#MAPLEHEALTHCARE
- Giang Trieu
- Jan 9, 2016
- 14 min read
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STRATEGY
Maple Health Care, a chiropractic clinic located on District. 7 is looking for a social media campaign to strengthen their brand image and foster their brand awareness in the mind of target audience. Although having international quality, dedicated staff and good facilities, Maple Health Care is facing from strong competitors having long establishment in Vietnam and also good brand identity on online platforms. The key insight drawn from researches is that Vietnamese patients are feeling disappointed with customer services of public hospitals and seeking for high quality clinic services associating with international infrastructure and friendly staffs.
Table of Contents
CAMPAIGN BACKGROUND
SWOT Analysis
Competitors
Primary competitor
Secondary competitors
Challenges
Internal
External
PLANNING
Objectives
Communication objectives
Action objectives
EXECUTION
Target Audience
Key Insights
Activities
Facebook strategy
Cost
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Business goals
YouTube
Theme of all videos
YouTube Strategy
Business Goals
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Website
Return on Investment
Gain from investment
Cost of Investment
Social Media Etiquette
Selective sharing
Interact with the audience
Be transparent
Asking permission before posting about somebody else
Avoid sell language
Tone of voice
REFERENCES
CAMPAIGN BACKGROUND
SWOT Analysis
COMPETITORS
Primary competitor
The strongest competitors for MHC in Ho Chi Minh city area in the chiropractic service is American Chiropractic Clinic (ACC). They also use 3 platforms of social media including Facebook, YouTube and Website to promote their brand image. The below table will show the comparison between the use of social media between Maple HC and ACC.
Secondary competitors
In Dental area, MHC still faces with Nha Khoa Minh Khai. However, in term of social media marketing, MHC is stronger because it reaches more likes on Facebook and YouTube channel while Nha Khoa Minh Khai just owns 998 likes on Facebook and no subscriber on YouTube.
In skin care field, PPP clinic is a strong competitor for MHC because it reaches 17,057 likes on Facebook. On YouTube channel, it creates its own content, which has more than 300 views on each.
CHALLENGES
Internal
Limited budget for social media marketing.
External
The use of chiropractic therapies in humans is still a controversial subject (Schultz et al. 2015). The large amount of people is still questioning the effects of chiropractic. There are lots of criticisms and conflicting opinion about it. In Vietnam, chiropractic has just arrived in 2006 and still try hard to raise awareness (Tuoi Tre 2010).
Vietnamese people usually self-medicate bone-related diseases at home by using Oriental medicine or traditional Chinese medicine (usually spread through word-of-mouth) (VnExpress 2013).
Maple Health Care is a new brand in Vietnam. It has a very strong competitor in term of social media presence – ACC. ACC is also an international health care, establishes earlier and already gains reputation in Vietnamese market. It locates in District 3, a central and crowded area of Ho Chi Minh City, convenient for travelling.
Vietnam Internet Users is dominated by young generation (Moore 2015). People belonging to two age groups of Maple’s target audience (30-44 and 45-59) are nearly not active on social media(Moore 2015). The remaining young age group (18-29) does not need chiropractic yet as bone-related diseases usually happen to people above 35 (Thanh Nien 2015). Other services of Maple including dental and skincare have strong competitors such as Lan Anh and PPP.
Social media marketing can easily cheapen the image of brands aiming at premium customers (Mahyari 2013).
PLANNING
Objectives
Communication objectives
To make the target audience perceive Maple as a trustworthy source for healthcare on social media.
To make target audience see the dedication of all the staffs of Maple through social media.
Action objectives
To drive traffic to the website and social media (Facebook, YouTube and Google+).
To increase the number of people access Maple’s website through social media.
To increase the number of responses on the website and social media.
EXECUTION
Target Audience
Key Insights
Overcrowded status of public hospitals affects negatively the care of staff for patients (Le 2014).
Vietnamese people tend to trust foreign health cares (which follow international standards and best practices) more than local ones and willing to pay higher price to afford foreign treatment facilities (Reuters 2014).
The most used features of social media in Vietnamese adults are blog articles, images and comments with the purpose of information seeking.
