Extreme Makeover – How One Hospital Turned its Website into a Consumer Magnet and ROI Machine

Extreme Makeover – How One Hospital Turned its Website into a Consumer Magnet and ROI MachineSociety for Healthcare Strategy & Market DevelopmentOctober 1, 2009

2Extreme Makeover – How One Hospital Turned its Website into a Consumer Magnet and ROI Machine – SHSMD 2009

Introductions

David BennettSenior Vice President of Interactive Solutions

StayWell Custom Communications

Amy McLartyMarketing Communications Manager,

Public Relations and MarketingChildren’s Medical Center Dallas


What We’ll Cover Today

Discuss what makes a good website and strategies to reach consumers

Learn how Children’s Medical Center Dallas turned its website into a consumer and ROI blockbuster

Share the top 10 things your site should offer

Questions & discussion


A look at the current online landscape


Top 5 Business-to-Consumer Websites

A recent study found the top 5 industry websites were held by:

* Named top five by Accenture's Marketing Sciences group

Adidas.com

Nike.com

Ford.com


Top 5 Business-to-Consumer Websites

According to the results, these sites were:

“Successful at engaging consumers using a variety of techniques, such as providing detailed, high-quality information in interesting formats; building relationships through interactive exchanges; and encouraging return visits by current and potential customers through the use of promotions, premium services, clubs and other online innovations.“

These criteria apply to the health care arena, too.


Protect Your Most Crucial Asset: Your WebsiteYour website just may be your most important marketing tool. So

why are so many hospitals failing to fully engage their viewers and

lose potential customers?

Here are some possible reasons why:

Lack of resourcesShort on IT expertiseTeam is time-starvedNeed buy-in from “the powers that be”


Protect Your Most Crucial Asset: Your Website

Like the top b-to-c winners, here are the rules to remember in order

to compete in the crowded health care landscape.


Rules of Engagement Make it useful

Cater to your audience – be sure you’re talking to women Include empowering health information so she can make the right decisions Offer useful self-service tools to encourage repeat visitors Ensure you have an easy-to-use search functionality

Update your site often Rotate content, photos, and features so visitors have a reason to return Update class and program schedules Announce new physicians on your home page Make current events visible (e.g. Swine flu)


Rules of Engagement

Reach out regularly to your audience Take every opportunity to capture email addresses to ensure ongoing online

communications Use call-to-actions to incite readers of your print publication to visit your site for

more information or for a free give-away

Encourage feedback and interaction Have a two-way conversation with consumers on your site

o Conduct live chatso Ask consumers to submit questions for staff members


Rules of Engagement Personalize your site when possible

Create consumer loyalty by offering a value proposition Offer a password-protected online store that includes access to special

online tools, express check-in, discounts to local retailers, etc.

Mix in new media Videos, podcasts, and animations can provide important educational

services for patients and bring your hospital and its brand to life New media can provide a hefty ROI Use it to extend patient reach


Rules of Engagement

Most important: Try new things Keep your consumers’ perspective front and center at all times Give them what they want, and they’ll keep coming back for more


Understanding what they want.


Give them what they want…..


Give them what they want.


Children’s Medical Center in Dallas shares their extreme online makeover…


Introduction to Children’s Medical Center in Dallas

Who we are…

Private, academic medical center dedicated exclusively to the comprehensive care of children

Pioneer in pediatric care, and one of the top pediatric systems in the country

One of the largest pediatric healthcare providers in the nation with more than 50 subspecialty programs

Licensed for 483 beds, with more than 350,000 patient visits each year

More than 800 physicians on the medical staff

Opened second hospital in northern suburb in August, 2008


Goal and Objectives

Goal: Increase traffic to our Website to support brand interaction

Two objectives:

1: Rebuild our back end to support Web 2.0, SEO and better

navigation

2: Redesign the look and feel to create better brand communications

consistency


Why Our Site Needed a Make-over: Parents Depend on the Internet

Whether it’s asthma, a heart defect or a rare urological disorder, parents are always hungry for health information and they want it available 24/7.

