Does Your Hospital Website Actually Serve Visitors? Written by web_developers on March 22, 2017. Posted in Convert. Seven Questions That All Hospital Website Administrators and Marketers Should be Asking It’s occasionally uncomfortable to think of patients and other hospital Website visitors as “customers,” but it does help to use that perspective when trying to understand how a hospital or healthcare Website can better serve its audience. MarketingLand.com recently published “7 Questions Your Customers Ask, and How Your Website Must Answer,” an excellent model for gauging how well your hospital Website is serving its “customers.” The following is a list of those questions, but positioned for hospital Websites and its audiences. [poll id=”4″] Why Does Your Hospital Deserve My “Business”? Again, it’s a bit odd to describe healthcare as “business” for “customers,” especially for somebody that isn’t just looking for a great deal on an HDTV or a hotel room, but instead, is trying to figure out the best place to everything from preventative care to urgent care to treatment for chronic illnesses. However, people often have choices when making healthcare decisions, and “7 Questions” was correct in asking this important question: Why does your hospital deserve somebody’s business? It suggested some ways to begin to answer the question, including: • Value Proposition: Almost without exception, your hospital’s marketing team has carefully crafted a mission statement and/value proposition statement that concisely explains its goals, benefits and differentiators. Likely, it appears on your Website’s homepage. But does the rest of your Website support those statements? If so, how and where? • Longevity: If your hospital has been around longer than others in your area, that should be promoted as an indication of its quality and community support. However, this can work another way, too: If you are a new, cutting-edge facility, promoting your innovative spirit can be highly advantageous. • Success Stories: Hospitals have multiple avenues to demonstrate its proven ability to deliver quality care! Among them are: • Patient Testimonials • Awards and Honors • Case Studies and Clinical Trial Reports What Makes Your Hospital Different? As “7 Questions” was quick to point out, “this is similar to the question [about deserving your business, but it’s directed toward the products or services you offer, rather than your company.” For hospitals, it might seem difficult to separate the whole from the sum of its parts, but it’s important for each of your hospital’s services and institutes communicate their own unique mission and value statements (which should also support those of the hospital). How well do each and all of them do that? Again, “7 Questions” provided some concepts to consider in this regard: • Approach: How do each of your services adopt, embrace or integrate your hospital’s UVP into its own approach? • Quality: What standards of quality—aside from those proscribed by the hospital—does each service use to demonstrate its proficiency or excellence? • Difference: What makes the service different (or better) than others available to the same audience? Can Your Hospital Help Me? At first glance, this could seem like a ridiculous or even rhetorical question…because one would hope that a hospital can indeed help somebody! But give it some thought and think back to the last question about what makes your hospital and services different. No hospital can help everybody and/or everywhere. This covers everything from: • Geography: Do you primarily serve parts of your city, county, state or region? Is your Website accurately explaining this? • Services: Along with providing a comprehensive list of the services your hospital offers, does it also do so in a manner that is accurate and benefits both you and your audience? For instance, if your “sports medicine” or “chronic care management” department is one of the smallest in your hospital, it probably shouldn’t be heavily promoted. • Customer Service: This will be explored in more detail later, but for now: How easily and accurately does your Website help people find answers—be it FAQs about parking to accessing one’s nurses or doctors? How Can I Justify Your Hospital’s Value? The “Seven Questions” article originally positioned this question as “How Can I Justify This Purchase,” but it’s not an appropriate fit in the context of healthcare. Likewise, hospital Websites don’t have “menus” or “shopping carts” that itemize what it offers and how much it costs. Instead, it’s better to think of this question in terms of value, a concept that exceeds mere dollars and cents. In what ways does your hospital’s Website give people reason to consider your facility as their best choice for their healthcare needs? Among the ways “7 Questions” provides for others to answer this question, one in particular stands out as exceptionally valid for hospital Websites: solutions. Ponder this beyond the obvious “you are sick and we can make you well” problem/solution paradigm. Instead, as you did in your value proposition where you identified what makes you special and why you are the best choice for your patients, ask “What makes our patients special and what problems do they have that are unique?” Where Do I Go From Here? “7 Questions” positioned this question as one where “the shopper is ready to proceed. Now what?” Although it is never in good taste to think of patients as “shoppers” or “customers,” it is fair and important to be able to answer “Now what?”, especially for hospital Website visitors. Answering this shouldn’t be too difficult; it just requires an understanding of why people come to you (which includes on the phone, online or in-person) and how your Website can either provide an option or make the process easier to: • Get Medical Attention • Schedule Appointments • Refill Prescriptions • Get More Information What Do I Do If I Have a Problem? For hospitals, there are two ways to conceptualize this question: • Medical or Clinical Problems: These problems can range from somebody that needs basic advice from clinician so that a trip to the ER or urgent care can be avoided to