According to the Broadcasting Board of Governors (2015), Facebook, together with YouTube and Google+, are in the top three most popular social media among Vietnamese adults. Moreover, social networking sites such as Facebook are proved to have multiple benefits for health promotion, especially in reaching a wide and variety public directly (Gupta, Tyagi & Sharma 2013). Therefore, Facebook is an effective channel to promote and educate new treatments like chiropractic to different age groups in Vietnam.
Activities
Inspired by Humans of New York, which is a project about the short random stories of the New Yorkers and achieves over 16 million likes on Facebook, #MapleStories is a series of sharing of Maple Healthcare Center (MHC) staff about their patients. These stories focus mainly on how the staff treat their patients during the treatments and then, the stories of the patients about their illness and gratitude towards the staff and others who support them during the hard time.
Emotional appeals are applied in these sharing as emotional content can easily spread online and are adopted through repeated exposure (Ferrara & Yang 2015). Some stories which can potentially attract more likes will be pushed on Facebook to ensure the high exposure of the target public.
Daily tips
The daily tips of self-practice of chiropractic, skin care and dental routines are posted along with #MapleStories in the form of clips or infographics, because image-based content is shared more than text-based content and delivers the brand values better (Perrine 2015).
Dr. Paul D'Alfonso is the main instructor using Vietnamese to guide the audience, while the infographics are designed with simple and succinct language to provide clear and easy-to-understand information.
Tet promotion
In the promotion for Lunar New Year, a promoting video, an online discussion and a sales promotion tactic are conducted to raise brand awareness and increase sales during the holiday season. As family values and filial piety are the important features of Asian culture and focused more in Tet, it will be the advertising concept of MHC on Facebook (Yi 2013). The idea is to encourage customers to take care of their family, especially their parents who are usually suffered from spinal problems, and emphasize the importance of health in the elderly. As a result, the key message is ‘Children is the most precious treasure of parents for the whole life. This Tet, let your parents be the most precious treasure of yours. Health is wealth.
Firstly, the video uses storytelling and emotional appeals to deliver the key message. Secondly, the interactive online discussion is opened on Facebook, asking users to express their filial piety to their parents through stories and memories of them. Finally, special vouchers will be given to the stories received most likes.
Facebook strategy
Timing
For the year
*The content of the post may change to suit the timely hot topics or holidays throughout the year.
Time to post: 1PM
*Using Fanpage Karma to find out the most suitable time to post according to the target audience.
Number of post per day: 1
Structure
[HEADLINE]
Body
(in Vietnamese)
---
[HEADLINE]
Body
(in English)
Link (if available)
Image
Headline: Avoid using sale language
Ex:
High-qualified doctors at Maple Healthcare Center takes care of patients ✕
Patients share their opinions about customer services at MHC ✓
Body: Not over 100 words per post (Except for some special circumstances)
Keywords (Hashtags):
For Daily Tips: #MapleHealthcare #DailyTips #Chiropractic #SkinCare #Dental
For Tet Promotion: #MapleHealthcare #HealhisWealth
*Using Keyword Research to find out the interests of the target customers to create suitable keywords and hashtags
** Providing both English and Vietnamese hashtags
Always include an image in the post.
Edited audience
o Location: Cities +25 miles
o Age: 25 - 45+
o Gender: All
o Interests: Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City, Politics, Finance, Sports, Food, Housing, Travel (both in English and Vietnamese) (The Nielsen Company 2014)
Cost
The cost for advertising post including:
12 posts for #MapleStories: 114.000VND x 12 = 1.368.000VND (reach 1000 to 2700 customers)
24 posts for Tet promotion: 114.000VND x 24 = 2.636.000VND (reach 1000 to 2700 customers)
Total: 4.004.000VND
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Per post:
Number of click-throughs
Number of likes, comments and shares
Per visit: The amount of time spent on the page
Per day: Number of visitors
Per month:
Number of searches
Number of followers/ fans
Business goals
Attracting likes and driving traffic to the page
Expressing the dedication of MHC staff
Daily tips
Attracting likes and driving traffic to the page
Educating customers about chiropractic exercises, skin care and dental routines
Tet promotion
Attracting likes and driving traffic to the page
Promoting ‘Health is Wealth'
YouTube
In the digital age, social media is a trend. For business, it presents as an marketing opportunity to show the brand identity, brand awareness and connects company to customers directly (Neti 2011). YouTube is considered as an online channel for the marketers. According to Miler (2011), online videos are better in gaining brand awareness than traditional TV ads ( 82% brand awareness and 77% product recall in comparison to 54% brand awareness and 18% product recall on similar TV ads). YouTube also attracts to almost all groups (Miller 2011). The most worth-mentioning factor is that YouTube is primary results of Google search, taking advantages over other video's services (Ozer 2014) Moreover, working on YouTube channel can help business minimize the cost. YouTube doesn't charge anything when posting or hosting video but TV ads do. Therefore, medium and small business can handle YouTube channel. It also allows marketers to embed video to own website and also links to other videos (Ozer 2014). Thus, if business decides to use online videos to promote their services or enhance brand’s image, YouTube is an incredible bargain that helps them save the investment.
