Forbidden:
- use the image of medical workers;
- advertise medical services for artificial termination of pregnancy;
- use links to specific cases of curing diseases, improving the state of human health as a result of the use of the object of advertising;
- individuals to express gratitude in connection with the use of the object of advertising;
- Assert or assume that advertising consumers have certain diseases or health disorders.
If we single out the most common mistakes, then in most cases the wrong pictures are selected for teasers and banners.
Website
According to the requirement of the Ministry of Health, each medical organization must have a website.
Appendix No. 1 to Order 956n says that on the official websites medical organizations there must be reviews, working specialists, contacts, rights and obligations of patients, contacts of regulatory authorities, etc.
It is also necessary to comply with the law on personal data. For this you need:
- Add a personal data policy (PD) to the site.
- Send data from all forms only with consent to the processing of PD.
- Prepare internal documents on data storage.
- Send a notification to Roskomnadzor that your company is a PD operator.
Telemedicine
The whole of 2017 was filled with news about telemedicine. On July 29, 2017, the term "telemedicine" appeared in the legislation, which provided explanations regarding remote consultations and electronic medical documents. The law came into force on January 1, 2018, but left many unclear points.
For medical centers, this law provides new opportunities in attracting patients. Now the patient does not have to come for a second consultation or go to the clinic with a simple problem. You can do everything remotely, even write a prescription for some types of medicines. With the right organization, modern clinics will be able to use this to their advantage.
However, there is also a negative effect. Clinics have a lot of non-core competitors ready to work like a marketplace or virtual clinics. Yandex, Sberbank, MTS, Doc+, Doctor at work, Pediatrician24/7, and many others have started actively recruiting doctors for remote consultations and promoting their services. Services that position themselves as a virtual clinic will be especially competitive. These companies operate under a medical license and hire doctors. Such a company, for example, plans to become Yandex.Health.
Advertising channels
Search promotion (seo)
In the past year, we have seen many clinic leaders abandon this channel because of the cost and unpredictability. However, it is one of the most converting channels. With proper promotion, you can significantly increase the number of patients and increase the conversion of the site. Especially in regions where competition is not yet so high.
The average conversion rate for our clients was 8-10%. Which is generally a good indicator.
I recommend paying attention to the semantics and usability of the site. Semantic core it is better to expand not only targeted queries type<направление-город>or<врач-город>but also queries related to symptoms and diseases.
contextual advertising
Yandex
You can use search networks and YAN. However, it should be noted that such a popular tool as retargeting is prohibited in Yandex for medical services.
A few budget saving tips:
- Show geo-targeted ads (near the clinic).
- If you do not have a diagnostic center, then it is better to exclude ultrasound advertising. It eats up most of the budget and has a low conversion rate.
- Indicate the address / district / metro in the ad.
- Specify the cost of the service.
- Specify promotions in ads or in additional links.
- Hashtags
They gained new popularity when it became possible to subscribe to them. Create your stories for hashtags and run on subscribers. Or you can launch your own special project on popular tags.
- Stories
Instagram stories appeared a few years ago, but have already gained a lot of popularity. The essence of stories is the publication of photos or short videos from life, which are deleted after 24 hours. By design, this functionality reveals the details Everyday life, and only high-quality content remains in the main feed.
- Live
Basically, it's like a webinar. The doctor of the clinic turns on the camera and talks about the disease or prevention in live. Anyone can connect to the broadcast at any time. If you pre-announce live broadcast among subscribers, you can increase coverage.
In contact with
- Community post promotion
With Facebook announcing a reduction in the visibility of posts from the community to 2% in the main feed this year, promotion is becoming more of a necessity.
You can use pictures, text and video. Promote the most interesting publications with a link to the site.
MyTarget
- Classmates
- My world
- Mail.ru and partner sites
YouTube
This is the most popular video service in the world, which is gradually turning into a new social network. Video is rapidly gaining popularity every year. If you believe the statistics, then for the younger generation (under 25 years old), video becomes a priority over text. That is why video bloggers are so popular now.
- Google Display Network
- Sponsorship of bloggers
at 3.5 months
We often work with medical companies, but for me personally, the most memorable project was the promotion of the Podserdtsem medical clinic - the Center for Maternal and Fetal Health, specializing in fetal ultrasound. The leading specialist of the Center is Elena Nikolaevna Porozova, doctor of the highest category, candidate of medical sciences.
What did it remember? First of all, the difficulties that have arisen before us. And, of course, the efforts that had to be made to achieve the stated results. But first things first.
Features of promoting a medical clinic
To begin with, let me remind you what are the features of promoting medical services online. The most basic is the restriction on advertising in YAN. You can advertise only on sites of the relevant subject, so 90% of traffic from networks can be immediately cut off.
