In healthcare, we typically focus on the moments that drive a prospect to become a patient of your organization. These moments include patients finding your organization in search engine results, clicking on a paid ad, or scrolling through your site to learn more about your treatment options for a specific condition. 

However, one moment that often gets overlooked is when a prospective or even current patient visits the blog page of your website.  

What do they see when they arrive? Is the information on your blog helpful or generic? Is the content patient-focused, or simply a way for your team to blast out press releases that don’t have much — if anything — to do with patients’ concerns? 

If your blog has gone stagnant or turned into a lackluster page where press releases go to die, it’s time to consider a revamp. Even better, it’s time to consider launching a healthcare content hub for your organization. 

What is a healthcare content hub?

A content hub is a term used to describe an area of a website where organizations publish quality content that’s useful to their target audience. These hubs often have an editorial look, feel, and tone, creating an engaging, branded experience that goes beyond your basic blog page. 

In healthcare, content hubs are used to share vital health information, patient stories, and news-related posts that relate to the services they provide.  

If you have a healthcare content hub that needs some TLC or are just getting started on your healthcare content marketing journey, here are a few tips from our team to get you started. 

Keep it timely 

Not all of the information you share through your healthcare content hub has to tie in with current events or seasonal happenings. By adding in timely content, you can capture your audience’s attention and make your content hub a go-to place for the latest in health news. 

Timely topics could be tips for allergy relief during the spring months, healthier recipes to try out during the holidays, or suggestions from your care teams about health topics in the headlines.  

Keep it consumable

If there’s one thing you can count on, it’s that consumers’ attention spans are short. This is especially true as Gen Z patients start making their own healthcare decisions, and more and more patients consume healthcare content from their phones. 

Aim to keep your content on the shorter side, with a layout that utilizes bulleted lists, headers, and bold text to make it skimmable. You may also consider creating video content, especially short-form videos, as they’re a fantastic way to share critical information while holding viewers’ attention. 

Keep it credible

Your healthcare content hub is a place to let your organization’s expertise shine!  

This means bringing in providers as subject matter experts to inform the stories you cover, provide quotes, and even write content themselves if they have time. If your organization is working on a physician marketing strategy, having providers serve as content hub authors is another great way to provide them with promotion and exposure. 

Keep it audience-focused

No matter what your content hub looks like, your content strategy needs to be centered around the people who will be visiting it: your audience of patients and prospective patients.  

Think like a patient when brainstorming story topics and consider articles they might find helpful, like patient success stories, “get to know a provider” profiles, and health information they can use in their everyday lives. By weaving in stories of the people your organization employs and has helped in addition to health content, you can add a component of social proof and trust-building to your hub. 

Not sure about the types of helpful stories patients want to read on your healthcare content hub? You can also employ a poll or survey within the site where users can provide their thoughts and ideas on what they’d like to see next! 

Keep it actionable

Every piece of content should include the next steps a reader can take. Examples of these calls to action can include: 

• A link to your appointment scheduling platform at the end of a provider profile 

• Links to your relevant service line pages in an article about a condition or treatment 

• A call to share their experience at the end of a patient success story 

• Links to previous articles on a similar topic in a health-related news story 

Whatever you do, make sure the posts on your content hub aren’t the end of the line for your readers. Instead, they should open the door to more helpful, engaging content. 

Looking for healthcare content hub inspiration? 

If you’re due for a new or revamped healthcare content hub and aren’t sure where to start, check out these case studies to see how we helped organizations like Cone Health in North Carolina and Silver Cross Hospital in Illinois transform their content strategies and get results (like a 56% increase in social media traffic!). You can also find inspiration in these content marketing hubs, which our team finds particularly impressive. 

When you’re ready to get started with your own healthcare content hub, Geonetric is ready to help! Reach out to our team to learn more about the development process and how we can create a powerful content hub that accomplishes your goals. 

In need of some inspiration for your next website redesign, intranet project, or microsite? Check out the Geonetric healthcare websites honored with awards for their cutting-edge visuals, user-friendly features, and comprehensive content in 2024.  

This year, Geonetric clients won big in boh the MarCom Awards, which honors excellence in marketing and communications, and the eHealthcare Leadership Awards, which recognize achievements in healthcare websites and digital initiatives. 

If a website redesign or project is on the horizon for your team in 2025, consider these examples for healthcare websites and digital experiences that raise the bar! 