In case of Maple Health Care, we would like to recommend YouTube is one online channel that you can benefit from. For the long term strategy, we want to boost the subscribers by helping you to create your own video content instead of using other's source.
Theme of all videos
· Focus on the benefits that MHC can bring to customers.
· Patient is the primary concern.
→ These two factors will highlight the dedication and high-quality service of MHC.
Videos of chiropractic workout instructed by Dr. Paul (spoken in Vietnamese)
If posting articles about practicing chiropractic at home is to abstract and sometimes make audience find it hard to follow, then showing details by video is very effective. As we mentioned before, we want to emphasize the dedication of MHC where Dr. Paul is the representative. Therefore, Dr. Paul should record these video that show how to practice simple chiropractic at home and indicate some benefits of curing by Chiropractic. The video should present in Vietnamese. It somehow gets closer to the audience rather than use subtitle.
Documentaries showing dedication of Dr. Paul (treatments)
One thing that may highlight the dedication of Dr. Paul as well as MHC's staffs is that you should upload the documentaries for this. For example: A day practicing chiropractic with Dr. Paul at the clinic. The content should include the real patients' reviews.
Sharing the spinal illnesses of the elderly (interview of Paul)
To make it more clearer about spinal illnesses, Dr. Paul should record an individual video that provides information of new illnesses related to the audiences. Sometimes, it is better when you listen to information rather than read. Each link of video should be embedded to each article that will be posted on Facebook and Website.
Series of videos curing tough cases
According to Lutz and Dutta (2014), the customer’s behavior when choosing a service is that they want to see final result. Therefore, we recommend that MHC should make series of video when they cure the tough cases from the beginning to the finish stage. It should focus on the dedication of how Dr. Paul and all MHC’s staffs have tried their best to help the patient. At the end, the customer will believe more in the effectiveness of MHC.
YouTube Strategy
Timing
For the year
Three videos per month
Posted in 1st, 3rd and 4th week
For each promotion period such as Tet Holiday, Mother's day, Father's day, Christmas, each video should include the sale promotions’ information.
For the week and time to post
Structure
Key visual of all videos: A warm welcome of Dr. Paul and all the Staff at the beginning.
Description content:
o Name of service: Chiropractic, Dental, Beauty...
o 150 words (maximum) describe about the service in video
o MHC location, date and time of working schedule
o Link of website, Facebook
o Recommendations: videos of other services are embedded on each video
Key words:
Chiropractic practices: MapleHealthcare , DailyTips , Chiropractic, SkinCare, Dental, HealthisWealth
Documentaries of the dedication: MapleHealthcare, MapleStories, HealthisWealth
Sharing new illness: MapleHealthcare, NewInformation, Chiropractic, HealthisWealth
Series videos of tough curing case: MapleHealthcare, MapleDedication, Chiropractic, HealthisWealth
Business Goals
Chiropractic practices
Show the effects of Chiropractic
Educate people about Chiropractic, Dental, Skincare to have better health day by day
Show the dedication of Dr. Paul
Increase the number of subscribers
Drive traffic to the website and Facebook
Documentaries of the dedication
Show the quality of good service at MHC
Show the dedication of Dr. Paul and all the staffs
Show the results by each patient's feedback → effectiveness of MHC
Increase the number of subscribers
Drive traffic to the website and Facebook
Sharing information of new illness
Educate people by informing information
Show the care of Dr. Paul
Increase the number of subscribers
Drive traffic to the website and Facebook
Series videos of tough curing case
Show the effects of MHC's cure
Show the dedication of Dr. Paul and all the staffs
Quality of services
Increase the number of subscribers
Drive traffic to the website and Facebook
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Per video:
· Number of click-throughs
· Number of likes, comments and shares
Per visit: The amount of time spent on the page
Per day: Number of viewers
Per month:
· Number of searches
· Number of subscribers
Website
· The Maple patient stories should be in the main navigation bar because it is an important part and people always trust suggestions and experiences from others.
