How to Incorporate User Testing into Your Healthcare Website Redesign

Redesigning any website is a big undertaking, let alone one that thousands of your patients rely on for scheduling appointments, finding answers to their health questions, and researching their care options.  Whether you’re updating your site’s look and feel, improving functionality, or ensuring your analytics comply with the latest regulations, there’s one thing you can’t afford to overlook: user testing. After all, your website’s primary purpose is to serve your patients and visitors, so their experience should be at the forefront of your redesign strategy.  

But how do you effectively incorporate user testing into the process? Here’s a simple guide to help you navigate this essential step. 

1. Find your baseline

Did you know you can incorporate user experience (UX) testing into your redesign before you even get started?  

UX testing is the most impactful right at the beginning of your redesign, as it gives you a solid roadmap of what consumers would like to see from your website.  

You can send out a survey or conduct testing to gather data about what users like about your current site, whether it resonates with their pain points or not, and what they’d like to see from your organization moving forward. 

2. Conduct user research

Now that you have some idea of what users think about your current website, you need to get a better understanding of who your users are as people and what their pain points, browsing habits, and hurdles to conversion are. Conduct surveys, interviews, and analytics reviews to gather data on your current site’s performance.  

This research will help you identify users’ needs and opportunities for improvement. Understanding your demographics, behaviors, and preferences beyond what they think of your current site ensures that your redesign is not just aesthetically pleasing but also functional and user-centered. 

3. Create user personas

Once you’ve gathered enough information, the next step is to develop user personas. These are fictional “characters” that represent the different types of users who visit your website. For example, you may have a persona for an expectant parent visiting your site to learn about pregnancy and childbirth, family and friends who are looking up information about visiting a loved one in the hospital, or a parent researching pediatric care options for their child. 

Each persona should include details like age, occupation, goals, and challenges. By keeping these personas in mind during the redesign process, you can ensure that your new site meets the needs of all your user groups. 

4. Develop prototypes and wireframes

Before making significant changes to your website, start with wireframes and prototypes. These are simplified versions of your site that allow you to test layouts, navigation, and user flows without investing too much time or money.  

Prototypes can be as basic as paper sketches or more sophisticated interactive models. The goal here is to visualize how users will interact with your new design and to identify potential issues early on. 

5. Conduct user experience (UX) testing

UX testing involves having real users interact with your prototypes or a preview version of your redesigned site. This step is crucial because it allows you to observe how actual users navigate your site, complete tasks, and respond to different elements.  

Gather a diverse group of participants that reflect your user personas, and ask them to perform specific tasks on the site. Pay close attention to where they struggle, what confuses them, and how they react to different design choices.  

6. Analyze feedback and iterate

After completing usability testing, it’s time to analyze the feedback. Look for patterns in the data — are multiple users experiencing the same issues? Which features did users find most helpful or frustrating? Use this information to refine your design.  

Remember, iteration is key. It’s rare to get everything perfect on the first try, so be prepared to go back to the drawing board, make adjustments, and test again. 

7. Test for accessibility

Healthcare websites must be accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. Incorporate accessibility testing into your UX process to ensure that your redesign meets WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) standards.  

Use tools like screen readers, keyboard navigation, and color contrast analyzers to evaluate the accessibility of your site. If you don’t have in-house expertise, consider hiring an accessibility consultant to guide you through this critical step. 

8. Launch and monitor

Once you’ve tested and refined your design, it’s time to launch your new site. But the work doesn’t stop there. Monitor your site’s performance through analytics and ongoing user feedback. Set up regular check-ins to review key metrics like bounce rate, conversion rate, and user engagement. If issues arise post-launch, be prepared to make further tweaks to improve the user experience. 

Incorporating user testing into your healthcare website redesign process isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s essential for creating a site that truly serves your audience.  

By following these steps, you can ensure that your redesign not only looks great but also functions seamlessly, providing your users with the best possible experience. Remember, a website that meets the needs of your users will drive better outcomes for your organization.  

Interested in incorporating UX testing into your next website redesign? Let the Geonetric team help! 

We’ve worked with healthcare organizations like yours for more than 25 years to create digital experiences that resonate with their audiences and solve their pain points. Contact us today for a free 30-minute UX consult to kickstart your redesign efforts! 

3 Reasons to Add Short-Form Videos to Your Marketing Strategy

Open up just about any social app these days, and you’ll see it: short-from video. 