FirstHealth of the Carolinas – Website Redesign

Pinehurst, NC-based FirstHealth of the Carolinas worked with Geonetric in 2023 to redesign its website in a way that showcased its visual branding, simplified the site structure, accommodated the more than 40% of visitors who came to the site using a smartphone and helped it stand out from its competition.  

The result was a user-friendly, responsive website that made navigating and searching the site a breeze while highlighting FirstHealth’s commitment to whole-person care through imagery and strategic messaging.  

In the first year since its launch, the FirstHealth site racked up more than 402,000 engaged sessions, 582,000 mobile users, and 4.3 million page views. 

The 140-location, 6,100-employee health system was honored for its redesign with a Platinum MarCom Award in the Mobile Website category, a Gold MarCom Award in the Website category, an honorable mention MarCom Award for its provider directory, and a Gold eHealthcare Leadership Award for Best Overall Internet Site. 

Adventist HealthCare – Cancer Center Microsite

Adventist HealthCare, a 63-location, 6,200-employee health system based in Gaithersburg, MD, was experiencing rapid growth of its cancer service line by establishing new partnerships and treatment centers.  

Adventist reached out to Geonetric to create a dedicated microsite that would tell the story of the system’s comprehensive cancer services, grow with the organization, and satisfy all stakeholders. 

The resulting microsite guides users on their care journey with location profiles, lists of the cancers Adventist treats, classes and events, provider profiles, and resources for survivors. All of these features are set against a calming color palette and simplified navigation so visitors know exactly where to go for the information they need. 

Adventist’s cancer center microsite was honored with a Gold MarCom award in the Microsite category. 

Benefis – Internet & Intranet Redesign

The time had come for Great Falls, MT-based Benefis Healthcare System to update not only its website design but the platform it used to manage it. Its current website had become technically and creatively outdated, which didn’t align with the health system’s expanding presence across the state. 

Benefis worked with Geonetric to launch a revamped site that had a modern look and user experience, new EPIC/MyChart functionality that replaced an old patient portal, and messaging that clearly showed which communities the organization serves. 

The new Benefis.org features an intuitive user interface, simplified navigation and search, mobile responsiveness, and scalable content like Location profiles that can grow along with the organization. In the first six months after its launch in February 2024, the website brought in a 200% increase in average click-through rate, a 253% increase in organic traffic to Locations, and a 25.3% increase in average Google ranking. 

Around the same time, Benefis wanted to replatform its old BenefisConnect employee intranet to a solution that could increase engagement and allow its team to update the site without assistance from the IT department. 

The new BenefisConnect also launched in February 2024, and saw a 42% increase in average engagement time, a 63% increase in user engagement events, and an 18% increase in page views. 

For their website work with Geonetric, Benefis earned MarCom Award honorable mentions for Intranet and Website Redesign, as well as Gold eHealthcare Leadership Awards for Best Overall Internet Site and Best Mobile Website, and a Silver eHealthcare Leadership Award for Best Digital Internal Communications. 

VHC Health – Careers Microsite

Like many healthcare organizations in the post-pandemic era, Arlington, VA-based VHC Health needed a boost for its employee recruitment efforts. VHC worked alongside Geonetric to create a new home base for job seekers, as well as the recruitment team’s SEO, SEM, and paid advertising efforts. 

The new VHC Health careers microsite showcases bold branding, a modern design, images of real employees, and an information architecture that seamlessly guides job candidates to the information they’re looking for. On the back end, comprehensive keyword research, on-page optimization, and Schema code help improve VHC’s findability for candidates searching for healthcare jobs online. 

The content on the microsite offers job seekers information about current openings, employee perks and benefits, workplace culture, individual employee experiences, professional growth opportunities, and the application and hiring process. All of these elements work in tandem to show why VHC is a great place to work for anyone seeking employment in the Arlington area. 

VHC’s careers microsite earned a MarCom Awards honorable mention, as well as a Silver eHealthcare Leadership Award for Best Landing Page or Microsite. 

Ready to get started on your own award-winning healthcare websites?

Whether you’re looking to launch a microsite, revamp your employee intranet, or undergo a complete redesign and replatform, Geonetric is ready when you are. Our team of designers, developers, content pros, and digital marketing specialists have more than 25 years of experience creating healthcare websites that take the patient experience to the next level. 

Learn more about our healthcare website design services here, then reach out to our team when you’re ready to get started on your own award-worthy digital experiences! 

