, colleagues, and forum users (especially typical for certificates for sailors). They also have a low level of promotion on the Internet, most of the traffic is from branded queries.

Also in the top of the target queries are quite a lot of information sites (city sites, news sites), which suggests that it is extremely important to have a lot of quality content that answers the main questions of users.

To summarise, we can conclude that achieving top positions in the organic output and therefore ensuring a steady stream of customers, is quite achievable with a comprehensive approach to promotion and compliance with the following recommendations in all communication channels.

One of the most important aspects in planning marketing activities is to identify the characteristic features of the target audience. For this purpose, typical consumers of the declared services were identified (Table 1). The identified features of each of the target audience segments should be a cornerstone in the formation of any marketing message, as it should sound convincing and appealing to this segment of the audience.

Service	Target audience	Features
Professional medical examination	people who care about their health people who have permanent health problems	trust the feedback of people they know want an honest examination, not just a tick box looking for a service for reasonable money are afraid of finding non-existent diseases for the sake of continuing treatment in a clinic want to undergo a complete examination in one place do not want to spend too much time on medical examinations
Medical certificate for applicants/preschoolers/kindergarten children	parents of schoolchildren parents of preschool children applicants applicants	want to pass medical examinations quickly want careful and sensitive treatment of children want detailed information about procedures need up-to-date information about necessary procedures need an attentive and competent doctor look for information on the internet and forums
Medical driving test	first-time drivers drivers drivers who already have a licence drivers who already have a licence	want to pass the medical examination quickly do not want to pass the medical examination do not want to pay a lot for the certificate
Medical certificate for getting a gun	hunters are people who are concerned about their safety	want to pass the medical examination quickly and do not want to pay a lot for the certificate
Pool certificate	parents of children swimming in the swimming pool athletes people who swim	would like to be able to get a certificate at a convenient time
Medical examination for employment	all employees who need an 086 form certificate for registration	want to be able to get the certificate at a convenient time want to pass the medical examination quickly do not want to pass the medical examination
Medical certificate for civil servants	employees of state and municipal institutions	would like to be able to receive the certificate at a convenient time want to pass the medical examination quickly do not want to pass the medical examination
Food commission	Workers in the food industry, catering and trade enterprises	would like to be able to get a certificate at a convenient time want to pass the medical examination quickly do not want to pass the medical examination
Medical certificate for seafarers	all maritime workers	want to pass the medical certificate quickly do not want to pass the medical certificate are used to paying for fictitious medical certificates
Registration of sanitary books: the whole list of occupations	Workers — at enterprises of food industry, public catering and trade – at enterprises of water supply facilities – production, transport, storage and sale of medicines – pre-school, medical preventive and educational institutions – household and municipal services – cosmetic and medical services. other branches, work in which provides for compulsory preventive medical examinations	want to pass a medical examination quickly do not want to pass a medical examination are used to paying for fictitious medical examinations

2. Problems and pains of the target audience

Having portraits of the target audience, it was necessary to identify the main problems they face in the process of receiving services (Table 2). In the course of the analysis it was possible to identify a tendency towards the presence of recurring problems in almost all categories: queues typical for state polyclinics, specialists not interested in helping patients, poor condition of premises and equipment, lack of accessible instructions on how to pass medical examinations.

Example link	Issue
Forumodua	medical examination of children: not delicate treatment of children during medical examinations insufficiently detailed explanation of methods of medical examination, collection of analyses rude treat negligently if you do not pay queues inconvenient hours of appointments and laboratory work not always all doctors in one place can not pass the entire medical examination in one day
Odessacrewing	medical commission for sailors: old/bad premises, queues, not always all doctors in one place, not all doctors do vaccinations, ask for money
Cruiselinejob	it is impossible to pass the commission even with minor health problems
Seaman.com.ua	it is impossible to pass the entire medical examination in one day
Seaman-odessa.ucoz.ua	demand bribes you need to have analyses with you inconvenient hours of appointments, they are rude
Odessa-life.od.ua	medical examination of adults: bribes do not check health impose drugs high prices
Forumodua	Adult medical check-ups: bribes do not check health impose drugs high prices
Honda.org.ua	Adult medical check-ups: bribes do not check health impose drugs high prices
Forumodua	Medical examination for drivers: bribes need a photo no time for a full-fledged medical examination