Spurred on by the success of TikTok, platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube have gotten in on the action with their own short-form video feeds. More users are consuming short-form videos than ever before, and they’ve quickly become a vital piece of the marketing puzzle for many industries. 

While healthcare might not seem like the most obvious fit for short-form video content, we’re seeing more healthcare organizations incorporate it into their marketing strategies as a way to reach new patients. 

The stats on video

It’s estimated that 73% of consumers are shifting away from traditional content consumption in favor of short-form videos like those found on TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts.  

In 2021, our digital healthcare marketing trends survey saw that video production was slowly but surely inching its way up the list of tactics organizations were incorporating into their marketing strategies. 

In the 2024 edition of our survey, we found that just under 20% of organizations still rated using TikTok as a marketing tactic as “not important.” All other organizations surveyed said TikTok was either nice to have, a must-have, or a competitive differentiator. While our questions about Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube didn’t specify whether organizations were investing in Reels or Shorts, they rated even higher than TikTok in terms of organizations seeing them as a must-have marketing channel. 

All signs point to short-form video in some format becoming and staying a vital marketing strategy, regardless of whether TikTok gets banned in the United States in 2025.  

This means, like it or not, if your organization hasn’t taken the leap into short-form video yet, now is the time. If you’re still on the fence about short-form video, here are a few of the benefits it can offer your marketing strategy. 

Standing out from competitors

By next year, 82% of all internet traffic is forecasted to come from video, so getting in on the ground floor of this trend could pay dividends for your organization. But even with the meteoric rise of short-form video, we’re seeing very few healthcare organizations producing their own short-form content.  

By establishing a presence in short-form video now, you can reach audiences of prospective patients who aren’t looking at traditional media and who your competitors aren’t connecting with. You’ll also avoid the extra work required to stand out if you wait to start producing videos and find your local healthcare market already saturated.  

Connect with Gen Z

Marketing to Gen Z consumers is a topic we’re talking about more and more with our clients (in fact, we’ll touch on it in our October 2 webinar on future trends). Gen Z is currently between 12 and 27 years old, which means many of the older consumers in this cohort are managing their own healthcare and selecting providers for the first time. Some may also be starting families and looking for care for their children. 

That makes it incredibly important to reach this audience where they are — and where they are is on short-form video channels. Gen Z is leading the way in terms of consumers turning to short-form video for information, with 64% of the generation using TikTok.  

By connecting with Gen Z consumers on the platforms they use the most, you’ll have a gateway to communicate with the next generation of consumers who are looking for your services. 

Put your existing content to work

Incorporating short-form video into your marketing strategy doesn’t mean you have to start from scratch. Consider taking content you already have and repurposing it for video! 

For example, you could take snippets of a recruiting video with employees talking about why they love working at your organization into bite-size pieces that feature individual employees providing a line or two.  

If you have a podcast, you could take a few standout moments per episode and edit them into short video clips. 

If you have a blog, consider posting short-form videos with a few key facts from each post, then linking back to the blog itself in case viewers want to read the whole article. 

The ways you can repurpose content are endless, and it’s a great way to make the work you’ve already done go a bit further in reaching your marketing goals. 

Getting started 

Not sure where to start on your short-form video content journey? Geonetic’s content marketing experts can provide valuable insights into ways healthcare organizations can take this growing trend and make it their own. Reach out to us today to level up your content marketing strategy with video! 

The Future of Findability: Search in the Age of AI

Artificial intelligence is shaking up how people search for information and interact with the content on your website — are you prepared?

While all of these AI developments may seem daunting, there are steps you can take today to prepare for what’s coming next and solidify your digital presence no matter what the future brings.

Download our latest eBook today to learn about the current state of AI and search, where we anticipate new developments to happen, and improvements your organization can make to its content to get ready for whatever’s next.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 


4 Ways to Maximize Your Digital Marketing Dollars

As part of our 2024 Digital Healthcare Marketing Trends Survey, we asked healthcare marketers how their budgets are faring in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Four years after the pandemic’s initial hit, many organizations are beginning to bounce back financially. However, too often, the last place that recovery is felt is the marketing department — our survey found that just 30% of organizations expect their budgets to grow this year. One in five healthcare organizations continue cutting their digital marketing budgets to mitigate more significant financial issues. 

If you’re on the marketing or web teams at one of these organizations, where you’re given a budget that doesn’t allow for much wiggle room or investment into new digital initiatives and staff, you’re not alone. And you’re not entirely out of options, either. 

