A  roadmap  to  building  a  great  health  website  

Richard  Meyer  

Online  Strategic  Solu4ons  

           It’s  not  about  you  anymore  

The  mistake  that  most  marke4ng  people  make  when  developing  a  health  website  is  that  they  try  too  hard  to  sell  at  a  4me  when  consumers  don’t  want  to  be  sold.  

But  the  hard  reality  today  is  

There  is  more  pressure  to  ensure  that  everything  we  do  has  a  posi4ve  ROI.  

The  biggest  challenge  therefore    is…  

Balancing  consumer/pa4ent  needs  with  brand/business  objec4ves.  

Consumer  Needs    

Brand  Objec=ves  

But,  can  that  be  done  ?  

It  just  means  that  you  have  to  think  differently  

Put  yourself  in  your  customers  place  and  ask  “what  would  they  want  to  learn  and  how  can  I  help  them  make  beJer  decisions  ?  

The  key  is  to  

•  Listen  to  what  your  target  audience(s)  wants  and  needs.  

•  Iden4fy  what  you  really  are  selling  ?  (it’s  not  the  product)  

•  How  are  users  going  to  use  your  site  ?  

•  Understand  that  right  now  there  is  a  credibility  issue  with  the  drug  and  medical  device  industries.  

Let’s  take  a  step  back  first  “Where  are  we?”  

Online  health  informa4on  demographics  

Informa4on  gathering  by  US    Internet  users  (health)  

Personal  &  Health  Portals  are  becoming  more  important  

Pharma  has  a  trust  issue  right  now  with  consumers  

Most  trusted  sources  of  health  informa4on  

So  in  summary…  

•  More  people  are  searching  online  for  health  informa4on  than  ever  before  (ManhaJan  Research  2010)  

•  Despite  “trust  issues”  consumers  will  most  likely  visit  a  product  website  as  part  of  their  search  for  health  informa4on.  

•  Most  health  searches  are  done  by  women  (Dr  Mom).  

•  Consumers  are  using  health  informa4on  they  find  on  the  Internet  to  discuss  healthcare  op4ons  with  their  doctors.  

•  The  search  for  health  informa4on  online  begins  with  search  and  goes  through  mul4ple  websites  including  social  media.  

So  how  do  you  cut  through  all  the  online  cluJer  ?  

The  key  is  to  develop  a  great    online  brand  experience  

•  Spend  the  4me  

•  Spend  the  money  •  Invest  in  a  process    •  Get  someone  who  

understands  online  marke4ng  trends  

The  process  for  developing  a    great  health  website  

•  Discovery  •  Assessment  •  Strategy  •  Solu=ons  •  Project  Plan  &  Agency  Integra=on  •  Crea=ve  •  Building  •  Tes=ng  •  Launching  •  Op=mizing  

In  depth  process  

Discovery  

Assessment  

Strategy   Solu=on

s  Design  

Discovery  

•  An  in-­‐depth  explora4on  of  current-­‐state  ac4vi4es,  assets,  process,  metrics  and  future-­‐state  needs  and  wants.    

•  This  phase  typically  involves  business  driver  iden4fica4ons  to  ensure  success.  

Assessment  

•  Review  the  business,  financial  and  marke4ng  issues  that  are  driving  the  project.    

•  Project  objec4ves,  deliverables,  milestones,  assump4ons,  risks.    

Strategy    

•  Develop  a  strategic  plan  that  addresses  the  business  and  brand  needs  to  formally  set  direc4on.    

•  Formally  define  and  communicate  the  business  and  marke4ng  objec4ves,  strategic  approach  and  measurement  criteria.  

•  Reach  consensus  on  “success”  defini4on  and  measurement.  

Solu4ons  

•  Translate  findings  from  the  strategy  and  recommend  into  tangible  solu4ons.  

•   The  complete  solu4ons  are  defined:    –  What  we  are  going  to  do  ?    

–  How  it  will  be  measured  ?  –  How  are  we  going  to  directly  

meet  consumer  and  brand  needs  ?  

Design  

•  Create  the  design.  •  Iden4fy  specific  pages  or  

templates  needed,  the  individual  elements  that  make  up  the  pages,  and  how  those  pages  will  fit  together.    

•  Define  who  will  develop  content.  