Figure 1. Adding the Maple stories here
· The introduction of Chiropractic, Skin care and Dental should be at the top of the page, above the advertising panel.
· The advertising panel contains too much animation. In addition, the pause time is not long enough for customers to read.
· Link the website and Facebook with Google+
o Upload the post that has many likes and shares on Facebook page to Google+ page. Although people do not use Google+ as a social media, re-posting the Facebook posts on Google+ make it have more chances to be seen when people use Google search engine.
o Write a short and effective headline, especially first words of the headlines because they are what really matters in search engine. Your company should use some popular keywords related to chiropractic in headlines such as “How to cure…” (Làm thế nào để điều trị...), “backache” (đau lưng), osteoarthritis pain (nhức xương khớp), shoulder pain (đau vai), disc herniation (thoát vị đĩa đệm).
o Usually, at the end of a post, you need to suggest other posts of your page that worth to read. But do not simply add a link there then wait and hope that people will read it, give some description or summary of this post to make people click on.
Return on Investment
Gain from investment
Increase the percentage of people know about Maple Healthcare through Facebook and YouTube
Increase the percentage of people visit Maple’s website through Facebook and YouTube
Increase the percentage of visitors of Maple Healthcare through social media sources
Increase the percentage of people give positive feedbacks about the staffs of Maple on social media
Increase the percentage of interactions between Maple and Internet users on Facebook and YouTube
Cost of Investment
Cost for advertising post: 4 004 000 VND
The formula of ROI is described below
Social Media Etiquette
Selective sharing
Everything puts on social media represents the brand identity, including the original content and shared one. Before sharing something, make sure it relevant to the brand’s identity and spoken in the same tone of voice with the brand. Also it has to be appropriate with the target audience. An example of Maple Healthcare failing to do so is the picture below. While Maple shows effort in following the season’s spirit, the picture may not be appropriate for the brand’s premium identity.
Interact with the audience
Social media is a two-way communication channel for social bonding. Therefore, Maple should interact with the audience by replying comments or asking questions to generate the co-creation of value. By applying this, people will feel the dedication and caring of Maple’s service through very little things. However, Maple should be a “human” to interact with the audience on social media and should not add “the call for business action” (such as: call us on hotline/visit our website etc.) in every comment section.
Be transparent
Maple should not avoid criticism or bad comments about the brand on social media. Instead of deleting those comments, Maple should try to be calm in every situation and reply not too defensively but to ease the person and solve problem. Be transparent as much as possible to build a good image in consumer’s mind
The admin of the page also need to consider thoughtful reactions by asking for solution from supervisor or the whole social media team to prevent for any crisis spreading out.
Asking permission before posting about somebody else
Before posting stories or tagging a fan or customer on social media, Maple should carefully consider. This is because he or she may not appreciate the public recognition. Moreover, tagging people who do not belongs to your staffs is not professional way to manage a page. Therefore, it causes annoying and people who are tagged may feel inconvenient.
Avoid sell language
Branding on social media is to present your company's image to the audiences. Therefore, if you go directly to the sell tactics on social media, it will make people sensitive. Remember that soft selling is the key factor to success on social media. In this case, Maple should emphasize the term that ‘Customer is primary concern’ of your brand. This term will go along to all of posts and make people feel that they satisfy with your services
Tone of voice
Maple should take into consideration the language used on social media. Since the TA is mature, Maple’s tone of voice needs to be appropriate with them as well. Do not use the word “ad” as pronoun when talking with the audience, instead use “we” for more professional and relevant brand’s identity. In addition, too youthful tone should be avoided (for example, do not use interjection words like “nha”, “nhen” ) because it is not suitable for the mature audiences that Maple is targeting.
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