Making progress toward your marketing goals is possible without breaking the bank or hiring more employees. Here are a few ways you and your team can get the most value out of your marketing budget, no matter its size. 

Prioritize user experience

To get the most bang for your buck, you need to identify the most impactful changes you can make to your marketing program that will help it resonate with consumers and, in turn, drive conversions. 

One of the most effective ways of doing this is through a user experience (UX) assessment. Through this process, you (or an agency partner like Geonetric) will gather pain points, successes, and other vital patient journey information from various stakeholders to create a persona. 

Using this persona, we can get an idea of their journey from prospect to patient and share observations, best practices, and competitor notes to help identify the problem areas you’d want to put your marketing resources toward first. You can also take it a step further through user testing, which utilizes real consumer feedback on things like the navigability of your website.  

By leveraging the power of user insights, you can work through your budget and staffing challenges with impactful, informed solutions that will provide maximum results. 

Tackle low-hanging fruit

Sometimes, the most significant marketing impact can be made from minor fixes that require little effort or resources.  

Think broken links, pages that return an error message, incorrect page tags — these are small issues that may seem inconsequential but can completely derail a customer’s journey if they visit your website or search for your services online.  

Take the time to audit your site for these errors, and fix them as soon as possible. You may be surprised by the results you’ll get in exchange for a relatively low effort! 

Make incremental website changes

Depending on your budget and staffing situation, a full website redesign may not be on the table right now. But that doesn’t mean you have to let your website grow stagnant! 

You can keep your site up-to-date and able to solve consumer’s pain points through iterative updates. Taking an iterative design approach rather than launching into a complete redesign allows you to make continuous improvements over time. 

Examples include updating the information on your location landing pages to better answer patients’ questions, creating a careers microsite to attract and inform prospective employees, or launching a content hub to provide helpful information and improve your site’s search engine optimization. 

By taking on smaller web updates as needed, your next redesign — whenever you’re able to take it on — can start with a strong foundation instead of a website that’s grown outdated. 

Track results

No matter your budget, you’ll want to monitor how the marketing efforts or improvements you can implement are performing.  

By analyzing data like website visits, conversion rates, and search rankings, you can tell what efforts are showing results and worth allocating resources toward — and which ones aren’t.  

You can also loop in some user experience (UX) insights by looking at statistics like bounce rate and site search terms to identify areas of your site that might not be meeting users’ expectations.  

Those areas could be candidates for the “low-hanging fruit” to tackle as soon as you can — think creating an FAQ section to answer users’ common questions, fixing broken images, etc. — to see results while you’re waiting on the resources to tackle larger-scale projects. 

Ready to get more out of your marketing?

At Geonetric, we’re helping healthcare organizations at all stages of their financial comeback see results from their marketing strategy. For expert insights on marketing tactics like user experience and iterative website design, contact our team today! 

We also help healthcare marketers do more with the resources they have through our VitalSite® content management system. VitalSite® is designed specifically for healthcare organizations to make managing their websites flexible and intuitive, no matter the size of their marketing department. Schedule a demo to see firsthand what VitalSite® can do for your organization!   

4 Best Practices for a Successful Rebrand

There’s one aspect of your digital presence as a healthcare provider that’s universal across all organizations, whether standalone hospitals with more than a century of history or a recently formed health system with hundreds of locations: brand. 

Your brand is what sets you apart from your competitors, communicates your mission and values as an organization, and reassures patients that they’ve come to the best place to receive care. 

But like any part of your marketing strategy, your brand should evolve to fit changing consumer expectations, your organization’s growth, and your overall mission and marketing goals.  

If you’re about to embark on a rebrand or aren’t sure if your organization is due for one, check out these best practices to help guide you through the process. 

What is a rebrand?

When you think of a rebrand, your first thought might be updating the look and functionality of your website. While that’s a vital part of a rebrand (and one we’re very fond of here at Geonetric), a website redesign on its own won’t get the job done. 

Instead, a rebrand is a complete change in your corporate image that could include a new name, logo, color palette, slogan, website and print material design, content voice and tone, marketing strategy, core values, brand promise and mission statement, all in an effort to rebuild your marketing strategy from the ground up.

1. Understand when it’s time to rebrand — and when it’s not

We’ve all heard the marketing horror stories of well-known companies that decide to rebrand only to lose brand recognition or consumers’ trust in the process. 

So, how do you know when a rebrand is right for your healthcare organization? 

