Month: December 2018

Categories
Blog Digital Marketing Online Marketing Web Design Web Development

3 Tips for Building a Healthcare Website that Works

A heart figurine and a stethoscope.

A guide to healthcare digital marketing

More than ever, consumers are making healthcare decisions online—and that means healthcare digital marketing is more important than ever. An astounding 89 percent of internet users search for health information online, according to iHealthBeat. 55 percent of users will even use the internet to find a specific medical treatment or procedure, and nearly the same number will search for information about doctors or other professionals online.

It’s crucial that healthcare companies market themselves well to online consumers. Healthcare websites can’t just meet minimum standards. They’ve got to stand out. That means implementing the best practices of web development and web design, then tailoring for the specific needs of the healthcare industry. Here are three web development and web design tips that will help your healthcare website convert visitors into customers.

1. Know your audience … and yourself

It’s one of the first principles of content marketing: know your audience. When you start to dig into that during web development, and you’ll find that to define your audience, you must first define your own organization. Who do you want to target? If your website should speak more to established customers, you’ll want to highlight your patient management system most, with a prominently placed login option. If you’re looking to bring in new business, you’ll need something else featured on your site.

You need a holistic view of customer behavior, including both quantitative measurements and a qualitative understanding of the needs that drive them. This knowledge should inform your web development and design. And just as the healthcare market is always changing, the needs of your audience (and maybe the audience itself) are always changing. Your audience analysis efforts must be ongoing and adaptive.

The best websites create an immediate action for users, whether it’s as simple as clicking through to another page, or as complicated as making an appointment. Your content strategy and homepage layout will need to be carefully calibrated to achieve these goals.

2. Create content that offers value

The best way to attract visitors to your website (and keep them there) is to immediately provide them with something of value. Blogs are a popular and effective way to do this—just be sure to share material that your potential customers would find interesting. For the best healthcare digital marketing results, consider everything you know about your customer, then provide content that addresses their needs. Guides, tools, case studies, and other resources that relate to your specific service are particularly influential.

The Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic are two great examples of traditional blogs that use patient stories, informative articles, explainers, and even recipes to engage readers. Articles like “Poor Posture Hurts Your Health More than you Know: 3 Tips for Fixing It” provide relevant information that visitors can put to use right away. Professional resources and tools are another powerful method to activate customers. Medical records management provider HealthcareXL makes free white papers and tools available on its website, including a cost-computing spreadsheet that medical practices can download.

Health system Banner Health produces infographics with titles like “Concussion Myths and Facts” and “Winter Poison Safety” aimed at both individual visitors and at health practitioners, who can use them as posters or educational tools. Arkansas Children’s Hospitals maintains an Industry Prevention Center with safety guides and videos for parents. Your content can also be used to drive ongoing campaigns that involve customer participation. United Healthcare’s 2015 We Dare You initiative challenged visitors to complete challenges meant to increase healthy lifestyle choices and post the results to social media using the hashtag #WeDareYou, then randomly selected winners to receive weekly prizes.

Lastly, don’t discount simple entertainment as a way to show a more personal side of your business—getting a visitor to laugh has its own value. For an example, see Becker’s Hospital Review healthcare-themed Valentines (a sample: “Roses are red / violets are blue / I love you as intensely / as doctors hate meaningful use stage 2”).

Whatever the content of your website, make sure it is professional, relevant, and useful to the visitor. If your site becomes a resource for online readers, it’s likely that it will soon become their provider of choice as well.

3. Design your site to balance the modern and the timeless

Everyone consumes content visually. The web design of your site will create visitors’ all-important first impression. Indeed, surveys by Adobe have shown that nearly 40 percent of all internet users will leave a website if they find the design uninteresting. So you’ll need a look that says something. It’s not enough to simply “make it look good.” Your website needs to look good—for a purpose. Thoughtful and intentional design is critical to a successful healthcare digital marketing strategy.

