In healthcare marketing, nothing is more important than improving the user experience, resulting in a pleasant and intuitive process for patients.
A conversation between patient and physician is just a small slice of the pie when it comes to communications among healthcare providers and their patients. Today’s healthcare consumers are regularly exposed to a wide range of information, treatment options, and updates from their local hospital or health system, and more of this information is being distributed digitally. In the world of healthcare marketing, this means keeping a close eye on user experience (UX).
“The experience someone has interacting with a hospital outside of the facility itself can be just as important in terms of establishing loyalty as the direct care they receive,” says Eric Jackson, Vice President of Creative Services at True North Custom. “It’s especially important for us as healthcare marketers because the relationship between our clients and their patients is more than just a transaction—it’s an ongoing dialogue about their health.”
Communication and Understanding
The key to good UX is a strong understanding of what your user requires. In most cases, this means creating a hassle-free, frictionless journey to their desired destination, be it a piece of information or a webpage. Keeping an open dialogue with your audience—both verbally and visually—should be a high priority for healthcare marketers. These days, the expansion of telehealth requires a strong grasp on UX to offer a seamless experience from start to finish.
“The most important thing to consider is the person on the other end,” Jackson says. “You’re developing a relationship with them, and their feedback is important. While you may not have a direct verbal dialogue, there are still lots of signals to pick up on. If those are ignored, you’ve lost that connection.”
Continual Improvement
As the conversation with your audience changes and evolves, so must the design elements behind their experience. A stagnant relationship is an unproductive. In order to keep your audience’s attention, you must adapt to their preferences—regardless of what your design intuition may tell you is best.
“Nothing is ever finished. If you’re not continually making adjustments and listening to your audience, the quality of their experience will eventually drop.” Jackson says. “Doing things without testing is really just guessing. We use data to inform and drive enhancements for continual improvement.”
User Experience Strategies to Improve Your Marketing Efforts
From website design to app creation to email marketing strategies and more, user experience is king. The goal is improving the user experience through healthcare marketing. Use the following tips to bolster your relationship with your audience.
- Keep your navigation easy to understand and use. Your visitor should arrive at the intended destination with the least amount of clicks possible.
- Keep your focal point visible and distinctive. People scan their screens, so make sure whatever draws their eye is what you want them to see.
- Don’t impose on the user. Use caution against overriding the native functionality of a browser, like changing scrolling behavior.
- Keep everything functioning. This should go without saying, but broken buttons and bad links help no one.
