Have you ever heard of yourself or a family member saying?

☹️ Mujhe nahi jana Doctor kai pass!

💊 Dolo 650 khaa le… sab theek ho jayega!

😭 Gharpe Maa bimar hai ....babu ji! (Bollywood lover)

😕 I hate hospitals and waiting lines! ⎯ 🏥👨🏻‍⚕️

🫣 Firse dawai bhul gya… 😬

English main bole to:

• Sick of those never-ending waiting times at the doctor's office?
• Moved to a new city and finding a new doctor is a task?
• Wanted to connect with a doctor for skin and hair fall issues but I don't have time.
• Need a second opinion but can't find the time or means to visit another doctor?
• Oops! Forgot your medication while travelling?
• Uh-oh! Emergency strikes at odd hours?
• Private health concerns that you are uncomfortable discussing in person.

If you have experienced any of these situations - then do not worry, you are not alone.

कहानी घर घर की…🏡🏡

Introducing MediBuddy, your healthcare buddy! With our online doctor consultation service, you can bid farewell 👋🏻 to those never-ending waiting lines at the clinic and say hello 🤝 to top-notch medical advice from the comfort of your cosy couch.

Whether you're feeling a bit under the weather 🤧 or need a second opinion, or even if you are “Bhulakad” like me and forgot your medication while travelling?🚗 No worries, MediBuddy is here to save the day.👨🏻‍⚕️

Our platform is designed for anyone who wants to take care of themselves and their family's health needs with a simple touch 📲

Understanding the Product 👨🏻‍⚕️

👉🏻 MediBuddy is a digital healthcare platform that offers inpatient hospitalization, outpatient services, and corporate wellness benefits. It has a network of over 90,000 doctors, 7,000 hospitals and clinics, and 4,000 diagnostic centres. MediBuddy has over 3 crore Indian customers.

👉🏻 Medibuddy provides its users with round-the-clock access to specialist doctors via video calls, doorstep medicine delivery, at-home lab tests, mental health support, and other integrated healthcare services; all in one place.

Product Selection Framework and Statistics 📊

Funding Details 💸

1. MediBuddy raised $125 Mn in its Series C round in February last year.
2. Additionally they have raised funding of $18 Mn from its existing investors Quadria Capital, Lightrock, and TEAMFund on Aug 30, 2023

Source:

• https://inc42.com/buzz/medibuddy-raises-18-mn-from-quadria-lightrock-teamfund-for-acquisitions/#:~:text=Bengaluru-based healthtech startup MediBuddy,round in February last year.
• https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technology/medibuddy-raises-18-million-in-funding-from-existing-investors/articleshow/103219197.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

💡Ideal Customer Profile

https://www.notion.so/MediBuddy-ICP-table-445009f153d844eb8afc64e27a3edfda?pvs=4

⭐ ICP Prioritisation Framework

📌 Based on the ICP Selection Framework: ICP (Primary) - ICP 2, ICP 3 and ICP 4 ICP (Secondary) - ICP 1 and ICP 5

Secondary ICPs have a HIGH need and a significant market. However, considering ICP1 's low appetite to pay and ICP5's lower level of technical proficiency and limited distribution potential, we will focus on Primary ICPs.

Understanding the Market 🤓

TAM, SAM, SOM Calculation

India’s total population is about 142 crores.

Stats depicts the age distribution of India -> In 2022, about 25.31% of the Indian population fell into the 0-14 year category, 67.8% into the 15-64 age group and 6.9% were over 65 years of age.

To calculate the TAM I am taking the Total population of India between the age of 18-70 and drilling it down to smartphone users.

TAM = 74.2 Crore

To understand the SAM, further drilling down to the population living in Tier 1,2,3 cities and have 6+LPA

SAM = 9.3 crore

The post-pandemic period in India has seen a surge in online medicine purchases, with approximately 70% of users buying medicines online as part of their telemedicine experience. This presents a significant market opportunity for businesses in the tele-consultation sector.