3. Competitor analysis

A comprehensive competitor analysis was conducted by analysing their websites, visits and calls to these clinics. The list of competitors was obtained from the client and also supplemented with Google results for the target queries. When building a strategy to attract customers from the Internet, it is also important to understand the differences in decision making in favour of a clinic in the online environment and what to look for when building such a strategy.

According to the results of the study, it can be noted that users when choosing a clinic online more often pay attention to the following points: reputation of doctors, brand of the clinic, cost of services, reviews, service and location. Therefore, the main task of online promotion is to satisfy the user’s need to have this information about your clinic on the Internet.

4. Points of differentiation

If there are several alternatives to meet the needs of the target audience: large chain clinics, public hospitals, fictitious certificates from unreliable clinics, it is necessary to develop qualitative advantages over the above competitors and declare them. This will help to stand out from the competition and convince patients to choose our clinic.

The results of previous studies allow us to put forward the following points of differentiation, which are proposed for implementation:

• offices of all necessary doctors and diagnostics in one place (ultrasound and laboratory);
• complete absence of queues;
• ordering a callback on the website;
• high level of service;
• personal account on the site with statistics of visits and results of analyses.

All these aspects should be used in the formation of advertising campaigns, as well as personal communication with patients.

After a scrupulous analysis of competitors by researching their websites, making phone calls, visiting clinics, the following conclusions can be drawn:

1. Opening a private clinic is promising in terms of market capacity and competitive situation at the moment.
2. The presence of a strong team of doctors at the start can ensure a good load of the clinic.
3. A systematic approach to marketing activities will provide a competitive advantage over against competitors.
4. Lack of full load of professional commissions at the initial stage of the clinic development should be compensated by the work of family and other doctors to receive patients.

Step 2: Promotion

When building a strategy to attract clients from the Internet, it is also important to understand the differences in making a decision in favour of a clinic in the online environment and what to pay attention to when building such a strategy. According to the results of the study, it can be noted that users when choosing a clinic online more often pay attention to the following points: reputation of doctors, brand of the clinic, cost of services, reviews, service and location. Therefore, the main task when promoting online is to satisfy the user’s need to have this information about your clinic on the Internet.

Description

Our services are designed for people who are keen to look after their health while valuing their time. With us you will not face queues, bureaucratic delays and poor condition of premises/equipment, you do not need to look for a place to leave your children while visiting the clinic, as we have a children’s room. Unlike public hospitals, with us you do not have to pay endless “charity fees”, waiting in a queue for hours for an appointment, as we will give you exactly the time you choose. Our highly qualified specialists do not seek to “sell” you unnecessary medications and procedures, because our main goal is to take care of your health and save you time. 

We want you to be aware of the procedures and diseases you are interested in, so we talk about them openly and in plain language, because our relatives and friends have the same questions.

5. Website design

Taking into account the specificity of the services provided, the most important tool of communication with patients on the Internet will be the company’s website.

on the Internet will be the company’s website. Its main task is to provide a potential client with all the necessary information and an opportunity to perform a target action (appointment) in the shortest possible time. Usually, when searching for such services, the user tends to choose several similar options for comparison, so it is important for the clinic’s website to get maximum user involvement in the first seconds of interaction with the user, for which it is worth implementing the following:

• present information in detail, clearly and “without water”, the user should find the answer to his question within a few seconds;
• to the question he is interested in within a few seconds;
• optimise the loading speed of the site as much as possible;
• develop a logical and convenient structure of the site;
• choose simple navigation;
• focus the user’s attention on key conversion elements.