In addition, both Yandex and Google have restrictions on the headings and texts of ads, on the address where the site is located, on the images used. Of course, additional papers are also required to confirm that the advertised clinic can actually provide the promoted services.
In general, the main thing is not to offend anyone's feelings. And this is certainly correct. That's just an additional headache when promoting, it adds a lot to us ... However, the rules are the same for everyone, you have to follow them.
Promotion strategy
Cooperation began with the development Marketing strategy growth. I will try to outline its main provisions in a few lines.
The target audience. Women from 25 to 45 years old, for whom it is important to live a full happy life. Decisions are made independently, they have well-developed professional skills.
The key pain is the need to guard against fetal health problems as early as possible. The main fear is to get on an incompetent and unprofessional doctor.
promotion channels. Everything is pretty standard: Yandex, Google, social networks (primarily VKontakte). In the long term - YouTube, cross-marketing and promotion of the Center's chief physician as an expert.
Strategy for working with separate groups of requests. The following groups have been identified:
- target;
- those who want to know the sex of the fetus;
- wishing to receive a photo and video of the fetus;
- seeking good quality ultrasound services;
- info requests;
- checking for pregnancy;
- complicated pregnancy;
- branded queries by the name of the clinic and the name of the doctor.
Detuning:"Clinic as a place to find peace and confidence." When choosing it, they were guided by the closure of the main fears and pains of the target audience.
Satisfaction of the target audience selection criteria. We singled out among them those that we satisfy better than competitors (sincere attitude towards patients and a large number of positive reviews), as well as those that we satisfy at the same level as they do (professionalism and experience of specialists, quality of equipment and completeness of answers to patient questions).
Stock. We developed promotions aimed at accelerating decision-making by potential customers, increasing the average check, retaining customers and activating word of mouth.
KPI and project payback. We determined how many applications and at what price we can give using the selected promotion channels.
And here we were in for a surprise. And not the most pleasant. The media plan showed that we can submit 60 applications per month. For a normal payback, it was necessary to give 100 applications.
What to do? There are two options: either abandon the project, since the risk of not showing the desired result is too great. Either grit your teeth and work to prove that even the exact numbers can be wrong.
We chose the second option - we committed ourselves to submit 100 targeted applications per month and started working.
Packaging development
When creating the site, we paid special attention to building trust among its visitors. There is hardly a person who is ready to entrust the health of his unborn child to a doctor who does not inspire confidence in him.
Calm, soft colors were used in the design of the site, including the color of the sea wave, which is used in the design of the center itself.
When developing the site design, we used photographs taken during a special photo session. We filmed the process of work, the interiors of the center, and the hall of the Center where patients are waiting for an appointment.
It was very important to create a calm, peaceful mood with the help of photographs, to demonstrate to potential clients self-confidence, to instill in them a sense of security.
As a result, they almost completely refused to post photos and videos of the fetus on the site - they left only a few images on the screen of the device with which the diagnosis is made.
I will not dwell on all the blocks of the site, I will only talk about the most interesting ones.
Balance between conversion and information
When working with medical sites, it is very important to catch the fine line between information content and conversion rate.
On the one hand, medical services are rarely chosen quickly - people want to know more about the service they provide, about the doctor who will work with them.
On the other hand, it is necessary not to overload the visitor, to give him the opportunity to calmly leave an application on the site, I do not force him to wade through the sea of \u200b\u200binformation in search of the coveted “Leave a request” button.
As a result, classic landing pages turn out to be close in functionality to sites - and sites, on the contrary, are made up of several lagdings.
Here is how we found such a balance in the block that tells about the leading specialist of the Center:
A minimum of information in the main body of the site, everything is hidden under various buttons. If the visitor is not interested in learning more about the doctor, then such a block will not overload him.
Or you can even open a separate pop-up window in which there is all necessary information– from the doctor’s education and achievements to video messages and reviews:
As a result, on home page information site at least - only the most important, while in 1-2 clicks you can find out everything you might need.
The next block, which tells about the details of the study, turned out to be very complicated in the prototype:
A lot of medical information that must be placed on the site and at the same time made easy to understand.
How to do it? Here is an elegant solution our designer came up with:
A nice graphic image of the fetus (much nicer than a photo, believe me), switching between trimesters and icons that show which organs will be discussed in the tooltip.
In general, the site turned out to be light, airy - and very easy to understand. Can .
The insidiousness of medical subjects
By the way, pay attention to the site address: under-heart.rf. Everything was not easy with him. Initially, we wanted to use a more speaking domain - diagnosis-fetus.rf.