If your primary pain points are bringing in new patients and building your brand recognition, a rebrand might not be the answer you’re looking for. Instead, you can focus your resources on search engine optimization, search engine marketing, and content marketing to help build awareness and create connections with consumers. 

On the other hand, it’s a smart time to rebrand if your organization has: 

  • Experienced a rapid period of growth, like going from one location to several 
  • Begun to look visually similar to other organizations in your area 
  • Merged with another organization or system 
  • Refocused your target patient demographics 
  • Recently updated its mission, vision and values 
  • Had the same branding for years, and it’s beginning to look outdated 

If it’s been a while since you’ve last rebranded, and your brand strategy no longer feels like it’s communicating the benefits your organization delivers, it’s time for an update.

2. Get the timing right

In general, full rebrands only tend to happen every seven to 10 years since they’re quite resource intensive. But that doesn’t mean you should simply “set it and forget it” when it comes to your visual branding! 

Consider doing a brand refresh, which typically happens every three to five years. Instead of revamping your entire marketing strategy through a full rebrand, a brand refresh instead focuses on updating your visible branding, like your logo, fonts, and colors. 

A brand refresh requires fewer resources than a full rebrand, and it’s easier to take on every few years. It is not, however, a substitute for rebranding — if you’re coming up on a decade with the same brand strategy, it’s time for a full rebrand. 

Rebrands don’t always happen at the most convenient times, of course. You may have had months of planning done in advance and have perfectly timed your rebrand to roll out with a complete website redesign. Other times, you may have recently redesigned your site, but you only need to make more changes following a merger or major organizational change.  

In those less-than-convenient cases, a brand refresh can help tide you over until a full rebrand and site redesign is feasible. 

3. Know your audience

Putting resources and time toward a full rebrand won’t be worth much if your new brand strategy doesn’t speak directly to patients. 

Before you get started and throughout your rebrand timeline, we recommend conducting user experience (UX) testing so you can make informed choices and give consumers what they’re looking for. Through UX research, you can get an idea of what your patients think of your branding (and your competitors’), their first impressions of your visual brand, and how your website and overall digital presence meet their needs. 

You can conduct this research through surveys, looking at your analytics to see what areas of your site attract the most clicks from users, interviewing groups of current patients to see what resonates with them, and researching wider industry trends.

4. Focus on consistency

Once you have your rebrand roadmap and are ready to begin the actual rebrand work, it’s essential to keep consistency in mind. 

A consistent visual narrative across all of your platforms ensures that your brand is easily recognizable and can build trust and reliability in the consumers’ minds. 

If you forget to update an online listing with your new logo or still have pages on your website that use your previous brand colors or fonts, it can confuse users and muddy the idea of your brand that they have in their minds. 

This brings us back to the concept of incorporating a complete website redesign with your rebrand. A new website is crucial to accurately reflecting your brand identity and showcasing the rebranded elements you’ve created for this process.  

If your rebrand includes a renewed focus on a world-class service you offer that your competitors don’t, your website can include a dedicated service line page or microsite highlighting that service. If your new mission statement places a greater emphasis on education, consider creating a blog and newsletter that routinely shares helpful health information with patients. 

No matter what your new brand strategy looks like, a redesigned website is the perfect vehicle to show off that new branding and give patients, prospects, and employees a fantastic first impression of your organization. 

Time for a rebrand?

If your organization’s brand experience could use an update, Geonetric is here to help. Our teams of website developers, designers, and writers can transform your brand and successfully position your organization to meet whatever goals you have. Contact us today to get started! 

25th Anniversary Client Spotlight: Bryan Health

In honor of Geonetric’s 25th anniversary, we’re sharing the stories and successes of just a few of our healthcare clients across the United States. Some have been with us for decades, others just a few years; some are major health systems, others just one standalone hospital. But one common thread ties them all together: Geonetric has helped them take their digital marketing programs to new heights. 

Bryan Health is a non-profit health system based in Lincoln, NE. The system was formed in 1997 following the merger of two hospitals in Lincoln, and today has grown to include more than 70 locations, a state-wide physician network, six acute care hospitals, and more than 6,000 employees. The system is also home to the Bryan College of Health Sciences, which offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in nursing, biomedical studies, and healthcare studies, along with college credit healthcare courses for high school students. 

Bryan first began its partnership with Geonetric in 2014, after an antiquated content management system began limiting the team’s ability to update its website and accurately tell its brand story to visitors.  