Considering 70% of SAM

SOM = 6.51 crore

6.51 cr X Average consults per person in year X per consultation fee

6.51 cr X 3 X200

$469 million 🌟🌟🌟

Sources:

1. https://startuptalky.com/online-pharmacy-industry-india/
2. https://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/online-doctor-consultations-cross-4-bn-in-india-in-fy21-praxis-report-121082000743_1.html

2. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/expert-view/we-need-to-do-incremental-reforms-13-6-taxpayers-migrated-to-higher-tax-bucket-in-10-yrs-sk-ghosh-sbi/articleshow/102800260.cms

3. https://www.newindianexpress.com/business/2023/jan/21/number-of-smartphones-doubled-in-rural-india-frompre-covid-era-aser-2540034.html#:~:text=In%202018%2C%20around%2036%20per,cent%20of%20households%20have%20smartphones.

4. https://www.financialexpress.com/healthcare/healthtech/online-medical-consultations-in-tier-2-3-cities-grew-by-87-percent-in-2022-study/2975109/
5. https://www.statista.com/statistics/271315/age-distribution-in-india/
6. https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/health/500-increase-in-healthcare-teleconsultation-in-india-80-are-first-time-users-report-6483212/#:~:text=Online%20consultation%20for%20healthcare%20has,user%2C%20as%20per%20the%20report.https://blog.practo.com/india-is-getting-serious-about-healthcare-practo-insights/#:~:text=Indians%20in%20Metros%20cities%20see,doctors%20more%20than%205%20times!

Covid-19 increased online doctor consultations in India. India's teleconsultation market size was about $26 million in March last year, but it has grown to $163 million by March 2021 on an annualised run-rate basis.

This is expected to grow by 72% to $836 million by March 2024, according to a study on the "Outpatient Healthcare Market in India" by Praxis Global Alliance. The study said one in 35 consultations will happen online by FY24.

The volume of consultations is expected to grow 6% and per capita consultations are expected to be 3.6 per person per year in FY24

Source -

https://www.healthdata.org/research-analysis/health-by-location/profiles/india

https://www.businesstoday.in/lifestyle/health/story/online-doctor-consultation-market-to-grow-72-to-836-million-by-march-2024-study-304689-2021-08-19

https://www.praxisga.com/PraxisgaImages/ReportImg/praxis-report-on-outpatient-healthcare-market-in-india-Report-3.pdf

Acquisition Strategies 💡

Channel Selection Framework

The highest traffic source for MediBuddy is organic search, driving 53% of the traffic. Direct search contributes 34% of the traffic, and referral is the third highest source.

MediBuddy receives most of its social media traffic from LinkedIn, followed by YouTube, Twitter, Telegram, and Facebook

Competitor (Practo)

Practo: The biggest competitor in the Online Doctor consultation market is Practo. It was one of the early entrants in the Indian healthcare technology space. It was founded in 2008, which gave it a head start in establishing its brand and services in the market.

Practo primarily focused on helping users find and book appointments with doctors. It offered services such as doctor discovery, appointment booking, healthcare provider profiles, patient reviews and ratings, digital health records, and health information. This made it a valuable tool for patients seeking efficient healthcare management.

Over time, Practo expanded its services to include features like online consultations, telemedicine, and diagnostic test bookings, evolving into a comprehensive healthcare platform covering a wide range of healthcare needs beyond just appointment booking.

Practo built a strong brand presence in Indian users because it established its brand and services early and made it a trusted and familiar platform for finding and booking doctor appointments. Its comprehensive features and user-friendly interface have contributed to its widespread adoption among Indian users.

Practo's SEO game is stronger than MediBuddy.

"Doctor" is the most searched term, and Practo covers 93% of the share.

Direct/ Competitor Search

Plotting our channel framework 🛠️

Stage - MediBuddy is in the early scaling stage of online doctor consultation.

According to the channel framework, organic search has a low cost, and medium scale, while referral has a medium cost and efforts and high scale. Therefore, I will choose these two channels.

💡 Organic search contributes 53% of the MediBuddy traffic but it's still less than Practo’s organic search which is 79%. We should focus on our SEO game by learning what is working for Practo and other competitors.

💡 Referral contributes 8% of the traffic, which can be increased by positioning it right on the app and also by utilising CRM channels.