Believe it or not, we’re just a few weeks from the start of 2025. And while you undoubtedly have plenty of projects on your plate for the new year, it’s time to think about executing new tactics to increase conversions, build patient loyalty, and grow your brand. 

These healthcare marketing tactics are especially vital as consumer preferences and habits shift toward digital platforms. Today’s patients expect personalized web experiences, convenient online appointment scheduling, and comprehensive content that answers their questions. 

Your organization can get ahead of the curve by prioritizing one (or more!) of these tactics in the coming year:

1. Personalization

Your patients are looking for tailored digital experiences that speak directly to their needs and challenges. By investing in personalization, healthcare organizations can create more relevant and engaging digital ads, landing pages, and patient portals to help build patient connections and improve trust. 

One way you can ease into personalization is by creating content that aligns with the service lines potential patients are researching and where they’re coming from when they arrive at your site.  

For example, say you want to highlight your orthopedic care department. You could create digital ads focused on younger patients, with imagery that depicts young adults playing sports and a specific landing page that talks about sports medicine and other ailments younger patients might face. As part of that same campaign, you could create a series of emails and custom landing pages that target older patients, and the reasons why they may seek out orthopedic care. 

Personalization doesn’t have to be overwhelming or feel invasive — giving patients a tailored experience that offers the answers they’re looking for is an effective first step. Learn more about personalization with these FAQs!

2. Digital Advertising

Haven’t been investing much in your digital advertising program? Now is a great time to start!  

Paid ads help capture potential patients’ attention at critical moments in their care journeys when researching options on search engines or social media. By pairing effective ad content, engaging images, and helpful landing pages, you can drive new patients to your site and show them why your organization is the best choice for the care they need. 

You can also maximize the impact of your ads by tracking their performance and A/B testing different ad copy or images to see which messages resonate the most with your audience.

3. Findability

Findability is one of the healthcare marketing tactics we talked a lot about in 2024 — and that’s definitely not going to change in 2025 as artificial intelligence (AI) continues to gain prominence. 

Plan a strategy for the coming year to stay findable and visible to prospective patients regardless of whether they find you through a traditional web search, Google’s AI overviews, an AI answer engine like Perplexity, or another method of search. 

The key here is to consider everywhere your organization is visible online — your primary site, subsites, business listings quality, social media engagement, and paid advertising — as an opportunity to guide a user to the information they’re looking for, even if that user is an AI algorithm.  

You can start boosting your findability in 2025 by making sure all of the content on your web pages is easily scannable and follows a standardized structure, ensuring your location pages and provider profiles are up-to-date, and utilizing Schema structured data to serve up the most essential information to any AI bots that scan your site.

4. Social proof

Patients trust the experiences of other patients. In healthcare, where trust is essential, incorporating social proof — reviews and recommendations from other patients — can be a powerful way to build that trust with prospective patients and foster a supportive community. 

You can build up a strong base of user-generated content by prominently displaying patient testimonials or success stories on your site, highlighting any awards or accolades your organization has received, and even utilizing user-generated content like this blog of patient- and staff-submitted stories created by Geonetric client Bronson Health.

5. Iterative website updates

You may have a complete website redesign on your to-do list for 2025. But even if you don’t and don’t anticipate having the resources to entirely revamp your site in the coming years, it doesn’t mean your site has to just sit and grow outdated. 

Iterative website design allows you to tackle individual parts of your website as you’re able. This could be as simple as regularly updating the information on your location profiles to keep it current and solve patients’ pain points, creating a microsite for a certain service line or topic you want to highlight, or building a blog or content hub to provide helpful information and boost your search engine optimization.  

By handling these smaller updates as needed, your next full redesign can start from a strong foundation instead of needing to overhaul an entirely outdated website. 

Ready for 2025?

In 2025, your organization will have the opportunity to meet patients where they are and create experiences that resonate, no matter your resources or budget.

From personalized interactions and targeted digital ads to improving findability and harnessing the power of social proof, these strategies can elevate your organization’s brand, build patient trust, and drive meaningful engagement. As you plan for the coming year, consider investing in these areas to future-proof your healthcare marketing tactics and make a lasting impact. 

Need a hand with your 2025 marketing plans? Geonetric is ready with more than 25 years of healthcare marketing experience and a team of experts ready to take your organization’s marketing to the next level. Contact us today to get started! 