A vital upgrade

We introduced our VitalSite® content management system as a solution to help enhance Bryan’s online presence and help turn website visitors into loyal patients with features like an easy-to-navigate provider directory and key service lines pages. Geonetric also stood out from other agencies Bryan interviewed for our dedication to customer success long after their initial website launch. 

“Their ongoing support was unique compared against others, and we knew even after we received a beautiful new portfolio of websites, our work together would continue with a dedicated client success manager,” explained Jenny Sundberg, Director of Marketing and Strategic Planning at Bryan.  

Bryan’s new website launched in 2015. In the decade since, Geonetric has provided regular website enhancements, such as custom location profiles, a microsite for the system’s recently opened comprehensive community cancer center, and a microsite for the Bryan Heart cardiovascular practice that would go on to win a Gold Award for Best Landing Page or Microsite in the 2023 eHealthcare Leadership Awards.  

From January 2024 to March 2024 alone, the Bryan Health website brought in more than 19,000 conversions, more than 160,000 views of its provider profile pages (a 17.8% increase compared to 2023), more than 210,000 views of its location pages (a 6.8% increase compared to 2023), and more than five million Google search impressions. 

Adapting for the future

In 2024, Bryan and Geonetric began the initial steps to redesign the system’s website again in order to match its strategic business objectives, current consumer expectations, and changes in the way patients access health information online. 

“With our current website redesign project, we’ve engaged members from across our health system to inform how we develop our next website to meet growing needs, based on their engagement with their patients and families,” said Sundberg. “With more than 80,000 monthly unique visitors to our website, the site will have great visibility, and we’re excited for the impact it will have on how users engage with Bryan.” 

Sundberg also appreciates Geonetric’s commitment to staying on the forefront of pressing healthcare and digital marketing topics, “which has proven to be beneficial as we’ve navigated data privacy and new and emerging rules and regulations in the healthcare space.” 

When asked to sum up Bryan’s decade-long relationship with Geonetric in one word, Sundberg said “partnership.” And to healthcare organizations looking for a digital marketing partner to help reach their own marketing goals, she simply responded “Do it. It’s one of the best investments we’ve made.” 

“We knew when we selected Geonetric that they would be a great partner, we just didn’t know our relationship would expand now a decade,” said Sundberg. “We’ve developed a strong working relationship with their team, appreciate how they keep us informed of the latest news and insights in the digital healthcare space and have grown alongside us.” 

Ready to experience the Geonetric difference?   

If your healthcare organization is looking for a digital marketing partner to supercharge your website and marketing efforts, Geonetric is here to help. Contact our team today to learn more about how we can deliver results for the next decade and beyond! 

Google’s Cookie Announcement: What Does it Mean for Healthcare Marketers?

Google announced late last month that it no longer has plans to do away with third-party cookies in its Chrome web browser. This announcement came after four years of work by the search engine giant to create a new solution that allows for tracking and measurement while improving users’ privacy. 

Instead of pivoting from cookies to its Privacy Sandbox API, Google said in a blog post that it proposes a new approach that “elevates user choice.” 

“Instead of deprecating third-party cookies, we would introduce a new experience in Chrome that lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing, and they’d be able to adjust that choice at any time,” Privacy Sandbox VP Anthony Chavez explained in the post. No other details of this new solution or a timeline for its release were included in the announcement. 

While the move to focus on personal choice instead of deprecating cookies may seem surprising after four years of work, it doesn’t come as a shock if you remember that 80% of Google’s revenue comes from online advertising. And despite accepting user feedback and trying to create solutions that “support a competitive and thriving marketplace,” in the end, those vital advertisers just weren’t impressed with Privacy Sandbox. 

While Google’s new focus on user choice may be an attempt to make the best of a bad situation, it still raises the question of whether it will eventually develop something new to replace third-party cookies.  

Would a new solution look different from this attempt? Or is the potential wrath of advertisers enough for Google to stay away and keep cookies in place for the foreseeable future? 

What does it mean for healthcare marketing?

For now, Google’s announcement to stick with third-party cookies shouldn’t change anything about your marketing strategy. Everything will remain status quo until we hear more about this “new experience.”  

What this move does call into question is how Google and other tech companies like Microsoft will handle their efforts to incorporate artificial intelligence solutions into their search engines.  

The rollout of features like Google’s AI Overview hasn’t been a resounding success so far (today, AI Overviews only show for about 7-8% of searches, compared to 64% when the feature first launched in 2023). The efforts tech companies have made to incorporate AI into their search engines may look very different — or cease to exist entirely — if they don’t raise market value enough. 