Doctor consultations provide an "AHA" moment within 1-2 days, giving users satisfactory answers and helping them recover while saving time, energy and money. Hence, it is scalable.

💡 Paid Ads - Due to high cost, high efforts and medium scale we will avoid it for now.

💡 Product Integration - Due to its high cost and low flexibility, we would be avoiding it at this stage.

Data reference - https://pro.similarweb.com/#/digitalsuite/acquisition/DMItracker?trackerId=7f82a50b-baa0-476d-9cff-4712853d27a5

Top Channels Prioritised 📺

1) Referral

The existing Referral program is running for the user sign-up.

the position of the referral option is on the home page at the end and in the profile.

In the existing Referral program, the referrer gets 20 Buddy coins 🪙 and the referee gets 50 buddy coins 🪙, which can be used to purchase or book any product or service on the app.

Observations:

• No referral tracking option
• No communication after doing the referral
• Referral positioning is not great.
• Takes IOS user to Web Play Store
• No communication after the referee downloads the app using the link

Referee Flow

• Play Store - download the App
• Sign in with a mobile number and email ID
• OTP shared
• No communication for downloading the app or anything

What's Working? ✅

• All and all experience is bad but the currency is high 1Buddy coin = 1 Rs
• User can refer and enter up to 10,000 Coins
• Referred users don't need to make any purchases just sign up

What’s not working?❌

• IOS users are taken on the Play Store app
• No communication after the referral
• No tracking option

How do we fix the problems with MediBuddy's referral strategy? 🛠

➡️ Who will we ask for referrals? (Customers who have had the AHA moment)

• Customers who has given 4+ ratings to the consultation
• Customers who are taking multiple consultation for self or family
• Customers taking subscription and renewing it

➡️ How will users discover the referral program?

• After completing the payment for the doctor consultation, where user have to wait for some time for Doctor to call.
• At the end of the Lab test booking, medicine order or any OTC purchase.
• At the reward or waller amount page
• Track your order page
• Also use the CRM channels like push notification, WhatsApp to share the referral program

➡️ How will referees share their referral code?

The referral link can be shared across Whatsapp, SMS, Facebook, along with a compelling message and a link embedded with the code which redirects them to the App. (App store, Play store)

The current referral message 📝

Suggested Updated Referral Message

"Sending you the gift of good health! 🎁

I've been using Medibuddy for all my healthcare needs, and I thought you might find it super helpful too.

Here are 50 buddy coins to get started.

You can use them for Doctor consultations, Lab test bookings, or ordering medicines.

Sign in & claim your gift today: [Referral Link]"

How will referees track their referrals?

Currently, there is no way to track the referrals on the MediBuddy App and website.

But referral tracking can be created and meanwhile, users can be updated about it through trigger communications. (push, SMS, WhatsApp)

Tracking view will provide the use visibility on the referred user, and at what part of the funnel the referred users are currently at.

How will we keep users to refer more?

Right now there is no limit on the number of referrals and the user doesn’t need to make any purchase just sign in.

But to make the user refer more we can change the currency after a certain number of referred users.

Organic Channel 🌟

MediBuddy receives 53% of its traffic from organic channels, with 94% of the traffic being organic and 6% being paid.

Search Intent (Pull) - SEO 🌍

Buying Intent (Push) → Via Content Loops 🔁

Website Content: (Blogs): 📝

MediBuddy has a blog section that provides health tips, news, and insights on various health issues.

Social Media Content: 📲

MediBuddy leverages social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to engage with its audience and share health tips, news, and updates.

Additionally, MediBuddy uses social media to run campaigns and contests to increase user engagement and brand awareness.

Email Marketing Content: 📧

MediBuddy uses email marketing to send newsletters and personalised emails based on their health concerns and preferences. Also, to run targeted campaigns to increase user engagement and retention.

Offline Content: 📰

MediBuddy uses offline channels such as print media, radio, and outdoor advertising to reach out to its target audience.

The platform uses these channels to promote its services and increase brand awareness.

Additionally, MediBuddy participates in health fairs and events to engage with its audience and promote its services.