It was at this address that the site was launched. Or rather, we tried to launch it ... But Google decided that such a domain might seem too medical to someone and cause negative emotions - so we urgently had to replace it with the current one, albeit not “speaking”.
Trial period of 3.5 months
So, all the obstacles were removed, and on December 22, 2017, traffic finally went to the site. For the first 3 weeks of work (including holidays) only 6 applications were received, each costing 1,800 rubles. At the same time, the conversion of the site (especially for medical topics) was quite good - about 2%. But that was clearly not enough for us.
It was not at all the result that the client expected. Of course, it was still too early to draw far-reaching conclusions, because the holidays could also play a role ... But ultrasound in our case is not a service that can be postponed until the end of the holidays or until the money appears - the timing of the procedure is clearly tied to the timing of pregnancy.
The first thing that caught my attention was that 5 out of 6 applications turned out to be calls and only one was made using a form. Mentally, we ticked ourselves off, since it was still too early to draw conclusions.
Gradually, statistics began to accumulate, which allowed us to adjust the rates on requests depending on the behavior of users on the site.
Another 2 weeks have passed, during which we received 11 applications (the cost of the application is 526 rubles, the site conversion for this period is about 8%). The indicators are very good, but the volume of applications is still insufficient.
In addition, only 2 of those 11 bids closed in a trade. 2 more calls received from existing clients and the remaining 7 did not come to the reception for various reasons.
In total, since December 22, we have received 17 applications, of which 5 were sales to new customers. If we take dry interest, then the result is not bad. It remained to scale it up and get 100 applications in a month. But how to do that?
Or maybe sell ultrasounds for pregnant women ... to men?
Yes, yes, yes, we even had such a seemingly absurd idea. And she was not born in a vacuum. When developing advertising campaigns, we could not even imagine that men would get to the site on requests like “second screening cost”. Therefore, no gender adjustments were made.
They realized it when, listening to a recording of one of telephone conversations found that it was a man calling. First thought: apologize to the client and turn off ads to men.
Second: what if? We talked with Elena Nikolaevna and found that men are not such bad clients. After all, they are looking for a service not for themselves, but for their wife (which is logical) and at the same time they are prone to rational decisions, that is, they behave similarly to our main target audience.
So we decided not to lower the rates for men, but, on the contrary, to show up in the first positions. As a result, the idea did not bring any explosive results, but the men continued to leave applications on the site, which suited us quite well.
The main thing is not money, but a satisfied customer
Standard test - free - we have a period of 2 weeks. If we do not have time to test some ideas, then in rare cases we extend it to a month. And then the maintenance period begins, because our employees want their work to be paid.
This time, the project team decided that we needed to achieve a result, and only then transfer the client to support. Therefore, it was also decided to consider February as a test month and not to take money for our services.
What was done? First of all, we noticed that the various promotions that we had on the site did not work. Of the 11 calls in January, they were only asked about once. We decided that we need to do one thing - but the most powerful.
And what could be stronger than a free ultrasound in a clinic that does an ultrasound? Perhaps nothing. Of course, we did not plan to do all the ultrasounds for free. Run contests too. That is, the action had to be made profitable both for the Center and for customers.
We analyzed various options and decided that we would offer free ultrasound in the early stages. Why him? Firstly, Elena Nikolaevna told us that before the screening of the first trimester (a mandatory procedure for pregnant women), she often does this study for free.
Secondly, such an action gave the maximum LTV. Indeed, during pregnancy, the patient needs to conduct 3 screenings, so the sooner we involve her, the better.
Of course, we continued to work with traffic, because the more statistics we accumulated, the finer we could set up advertising campaigns.
In general, they worked tirelessly. But February let us down - it turned out to be short, it had only 28 days ...
Therefore, the results did not please us. In total, 29 applications were received (already much better than in the previous period from December 22 to January 31!), the cost of the application was less than 800 rubles, the site conversion was 5.4%.
At the same time, conversion to sales did not worsen - 9 people became clients of the Center.
Where can you find more traffic?
So, 29 applications for February. Need - 100. What to do? To begin with, we decided that the results did not satisfy us. And that means another month of free testing ahead.
It is clear that the easiest option is to continue to work with search traffic. But it is unlikely that it will allow us to increase the volume of applications by 3 times - it’s just not the same volumes, and our website conversion has always been at a very high level.
We decided this time to focus on additional sources of traffic. First, we added an online chat to the site for those who do not want to communicate by phone:
Secondly, we began to pay more attention to engaging people in communication in the VKontakte community, both in comments and in group messages.
Why didn't they do it before? We counted on more traditional ways to receive applications, because the media plan promised us them! So, something was done wrong, you need to do better! But it turned out that media plans can be wrong.