Parents are accessing the Internet:

Some 45 million American parents – 70% of those with children under 18 living at home – use the Internet*

They make up 43% of all U.S. Internet users even though they comprise just 36% of the overall adult population in the country

87% of parents of teenagers are online – at least 17% more than average adults

*Pew Internet, 2008


Utilizing Our Website to Reach Parents to Use, Refer, or Give

• While all children experience illness, not all children need hospital care

• That’s why Children’s Medical Center spent time and resources to redesign its website so it communicates to parents who fit both categories

• Now our site is engaging, compelling, and leverages intuitive design, an action-oriented interface and visitor conversation tools


We Went From This …


To This …


What Makes Our Site Stand Out?

New site features:

• Reconfigured back end programming to improve

navigation

• New design to update with a well-branded look

and feel

• SEO optimization

• Integrated content with multiple cross-referencing

points and incorporation of multimedia


What Makes Our Site Stand Out?• Calls-to-action utilized throughout the site

• Under the Patients & Families section, a multimedia link features videos, audio, downloads and interactive pieces

Interactive Video


What Makes Our Site Stand Out?• Specialties such as Heart Center offer in-depth dynamic content


The Proof Was in the Pudding

ROI by the numbers:• In July of 2008, the new Children’s website enjoyed a 71% increase in visits

over the previous year

• 12,000+ clicks through our pay-per-click marketing test campaign for our internationally renowned pediatric urology surgeon. As many as 80 a day

• 350% growth in Twitter followers

• 360,000 job-seeking page views in a 16-month period


Using Traditional Media to Drive TrafficStrategies used to increase traffic to childrens.com include:

• Promotional messages via e-newsletter with links to valuable articles

• Hospital brochures with the back cover dedicated to promoting childrens.com

• Area pharmacy medbags are printed with a promotion for a free children’s health tool that can be received by visiting www.children’s.com/bag

• Direct mail including magnets promoting the website and online medical library sent to 80,000 households


New Media Strategies for Driving Traffic

The use of social media:

• Website optimization with keyword strategies, pay-per-click campaigns, use of CSS and HTML to enhance accessibility for disabled and improve SEO

• Engaging social media tools including: YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, De.lic.ious, and Wikipedia


The Proof Was in the Pudding

More ROI:In August 2006, eYCH started with less than 800 subscribers; currently the e-newsletter is sent to more than 16,000 families.


Promotion of Online ContentThe hospital’s commitment to children doesn’t stop with the children they treat. Children’s

Medical Center uses SCC to help provide in-depth medical information to the public

through access to childrens.com. This is just one way we are a benefit to the community.

A vast online health library is available from the website’s main navigation

Easy access to the health library encourages visitors to stay on the site longer

The library features more than 1,300 common pediatric topics


Promotion of Online Content• Dynamic links to provide robust

cross-referencing

• Direct mail promotion to 60,000

households

• New televised spots and online ads

that support the spots, promote and

link to the website and specific content

as well as the e-newsletter sign-up


A Digital Strategy That Works

Children’s blog


Our Work is Never Finished

Despite our initial successes, we are:

• Refining our Web content to convey all the amazing things that happen at Children's and to entice visitors to use, refer and give

• Engaging social media even more

• Improving the readability of what we have

• Building a user persona based on patient-family-centered care partnership


In Conclusion: For a Website to Become a Consumer Magnet and ROI Machine, it Must …

1. Be easy to use

2. Be visually appealing

3. Include fresh and relevant content

4. Tell a compelling story

5. Offer a value proposition to the user

6. Include customer personalization

7. Present interactive content (wizards, audio, visual)

8. Give viewers something to talk about

9. Include e-newsletter and RSS feeds that generate repeat traffic

10.Talk to your specific audience


Questions?

Health & Medicine

Extreme Makeover – How One Hospital Turned its Website into a Consumer Magnet and ROI Machine