The first week of November marks World Communication Week, highlighting the importance of clear, effective communication in our personal and professional lives. Effective communication is especially vital for healthcare marketers year-round since the health and wellness of our patients often depend on the quality of the patient communications we publish. Clear, empathetic communication between healthcare organizations and patients can drive better outcomes, build trust, and increase patient satisfaction. 

As healthcare marketers, we play a crucial role in shaping the interactions between our organizations and our patients. In honor of World Communication Week, we’re taking a look at how we can improve our patient communications to make them clear, compassionate, and effective. 

Understand patient needs and preferences  

Effective patient communications start with understanding who we’re speaking to. In healthcare, our patient audiences are often diverse, representing different ages, economic groups, cultural backgrounds, levels of health literacy, and comfort levels using technology. 

By tailoring our approach to their needs and preferences, you can create messages that resonate with the issues patients are facing when they visit your website, scroll your social media profile, or sign up to receive emails from your organization. 

Here are a few tips on how you can gain a better understanding of your patients’ needs and preferences: 

Know your audience: Take time to understand your organization’s patient demographics. Use surveys, feedback forms, personas, or patient interviews to understand their needs and expectations. 

Select the right channels: Once you know how patients prefer to receive information, use that to inform your strategy. Some may rely on digital platforms, like email or text messages, while others prefer less tech-reliant forms of communication, like printed materials or direct mail. 

Keep it clear and simple 

When it comes to vital healthcare information, complexity can get in the way of patients understanding your messages. Instead of creating patient communications that are long and full of medical jargon, opt for messages that use straightforward language and are easy to understand and act upon. 

Use plain language: Replace technical terms with simple alternatives. For example, instead of “hypertension,” use the more commonly understood “high blood pressure.” Short sentences and common words help patients grasp the message quickly, regardless of their reading comprehension or health literacy level. 

Organize information for easy navigation: Prioritize critical points by bolding them or using bullet points for readability. Design messages so patients can quickly find what they need, like appointment details, health advice, or action steps. This tip is especially important as more patients use mobile devices to view healthcare websites and emails — organizing your content for readability allows them to scan through the message while on the go and still retain the critical information. 

Incorporate visual aids: Use images, infographics, or quick videos to illustrate complex concepts. A simple visual can go a long way in helping patients understand health information. 

Establish trust 

Trust is fundamental in healthcare. Patients need to feel confident that the information they’re receiving is not only accurate but also beneficial to their well-being. By communicating transparently, we can strengthen this trust and improve patient engagement. 

Explain the “why”: Patients are more likely to follow through when they understand why something is important. For instance, explain the importance of an annual check-up or how a procedure benefits their health in the long run. 

Prioritize privacy: With increased digital communications, data privacy is a growing concern. Clear privacy policies and reassurances about data confidentiality can help ease patient concerns. (Want a surefire way to protect patient privacy while using your marketing data to its fullest potential? Check out Geonetric Privacy Filter!) 

Show empathy: Empathy-driven patient communications are key. Train your teams to be patient, understanding, and compassionate regardless of whether they’re communicating in person or through an online channel — patients remember when they feel respected and cared for. 

Leverage technology to improve your reach 

Digital tools can help you reach patients effectively, at the right time, and on the channels or platforms where they prefer to receive information. By using technology thoughtfully, we can make information accessible, timely, and personalized. 

Implement omnichannel strategies: Use a mix of website landing pages, text messages, emails, patient portals, and even social media to keep patients informed and connected. Consistent messaging across channels can reinforce important points and ensure that patients stay engaged. 

Automate for personalization: Tools that allow automated, personalized reminders for appointments, medications, or preventive care can be invaluable for effective communication. Simple, timely reminders help patients stay on track with their health needs, especially as health consumers are increasingly expecting personalization from their digital experiences. 

Design for accessibility: Ensure digital content is accessible to all patients. Use clear font sizes, readable colors, alt-text for images, and compatibility with screen readers to make your content as inclusive as possible for your patients. 

Evolve your messaging 

Effective patient communications aren’t static — you should consistently be reevaluating your patient demographics, tactics, tone, and other aspects of your messages to make sure they’re resonating with your target audiences. 

Here are a few ways you can improve your communications over time: 

Establish patient feedback loops: Regularly seek patient feedback through surveys, after-appointment check-ins, or comment cards. This input can highlight areas where communication is working well and where it can be improved. 

Update information regularly: The information you share, especially on easily-editable channels like your websites, patient portals, and social media, should be accurate and up-to-date. Patients rely on these sources, so regular reviews are essential. 