post-surgical/post-release questions that don’t justify calling 911 or cannot wait for the next available appointment. Does your hospital (or your hospital Website) have call centers, online support, etc. or other technologies/services for these scenarios…and if so, how easily is it to find and access them through your Website? • Customer Service Problems: Remember that your hospital serves two distinct groups: patients and visitors. Much of what’s been discussed has focused on patients, but satisfying the needs of visitors is an important one too. For instance, is getting to your hospital—or parking at it—difficult? How well does your hospital Website explain transportation-related information? Can I Trust Your Hospital? The article said, “Ultimately, every question above boils down to this very one.” For hospitals, this could not be more of an understatement! Without getting too philosophical, it’s best to say that trust is something earned. So, in that context, how can a hospital demonstrate that on its Website? The article offered several suggestions that are valid for hospitals: • Organization Memberships: Your hospital—and its services and institutes—all likely belong to multiple organizations that indicate a commitment to high standards. Are they mentioned on your Website? Does the Website make it easy for visitors to engage those organizations to learn more about you? • Industry Recognition: As mentioned in “Why Does Your Hospital Deserve My Business,” awards and honors that build confidence in your hospital can be instrumental in establishing trust. • Policies: How does your hospital ensure that key issues like patient rights and privacy are more than just words on a page (be it print or online)? • About Us: Most hospital Websites at least provide some background information about its history and its doctors, but again, how well does your Website communicate this information? Is it enough for visitors to have trust in you (and to answer other questions)? Derek Rudnak is a freelance healthcare marketing content creator that frequently contributes exclusive blogs to Guideway Care. Guideway Care is a recognized leader for innovative healthcare marketing solutions— which include inbound content marketing for hospitals. To learn more about how we can develop and implement a healthcare content marketing solution for you, please contact us.
Google Tips for Hospital Website Admins: February 2017 Written by SQHealth-admin on March 9, 2017. Posted in Convert. February 2017 was a relatively quiet month for Google, at least in the context of critical Google tips for hospital Website administrators as they relate to services such as Maps, My Business, etc. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t any activity that caught the attention of the hardcore Google watchdogs and bloggers, especially in the context of Google algorithms. For instance, Search Engine Roundtable’s “New Google Algorithm Update Targets PBNs & Links, Penguin Tweak?” identified an update that seemed to heavily target “black hat” SEO practices, which is best defined as very aggressive SEO techniques that aim to game the system for maximum search engine result page (SERP) results, rather than to develop content that has markedly more legitimate function and interest for Website visitors. However, as per the usual theme of this monthly blog, we prefer to focus on tips and updates for busy hospital Website admins that avoid intensive analysis and revisions to SEO best practices. In that context, there were some very interesting news and discussions that certainly warrant their inclusion here. How to Use Google Maps and the “New Restaurant Model” for Improving Hospital Visibility Search Engine Land recently published a superb article, “5 Ways You Can Improve Your New Business’s Visibility on Google Maps.” Rather than regurgitating its simple yet well thought-out tips that used new restaurants as a control in a model to validate its premises, you are encouraged to clickthrough and read it. However, if you need the motivation to explore this very important component of a successful online hospital marketing strategy, consider these figures from the article: • Google controls 95 percent of mobile search market share. • Google Maps overtook the Google Search app for fourth place in number of unique visitors with over 95 million users. It trails only Facebook, Messenger and YouTube in unique visitors. And thus, as the article smartly concludes, “that means appearing in Google map results is critical for local businesses.” The takeaway: Advice for how to improve hospital visibility with Google Maps that also does so in the context of “local business” is invaluable for hospitals and clinics. Although it may not pertain as much for healthcare facilities that have a wide audience (e.g., national or multi-state regions), it’s arguable that such facilities aren’t as reliant on Google Maps for visibility because they often have large budgets for advertising and other techniques for building brand awareness. Google Spaces Closing Down Don’t worry if you never heard of Google Spaces, because it was only introduced a matter of months ago. However, if you were one of the ambitious online hospital marketers that adopted it, you should be aware that it will be shut down on April 17, 2017. The takeaway: As of March 3, 2017, Spaces is read-only—which per Google, “means you can’t create new spaces, posts or comments. Also, new invitations can’t be sent, and new members can’t be added to spaces.” You’ve got until April 17 until your content disappears forever. Until then, you can still see, save or delete—with the last option probably being the wisest. As the saying goes, “the Internet is forever,” and it’s best to not let content that you will soon forget about potentially reemerge at a later time. As Guideway Care Associate Director of Search Engine Marketing, Susan Gullion is one of our most knowledgeable resources for enhancing our healthcare clients’ search engine marketing strategies with SEO, PPC and social media. Please contact us to learn more about how Guideway Care can partner with you to develop a custom healthcare search engine marketing solution.