Our advice? Keep focusing on the fundamentals of good content that will continue to drive ROI across paid and organic strategies. Don’t ditch AI entirely, but use it as a tool when a project calls for it instead of putting all of your eggs in the AI search basket.  

As for advertising and analytics, in the healthcare world, your efforts should still be on gathering valuable consumer data in a way that doesn’t run afoul of HIPAA regulations. You can stay tuned to the Geonetric blog for HIPAA updates and other useful healthcare marketing tips, or check out our Geonetric Privacy Filter to supercharge your marketing efforts with compliant analytics. 

25 Years of Technology: 2019 – 2023

This is the fifth and final article in our series highlighting the technological breakthroughs that shaped healthcare, marketing, and our work at Geonetric over our first 25 years in business. You can go back and read the other articles in this series, which cover 1999 – 2003, 2004 – 2008, 2009 – 2013, and 2014 2018. 

When looking back on the history of digital healthcare marketing and healthcare in general, you’d be hard-pressed to find a period in history that has brought more rapid change than the last five years. 

If you’re in the healthcare industry (and if you’re reading this, you probably are), you don’t need reminding of the ways the COVID-19 pandemic challenged your organization. 

However, the pandemic brought along with it technological and marketing changes that persist today and will likely remain woven into our marketing strategies for years to come. 

On top of that, these five years also brought with them a greater emphasis on mobile web functionality and a little piece of HIPAA guidance that threw us all for a loop.  

2019

On July 1, 2019, Google started indexing new sites for mobile first before indexing the desktop versions. 

This shift made it especially vital for digital marketers to ensure that any new websites they launched worked well on mobile and had quality content, images, videos, links, structured data and other metadata, in addition to functioning well for desktop users. 

“There had been a couple of design trends at different points over the years where we’d say, ‘Ok, if 60% of our traffic is mobile, we should design the mobile experience and then back into what the desktop experience is going to look like,” explained Ben Dillon, CEO of Geonetric. “We’re seeing some app usage out there, but today, we’re certainly in a place where mobile web is a dominant piece of the experience.” 

2020

The COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020 and served as a catalyst for many healthcare organizations to pursue digital transformation — and pivot their marketing strategies to address virus, testing and vaccine information. 

“It’s hard to wrap your head around the scope and just how major the shifts were going on,” said Dillon. “We’d have clients who said, ‘I need to put a project on hold because next week we’re opening a military-style field hospital in the parking garage, and I need to oversee that now.'” 

For many healthcare marketers, the pandemic also identified gaps in their strategies for communicating with patients. Some organizations, Dillon recalled, didn’t even have a way to send email communications to all of their patients. That had to change, and fast, as communities turned to their local health systems and hospitals for guidance. 

“For a lot of our hospitals, they became one of the central hubs of communication and information around the crisis in general. There were a bunch of things along the way that were really challenging from a communication perspective,” said Dillon. “I think marketing and communications got a seat at the table at the executive level that, in many cases, they hadn’t before that point in time because they didn’t think of communications as being a strategic asset to the organization. And suddenly, that lifeline to the community was really key.” 

2021

As the COVID-19 pandemic continued, telemedicine options grew in popularity — by April 2021, 27% of American adults age 18 and older were utilizing telehealth services. However, with the rapid expansion of telemedicine also came the challenge of how healthcare organizations could master the technology, build patient trust, and explain the benefits through marketing. 

“It was interesting to see as an industry that traditionally has thought of itself as not being particularly nimble and not really being able to adapt and innovate. We had clients with five-year plans to grow telemedicine that they were able to blow past within a few weeks once COVID-related shutdowns started,” said Dillon. “In terms of adoption of the tools and the ability to push it through multiple specialties, there was a rethinking of ‘What are the places where I actually need to go in and see you?'” 

2022

In December 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued guidance on the use of marketing trackers, like Google Analytics or Meta Pixel, by HIPAA Covered Entities such as health systems and hospitals. 

The guidance stated that Covered Entities are “not permitted to use tracking technologies in a manner that would result in impermissible disclosures of [protected health information] to tracking technology vendors or any other violations of the HIPAA Rules.” 

This development raised the question of whether healthcare marketers could continue to use analytics to craft effective marketing messages and understand their audiences without running afoul of HIPAA. 

Earlier this year, HHS released an updated guidance that raised more questions than answers, and the American Hospital Association recently received a summary judgment in its lawsuit that claimed the guidance exceeds HHS’ authority.  