Measure success: Track key metrics such as email open rates, website engagement, and patient satisfaction scores to monitor the effectiveness of communication strategies. These insights can guide adjustments and keep your communication strategy evolving. 

Clear, compassionate, and connected communication is foundational to patient care. By putting patients at the center of our communication strategies, we build trust, improve health literacy, and help patients feel empowered in their healthcare journeys.  

This World Communication Week, commit to a communication approach that’s inclusive, empathetic, and accessible — because every patient deserves to be heard and understood. 

Need help getting your message across? 

If your organization could use a helping hand when it comes to fine-tuning your digital marketing messaging, Geonetric has the know-how you’re looking for.  

With more than 25 years of experience helping healthcare organizations communicate effectively through website content, search engine optimization, and digital advertising, we can assist your team in bringing your communications to the next level. Contact us today to get started! 

Your content management system (CMS) should allow you to do just that: manage your website content. But when your CMS falls short, it’s not just frustrating — it can significantly impact the marketing efforts that rely on your website to deliver results. 

In this eBook, we break down the most common issues healthcare marketers face with their CMS platforms, the impact they can have on marketing goals, and CMS solutions that can help overcome those roadblocks.

Download your copy today to learn if your CMS is helping or hurting your marketing efforts and the choices you have for a CMS that will grow and evolve along with your organization.

When was the last time you really looked at your employee intranet? Log in and try to complete some simple tasks: find and fill out an HR form, check what’s for lunch today, and read the latest company news. 

Were you easily able to find and complete those tasks? Or did you feel like you were sorting through an endless digital filing cabinet that hasn’t been tidied up in years? 

An easy-to-use, streamlined intranet is essential for healthcare organizations, where employees might not have more than a minute or two to search for what they need before returning to work. An effective healthcare intranet should be more than just a place to dump your organization’s documents — it needs to be an intuitive, engaging space that employees want to use. 

So, what exactly are employees looking for from an intranet? Let’s break down the key features that increase engagement and make your intranet the go-to spot for employee information. 

Figuring out what matters 

Before we dive in, it’s important to note that every organization — and every employee — is different. What might work for a standalone hospital in Massachusetts won’t cut it for a 50-location health system based in Nebraska.  

The best way to tell what features genuinely matter to your teams is by surveying your employees to gauge why they visit the intranet, their complaints about your current site, and what they might like to see from a redesign. You can send this survey via email or create a popup on your current intranet for employees to complete when they log in. 

From there, you could go one step further with a smaller group of employees by conducting a card-sorting exercise where they arrange a list of features or content into groups that feel natural for them. For example, an employee might create a group that includes links for their webmail access, timecard, and company updates that they’d like to see under a “Daily Applications” menu when they first log in. 

This interactive experience can provide insight into where your content should live within your intranet structure, driven by the people who use the site the most. 

With that in mind, we can now jump into the features we recommend as the must-haves for a successful healthcare employee intranet.

1. App-like design and mobile functionality

Employees have come to expect seamless, user-friendly experiences in every digital interaction — just like they get from their favorite apps. This means your intranet should offer intuitive navigation, clean design, and mobile responsiveness. 

An app-like design allows employees to find what they need quickly, whether at their desks, on a tablet between patient visits, or on their smartphones during a break. A cluttered or confusing layout will only discourage usage, while a sleek, simple interface makes interacting with the intranet a breeze.

2. Organizational branding

Your intranet should be an extension of your organization’s brand identity and marketing assets. Employees want to feel connected to the organization, and branding your intranet with the organization’s logos, colors, and tone can foster that connection. 

A branded intranet reminds employees of your organization’s culture, mission, and values every time they log in. When the look and feel of your intranet match your public-facing website and communications, it creates a sense of cohesion, as well as a sense of pride and belonging among employees.

3. Personalized content

One-size-fits-all doesn’t work for intranets. Employees in different departments, locations, or roles need content that’s relevant to them. Personalized dashboards, targeted news feeds, and job-specific notifications ensure that users see what matters most to their work. 

For example, someone in HR might need quick access to benefits updates, while a nurse in a direct care setting may prioritize scheduling or compliance training materials. Tailoring the intranet experience to each user’s needs not only improves satisfaction but also boosts productivity.