•  Define  where  assets  used  on  website  will  come  from  (i.e.  images,  logo’s)  

Project  Planning  

•  The  project  plan  is  the  bridge  between  the  strategic  and  execu4onal  components  of  the  process.    

•  It  is  the  culmina4on  of  all  the  business  and  brand  planning  that  captures  our  target  markets  needs  and  objec4ves  of  the  website.  

•  Also  has  to  include  “new  findings”  as  website  is  being  developed  

Crea4ve  Development  

•  Crea4ve  teams  will  start  on  crea4ve  deliverables  and  begin  the  development  process.    

•  Included  in  this  effort  will  be  brand  input  sessions,  crea4ve  concepts  and  designs,  content  deck,  style  guide,  crea4ve  reviews,  and  ini4al  discussions  regarding  usability  and  tes4ng.  

•  Also  important  to  establish  communica4ons  with  other  agencies  to  ensure  integra4on  of  branding.  

Building  the  website  

•  Development  and  tes4ng  of  a  solu4on  is  based  on  approved  solu4ons,  specifica4ons  and  designs.  

•  Ini4al  tes4ng  of  the  framework  of  the  website  such  as  wireframes  and  naviga4onal  map.  

Tes4ng  

•  Throughout  the  development  process  you  should  always  engage  our  target  audience  in  usability  tes4ng.  –  This  is  a  cri4cal  stage  of  the  development,  and  

informs  the  final  build.    

•  Upon  comple4on  of  the  ini4al  build,  you  should  immediately  begin  tes4ng  and  a  quality  assurance  process.    –  This  will  consist  of  mul4ple  rounds  of  tes4ng  and  

review  and  include  tes4ng  on  mul4ple  browsers  (i.e.  Internet  Explorer  Firefox,  Chrome,  Safari)  and  formats  (mobile  &  smart  phone  plaaorms)  

Metrics  

•  Metrics  and  analy4cs  measure  the  results  against  agreed,  upon  success  metrics.  

•  This  is  also  true  aber  launch  to  gather  ac4onable  insights  that  can  be  used  to  op4mize  the  brand  efforts.  

•   This  ongoing  process  leverages  data  from  a  range  of  sources  to  construct  analysis  of  actual  user  behavior  to  determine  the  effec4veness  in  driving  desired  outcomes.  

And…..  

SEO  (search  engine  op4miza4on)  

 Ensure  you  content  is  op4mized  for  organic  search.   Rather  than  clicks  measure  “cost  per  targeted  ac4on”   Have  your  agency  con4nually  op4mize  your  keywords  and  delete  the  ones  which  are  not  providing  an  ROI.   Think  about  your  keywords  from  your  target  audiences  point-­‐of-­‐view.   Remember  compe4tors  can  purchase  your  brand  name  as  a  keyword  as  well.  

Don’t  limit  your  website  to  one  homepage  

•  Different  home  pages  allow  you  to  more  closely  target  your  audience  with  customized  informa4on  that  is  relevant  to  them.  

•  Home  pages  &  naviga4on  can  be  customized  for  your  audiences  needs.  

•  “Intui4ve  naviga4on”-­‐naviga4on  set  up  on  the  website  the  way  people  go  through  the  decision  process  to  determine  if  your  product  is  right  for  them.  

Content  is  s4ll  king  

•  Don’t  use  other  collateral  material  and  repurpose  for  the  Internet.  

•  Talk  to  people  in  a  human  voice.  

•  Make  content  easy  to  understand  and  use  roll-­‐overs  to  get  defini4ons  for  complicated  medical  terms.  

For  a  great  website  

•  The  strategy  determines  the  budget,  the  budget  should  not  limit  your  strategy.  

•  You  spend  hours  and  hours  developing  and  tes4ng  messages  and  DTC  materials  you  should  be  devo4ng  more  resources  to  the  Internet  because  it  maybe  your  most  important  channel.  

About  me  

Richard  Meyer  

•  My  CV    hJp://www.richardameyer.com  •  My  marke4ng  BLOG    hJp://www.richsblog.com  

•  MY  DTC  BLOG    hJp://www.worldofdtcmarke4ng.com  

hJp://www.twiJer.com/richmeyer  

hJp://www.facebook.com/richardameyer  

hJp://www.linkedin.com/in/richardameyer