In addition, doctors are busy people, so I didn’t really want to distract Elena Nikolaevna to communicate on social networks.
And, finally, the third refinement is the possibility of making an appointment online directly on the website:
We implemented it using the Yclients service. In general, it is more suitable for business in the service sector (hairdressers, beauty salons, and so on), one, and in our case it turned out to be quite enough, since the set of basic services at the Center is rather limited.
In general, March was fruitful. 46 applications were received through the website (forms + calls), another 48 through the widget, comments, group messages and online recording. The cost of the application is 574 rubles, the site conversion is 7.7%.
Sales conversion remained at about 30% - 46 applications left on the site turned into 16 patient appointments.
Hooray! The result has been achieved!
Is it possible to stop there? As practice shows - by no means!
After all, the test period is only the beginning of the work, the purpose of which is to make sure that our system is able to give targeted requests and bring profit to our clients.
The most difficult thing is ahead - increasing the volume of applications, improving their quality, connecting new traffic sources, setting up a sales department.
But you still need to smooth out seasonality, respond to the innovations of advertising services, and even keep an eye on your competitors.
In general, after 3.5 months of testing, everything was just beginning with the Podserdtse Maternal and Fetal Health Center!
What other of our projects would you be interested in reading about? Write in the comments!
Good afternoon, dear readers, today I am visiting the editorial office of the magazine "getmind" chief physician of the medical center "Medincourt" Denis Alexandrovich Grass.
- Hello, Denis Alexandrovich. Your center has existed for more than 25 years, and this is a serious date, and our readers would be very interested to know the history of its foundation. Where did it all begin?
- It really started 25 years back in the distance 1987 year, two doctors from among the staff Research Institute of Sklifosovsky– resuscitator Sulpovar Leonid Vladimirovich, by the way, he was the attending physician of the poet and bard Vladimir Vysotsky, and Kostov Boris Emilievich, a traumatologist, then head of the traumatology department of the same research institute, decided to open their own commercial medical center. So originally "Medincourt" opened at the base Research Institute of Sklifosovsky, under whose wing they existed for the first 5 years, until they moved to Prospekt Mira, 105 where our center is located to this day. The main profiles then were only gynecology, urology and dermatovenereology. These were the most popular destinations, and we for a long time don't change your profile.
- It was still the end of the 80s, when cooperatives were just appearing. Tell our readers what difficulties the founders of the center faced, I am sure that they were.
- Yes, it was the end of the 80s, of course, there were certain problems. In those days, it was quite difficult to acquire medical equipment, and we had to buy decommissioned equipment from state institutions and put it in order. Of course, a lot was acquired "under the counter". There were also problems in the training and retraining of personnel.
But I must say that there were many positive moments. "Medincourt" was one of the first commercial medical centers in Moscow, one might even say that it was a monopolist in the market. At least in terms of the services provided. And we had a lot of patients, when we moved to Alekseevskaya, it got to the point that a bus was hired and went for patients to the Sklifosovsky Research Institute, who came to our old address.
Yes, it was a fun time, can you tell something interesting from the life of the center of that period? The bandits must have been mended too...
- Bandits ... Well, probably, everything happened! But in fact, the life of the center in those years developed in a somewhat different direction. The center slowly began to expand, recruited new doctors, opened new directions. We began to deal with the problem of alcoholism and drug addiction, provided not only physical, but also psychological assistance to patients - our psychologists conducted group rehabilitation classes. A little later, a branch was opened in the city Lobnya. There, cosmetology was added to the main services. We tried to develop this direction separately by opening a SPA-salon with a hairdresser. But somehow it did not work and a few years later this branch closed.
- Tell me, is Medincourt a specialized company or do you accept patients with any ailments?
- Well, let's start with the fact that we do not have a specialized, but a multidisciplinary clinic. We work in the following areas - gynecology, urology, dermatovenereology, cosmetology, allergology, gastroenterology, surgery, neurology. We also treat ENT diseases. We plan to add more ophthalmology in the near future, as this area is quite in demand among our regular customers.
In principle, our medical base is ready to cope with any ailments that can be treated on an outpatient basis, not in a hospital.
We also produce ultrasound diagnostics, which we have almost in full, with the exception of some really serious heart examinations - here it is better to contact a specialized clinic. Sample collection and laboratory diagnostics. Well, here we are not much different from other centers, all medical institutions work with organizations that can the maximum number perform certain laboratory tests. But there are volumes that we perform independently on the basis of our own laboratory, which is very convenient for our patients, since there is no need to wait for the results and come back next time.
Who are your patients? Residents of this microdistrict (editor's note: the address of the Medincourt Center is Prospekt Mira, 105), Muscovites, or even residents of the Moscow region?