4. Custom content types

A modern healthcare intranet must be flexible enough to handle diverse content types. Employees expect more than just policy documents or forms — they want access to a variety of resources like: 

• Cafeteria menus 

• HR policies and forms 

• Instructional content and how-tos 

• Company news and announcements 

• Facility maps 

• Staff directories or org charts 

• A calendar with upcoming events 

Providing these custom content types in an organized, easy-to-find format ensures that employees can access everything they need in one central location.

5. Powerful search function

There’s nothing more frustrating than needing information but being unable to find it. A robust search function is critical for a successful intranet. Employees should be able to quickly search for files, directories, policies, and company news with ease. 

Advanced search features like filters, autocomplete and suggested content make finding the right information fast and efficient. This kind of functionality transforms your intranet from a simple document repository into a true knowledge hub, saving employees time and increasing organizational efficiency. 

6. Up-to-date information

Keeping your intranet current is essential. Outdated content can lead to confusion, misinformation, and a lack of trust in the platform. Employees need to know they can rely on the intranet for the most accurate and up-to-date information. 

Regular content updates, automated notifications for changes, and content expiration tools can help ensure your intranet remains a trusted resource. Whether it’s policy changes or company-wide announcements, up-to-date information builds confidence in the platform.

7. Robust resources

Employees need access to a wide range of resources to do their jobs effectively. Whether it’s training materials, compliance documents, or how-to guides, your intranet should be a central hub for all of your organization’s necessary resources. 

Organizing these materials in an easily accessible way — whether through searchable databases, categorized sections, or resource libraries — makes the intranet an indispensable tool for your employees. A well-stocked intranet can cut down on time wasted searching for information, leading to a more productive workforce.

8. Opportunities for engagement

An intranet shouldn’t be a static tool — it should foster interaction and engagement. Employees want to communicate with their colleagues, share feedback, and participate in company culture. Including features like discussion boards, comment sections, feedback forms, and even social elements like employee recognition or polls can transform your intranet into a collaborative space. 

Engagement features encourage employees to not only consume information but also contribute to the ongoing dialogue within the organization. It builds community and encourages open communication across all levels of the company. 

Ready for an improved intranet? 

A well-designed, feature-rich healthcare intranet is critical for fostering employee engagement, improving productivity, and maintaining efficient internal communications. From app-like design and organizational branding to personalized content and engagement features, each of these elements plays a crucial role in making the intranet a valuable tool for employees. 

If you’re ready to level up your intranet to make it a go-to hub for your employees, Geonetric is ready to help.  

Check out this case study to learn how we helped Ohio and West Virginia-based Holzer Health System overhaul its intranet and bring in more than 41,200 unique user sessions in the first three months after its launch. Then, if you’re ready to take the first step to an improved intranet, contact our team to schedule an introductory call! 

Design plays a critical role in the way we, as consumers, interact with brands and go about our daily routines. And in today’s digital age, there are few places where design is more prominent and impactful than website design. 

As trends come and go — think back to minimalism, flat design, oversized typography, etc. — they shake up not just the way websites look, but the way users interact with them. Designers utilize trends to create visual hierarchy and depth within a website, guiding where users look and how they act without them even realizing it. 

In the world of healthcare website design, recent design trends reflect aesthetic changes as well as technological advancements that prioritize user needs, accessibility, and personalization. Geonetric Design Director Christina Hoge shared more about these design trends in our recent “Beyond the Horizon: Digital Healthcare Marketing Trends Shaping the Future” webinar. 

From glassmorphism to micro-interactions, the future of web design enhances the user experience in subtle yet powerful ways. Here’s a look at the top trends influencing healthcare website design and UX today:

1. Glassmorphism

One design trend we’ve seen gain momentum in recent years is glassmorphism, a visual effect that mimics frosted glass through semi-transparency and blur.  

This technique creates depth and draws attention to specific elements on the page by organizing content in layers, helping establish visual hierarchy. When used thoughtfully, glassmorphism can provide a polished, modern look to healthcare websites. 

2. Microinteractions

Microinteractions — those small, subtle animations that provide instant feedback — are becoming more prevalent in healthcare website design. Think of a button that changes color when clicked or a notification to schedule an appointment that pops up when a user enters a page. 

These small touches improve responsiveness and enhance engagement, making users feel in control. When used correctly, microinteractions add personality and can guide your patients intuitively through their digital journey while helping them feel more in control of how they interact with your website.

