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Today we’re going to talk about how you can help avoid patient family confusion about holiday hours.Here are a few steps you can follow to make the holiday hours process smooth:Prepare a centralized holiday hours documentMake a list of the people in the knowStart contacting the list early and oftenUpdate your local listingsClearly label your temporary hours on your location pagesChange them back quickly after the holiday

Today we’re going to talk about writing value propositions that convert website visitors into patients.One of the biggest mistakes I see when I visit healthcare websites is how the organization has failed to clearly summarize their value in one, clear, highly visible phrase or sentence on the page.The 3 most common manifestations of this mistake are:No obvious value proposition presentBrand taglines in place of value propositionsValue proposition is disconnected from patient needsHealthcare marketers can write value propositions that turn website visitors into patients by following 4 key rules:Be clear and conciseVisually set the value proposition apartFocus on what matters to patients in the consideration and decision phaseHighlight what sets you apart from your competitors

Today we’re going to talk about scaling content creation through S.M.A.R.T. template design.Healthcare websites have quite a few types of content they need to support including provider profiles, program overviews, conditions and treatments, and location pages. And depending on the size of your organization, that can mean hundreds or even thousands of pieces of content to support.For the system I support, we have nearly 4,500 pages of content, and as our system grows, the number of pages grows every year. With limited resources, we had to design S.M.A.R.T. templates that would allow us to create content at scale.Here is a step-by-step guide to designing S.M.A.R.T. templates:Seek InputMine GoogleArrange ContentReplicate Winning FormatsTemplatize Once you’ve got these templates in place, you can generate interview scripts that can be reused over and over, you can implement the format into your content management system, and you can do so knowing that every piece of content you create will be pre-optimized to match what Google is already rewarding in their rankings.

Back on episode 5, we talked about designing the best on-site search experience for healthcare websites. Today, we’re going to take that discussion to the next step because the truth is, even after you’ve implemented the 5 features of a great on-site search experience, you will still need to do consistent optimization to maintain and improve on your patient family experience.On-going optimization of your on-site search experience begins with reviewing your search terms report. You can usually find this in the reporting for your search provider or in Google Analytics. You may have to take some extra steps to setup Google Analytics for site search.Once you have your search terms report, you’re going to narrow the list of terms to the ones that get more than a few searches. For the site I manage, this is about 500 - 1000 unique queries every month. And the first time you do this, you might want to look back at a year or more worth of data, so this list could be substantially longer the first go-around. And the length will vary depending on the breadth of your organization as well.Now, starting with the most searched, enter each term in your search bar and review the results for quality. If this sounds tedious, that’s because it is. But sometimes, creating excellent quality for your patient families just isn’t scalable. This is one of those times. If you’ve got 500 queries, and it takes about one minute per query, it’ll take one person a little more than one workday to complete if they don’t work on anything else. But I know from experience, the insights are worth it.And if you do this every month, your list of new search terms will dwindle over time. As you go down the list, note the search terms where the results aren’t what the user would expect. Be specific in your notes, so you don’t have to go back and do this step again.When you’re done reviewing the search terms list, go back to your notes and look for themes. You are looking for issues in your setup that consistently generate poor results for patient families. Are you missing content that users are searching for? Do you need to change your algorithm to weight some kinds of content higher than other kinds?One surprise we found during this exercise was that our employees were searching for internal systems on our public-facing site, so we were able to add answer boxes when they searched for their time clock or something in our intranet.

Today we’re going to talk about how to get consumer insights on a budget.If you’re a part of a scrappy healthcare marketing team, you may not have the budget for expensive user testing and surveys, but you still need ways to capture consumer insights that drive strong decision making.Scrappy healthcare digital marketing teams have a few options for consumer insights on a budget:Ride Google’s CoattailsAsk Frontline WorkersBuild a Patient Focus Group

Today we’re going to talk about getting better at user experience (UX).I think one of the biggest things that healthcare marketing leaders get wrong about UX is lumping the skills into one role. UX can be broken down into four distinct roles, and while you might be able to find a rare unicorn that can be great at all aspects of UX, most people will only be able to do at most two of these areas very well.The four skills that healthcare marketing leaders need to make sure are represented on their team are:UX ResearchUX StrategyUX DesignUX Copywriting

Today we’re going to talk about getting better at online COVID-19 communications.In the absence of clear, unified recommendations from our elected officials, patient families are looking to other trusted sources such as local hospitals and their primary care providers for guidance.In the initial days after COVID-19, you may have published some communications which were designed to respond to a few weeks or months before things were expected to go back to normal. Like many health systems, you may still be working with that initial setup months later.Now that it has become increasingly clear that we will be dealing with the effects of COVID-19 for many more months, and possibly years, healthcare websites need to shift their strategy for online COVID-19 communications.When redesigning online COVID-19 communications strategies, healthcare marketers need to consider 4 main questions:What kinds of pages are patient families viewing first?What safety measures matter most to your patient families?How can you help families protect themselves outside the hospital?What is keeping my patient families up at night right now?