Google Tips for Hospital Website Admins: January 2017 Written by SQHealth-admin on February 7, 2017. Posted in Convert. One of our final blogs for 2016 was Top 2016 Google My Business Listing Changes for Online Healthcare Marketers, in which we listed key changes and new features that will help hospital Website administrators and online marketers prioritize their workflows and develop strategies for 2017. Due to the positive feedback from busy hospital marketers that can’t or don’t keep up with the seemingly endless updates—whether officially by Google or from a cadre of bloggers that scrutinize every perceived Google change—we thought it would be better to share a monthly digest of the most crucial tips. Along with covering My Business in our Google tips, we will be including all the Google technologies that we monitor, including new SEO algorithms, significant Chrome browser updates and more. [tweet “…our Google tips include new SEO algorithms, significant Chrome browser updates and more.”] Chrome 56 part I: TLS/SSL “Shaming” Another of our final 2016 blogs was Is Your Hospital Website Secure Enough for Google in 2017? In which we explained how Google would begin “shaming” Websites that weren’t using TLS/SSL security and how it might influence your SEO rankings. Late in January, Google rolled out the latest version of its Chrome browser, dubbed “Chrome 56.” As expected, the new Chrome shows a “Not Secure” label in the address bar of any Website not in compliance. The takeaway: If your hospital Website doesn’t collect passwords or credit card information, then you are OK—for the moment. However, as Google said in its blog Chrome 56 Beta: “Not Secure” warning, Web Bluetooth, and CSS position: sticky, there’s “a long-term plan to mark all HTTP sites as non-secure,” which means if you are not yet using TLS/SSL, it’s again time to think about updating your Website (for which we provided solutions in our aforementioned blog). [tweet “…if you are not yet using TLS/SSL, it’s again time to think about updating your Website.”] Chrome 56 part II: HTML5 and Auto-Disabling Flash The new Chrome also has another twist: Because it uses HTML5, which auto-disables Adobe Flash, as discussed in another Google blog, New in Chrome 56. This should also be of significant concern to hospital Website administrators that use Flash to create a more robust experience for patients and guests. Note it doesn’t eliminate Flash functionality. Your hospital Website users “will be prompted to run Flash on sites they’ve never visited,” which could be a minor nuisance, as well as an unfavorable impression for your brand. The takeaway: If your hospital Website uses Flash, now is the time to think about converting to other technologies and/or evaluating the importance of your Flash-driven content. [tweet “If your hospital Website uses Flash, think about converting and/or evaluating your content.”] Get Ready for Google’s Interstitial Ad Penalties As explained in more detail in Site Pro News.com’s Google’s Intrusive Interstitial Update Now Live, Google will soon likely penalize Websites that use interstitial ads, which the article identifies as anything that: • Blocks a page • Makes content unreadable • Pops up without interaction • Isn’t responsive (meaning it’s difficult or impossible to close on a mobile platform) • Bothers people • Annoys people The takeaway: This is primarily intended to make mobile users’ experiences better. If your healthcare online marketing strategy is dependent on mobile users, then you will most certainly want to take heed. And if your strategy isn’t mobile-centric, then perhaps this is yet another indication of how important it is to have a Website experience designed to accommodate this expanding demographic. [tweet “..how important it is to have a Website that accommodates this expanding demographic.”] As Guideway Care Associate Director of Search Engine Marketing, Susan Gullion is one of our most knowledgeable resources for enhancing our healthcare clients’ search engine marketing strategies with SEO, PPC and social media. If you already host your hospital Website with Guideway Care, we can guide you through the process of selecting the best SSL certificate. Stayed tuned for more Google Tips. For more information about hosting and other healthcare Website services, please contact us.