– Of course, our patients are not only residents of this microdistrict, although probably about half of them. It is probably more correct to call them not “residents of the microdistrict”, but people who are regularly in this microdistrict. Because a person can not only live here, but also work, and he can live in a completely different place. Many patients from the region are Pushkino, Korolev, Mytishchi, i.e. Yaroslavl direction, there are patients from Khimki and Lobny. If speak about Moscow, that is Northeast and North.
– There are a lot of medical centers and private clinics in Moscow, they all try to be located within walking distance from metro stations and as close as possible to the center. Do you think that the choice of a place for medical institution so affects its success, profitability?
– To some extent, the choice of location, of course, affects the success and profitability of the medical center, but today it is much more an important factor Influencing the success of the clinic is the team of specialists working in it. I am talking not only about doctors, but also about junior medical workers, although, of course, patients first of all look for “their doctors”. People pass from mouth to mouth information about a doctor who they liked and really could help in a given situation. And a person is ready to get to such a doctor even through the whole of Moscow “on the bed-posts”. It doesn't matter where he works. Will he work in Mytishchi, will he work in Maryino, in Kotelniki, or will he receive in the very center on Tverskaya Street - a person, if he needs it, will find this doctor, and he will go to see him. Of course, if it is within walking distance from the metro, this is only a plus for the clinic. But today a lot of people have their own car and, probably, a big plus for the clinic will also be its own parking lot. We have one (smiles).
Therefore, I do not think that the location of the clinic is 50% of success, maybe 20-30%.
For example, with my child I go to the dentist in Odintsovo. We went there once on the advice of my colleague, and my son was completely delighted, he is absolutely not afraid of dentists, and now we only go there. And it doesn't matter to me how long it takes, because my child is happy, and so am I.
– But what about the large “promoted” clinics, because they all try to be located closer to the “passing” metro stations?
- Well, there is a slightly different situation! Most of these clinics do not try to keep the client, but prefer to promote it one-time "to the maximum". That is why they have to invest heavily in marketing and promotion of their own brand. But we prefer to spend money on equipment and attracting good specialists.
Perhaps the “promoted” clinics earn much more than we do and undoubtedly consider themselves more successful, but, to be honest, I don’t want to be engaged in such a business at all ... Of course, in this aggressive struggle for a client, location and brand recognition are very important for them, especially if there is nothing else to appeal to the patient.
– What is the general pricing policy of the clinic in relation to your potential competitors? Do you use a loyalty program and how effective is its use in the medical business?
- In a relationship pricing policy we try to keep the average prices in Moscow, or rather, "keep the bar" prices slightly below average. Of course, there are clinics that are cheaper to serve, but there are also those that are much more expensive. It is necessary to maintain a balance in order to be attractive to patients on the one hand, and on the other hand, to retain good specialists.
If we talk about the loyalty program (you can read more about the loyalty program from the article), then we have a discount for regular customers - 5%
, we also constantly hold promotions that imply a larger percentage of discounts on certain types of services. For example, an ultrasound complex examination in both men and women. There are discounts on cosmetology at certain times of the year. Various examination programs that do not include ultrasound.
– And how successful is it in general, do loyalty programs “work” in the medical business?
Well, it's hard to talk about the "absolute" success of the events here, since it cannot be assessed solely in terms of profitability. I think that this is successful, as it bears fruit in the future, and a person who came once for a promotion, with careful and careful handling, becomes a regular customer. So, it works to further attract patients.
On the other hand, we have a sad experience with coupons or “groupons” that are now popular on the Internet. Through a similar service, we distributed coupons for the removal of neoplasms from 90%
discount. A total of approx. 750 coupons. Used by buyers was order 600 coupons, but this does not mean that 600 people came. Some people purchased multiple coupons, there was one patient who redeemed 60 coupons. One coupon - removal of one neoplasm. I can honestly say that according to coupons, the clinic served a total of about 150 people, and if 5 of them returned to us, then this is good. Personally, I have a strong opinion that there are people who are looking for maximum discounts - not 10-30%, but 70-90%, and everything else does not matter to them. For them, there is simply no such criterion as the quality of services! On the one hand, it is very difficult to work with such an audience, but on the other hand, there is no desire.
Such programs turned out to be ineffective for us, and we do not use them. Although, other clinics say it works. Perhaps the success of such events depends on the choice of service, and we should not have chosen cosmetic surgery, or perhaps we should not have made a 90% discount and then a completely different audience would have turned to us, who knows ...
– And, if we are already talking about loyalty… Is the clinic ready to meet the needs of a client who is in a difficult financial situation and needs medical assistance? Can he count on an individual discount or, for example, a deferred payment?