3. Dark mode

Dark mode is now offered on many websites, apps, and operating systems, allowing users to switch between light and dark themes. Beyond aesthetics, dark mode can reduce eye strain, conserve battery life (especially on mobile devices), and make long-form content more comfortable to read.  

By offering users control over their visual preferences, dark mode can enhance usability and improve accessibility for individuals with visual impairments, which is especially relevant for healthcare providers. 

4. AI and personalization

AI has started impacting almost every facet of digital healthcare marketing in recent years, and website design is no exception. AI-driven personalization is shaping the way users interact with websites by suggesting content, recommending products, and adjusting website design elements to match individual preferences.  

Personalization can be used to update design elements based on the time of day, users’ location, or even their past interactions with your website. This could include changing website backgrounds based on whether it’s day or night or replacing a banner image with one that includes care options after regular business hours — the sky is the limit to how you can pair AI-driven personalization and design to provide more relevant content and improve the overall user experience.

5. Inclusive and accessible design

Inclusive design is no longer optional; it’s essential. With a focus on accessibility, websites are increasingly designed to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), ensuring that they are usable by people with a wide range of abilities and disabilities.  

Inclusive design can include everything from text alternatives for images to keyboard-friendly navigation that makes finding information more accessible. Inclusive design not only supports the content needs of a broader audience but can also protect your organization from potential legal risks.

6. Responsive and adaptive design

While responsive and adaptive design may not be new concepts, they remain critical in healthcare website design. As patients (especially younger ones [link to Gen Z blog once live]) increasingly access websites on mobile devices — smartphones, tablets, and wearables — ensuring a seamless experience across all platforms is essential.  

Responsive design allows a site to adjust automatically to the user’s screen size, while adaptive design offers tailored layouts for specific devices, contributing to a more user-friendly experience.

7. User experience research

User experience research is the foundation of effective UX design and staying ahead of design trends. By gathering insights into user behaviors, needs, and preferences, designers can make informed decisions that lead to more successful outcomes from the start. 

In healthcare, user research enables designers to learn what features patients want when they visit a website and the steps they can take to create meaningful, user-centric experiences. 

Design trends today go far beyond mere aesthetics. They are driven by advancements in technology, user preferences, and a deeper understanding of accessibility and personalization for healthcare consumers. By focusing on creating engaging, inclusive, and adaptive user experiences, your organization can create a website that looks great and resonates with users, assisting them on their care journey and building their relationship with your brand. 

As technology evolves, so will design trends. Yet the ultimate goal remains the same: improve the user experience by putting the needs of your patients first. 

Check out the recording of “Beyond the Horizon: Digital Healthcare Marketing Trends Shaping the Future” to learn more about these design trends in healthcare, then contact our team today to learn how you can incorporate them on your organization’s website! 

If the first thing you think of when you hear the term “Gen Z” is a teenager sitting around absentmindedly scrolling TikTok, think again. 

Gen Z is typically categorized as people born between 1997 and 2012, meaning that while some of them are still teenagers, many have now moved into young adulthood — and have started making their own decisions regarding healthcare (and yes, some of them are using TikTok to do it). 

This presents healthcare marketers with an opportunity to guide these Gen Z consumers as they handle their own healthcare for the first time, answer their questions, and build lifelong customer relationships. Even if a Gen Z consumer is still using their parents’ health insurance and the providers they grew up seeing, you can foster their continued loyalty by offering marketing messages that speak to the healthcare challenges they’re facing as they enter adulthood. 

But what is the best way to reach this valuable new audience? Here are a few things to consider when marketing to Gen Z patients. 

They’re stressed, and looking for answers

Despite their age, Gen Z keeps up with — and is significantly impacted by — today’s news, especially political unrest, climate issues, and mass shootings.  

A study from the American Psychological Association found that Gen Z reported higher stress levels than any other age group, including Millennials and Gen X, and are 37% more likely than any other generation to report their mental health as fair or poor. 

But amidst that stress, there is hope. Gen Z is open to talking about their mental health and asking for help when they need it. They also value diversity and inclusivity and tend to align with brands consistent with their core values and beliefs. 

They prioritize online experiences

Remember that Gen Z was raised alongside smartphones, apps, and social media, and they expect instant, online answers when researching their care options.  