While we wait to see how things pan out, we encourage marketers not to make any knee-jerk decisions regarding their compliance tools and strategies. Instead, consider a tool like Geonetric Privacy Filter to give you peace of mind that your marketing strategies can be effective without compromising patient privacy. 

2023

Generative AI has been creeping into marketing conversations for years now, but 2023 was the first year it truly became widely available for professional workflows. Companies like Apple, Adobe, and Canva have implemented AI tools across their creative suites, while many industries have argued over the ethics of incorporating AI into their daily work. 

AI continues to be a hot topic for healthcare marketers, according to the results of our 2024 Healthcare Digital Marketing Trends Survey. Many marketers are wary of incorporating AI into their marketing efforts when they operate in such a heavily regulated industry, while others claim that it’d feel like “cheating” to use AI to generate content for their websites. 

Whether you’re on board the AI train or not, it will play a major role in the marketing landscape over the coming years — we suggest reading up on how it will impact things like search engine optimization so you can learn how to use it in tandem with your marketing tools and prepare for the rise of AI search. 

2024… and beyond

A lot has changed over Geonetric’s 25 years in business, and we anticipate even more rapid change over the next 25. If you want more insights into the future of healthcare marketing, be sure to download our 2024 Digital Healthcare Marketing Trends Survey eBook to learn how your colleagues are reacting to hot tech topics like generative AI, personalization, HIPAA compliance, and more. 

If your organization is looking for a digital marketing guide that can help you meet your marketing goals and weather whatever tech changes are coming down the road, Geonetric is here to help. Contact our team today to learn more about our marketing and web development services, Geonetric Privacy Filter, and content management systems. 

Geonetric CEO Ben Dillon Honored with 2024 SHSMD Leadership Excellence Award

Geonetric CEO Ben Dillon

Geonetric is thrilled to announce that CEO Ben Dillon has been named the 2024 recipient of the Society for Health Care Strategy & Market Development’s (SHSMD) Leadership Excellence Award. 

The prestigious award honors leaders in healthcare marketing, communications, public relations, planning, and business development who have become standouts in their field and have demonstrated stellar achievements over the course of their careers.  

In their recommendations, the nominators for this year’s Leadership Excellence Award highlighted Ben’s decades of digital experience, thought leadership, and work helping healthcare organizations across the country adapt to healthcare and marketing trends — all of which we’re proud to have a front row seat for here at Geonetric. 

Regarding Ben’s expertise and insights in digital marketing, technology, and healthcare, nominators remarked that he’s been “an informative and friendly source of trend watching and information in an increasingly hostile and confusing landscape” and “a sherpa where we often felt caught in a storm we couldn’t control.” 

Geonetric is honored to be led by Ben, who joined the agency in 2000, just one year after it was founded. In the years since, he has served as an influential voice in the field of healthcare marketing through his speaking engagements and writings. Ben became CEO of Geonetric in 2023. 

In addition to his outstanding work at Geonetric, Ben was also a member of the SHSHMD Board of Directors from 2011 to 2019 and served as president in 2018. He has also been a part of SHSMD’s Digital Engagement Task Force, Nominating Committee, Editorial Advisory Board, Annual Conference Planning Committee, Social Media Trends Task Force, and Bridging World Core Team. 

One award nominator who served on the SHSMD board with Ben praised his “leadership, commitment to advancing the profession, and how he lives the Society’s values of collaboration, accountability, respect, excellence and innovation.”  

Nominators also appreciate Ben’s “candor, sincerity, inclusiveness, and dry sense of humor” in the way he shares industry updates, even when addressing “the most complex and challenging topics of the industry.” 

In addition to his work with SHSMD, Ben is also a 2022 Healthcare Internet Hall of Fame inductee and an eHealthcare Strategy & Trends editorial advisory board member. 

Outside of healthcare marketing, Ben is also a co-founder, board member, and mentor for the Iowa Startup Accelerator — now known as NewBo.Co — a non-profit expanding the entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem in Iowa. 

This well-deserved honor from SHSMD not only celebrates Ben’s outstanding professional achievements but also underscores the invaluable impact he has had on digital marketing, healthcare, and the Geonetric team. 

From all of us at Geonetric, congratulations, Ben, on this prestigious recognition! 

25th Anniversary Client Spotlight: Hartford HealthCare

In honor of Geonetric’s 25th anniversary, we’re sharing the stories and successes of just a few of our healthcare clients across the United States. Some have been with us for decades, others just a few years; some are major health systems, others just one standalone hospital. But one common thread ties them all together: Geonetric has helped them take their digital marketing programs to new heights.