For best results, consider two important aspects of healthcare that are most visible to customers and patients: technology and personal care. Customers want the cutting-edge technology of advanced medicine (think a gleaming white labs and brightly colored brain scan), paired with the individualized attention and empathy often associated with an earlier era of medicine (like the personalized touch of a familiar family doctor). A thoughtfully designed healthcare website can convey both.

Informed web designers should be able to impart a current, clean, and sleek look to your site. A modern site will convey that your organization uses the most modern technology; an outdated website will lead visitors to assume your medical care is equally outdated. At the same time, knowledgeable designers should use photo choices and illustrated elements that give your site an inviting feel—that’s the bedside manner that projects warmth and personal care to your potential customers. Balance the modern appeal of technology with the caring feel of that personal touch, and users will be inclined to become customers on their first visit to your site.

The Goal: Build Trust

All the tips listed here aim towards a singular goal: building trust with your customer. Know your audience, create content that offers them value, and then present it all with an effective design. In the healthcare industry, trust is even more critical than in other businesses—your customers may literally put their life in your hands. If you’re looking for a healthcare digital marketing partner that can help you build trust with your customers, give us a call. Social Link is an award-winning, full-service digital marketing and mobile development agency. Get in touch at 615-873-0707.

Categories
App Development Digital Marketing Email Marketing Online Marketing Web Design Web Development

Social Links Joins Clutch’s Directory of the Best Marketing Agencies

The Clutch badge for best marketing agencies.

Social Links Joins Clutch’s Directory of the Best Marketing Agencies

We’re proud to announce that we’ve been listed as one of 2018’s Best Marketing Agencies by Clutch, the nation’s leading ratings and reviews platform for B2B service providers.

Even more thrilling, we’ve received a perfect 5-star rating from clients in the Clutch listings! (A sample review: “They are an awesome company.”) Not only are we listed as a top marketing agency, we’ve also been recognized by Clutch for our exemplary range of services: digital strategy, lead generation, web and mobile development, SEO, social media, and content development.

Clutch use in-depth market research and conducts interviews with agency clients to create its rankings, so it’s gratifying to know that our accolades are backed up by trustworthy information.

That 5-star rating is important to us, because ultimately, our award-winning work is all about driving results for our clients. So when our clients say things like, “I’ve already referred two friends to them,” we find it immensely rewarding.

“Although our site isn’t live yet, Social Link has already generated 50 links via Facebook advertising,” said another client. We enjoy delivering innovative solutions for our clients—and we’re good at it.

If you’re looking for creative and result-driven marketing, we’re eager to partner with you. We’re looking to deliver the same high level of solutions for you as we have for other clients.

Interested?

Check out our Clutch profile to see our entire business profile.

Contact us here (and get a free lead generation review!), or just give us a call at 615-873-0707.

Categories
App Development Blog Digital Marketing Web Development

The Nashville Internet of Things: What Business Owners Need to Know

The Internet of Things is Coming.

[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”]
[et_pb_row admin_label=”row”]
[et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text”]

The Nashville Internet of Things: What Business Owners Need to Know

The Nashville Internet of Things is already here.

The Nashville Internet of Things wants to buy you peanut butter. Next time you need some chunky Jif, your trashcan will order it for you. That’s the promise of the GeniCan, which attaches to the inside rim of your garbage and scans the things you throw away, then orders replacements through online grocery delivery services.

The Nashville Internet of Things (IoT) is already here. The GeniCan is just one device in the ever-expanding IoT: the collection of common items built with internet connectivity and app capabilities that used to be reserved for computers and mobile devices. Your trashcan is only the start. Increasingly, appliances, clothes, buildings, and even public spaces are all being constructed with smart IoT capabilities. Here’s what to know about how the Internet of Things is taking over Nashville, and the world.

IoT is Here—And It’s Only Getting Bigger (Even if You Don’t Know it Yet)

A recent study by the Franklin, TN-based connectivity software-development firm Metova found that 70 percent percent of consumers own an Iot-connected device, and yet a mere 20 percent said they had a good understanding of what the IoT actually was. So while most people might not know it, their devices are talking to one another—and companies are connecting more and more of their products to the IoT.