– I won’t be cunning, “officially” the clinic will not accept an individual discount, only if the doctor, out of his personal loyalty to the patient, does not indicate in the receipt for payment the entire list of services provided to the patient ... Yes, this happens with us! For example, I very often make a certain discount to pensioners, if I had a consultation and did an ultrasound scan, then I can not take money for an ultrasound examination if I see that a person can barely make ends meet.
As for deferred payment, yes, we have such an opportunity, and we always try to meet the needs of our customers. And our employees do not need to contact the management or the chief accountant, or some other structures about this, so that they are allowed to do this. And never had a problem!
We have had this practice for a long time, it works and it is really good.
– For as many years as the center already exists, business in any industry undergoes metamorphoses. It transforms, adapts to new conditions, sometimes even changes its profile. You have survived at least two major crises, tell us how you managed to get through this path and what difficulties did you face?
To date, we have already experienced two crises, now we are experiencing a third. Our center is designed for a middle-class client, and the crisis always hits him the hardest. Of course, during a crisis, the number of patients decreases. Also, I must say that every year it becomes more and more difficult to fight for a client with other clinics. There are clinics that provide cheaper services, there are clinics that take entourage, etc. Today, we are working to expand the range of our services, that is, to provide large quantity services that we offer to our clients and it is no secret that such a service as VHI– voluntary health insurance. And if the employer is ready to pay for medical insurance to his employee, then he will always prefer a qualified medical care and go to a commercial medical center, and not to a state clinic, where he will stand in line for three hours to see a therapist. Therefore, today we are engaged in connecting to the VHI program. This will not only allow us to get new customers, but also add solidity to our brand.
We also considered the issue of doing some kind of medical examinations. For a driver's license, for carrying a weapon, something else, but in the end we decided to abandon this venture, since it involves a lot of checks and does not bring the profit that would be comparable to the possible costs and hassle.
What are the current challenges and how do you deal with them?
– We have already covered some of the problems in the previous question. To these I can add problems with laboratory service providers. It is very difficult to find a laboratory in which absolutely all research would be done at a high level. Therefore, often, you have to combine, which always adds unnecessary trouble. Not to mention the fact that you often have to change partners when the quality of their services begins to decline significantly, as happened with Invitro, for example.
The next problem is the lack of qualified specialists. This is the biggest problem today. Although I can honestly say that in the last month this problem began to be solved thanks to our state. I don’t know how it is all over the country, but something is wrong with medicine in Moscow. Hospitals are being closed and merged, great specialists are being made redundant. They are forced to go to commercial clinics, because it is now extremely difficult to get a job in state-owned ones. Therefore, now it has become easier with good qualified specialists. This is not bad for us, we will be able to recruit good qualified specialists on this wave and continue to develop successfully. And for the general situation in the city of Moscow, this is a disgusting situation. I don’t know where we will end up, but it seems that we are striving for completely commercial medicine. Naturally, this will not happen tomorrow, not the day after tomorrow, but what will happen in five years, I can hardly imagine.
- Of course, I do not deny that advertising is the engine of trade, and you need to advertise your services as widely as possible. But, as I said earlier, today word of mouth plays a big role in the development of the clinic. If a doctor is pleasant in communication, if he is good in his profession and has the proper qualifications, then he will always have patients. This means that there will be clients in the clinic, which means there will be profit, which means that the business will flourish. Although I do not in any way diminish the role of advertising, which occupies 50% clinic success. But others 50% - This is, of course, the success of the doctor.
– Could you tell us, please, what methods of attracting an audience does your clinic use?
– Professionalism and charm of our employees! (laughs) In fact, today the Internet plays a huge role in marketing, so we try to seriously deal with our site and its promotion. Also, we are trying other means - we ordered posting advertisements in elevators in nearby areas and advertised on a monitor in the nearest metro station - Alekseevskaya metro station.
Just a couple of months ago in the local newspaper "Star Boulevard", which is distributed in our North-East Administrative District, gave a small advertising publication about our medical center. Although this particular method of attracting new customers did not work - no more than three people came from this advertisement, many of the regular customers mentioned this article, saying that they had learned something new about the center.
- So, word of mouth and the involvement of eminent specialists who “bring” their patients with them is already more than half the success? But what about branding, presence in the information field?
– Yes, word of mouth and the name of a specialist is something to start with and something that should never be neglected by young clinics. I know one clinic in the Bagrationovskaya metro area, which is supported by almost one doctor who owns ultrasound diagnostics and works in the field of obstetrics. This is probably one of the first people who began to engage in ultrasound diagnostics in obstetrics here in Russia and it is almost impossible to make an appointment with him, that is, you have to make an appointment with him for a month. And he almost single-handedly makes a cash register in this clinic, although there are urologists and gynecologists there. My wife and I have been to this clinic twice, I can honestly tell you, I have not seen a single patient, except for him. There was a full house for him, a full house, up to a fight near the office. Therefore, eminent specialists - yes, this is a huge plus for the clinic.