Page structure

Since getting to the site the user should immediately understand what this site is, what services it offers, how much they cost and how to get these services, then the header must necessarily contain:

• logo;
• clinic name;
• opening hours, contact numbers;
• navigation menu;
• “Book an appointment”/”order a callback” button;
• social network buttons.

The menu, in turn, is recommended to be organised in two levels.

The body of the page should contain on the first screen the most capacious information about the service (for service pages), a slider about the company/properties/UTP (for the main page). Also for the main page you can use a video about the clinic on the first screen, it can significantly reduce the time of searching for the necessary information for the user, if the video will tell about the features of the clinic, doctors, equipment, principles of work. At the same time, there should always be a conversion element in the user’s field of vision, it is recommended to use an open form.

On the second screen it would be appropriate to duplicate the list of services with clear icons and brief descriptions. Then you can place a block of reviews, news, information about certification.

The footer should contain navigation elements, contact information, mode of operation, as well as the button “Make an appointment”.

Based on the analysis, we recommend the development of the clinic’s website with the following structure:

Fig. 11 Structure of the website

Functionality and content

The “About Clinic” section plays an important role on the clinic’s website, as the reputation of the medical centre is one of the key factors in its selection. Each of the following subsections should contain useful information for the patient, inspire trust and build the credibility of the clinic. It is recommended to avoid template phrases such as “Clinic number 1”, “the best in the business”, as they give a rather negative impression.

About us: describe the clinic’s mission, advantages, history of foundation, main priorities.

Specialists: each doctor should have his/her own page with quality photos, description of experience, range of activities; it is very important to use information about doctors on the clinic’s website as it is additional traffic due to the doctor’s reputation.

Licences: the placement of certificates, diplomas, information about licensing, unconditional signs of authority of the clinic.

Testimonials: in order for testimonials to be trusted, it is recommended to develop this section with the possibility of using social networks, as real profiles of people are more trustworthy.

Questions/Answers: an important section both in terms of SEO and in terms of providing the user with answers to the most common questions about the functioning of the clinic.

The services section will contain a number of landing pages for each specific service, the structure of the pages can be templated:

– service name;

– detailed description of the service;

– service duration;

– service cost;

– block with previews of the pages of specialists who provide this service with the possibility to go to the doctor’s page;

– button “Make an appointment”.

List of services for medical examinations and medical documentation:

• Professional medical examination;
• Medical certificate for applicants/schoolchildren/kindergarten children;
• Medical driving commission;
• Medical certificate for obtaining a weapon;
• Medical certificate for swimming pool;
• Medical examination for employment;
• Medical certificate for civil servants;
• Medical commission for food;
• Medical certificate for seamen;
• Registration of sanitary books.

Later supplemented with referrals and diagnostic procedures:

1. Referrals:

• Gastroenterology;
• Gynaecology;
• Dermatology;
• Cardiology;
• Neurology;
• Otorhinolaryngology;
• Ophthalmology;
• Psychotherapy;
• Family medicine;
• Surgery;
• Endocrinology.

2. Diagnostics:

• Densitometry;
• Duplex and triplex scanning;
• Ultrasound diagnostics (ultrasound);
• Coronavirus testing.

The Contact Us section should contain:

• Address;
• Telephones;
• Map;
• Description of the route/photo of the building from outside.

The “Schedule” section is recommended to be developed as a tool to ensure the important need of patients to promptly receive information about the working hours of the clinic as a whole and specific specialists, as well as the availability of the required dates and times for appointments. Therefore, the functionality of the section should contain a calendar with up-to-date information on the availability of appointments to specialists or services, so that the user can select the date of interest and book a time, and the manager will be notified of a new appointment automatically. It is also recommended to connect a system of automatic notifications by SMS about appointment confirmation, as well as a reminder about appointments a day before the scheduled date.

The section “Prices” is a mandatory component in choosing a clinic, so it is recommended to place in it all the information on each service, as well as to develop a “Calculator for calculating the cost and time of procedures”, where the user should be able to select a procedure or several, urgency, level of specialist (or specific), other additional options and get a calculation of the cost and the necessary time to undergo procedures. This will provide additional functionality and useful information for the user.