Today we’re going to talk about getting better at Google and other search engines.In this initial search engine optimization (SEO) episode, we’re going to start with the anatomy of a search engine results page (SERP). Conversations about search can be really confusing for healthcare marketers if they don’t understand the various features that show up on a SERP.SERPs have changed a lot over the years. Originally, they were made up of two parts: paid search ads and organic listings. Today, there are dozens of features you might see in the average SERP.The most important features healthcare marketers need to understand on a search engine results page are:Organic resultsPaid search resultsLocal pack resultsKnowledge graph resultsInstant answers (aka featured snippets, answer box)People also ask questions

Today we’re going to talk about getting better at online scheduling.A consumer-centric online scheduling experience offers 9 key features:Ability to book an appointment without logging inA consistent experience for new and existing patientsIncorporates the ability to book virtual visitsAbility to book from multiple origins (provider profile, location, department page, or homepage)Clear error validationAssists the patient in booking with the right providerAbility to add appointments to a calendarCollects all the patient information needed without a follow-up callCollects important preferences from the patient (preferred name, pronouns, preferred contact method)

Today we’re going to talk about getting better at location pages.Well-designed location pages does 5 key things:Centralizes location content in one placePrioritizes the content people need when they’re in a hurryHas an accompanying Google My Business pageShows a picture of what the location looks like from the roadIncorporates structured data for location

Today we’re going to talk about getting better at provider profiles.The website I manage has almost 2,000 providers with 20+ potential dimensions or elements that can be added to each profile. That’s a lot to manage, even for a relatively large team.So we’re left with two questions:Which profiles should we focus on now?Which dimensions of the profile are the most important?We did some research on our own profiles and found that these elements had the biggest impact:Profiles with a headshot had an 8 percent lower bounce rate than profiles without headshots (in terms of bounce rate, that’s huge!)For every 630 characters in the providers bio, bounce rate reduced by nearly 2 percentProvider’s with publications on their profiles had a 5 percent lower bounce rate on averageFor every 2 awards on the profile, bounce rate decreased by over 2 percentEvery additional location on a providers profile increased (worsened) bounce rate by about 1 percentSo 5/20 dimensions are the pieces that make a real difference in performance.We took this a step further and compared providers with these elements against providers without them, and we found that we could also correlate to performance of these providers on Google.If every provider was optimized in these 5 key areas, we could increase Google performance by:5.9 million impressions10.4 million profile clicksHalf a million actions (clicks to website, calls, directions, etc.)You can guess where my team is going to be focusing their attention in 2021.

Today we’re going to talk about getting better at self-service.Patient family expectations have shifted, especially after COVID-19. They want to be able to interact as little as possible in order to complete tasks related to their healthcare. If you don’t meet these expectations, you’re not just disappointing people. You’re putting your revenue at risk.Healthcare websites need to offer the following self-service features in order to meet patient family expectations:Online bill payAppointment schedulingContactless check-inInsurance verificationBilling estimates

Today we’re going to talk about getting better at on-site search.The best on-site search experiences on healthcare websites do 5 things well:Handle misspellings and synonymsUtilize weightingNever leave the user without a solutionCategorize contentProvide most key information on the results page

Today we’re going to talk about getting better at Google My Business.Google My Business is a free and easy-to-use tool for businesses and organizations to manage their online presence across Google, including Search and Maps. To help customers find your business, and to tell them your story, you can verify your business and edit your business information.For healthcare, this can be done for both your practice locations and your individual providers.In order to get the most benefit out of your Google My Business listings, you’ll need to do 5 things:Claim and verify your listings.Make your listing as complete as possible.Make sure your listing information matches your website.Select an appealing photo.Solicit reviews.

Today we’re going to talk about getting better at web accessibility.Accessible healthcare websites follow the POUR acronym from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG):PerceivableOperableUnderstandableRobustWhy do we need our websites to be accessible?It’s the right thing to doRegulations like Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973Civil lawsuits

Today we’re going to talk about getting better at website navigation.A great healthcare website navigation bar has 3 key elements:It’s divided by audienceIt’s multi-levelIt uses clear labels (no cutesy names)

Today we’re going to talk about getting better at homepage design. A high-performing healthcare homepage has 4 key elements:It’s mobile first.It offers a clear value proposition for your practice.It prioritizes key calls-to-action.It has purposeful imagery.