Hartford, CT-based Hartford HealthCare (HHC) ranks as one of the largest health systems in Connecticut, seeing more than 23,000 patients daily in more than 185 cities across the state. HHC comprises more than 500 healthcare facilities, including four behavioral health centers, two physician organizations, senior care services, and seven acute care hospitals, several of which have been serving their communities for over a century.

Search strategies

HHC has partnered with Geonetric since early 2018, initially contracting with us to work on search engine optimization (SEO) across its more than 30 websites after a new website launch led to a natural dip in organic traffic and search rankings.

“Our websites weren’t ranking as well as we would like on Google, and we knew that having an agency dedicated to SEO would be important,” said Nicole Spagnoletti, Director of Digital Marketing at HHC. “It was a lot to manage on our own, with our in-house team dedicating time to maintaining and expanding them as our system grew over time.”

When our partnership first began, our long-term strategy for HHC was to integrate organic SEO with search engine marketing (SEM), and shift toward organic SEO over time. But rebuilding those rankings wasn’t something that could happen overnight — it requires a significant amount of effort, resources and time.

To bridge the gap between where HHC’s rankings were in 2018 with where we wanted them to reach, we recommended a short-term paid marketing and pay-per-click (PPC) ad strategy. With this initial strategy in place, HHC and our team had the time to take a step back and focus on building up core competencies.

Those strategies, like any successful marketing program, evolved over time to fit HHC’s needs. But the solid foundation of SEO success — technical SEO, on-page SEO, on search results page SEO, and off-page SEO — have always been at the center of the work we do together.

In the years since our partnership began, we’ve helped reimagine HHC’s entire approach to digital marketing with a new SEO strategy to help recoup their lost traffic and search rankings.

Our team has also implemented SEM campaign best practices to bring their PPC ads back on track after “cannibalization” — ads competing with other Hartford campaigns and reducing their impact — led to an inefficient use of the money invested in each campaign.

A significant part of these initial SEO and SEM projects was identifying and remedying “low-hanging fruit” — minor fixes we could make to achieve results quickly — and ensuring all pages were functioning and tagged correctly so Google and other search engines could find and scan them.

We also identified the campaigns that were causing and reassessed and optimized them for new keywords and audiences.

Partnership results

Within the first nine months of launching HHC’s revamped paid campaigns, we saw a 57.55% increase in conversions, a 98.39% increase in impressions, a 71.75% increase in conversion rate, and a 31.82% decrease in cost per conversion.

On the SEO side, year-over-year results from 2018 to 2019 show a 59% increase in conversion growth, a 67% increase in conversion rate, and a 30% decrease in cost per conversion.

In the time since launching those initial campaigns, our team has continued to fine-tune HHC’s SEO strategy and paid efforts through new keyword-optimized content, metadata and Google Tag Manager management.

“In all of the projects we work on with Geonetric, we get such wonderful feedback from our colleagues about how easy they are to work with, how clear their expectations are, and how sound their strategy is,” said Spagnoletti. “If we ever have questions about their strategy, it’s a great conversation and learning opportunity.”

Prioritizing privacy

We also worked with HHC to implement Geonetric Privacy Filter, which allows healthcare organizations to use Google Analytics and craft effective marketing strategies while maintaining HIPAA compliance.

Spagnoletti recalled that a highlight of implementing Geonetric Privacy Filter was consistently feeling like a priority to our team.

“This particular project had a lot of visibility, and we needed answers in a clear, concise and timely manner, and they delivered,” she said.

A true partnership

Another factor that has kept HHC’s partnership with Geonetric strong over the years is our meticulous attention to detail and commitment to staying up-to-date on the latest healthcare and marketing industry trends. When asked to sum up our relationship in one word, Spagnoletti chose “authentic.”

“They are proactive in communicating with us when there are changes in the industry and offer solid solutions without overselling,” said Spagnoletti. “The best thing about working with the team is that I trust they operate with their clients’ interests in mind. Geonetric is a true partner, beyond just the services they provide. We appreciate having them as an extension of our in-house team.”

Ready to experience the Geonetric difference?

Geonetric has 25 years of experience helping healthcare organizations of all sizes meet their marketing goals and stay on the cutting edge of healthcare and digital trends.

If your team is ready to take the first step to building a marketing partnership that delivers results, contact us today!