Promotion of a Medical Brand in Russia. Checklist for the Promotion of Clinics 2022

Promoting medical brands and services in Russia has never been easy for implementation due to a number of restrictions and strict legislation. Besides, in 2022, all businesses operating in this segment faced new problems related to the blocking of many tools within the territory of the Russian Federation. This means, at a minimum, Instagram* and Facebook* (owned by Meta**), Google and its opportunities of contextual advertising etc. But even despite the ambiguous situation on the market, competition among medical brands is still very high. It should be also mentioned that many companies have managed to adapt to new realities of marketing reality within a very short time.

RMAA specialists, relying on their own experience in the medical segment, have prepared a checklist of necessary conditions for more successful results of promotion in the industry.

Website Preparation

As a rule, when preparing any marketing activity on the Internet, you should pay great attention to setting up the company's website and all the necessary elements. Eventually, the website should be an effective tool to attract a new audience and increase the number of customers through online service.

What you should pay attention to in the first instance.

Сompetent structure of a website and its “usability" imply prompt and clear provision of information to customers. At the same time, it does not matter from which source the visitor came to the website. The main thing is that all its pages are finalized and intelligible. In other words, the information on the website, including its visual elements, should be conveniently located, target actions and buttons should be understandable to а user, and sending messages is built into a logical chain of responses for various requests from the client.

Content compliance with all legal requirements. This is another important aspect of competent marketing work, since during further moderation of the campaign, not only creatives and ad texts are checked, but the landing page itself. Furthermore, the website code is automatically checked using a bot. In case of detection of forbidden words, the ads will not pass moderation.

Fast website loading on all resources. In this paragraph, attention should be given not only to the PC version, but also to the version for mobile devices. If it takes less than 5 seconds to download from any resource, then everything works fast and properly. If more - you should think about how to lighten the pages. Since users, as a rule, will not wait long.

Availability of pass-through application forms from customers. In other words, the user should be able to send it from any page of the website. Thus, it is much more efficient to optimize campaigns as a targeted action.

Contact information. It is preferable that all the phone numbers, required for communication and so on, could be viewed from any page of the website, just like in the case of the application form. At the same time, contacts should always be indicated in a visible location. Because customers still continue to call and ask questions, despite the steady trend towards online communication. Dynamic call tracking, the main principle of which is based on substitution of a number for each website site visitor, is best suited for implementing this parameter.

Cards of specialists. This is one of the important points that works to attract new customers. Since users often search for information about specialists and make a purchase decision or appeal to a brand based on this data. Therefore, it is important to describe the professional experience of each expert, their achievements in the medical field, qualifications and real reviews of clients.

Current prices and promotions, data update on a website. If there are changes in the terms of cooperation with a client, then it must be promptly reflected on the website. Irrelevant information, on the contrary, worsens the image of the company as a whole and causes an outflow of customers.

Supplementary data, but still regarded as important. This applies to everything that somehow “tells” the client about the benefits of the company's services and products. For example, methods of treatment, information about equipment, additional recommendations on various issues, etc. may be indicated here.

Setting up web analytics, without which it is impossible to imagine what actions customers are doing on the website. This tool both shows information about targeted actions and helps to understand which adjustments for other above-mentioned paragraphs need to be finalized. We strongly recommend installing Yandex Metric on a mandatory basis and Google Analytics at option.

It should be mentioned that competent website optimization does not give immediate results, but it will be effective in the longer term. However, the work should be commenced with this, gradually including paid advertising tools in the promotion. For which it is necessary to develop a content plan of the campaign and determine its main goals.

General recommendations for the advertising campaign

Our list of recommendations was compiled taking into account various approaches and techniques that work effectively in the medical segment, in particular for the promotion of medical clinics, and also advertising legislation in Russia.

The main focuses of the campaign are:

• promotion of the company in general, without mentioning products and services;
• emphasis on advertising a specific medical direction, but not specific procedures;
• choosing in favor of prioritized medical directions that the company has;
• personalized mentions of clinic specialists.

Maximum reach due to advertising semantics:

• narrow specialization of doctors;
• diseases with which they can seek medical advice;
• specific symptoms;
• geo data;
• brand requests.

Working with contextual advertising on Yandex:

• adaptive ads with multiple options and titles;
• combination of “correct” ads for all advertising parameters with multiple message options that may not meet all the stated criteria, but may pass moderation;
• the strategy of working with the most relevant ads when working with Yandex.

As a rule, one of the main strategic objectives of promotion is the development of advertising content that contains text and visual elements. There are also some nuances in this question.