The section “Blog” will be filled with content by headings, for example, news, articles, videos. Content is very important when promoting in this niche, as users often turn to information requests. It is recommended to develop a non-trivial blog about medicine and health (debunking myths, articles with interesting surveys/tests, videos and comics), will close SEO needs on content with long tail queries, improve behavioural due to engagement, generation of potentially viral content.

The “Personal Cabinet” section is proposed for development in the long term, as it will contain statistics of visits with the ability to track the dynamics of changes in the readings of analyses, notification in the presence of negative trends, etc.

6. Tone of Voice

The tone of voice reflects how a brand communicates itself, the impression it wants to make and how it relates to its audience.

It is important to decide on the style of communication with the target audience at the planning stage of the marketing strategy and adhere to it in all channels of communication with customers:

• social media;
• website content;
• email newsletters;
• advertising;
• personal communication with the client.

Based on the proposed positioning it is recommended to adhere to the image of a brand-friend, to communicate

with the CA who will be friendly, open and in simple language, but respectful and with the desire to bring concrete benefits. In the medical field, it is important to avoid distancing, coldness and an abundance of complex terminology when communicating with the audience, but it is also important to ensure that there is no familiarity and unprofessionalism.

To be effective, communication in this style should always be persuasive but relaxed.

In all communications, try to convey an awareness of all the pains of the CA and subtly emphasise the benefits through simple examples.

A touch of humour is also allowed in the choice of this Tone of Voice, as there are certain prejudices and fears in the subject matter, this will help to defuse tensions regarding difficult and frightening aspects. It is better to address in communication messages personally, but on “you”, as it will emphasise a certain formality and respectful attitude to each client.

Examples of service communication messages:

Professional physical exams:

• find out everything about your health quickly;
• keeping up with your health is easier than you think;
• take time for your health.

Medical certificate for applicants/schoolchildren/kindergarten children:

• we have a special approach for young patients;
• you can pass the medical examination in a playful way;
• we take care of your children as if they were our own.

Medical driving test:

• it’s easy to stay healthy while driving!

Medical certificate for obtaining a weapon:

• for those who are concerned not only about safety, but also about their health.

Swimming pool certificate:

• admission to the swimming pool without the unnecessary “headache” of state polyclinics.

Medical examination for employment / for civil servants:

• comfortable periodic medical examinations;
• pass medical examination on a convenient individual schedule.

Medical certificate for seamen:

• no more paying for everything;
• we do not find “mythical” diseases.

Registration of sanitary books:

• registration of sanitary books in one day;
• sanitary book is not for “ticking boxes”.

7. Marketing communications plan

We have proposed a time plan to promote the services of the clinic. Depending on the stage of interaction with the audience, communication channels and marketing tools were selected. Further, according to the time series, the activities for each marketing channel were planned in detail. In general terms, the marketing communications plan can be summarised as follows:

The first column contains the communication channels and marketing tools, then according to the time series, the plan for each marketing channel is presented.

Examples of decisions within the communication strategy

In the first column are the communication channels and marketing tools, then a plan for each marketing channel is presented according to the time series.

Examples of solutions within the communication strategy.

Launching a successful advertising campaign (coronavirus testing).

We assessed the market situation, the relevance of coronavirus testing, the demand for the service, and the level of competition. Based on this research, we decided to include coronavirus testing in the list of clinic services. As soon as possible, a page was developed  for the website, information about the new service was placed in various sources (social networks, Google My business, etc.) and an advertising campaign was launched in Google Advertising.

It was the launch of the advertising campaign that provided the main traffic to the site. The solution turned out to be very successful and ensured a large influx of clients, while Google’s restrictions related to the coronavirus ensured low competition in the paid issue and minimal bids. Thus, the test campaign generated a large number of clicks and conversions at the lowest cost. The price per click was less than 1 UAH, and the cost per conversion was about 16 UAH (less than $1).

The cost of the service itself at that time was 1600 UAH (about $56).

