Any company willing to achieve maximum success in its industry should have its own online representation. And healthcare organizations are no exception to this rule.
A medical web resource plays a significant part: it affects the reputation of the clinic, the effectiveness of treatment, and much more.
However, a few questions remain... how to create an appealing hospital website design? Can your platform be profitable? How to make your website work in full force? Let's consider these and other issues in order of importance.
Reasons why your hospital needs a website
More and more people choose a clinic with the help of famous Google or other search engines (in other words, resorting to the Internet). Moreover, before making an appointment with a doctor, your potential patient will definitely visit the site he likes and studies all the information it provides. So a hospital web resource is currently one of the most significant channels of sales of medical services and related products.
As you can see, according to statistics, medical information websites rank second on the list of leading sources, which provide specific data about a healthcare condition. And it’s one more factor pointing out that you should build your hospital web resource. And although it seems to be obvious, let's allot out 5 main reasons why your clinic must have a site.
#1. Recognizable high-reputed brand
We won't discuss the importance of branding right now, it's the topic of another article. Let's just say the goal of branding is to create a harmonious image of your company... and a website is one of the elements of your branding strategy. It means your resource must prove to your clients (they're also patients) that your clinic is a respected institution worthy of their trust.
Also, don’t forget: the website design for the hospital has to match your corporate style.
#2. High competitiveness
Keep in mind that many hospitals and healthcare institutions work in the market, and yours is only one of them. Therefore, in order to attract a maximum of patients to your clinic, you need to use all the means of competitive struggle. And taking full advantage of web resources definitely belongs to these means.
#3. Customer loyalty
A website is a great opportunity to provide the best user experience and guarantee the loyalty of your customers, they're also patients (therefore, you'll improve the quality of treatment). In the course of our article, we'll tell you how to achieve such a goal by using your medical web resource.
#4. 24-hour patient communication
The site helps to always stay in touch with your patients. Feedback forms, online chats (including chatbots), instant messengers, and other communication channels come to the rescue in this regard. You can quickly respond to user messages and, among other things, learn their opinion on the level of medical services provided. So, you'll have a chance to correct the situation in a timely manner.
#5. Hospital Marketing
The higher the reputation of the medical institution, the greater the chances of attracting a maximum of clients (patients) and convincing them to choose your clinic. There are many ways to do this, and one of them is an online promotion (the so-called marketing of hospital services). Especially as most of us have long preferred Internet methods for finding information of any kind.
However, don’t forget that a medical web resource is not the same as an entertainment one. In this case, it's about people's health, and you have no right to make a mistake. The hospital website development requires a delicate approach... Let's discuss it in more detail!
Requirements imposed on best hospital websites
Here are a few key factors to be considered when creating a new website for a hospital:
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The requirements imposed on the professional presentation of your content, its completeness, and accuracy are increased. It’s quite natural, because the price of incorrect information is much higher in the medical field, and therefore special attention should be paid to the issue.
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On the other hand, the pages of medical websites should be clear to the average user of medical services/products. As practice shows, a potential patient, as well as a purchaser of medical equipment or medicines, is particularly demanding on the completeness, clearness, and simplicity of data.
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When creating a website design for the hospital, the cluster approach is of particular importance, in other words - the formation of partnership relations aimed to promote healthcare goods and services. This method allows us to provide a patient with a complete service of high quality.
We've defined all the necessary requirements… and now we have the next issue. What features should we offer to please your online medical website visitors?
The features of the hospital website
To ensure that your online medical website brings you the maximum benefit, you need to provide the best user experience by offering an intuitive interface and helpful functionality.
We advise you to consider the following hospital website features:
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a detailed list of services and price list. This is the first thing a patient is usually trying to find: what exactly you are offering and how much it costs.
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booking an appointment with a doctor in the online mode;
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online chat. The patient can communicate with the representatives of medical organizations and ask questions, which interest him (it's another point of your hospital marketing strategy).
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the emergency call. A very useful feature, which comes in handy when a patient needs to call in a doctor urgently.
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interactive map. Such a feature helps the patient find your hospital without any problem.
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blog. Devote one section of your online medicine site to articles, which may potentially interest patients. These articles can include useful medical tips, treatment programs, methods of diagnosis, and other things in the same vein.
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information about the doctors. Undoubtedly, your patients care about which specialist will treat them. Help them to get the data they are interested in by giving all the details about each doctor: his experience, qualifications, and awards received. It’ll also be advisable to indicate a doctor's schedule and provide a patient with the possibility to book an appointment with the expert immediately.
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description of the hospital's departments.
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3D tour over the hospital wards. The feature belongs to the expensive but noteworthy ones. It would be a good addition to the hospital website design - patients would appreciate the chance to see your clinic in the three-dimensional format (which can lead to a significant increase in the level of positive user experience).
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online doctor's advice. Of course, the doctor won’t be able to make a full diagnosis using the services of your online medicine site but he can refer the patient to the right specialist or help in an emergency situation.
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feedback form. A patient should have the opportunity to get a feedback channel. It'd be also smart to lead the "Question-Answer" forum. It’ll allow you to know the opinions and wishes of your patients much better.