But branding and presence in the information field is something that needs to be done all the time, but it is better to entrust this business to professionals.
- And what means of promotion today could be most effective for a young clinic, in your opinion?
- Probably, first of all, the Internet. Since, in principle, the clinic has its own website, then a person who searches for some “profiles” or specific doctors will find it sooner or later. The main thing is that this site should function normally, meet the brand’s objectives and be able to answer questions that patients are interested in before making an appointment with a doctor. As I already said, it is better to trust such things to specialists and not to engage in amateur performances.
Separately, I want to note that it is often necessary to train doctors to work with clients so that one doctor can refer a patient to other clinic specialists. I know that many clinics abuse such things very much, and when they seize the patient, they intimidate him and begin to drive him around all the offices until he runs out of money. This is disgusting and unacceptable!
But it also happens the other way around, when a patient needs an additional examination by another specialist or he needs some additional procedures, and the doctor, having said this, does not even specify that the clinic where he works can provide the necessary service in the next room.
– If it’s not a secret, does your clinic and its specialists take an active part in the life of the medical community and does this affect the company’s profit?
– Of course, many of our specialists take part in the life of the medical community. For example, I am a member Moscow Society of Urology and Russian Society of Urology, unfortunately, it is not so often possible to attend events, but thanks to the Internet, you can always listen to many reports almost live or download their text versions.
Our specialists also made presentations in the field of urology and gynecology more than once.
How does this affect profits? Well, of course it is reflected, because we increase our level of skill and knowledge and, accordingly, we can offer more to our patients, and we can keep up with the times. And of course, this all has a positive effect on the image of our clinic.
– I would like to hear from you parting words to the owners of young private clinics. What would you like to wish to the leaders, your colleagues or even competitors?
– Well, I’m probably still a young leader myself, although our clinic has a long history, I have been working here far from the moment it opened.
What to wish?
Yes, probably, not to be afraid of anything, to go forward, to gnaw, as they say, on the granite of science, because we learn all our lives.
And, of course, I want to wish that they do not lose their human face in the pursuit of profit, do not forget about the Hippocratic oath. This is primarily because now the commercialization of medicine has reached its limit, people in the pursuit of profit forget about humanity, morality, medical ethics and do the devil knows what. Therefore, yes, do not lose face, that is, remain a person in the first place. And good luck to everyone!
We will work, we will compete. Competition gives rise to the desire for something new, the desire to improve one's knowledge, one's professional skills, so all this is like an engine of progress. Healthy competition never hurt anyone.
There are many private medical centers, the competition between them is strong, and everything is complicated by the fact that the most effective advertising strategies of yesterday may not work today. What to do? How to promote? Where to start? Read about it in our article.
The first 4 steps before starting any campaign
In marketing, the main thing is to be as conscious as possible, to take actions not at random, because “it is written in the book”, but with a full understanding of what is happening. I'm running this ad because it worked last year, and this ad because it's new and I want to see if it works for my company.
Go through the checklist "what you need to do before you start developing a campaign":
- establish the target audience and learn all about its interests, concerns and wishes;
- study advertising media, their advantages and disadvantages, "pitfalls";
- choose the most suitable for the medical center;
- sit down and write a complete strategy that will take everything into account.
You will have to deal with the first point on your own, because this is your the target audience and no one knows more about it than you. But we will help with advertising media - we talk about what media can work for advertising a medical center.
Examples of advertising media
Internet , especially banners on specialized resources, an account of the center or doctors of the center on a forum about medicine, pages on social networks, full-fledged SEO promotion - search results, contextual advertising and much more. Part of the advertising budget must be given to the Internet, unless, of course, your medical center specializes in helping very elderly people who do not use the Internet at all (although even in this situation children or grandchildren can use it). The presence on the Internet not only helps in promotion, but also strengthens the brand, works to create a trustworthy reputation, to develop customer loyalty through relevant assistance.
Among the most popular topics on the Internet, medical topics are confidently leading. Runet users enter about 13 million health queries per month in Yandex, Google and Mail.ru searches. Promotion of a medical portal or clinic website involves a serious struggle for a place in the sun. What are the features of the promotion of a medical site?
Content
Content intended for a medical site has its own specifics. It is not allowed to place low quality content on the medical portal. Ideally, such a resource should be filled with information by authors with a medical education and relevant specialization.