The ROMI of this advertising campaign was 4275%.

Fig. 12 Results of the advertising campaign for coronavirus testing. Source: Google Ads Statistics

Attracting free traffic from DoubleGis and Google My Business.

We use all effective marketing tools and consider not only paid but also free channels to attract customers. Maintaining company pages in Google My Business and DoubleGis gives good results with minimal effort. Creating pages in these resources provides additional opportunities to show your company in search results, allows potential customers to find you through channels with a high level of trust, and finds you by location or profile of activity.

Placing information about your company gives you a chance to get closer to your target audience, attract traffic to your site, increase consumer awareness and, importantly, bring real customers.

The conversion rate of these tools is very high. The conversion rate of users from DoubleGis is 25%: 100 out of 400 visits to the clinic’s website lead to conversions. The conversion rate of users from Google My Business is the same — about 25%.

Our insights for attracting free traffic from these channels:

• showing a company on maps should be supported with information about the company and its working hours, a link to the website and contacts, photos of the clinic and doctors, as well as customer testimonials.
• filling in all fields for information increases the trust not only of the target audience, but also of Google itself.
• indication of all contact details and alternative means of communication is mandatory
• detailed description of all services of the company with prices (fixed price or from … UAH) ensures that the company is displayed for the maximum number of relevant queries.
• users like to see photos of the clinic (outside and inside) and doctors, they attract attention, increase the loyalty of the audience, allow to use the brand of doctors
• publications in Google My Business demonstrate your expertise, allow you to promote a promotion or news
• working with reviews allows you to give feedback, demonstrate your presence on the Internet, activity, attention to customers; it is especially important to react and work with dissatisfied customers, their negative feedback, which can then be used as a reserve for improving service, organisation of activities, etc.

8. Analytics

Our agency’s speciality is data-driven decision making. All proposed marketing tools are analysed for their effectiveness.

It is analytics that gives an understanding of how the promotion is going, what brings the business the most profit and which channels should be allocated most of the budget. To have access to up-to-date data

about who visits your site (gender, age, geography of the audience), what content is most often viewed,

from which channels come the most converting users, how much was spent on attracting users and what the cost of the application should be set up analytics systems according to the checklist.

In addition, it is important to understand where applications will go after filling out a form on the site, whether a call-tracking system will be installed and how these applications will be processed. Also, at the initial stage, you can identify the key KPIs that are worth tracking from the moment you launch your marketing activities:

General:

• Total traffic to the site over the period;
• Total number of “Make an Appointment” conversions per period;
• Average Conversion Rate.

SEO:

– Total Traffic Volume (Organic).

– Total traffic volume (Referral).

– Number of conversions on branded queries.

– Number of associated conversions (Organic).

– Number of associated conversions (Referral).

– Number of leads coming through channels (Organic).

– Number of leads coming by channels (Referral).

– Dynamics of positions of key queries in TOP-10 Google.

– Cost per lead.

PPC:

– Total traffic volume (Paid Search, Display, Remarketing).

– CTR of Ads.

– Number of associated conversions (Paid Search, Display, Remarketing).

– Number of leads that came by channels (Paid Search, Display, Remarketing).

– Cost per lead.

Social networks:

– Total traffic volume (Social).

– Number of followers (FaceBook, Twitter, Linkedin).

– Audience activity (likes, reposts, comments).

– Number of leads that came through channels (Social).

– Number of leads that came thanks to chatbots.

– Number of associated conversions.

– Cost per lead.

E-mail:

– Open Rate.

– Email delivery rate.

– CTR.

– Number of leads coming through the channel (Email).

– Unsubscribe rate.

– Bounce rate.

– Number of associated conversions.

– Cost per lead.

The above KPIs are used for individual tools. Meanwhile, a clinic owner to understand the situation is enough to understand such key indicators as costs, revenue, number of leads, cost of attracting a lead and a client.

Conclusions

During two months marketing research was conducted and a marketing strategy was developed for a clinic of complex medicine in Odessa. At the moment this strategy is being implemented.