Over the past couple of decades, a number of major industries have been coming to terms with how the internet is affecting their marketing and business strategies. One of these key areas has been healthcare.
How we source and interact with our healthcare options has changed hugely over time. Where once upon a time our local doctor or GP was our conduit to further healthcare options, these days we are able to go straight to the source using the internet. This has meant that healthcare websites have had to change the way they market themselves as the target audience has changed from healthcare professionals to ordinary members of the public.
Of course, healthcare is a complicated topic, often involving complex scientific principles. So, you need to make sure that your website design and content can simplify complicated material and make it available to a wider range of potential customers. With this in mind, here are some top ways that you can use website design to maximise your digital healthcare marketing strategy.
Table of contents:
A website can be an education tool Social media Clarity, hierarchy and simplicity build trust Quality content Don’t make users think Don’t bury your CTAs Test, measure and re-design oftenA website can be an education tool
As we mentioned, customers are now looking directly to healthcare websites for answers to their healthcare issues. Even though these issues can be complex, you should use this opportunity to offer education about the healthcare issues that you aim to treat.
Turn your website into a source of information about the areas of medical care you cover. Try and contain guides about the conditions and potential treatments and ensure that all information is accurate. Think of your website not just as a marketing function but also as a tool to educate.
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Social media
The potential of social media should never be underestimated. Use platforms to help you reach out to the people who need your services. Some healthcare organisations can stay away from social media, thinking it’s not the place to discuss what they do, but the more information you can get out there, the better it will be for people who need your help.
Clarity, hierarchy and simplicity build trust
Healthcare presents a whole different series of challenges to other forms of digital marketing. People who come to you looking for answers or services need help and are often very eager. However, the last thing they need is to end up feeling confused or overwhelmed. Even though the products or services you offer may be complex, you need to keep things simple.
The design of your site should be simple and clean. Keep the initial amount of information easy to digest, placing more detailed pages inside the site. You should try and get as much feedback as you can about your design before the site goes live. Make sure that potential users are able to find what they are looking for and try and establish a good design methodology from the outset. If you have a clear goal in mind before you start the project this will help to realise a clearer end product.
If you’re unsure about how to achieve the best results, it’s always a good idea to enlist the support of a website design company. Specialist healthcare development services will help you to focus and deliver your main message.
Quality content
As well as keeping it simple, you also need to make sure you are offering high-quality content. In the world of healthcare, people need clear and concise information that is well written, easy to understand and 100% accurate. Too much detail or scientific language can be confusing so you need to find ways of distilling big ideas into easy to swallow chunks. If you are not able to do this in-house, then it may be a good idea to use the services of a healthcare development company or professional medical copywriter.
Don’t make users think
As a healthcare company, you’re not there to make users think. You’re there to provide answers, support, and assistance. The information you provide needs to be clear and concise, and each page needs to have an obvious purpose and be self-explanatory. Use a clear structure that is easy to follow and use recognisable links and buttons where required.
You need to keep an eye on the analytics and find the areas where you are losing users. These are the areas of your site where you are not providing the right information.
Don’t bury your CTAs
Calls to action are essentially the main purpose of any website where goods and services are on offer. Sure, you need top-quality content to engage the reader and you should always aim to be an authority in the area in which you work. But without the calls to action to turn this authority into results, this is an engagement that is being wasted.
Your CTAs should be front and centre. Once you have got a potential user’s attention, you need to guide them clearly and with a minimum of fuss to the place you need them to be. Big and bold buttons on all pages, well-placed links – whether it’s a link to the sales page or simply to a vote or stats analysis – whatever you want to achieve the CTA is the main way of making this happen. Bury them away in small and difficult to find places and you won’t be achieving your potential.
Test, measure and re-design often
Once your site is live and operating, that is far from the end of the story. Like a high-performance car, you need to keep tweaking and testing your site to make sure everything is running the way it should. You can’t afford to have bad links or pages not working. In healthcare, everything depends on your reputation for reliability. So, use the tools at your disposal to make sure it is all working the way it should. Analyse, test and make the necessary changes to ensure your site is running at top speed. And if you need help to do this, then get in touch with a healthcare website and app development company.
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Your website is the front end of the business. It is the way your users perceive your whole operation to be. So, you need to make sure that it is absolutely on point. Everything from the color scheme to the branding needs to make sense. Healthcare is changing, but the fundamentals remain the same. People need reliable, informative and easy to access services that can help them to solve their issues. Focus on these goals and you can develop a site that really works.