Creating Advertisements. Ten Important Points

The preparation of advertisements is as big a step in promotion as the creation of a website. Despite the fact that brands approach this issue in a personalized way, there is information that it is desirable to indicate in messages.

1. The name of the clinic is a necessary minimum for any advertising message, one of the fundamental aspects for further interaction with a potential audience. The point is that if a company cannot be easily and quickly found on the Internet, then in fact you lose the flow of primary customers who are ready to make an appointment in "here and now" way.

2. Cost of an appointment or consultation is supplementary, but important information, since clients are often guided by this data when choosing a service. Besides, the pricing policy is always aimed only at the potential audience.

3. Experience and qualification of doctors increase the degree of trust of users in the company as a whole, which is likely to “lead” them to the website for further familiarization with services and products.

4. Year of the clinic's foundation - this information “works” for the image, especially if you have been in the medical field for a long time, which means you have necessary experience and high-quality service.

5. Number of clients also increases the level of trust if the information is perceived by users as reliable. To achieve such result, you can add real customer reviews or other data here.

6. Reference to well-established campaigns- this item implies a detailed description of a specific service that a client can get on certain conditions. It is necessary not only to capture the interest of a potential client, but also to tell as clearly as possible about the conditions of a special promotion in order to avoid unforeseen situations.

7. Visual content means using real (not stock) photos of doctors, the atmosphere inside the company, the moments when service is being provided, etc. It is important that in the end a user has a positive impression of the advertising message and, consequently, about the company as a whole.

8. Result-oriented approach as the main message of the advertisement. In other words, it is required not just to tell the audience about the service or provide information about your company, but also to show that in the end the service from you will “close” a certain customer need. For example, after a consultation, he will obtain a better overview of a specific problem.

9. Using graphic charts and drawings, if the general campaign concept determines their design as well. A unique drawing made for a project can strongly distinguish communication from the general background of the rest of the advertising. However, a graph based on statistical data is able to make a stronger impression on the client than a photograph. It is preferable to include these visual elements in an advertising campaign.

10. Information about the clinic address - as well as the name, is aimed at attracting potential customers who are ready to obtain the service within the shortest possible period of time. In addition, this information will be relevant for further targeting of advertisements by various geo-parameters.

Ten above-mentioned points should be taken into account while content developing for an advertising campaign. However, there are cases when messages fail to pass moderation. And often, it is difficult to understand from the first time why it happens.

What to do in such cases? First, check that all the necessary list of documents, which the advertising platform requested at startup. Depending on the advertising channel, the list of documents may vary. Yandex, VKontakte, and myTarget have not only a specific list of necessary documents, but also their own requirements for the website (for example, indication of legal information on the website, etc.). Therefore, when launching an advertising campaign, we recommend laying in at least 3-5 days for the moderation stage.

Secondly, to be in touch with support, write and ask necessary questions about the current situation. Besides, you can file a complaint against competitors whose advertisements, in your opinion, appear in search results, but do not meet general requirements for advertising. While your content, which is somewhat similar to such materials, was not permitted to be posted.

In any case, it is important to solve these tasks quickly. This is exactly the situation when the agency work is of considerable importance. For example, RMAA specialists request a complete list of documents in advance and promptly respond to any changes that may affect the speed of moderation and the effectiveness of advertising placement.

To Sum Up

The promotion of medical services on the market is not an easy task, but it is effective if you take this issue quite seriously. On the one hand, advertising of medical services is limited by law. On the other hand, most content platforms ask for special requirements for ads (which includes license scans during moderation). Nevertheless, all this can be solved quickly, including with the help of specialists from specialized advertising agencies who already have experience working with medical brands.

After that, it is worth dealing with various advertising tools. More than half of the user traffic goes to the websites of medical companies thanks to SEO. Therefore, it is important that a website is visible in search queries and configured for a specific region and specialization of the company. Also, contextual ads and SMM will be effective tools, in which you can focus on the image of specific experts or brand as a whole.

At the same time, the main thing is to learn how to correctly combine all the tools between each other and make the necessary changes to them in a timely manner. Eventually, medical marketing should be your strategy for interacting with regular customers, “working” to attract a new audience, retain it and build loyalty.

RMAA specialists are ready to assist you in this matter and develop the most effective promotion strategy for your brand, taking into account all the necessary legislative and advertising aspects of the medical segment.

* Social networks are recognized as extremist and banned in Russia.
** The organization is recognized as an extremist and is banned in Russia.

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