Unfortunately, to find a specialist who is not only well versed in, say, post-vaccination complications in children, but is also able to masterfully reveal this topic for an unprepared reader and optimize the article for search engines, hard enough. In this case, you can entrust the writing of the text to a competent copywriter, and then give the finished article for verification to a person with a medical education.
The cost of the content will be high, but the quality of the texts will be worthy. Articles will be reliable and useful. Remember that users of your site will follow the recommendations in the articles, so you have a huge responsibility.
Information intended for the mass reader should be presented in an accessible and simple way. If possible, you should avoid the abundance of highly specialized terms.
In the online store of health products you need detailed descriptions all offered drugs and simulators. Do not limit yourself to the text of the instruction. Provide a live description of medicines, give recommendations for their use, publish testimonials from satisfied customers.
Information about the clinic
Detailed information about the activities of the company increases the trust of patients. Do not forget to include contact details, photos and names of doctors, information about their license and education. Provide comprehensive information about the specialization of doctors, their level of qualification, publish data on their awards and diplomas.
Describe the equipment and preparations used in the work.
Organize a gallery of photos of the clinic and its rooms.
Provide up-to-date information about the services provided, office hours, address of the organization and directions.
Targeted queries for medical portals
About 30% of potential clients enter in the search the names of medical specialties (ENT, gynecologist appointment, neurology price).
25% of people search for phrases that involve specific actions (ultrasound of the kidneys, take tests, do a gastroscopy).
Another 45% are entered into the search for diseases and signs of diseases (diabetes, pain in the lower abdomen, high blood pressure).
For the medical center, promotion on requests from the first and second groups is of the greatest interest. Users who are interested in these requests are, in principle, already ready to use medical services in the near future.
Users of the last group come to the site to find out Additional information about your illness. They still hope that it is too early to turn to specialists, and prefer to self-medicate. If their health deteriorates, they may return to the site as a customer. Promotion at the request of the third group is only beneficial large companies focused on long-term results.
Add georeference to information requests: “surgeon Saratov”, “operation Israel”. The frequency of the request will decrease, but visitors will be more interested.
Interface and site structure
On the website of each clinic medical service need to dedicate separate page. The description of the service should be short, clear and understandable. To the direct description of the service, you should add a couple of phrases about the benefits of treatment in this particular clinic, photos of the doctors who are receiving, and a short story about them, and you also need to indicate prices and a phone number for an appointment.
You can organize a corporate blog, where informative articles, interviews with doctors on important topics and company news will be published. Let the blog pages link to service pages. Internal linking must support landing pages in the first place.
You can organize a forum on the site. The forum will create a community of regular readers and potential customers. Users will be able to discuss treatment, the effect of drugs, ask questions that are important to them.
The website interface should be as user-friendly as possible. All the information provided should dispel the doubts of customers about the competence of specialists and help increase confidence in the company.
Place a convenient catalog of services on the site. Publish professional health articles.
An indispensable tool for any medical site will be a convenient appointment form, an online consultation service with doctors, and a section for answers to frequently asked questions.
You can also place on the site such useful services, as a reference book of diseases, a reference book of medicines.
Search promotion of the medical portal
At the initial stage, promotion is better to focus on increasing the trust and credibility of the portal. For the first three months, it is better to buy links with branded anchors and anchors from the words “here”, “here”. In parallel, it is worth working on building a good reputation for the company. Positive feedback can be posted on popular forums. On the fourth month of promotion, you can already buy links with the exact occurrence of commercial keywords to promote pages with descriptions of services.
It is desirable to base the promotion of the medical website of a private clinic on the principle of using regional and highly specialized user requests (reception of a nephrologist in Khabarovsk). The promotion of unique and round-the-clock services will give excellent results. Online stores can also be promoted by geo-independent requests.
The human factor plays an important role in promoting medical pages. Patients choose not so much a clinic as a specific specialist. Therefore, post detailed information about the clinic staff on the site, ask patients to leave feedback on the site or on other resources. Optimize pages that provide information about doctors for vital queries (name and surname of the doctor).
Significantly increase site traffic can be due to traffic from social networks. Actively develop groups on VKontakte, on Google+, on Facebook. On the company's VKontakte page, organize voting, polls, post notifications about ongoing promotions, posts with interesting content on the wall. Many users find it more convenient to leave comments not on the site, but in social networks. Answer their questions, activate the attention of users on the activities of your company. Comments, reposts, likes increase the credibility of the clinic.
Any random visitor can become your client. And remember, the growth of conversion directly depends on the well-functioning work of the call center and direct communication with users through the forum and forms feedback. Therefore, it is necessary not only to establish the site engine, but also to organize a well-functioning system for working with clients.