Swedish telecommunications giant Ericsson projects that by the end of 2018, there will be more IoT connected devices than mobile devices in use around the world. Consulting firm McKinsey thinks that by 2025 IoT could have an economic impact of more than $11.2 trillion. IoT is not going away—but what does it all mean for the Nashville Internet of Things?

Going Public

The IoT isn’t just relegated to fitness trackers and home appliances. It will also connect our public sidewalks, gathering areas, and transit networks. Research firm IoT Analytics expects that “Smart Cities” will be one of IoT’s hottest sectors in the next six years, with a 54 percent compound annual growth rate.

Nashville’s WeGo Public Transit already features real-time GPS tracking of city buses that riders can follow on the system’s app, along with route-planning and service alert features (not to mention expanded WiFi in certain stations and vehicles). Now, they’ve announced a new IoT technology aimed at reducing noise pollution in populous areas and around sensitive locations like hospitals, schools, and universities. Each bus outfitted with the upgrade will automatically switch from its diesel engine to its electric batteries when it senses that it is entering one of these areas.

San Diego-based IoT network provider InGenu recently installed the next generation of connective networks in Nashville (they call it “the Machine Network”) built specifically to handle the data needed for IoT devices. It uses random phase multiple access (RPMA) technology, which is more energy efficient and allows for longer transmission distances than traditional mobile networks. The system’s 9 access points enable IoT connectability for more than 99 percent of Nashville’s population.

Healthcare

By 2020, more than 80 percent of all healthcare customer service interactions will take place using the IoT, according to IDC Health Insights. Many hospitals and providers already have telemedicine services in place that provide physician appointments using video calls on smart devices, especially for ailments that require a visual inspection but aren’t life-threatening. With a robust healthcare industry in place, Nashville is well positioned to leverage the IoT for its existing businesses.

Nashville’s Emids Technologies, a healthcare IT consultant and services provider, announced last that it would dedicate resources to developing specific IoT solutions for healthcare companies. Emids is especially interested in how IoT devices can leverage the ambient user experience—the sum total of the information gathered in the background by connected devices as a consumer goes about his daily life—for better medical decisions. Imagine your fridge, your thermostat, and your smartwatch all sending updates to your doctor, then alterting her of health or lifestyle changes that warn of possible impending problems. Other applications could improve the patient experience, streamline drug development, and provide better remote care.

The Analog Strikes Back

As every action in the physical world becomes connected to a wealth of information in the digital realm, people will be looking for experiences that feel authentic and genuine–even if they’re still backed up by online connectivity. This is part of the promise of the Iot: you don’t need to sit at a computer or stare down at a phone screen to get the benefits of all that modern technology has to offer. Still, consumers will be looking for experiences that help them focus on the moment around them, not the conversation online.

The MILK App (tagline: Milk the Moment) is designed to encourage people to leave behind the distractions of the virtual world. Created by Nashville entrepreneur Courtney “Coko” Eason (formerly the entrepreneur-in-residence at the Nashville Entrepreneur Center), it rewards users for refraining from using their mobile devices in public spaces. Simply for turning off their phones and interacting only with the world around them, the app will give you gift cards to movie theaters, restaurants, Uber, Walmart, Amazon, and more. Even as Iot connects us all, consumers will look for services and products that provide a feeling of genuine tactile engagement with the real world.

Businesses Will Need New Marketing Strategies

The internet of things will open new venues for businesses to interacting with their customers, and a wealth of new data about consumer preferences and behavior. But to leverage that access and information correctly, they’ll need marketing messages that take into account the full context of specific consumers, and speak strongly to that experience. The best marketing agencies will be those that are agile enough to change with this new environment—those that merge the traditional creative skills of content and design with an understanding of the new digital development challenges presented by IoT.

 

Are you a business owner looking for a marketing partner that can help you navigate the world of IoT? Social Link is an award-winning, full-service digital marketing and mobile development agency. Give us a call at 615-873-0707.[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column]
[/et_pb_row]
[/et_pb_section]