With healthcare consumerism in full swing, today's hospital marketers are keeping these four content strategies top of mind as they embark on their hospital website redesign.
#1: Focus Your Efforts on Creating the Most Engaging MD Profile and Treatment Program Content Types
Check your traffic logs. Prospective patients want to know what you offer and who offers it.
Doctor Profiles
Finding a doctor should be less like ordering off a fast food menu and more like using Yelp to find a restaurant that meets your unique needs and preferences. A website redesign is an opportunity to rethink your MD profile pages and give them new life with revitalized content display opportunities, transactional capabilities and modern design interfaces.
See how Nantucket Hospital reimagined their doctor profile page.
Treatment Programs
This important content type is overlooked on many hospital websites. If it even exists at all, it’s created sporadically and inconsistently across your organization. Treatment programs can do anything from describe a particular clinical program to outline what makes the hospital’s care special and innovative. These ~350-650 word descriptions can also feature doctors, awards, recognition, related patient testimonials, news articles, research advancements, clinical trials and video clips. This content is most successful when it comes together to position the clinical program over its competitors (because, yes, your patients are comparison shopping online.)
#2: Don't Forget the Condition Content Type
The condition name (or disease name) is still an incredibly useful content type on a hospital website. However, you no longer need to write or license condition description content that explains what the condition is. (Prospective patients have already read this on WebMD, mayoclinic.org or Wikipedia.) But this is good news; and it allows you to develop content focused on what your hospital does to treat the condition. For example, a landing page titled "Crohns Disease" filled with contextually relevant links to clinical programs, doctors, clinical trials, support programs, patient testimonials, news articles and press releases will be better at bringing patients into your hospital than a page that defines the causes, symptoms and risk factors of Crohns Disease. (We like to call these types of pages "condition hubs.")
#3: Use Social Media Content to Give the Website a Pulse
Most hospital websites grow to a 1000+ pages. And now that hospitals are tasked with constructing more complex digital experiences with limited staff size, keeping content current and up-to-date is an inevitable challenge. Take the time upfront to implement a strategy that addresses the issue. For example, consider building social-media feeds into your pages so Tweets, Instagram photos, Facebook comments and YouTube clips automatically energize content that can otherwise grow lifeless over time.
#4: Digital Content as Patient Engagement Drivers
Yes, your website should communicate your brand and your differentiators. Think of it also as a way to improve your patient’s experience. From simple web forms that send appointment requests and patient referrals to online tools that allow patients to chat securely with an expert, pay a bill, refill a prescription and access their medical records, a successful hospital website enables the reader to engage with their health provider and streamline the communications process.
See how Ochsner Health System created a personalized mobile-first experience to help consumers better understand measures of hospital quality.
Take your next step towards a more consumer-centric hospital website redesign
The new standard for hospital website redesign is inspired by best practices from leading B2B and B2C brands. Download our eBook to explore four models to architect, design and build a consumer-centric hospital website that also delivers measurable ROI for your C-suite.