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the interactive advanced search to find the necessary information.
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features aimed at doctors’ needs. Offer features focused on doctors to facilitate their interaction with patients and, as a result, improve the treatment process. The best medical websites for doctors provide such possibilities as online chat with a patient, video reviews of medicines, special means helping the attending physician monitor his patients, rapid calculations of medical formulas, etc.
Now you know what hospital website features are needed to ensure the success of your resource. However, how to turn this success into financial profit? How to make your online medicine site as effective as possible?
How to create a profitable hospital website
The best healthcare websites are always profitable and can turn their ordinary visitors into real contacts (people who are ready to book an appointment with a doctor, request a consultation, etc).
By creating a new website for a hospital, you get a wonderful opportunity to:
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attract target visitors (potential patients or customers of goods and services for medical purposes);
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turn a hesitant online medical website visitor (who needs medical assistance but doesn’t know what clinic to choose) into a real client, ready to pay for your services;
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get a database of customers in order to constantly keep in contact with them offering services or goods able to interest them;
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provide a maximum of online services and useful information, thus discharging the administrator and reducing the number of erroneous requests;
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improve the name recognition and form a positive image of your healthcare company through efficient marketing of hospital services;
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increase the sales of goods and medical services and the profitability of the business.
In general, an approximate scheme of the operation of profitable and useful medical websites includes the following stages:
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the attraction of a potential patient, his transition to the hospital web resource;
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creating the first impression to catch the visitor's attention and make him spend time here;
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a growing interest in the product or service;
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a desire to buy, order, consult;
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finding the best way to contact the consultants (using online chat, phone, the feedback form, Skype, etc);
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satisfaction with the level of service;
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a desire to share information about the company or product among friends.
Everything seems to be clear. But how to implement the task concerning hospital website development?
We’ll give you a couple of practical tips:
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Desk research. Be sure to conduct market research to find out:
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the expectations of a potential visitor of your resource (it’s your only chance to meet your clients’ needs and therefore create the best hospital website);
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competitive activity. Look at what your competitors are offering their customers. You must provide your patients with better features and possibilities.
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Digital marketing strategy. Develop a strategy focused on visitors to your online medicine site. To do this, take advantage of the data collected during the research stage. Don’t use techniques irrelevant to your client. In any case, there are a lot of options to implement virtual marketing of hospital services: advertising banners, SEO, social networks, and much more.
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Branding. The appealing hospital website design is very important, but in the case of the healthcare area, the main attention should be paid to building a strong brand. Talk with your patient "heart to heart", tell your story, and convince him that you and only you are able to give him what he so craves to get, namely, solid health. Let the expressive visual content illustrate and supplement your message instead of replacing it completely.
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The right content. A large amount of specialized medical information requires a high-skilled approach to filling the pages. It is important not to turn a healthcare platform into a boring directory. Make every website element (text, photo, video, flash animation) clear to visitors and accurate from the perspective of professionals.
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Positivity. People who visit medical information websites usually suffer from various illnesses or have sick relatives. And you should cheer them up: in other words, don’t scare your possible patients with a description of the symptoms and consequences of the disease. It is better to explain to them the most effective methods of successful treatment. All this will contribute to improving the user experience.
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Social media. Today, most people are active users of social media resources. Therefore, it is foolish to fail the opportunities provided by Facebook, Twitter, and other similar portals. We advise you to promote your online medical website through social networks: among other things, such a type of activity increases the user engagement factor.
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Intuitive interface and convenient site navigation. The visitor (especially if he is suffering from a particular disease) shouldn’t spend too much time searching for the information he needs. Make sure your medical web resource meets these requirements. Think of this issue at the stage of creating a website design for the hospital.
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Call to action. The task of any site is to get its visitor to do a specific action whether it's buying, ordering a service, or calling a doctor. Experienced UX/UI designers and web developers are able to correctly place the accents to achieve this goal.
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Support and Promotion. The intention to build a medical web resource is the first step to the success of your healthcare institution. If you want a more effective result, you should take care of its constant promotion and support. It means regularly updating information, publishing news and medical articles, promoting the site in search engines, registering it in specialized catalogs, advertising on the Internet, etc. All of the above contribute to an effective hospital marketing strategy.
Now that we’ve closed the books on the case of the basic requirements for the best healthcare websites, it's time to think about the key development stages.
What to consider in order to build a medical web resource?
Undoubtedly, if you’re a layman (a doctor or clinic manager), you’ll find the creation of a medical web resource an impossible task. And if you're seriously considering hospital website development, it’s worth finding competent web experts.
So, the optimal and effective solution means that you’re getting:
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the skilled approach;
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reasonable prices;
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a convenient and clean website;
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the perfect basis for the subsequent web promotion.
We recommend that you seek help from the medical web experts of our Agilie team. They’ll create the best hospital website: effective, functional, and appealing (the one you expect!).
We can build a hospital web resource of any complexity. Order our services if you have a...
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commercial or public clinic;
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diagnostic center;
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medical online store;
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online pharmacy;
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dental clinic;
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cosmetology salon.
Physicians engaged in private practice might also need a healthcare resource (say, a website to ask medical questions).