Online Seminars a Life Saver for Bariatric Patients Written by web_developers on November 18, 2014. Posted in Bariatric Surgery, Convert. No Comments on Online Seminars a Life Saver for Bariatric Patients Severe obesity is a serious health concern, and is reaching epidemic levels within the United States. As a national issue, it is responsible for tens of thousands of deaths a year due to its associated life threatening conditions such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and kidney failure. Shockingly, living with severe obesity decreases a person’s lifespan by an average of 20 years; when you consider disabilities caused by strokes and other events, the potential impact on a person’s quality of life is incalculable. However, there are options thanks to weight loss procedures performed at the many world class facilities such as MountainView Weight Loss Center in Las Cruces, N.M., Park Nicollet Bariatric Surgery Center in Minneapolis and several other bariatric practices around the country that have partnered with Guideway Care. Together we provide long term-solutions to bolster patient engagement, improve patient management and generate positive patient outcomes. For individuals suffering from severe obesity, attempts at weight loss can be a challenging cycle of disappointment and negative reinforcement. Traditional weight loss methods like diet and exercise often fail to deliver the results needed for a severely obese person to reach and maintain a healthy weight. This lack of sustainable results can result in a sense of hopelessness and apathy that overwhelms the seriousness of underlying health concerns. To give severely obese individuals a better chance at an improved quality of life, a more effective option is needed. This is why many bariatric programs have teamed with Guideway Care to provide online seminars, housed on the practice’s website. These are designed to attract new patients and inform the patient of his or her treatment options. They also have the opportunity to view the video from the comfort of their home and do not have to travel, which for some severely obese people is an arduous task. “The online course is an alternative to attending one of our regularly scheduled seminars, in-person,” said Stephan Myers, MD, FACS, who works at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. “The online bariatric course provides information to help you decide if bariatric surgery is right for you. It’s a convenient way to learn about our bariatrics program from the comfort of your home, at your personal computer.” Combine Guideway Care online seminars with our web-based LeadTracker™, which captures and tracks your patients from initial intake through every stage of the patient process under your care, and you are armed with the right tools to provide optimum care for your patients. Fortunately weight loss procedures are now more practical, viable and more easily accessible than ever before for a wider range of patients. A dedicated team of experienced specialists and surgeons use only the latest technology and the most proven methods to provide truly world class care. For anyone curious about the many outstanding and proven bariatric procedures available, an online seminar is the best way to learn about the surgery. With a wide range of treatment to choose from, any patient will be guided toward the exact strategy that’s right for them. Because bariatric surgery is not a one-size-fits-all procedure, highly experienced surgeons work closely with each and every patient throughout the process, from inquiry through post-op, to ensure all patients receive the top-notch care they need. This is where the LeadTracker™ proves to be a valuable tool. With one click of the mouse, you can tell where each patient is in the process. Because severe obesity is a life threatening concern, anyone dealing with its effects, limitations and consequences simply can’t afford to wait any longer before taking action. If your practice does not have an online seminar presence or a way to track the progress of your patients, your practice is not working as efficiently as it could be, and your patients are suffering. With the LeadTracker™, your practice runs more efficiently and is more productive, as the program simplifies and streamlines patient intake, appointment scheduling and outreach efforts. It’s a win for your patient population and for your practice. Don’t delay, visit Guideway Care today or call 888.986.3638 to schedule a demonstration.
Shopping Days Are QR Days As Scanning Triples in 2011 Written by web_developers on February 1, 2012. Posted in Convert. No Comments on Shopping Days Are QR Days As Scanning Triples in 2011 People are getting into the mobile scanning habit, according to the latest quarterly report from code enabler ScanBuy. The maker of the popular ScanLife platform and code program manager for Starbucks, Home Depot and Coca-Cola saw more scans in Q4 2011 than it had in all of 2009 and 2010 combined. For 2011, the ScanLife system saw a 300% increase in the number of scans. The biggest scanning days of the holiday season corresponded with the top retail shopping days, Black Friday and the two days following Christmas. The company says over 3 million more people were added to its network of ScanLife-enabled scanning apps in Q4. According to CEO Mike Wehrs, over 15 million people use the ScanLife system. “We process scans for tens of thousands of unique QR codes per month, plus over 800,000 unique UPC codes per month,” he says. Wehrs estimates that ScanBuy touches 15% to 20% of U.S. mobile users who are scanning codes. And this past season, those scans were going to consumer packaged goods. While retail had traditionally been the leading category for 2D mobile code campaigns, ScanLife saw the CPG category scale five spots to become the top source of code campaigns in the last quarter. Retail was second, entertainment third, editorial fourth and wireless fifth. Not surprisingly, given the strength of CPGs, packaging was the most popular place for codes last season. Print media — formerly the most popular type of code placement — is now #2, with the Web (#3) rising in popularity, followed by activations made on outdoor advertising and direct mail pieces. The rise of code placement on Web sites is connected to app distribution, as many of these prompts are shortcuts to app downloads. The demographics of code scanning remain decidedly male (63%). But as smartphone accessibility widens, the age range for the common scanner broadens. The 25- to-34-year-old segment is now responsible for 28% of scans, compared to 35-44 (22%) and 18-24 (22%). Only 17% of scans come from users 45 and older. The year-end bump for iPhone ownership was reflected in the ScanLife results, where scanning from the Apple phones was up 10 points to 39%, still leaving Android with a 50% share. BlackBerry is down to 6% of scans from 20% only a year ago. Wehrs says the growth in code use is coming from all sides. “The number of scans per user has been increasing, but the primary driver of the growth is the volume of new QR codes being published by marketers,” he says. In a recent survey of 100 marketers by ScanBuy, half said they were already using 2D codes and 86% said they planned to do do in the future. Want to learn more about mobile websites and QR codes? MDNetSolutions has the answers for you. Contact Carol O’Dell at carol@mdnetsolutions.com or 888.986.3638. Source