Gen Z also prefers service transactions with minimal human interaction. They don’t want to wait in line or be on hold for a human operator — they expect to be able to handle most, if not all, of their healthcare tasks online, including: 

• Scheduling appointments 

• Checking to see if your organization accepts their health insurance 

• Seeing if a provider is accepting new patients 

• Reading provider reviews 

If your organization doesn’t offer ways that patients can easily complete these tasks online or through a mobile app, now is the time to change that.  

They’re looking for convenient care

Gen Z is increasingly dissatisfied with the quality of traditional healthcare services — they don’t want to wait to see their primary care physician in six months if another option is available today. 

That means they’re looking for more emergent types of care like walk-in clinics, urgent care, retail clinics, on-demand services, and telehealth. Research has shown that this generation is extremely interested in emerging health technologies that allow them to receive care faster, especially virtual health. 

But that doesn’t mean they’re eschewing traditional healthcare entirely — 45% of Gen Z patients report having a primary care physician. However, they supplement those visits by searching for their conditions online, using walk-in clinics, and seeking out more convenient options for care whenever possible. 

They listen to their peers

Gen Z is twice as likely to make a purchase based on the opinions of their peers or Millennial friends and family members as they are based on a celebrity or influencer.   

One study found that the people Gen Z trusts the most are their family members (88%), friends (84%), and regular people doing good things (81%) compared to journalists (47%), religious leaders (44%), and politicians (42%).  

This means that your Gen Z consumers will be paying special attention to any social proof you can provide about your organization, including patient stories, testimonial videos, and ratings. 

They’re at a critical point in their healthcare journeys — and you can meet them there

Many Gen Z consumers are at a point in their lives where they’re independently interacting with the healthcare system for the first time.  

This provides an incredible opportunity for you to forge a connection with those consumers now while they’re actively looking for answers and starting from a blank slate, compared to years down the line when they already have healthcare experiences and additional needs. 

So, where should you start to ensure your marketing is ready for this new wave of young healthcare consumers? 

Your Gen Z marketing checklist

Here are a few takeaways to keep in mind when assessing your marketing strategy’s readiness for Gen Z patients: 

1. Your website needs to be easy to use on a smartphone or tablet. 

1. If you have the resources, consider investing in an app that allows patients to schedule appointments, request prescription refills, see wait times, etc. 

1. User-generated social proof matters — craft social media campaigns that prioritize reviews, testimonials, patient stories, and “behind the scenes” content of your organization. 

1. Forty percent of Gen Z Americans spend more than four hours on social media per day, so make sure your messages extend to platforms including Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. 

1. Young consumer prefer to consume educational materials through video, so consider utilizing TikTok and YouTube when creating educational campaigns. 

1. Gen Z is looking for “snackable,” short, and impactful videos. When creating videos for TikTok, Instagram Reels, or YouTube Shorts, keep your important messages in the first eight seconds (the average attention span for short-form video content). 

1. Keep your marketing messages authentic and showcase real patients and people within your organization.

Are you ready for Gen Z patients?

Whether your marketing strategy is ready or not, this new generation of patients is headed your way. Grab their attention now and help them build lifelong relationships with your organization with impactful, authentic marketing. 

If you’re looking for help with website design, content marketing, or social media strategies that can win over younger patients, our team is ready! Contact us today to find out how we can get your marketing strategy ready for this next generation of consumers.

Having a solid digital foundation is essential for any healthcare marketing strategy. But the real magic happens when you take those fundamentals and amplify them to reach a larger audience, build a more robust digital presence, and reach your marketing goals faster. 

In this post, we’ll break down the fundamentals of digital healthcare marketing and explore how your organization can supercharge them with advanced techniques and tools to stay ahead of the competition. 

What are the fundamentals?

1. Website information architecture (IA)

It all starts with ensuring your high-level website information architecture aligns with user expectations. How your website and IA is structured impacts everything your organization does online — from your content marketing to design and even social media strategies. 

A successful high-level website architecture boils down to which pages, sections, and features exist on your website, how they relate to each other in terms of page nesting or parent-child relationships, and whether they have a consistent, predictable URL structure. Think easy-to-navigate menus, straightforward internal linking, and sitemaps that meet user expectations and help them find the answers they need. 

2. On-page content structure

The way content is arranged on your web pages is another fundamental you’ll want to nail down. Content should be scannable, not only so the user can glance at the page and get a good idea of what it’s about, but also so it’s easily scanned by search engines. 

Aside from general content layout, successful on-page content structure means properly using header tags and ensuring your H1, H2, and H3s are sequentially ordered on the page. It also means formatting your text in bulleted or numbered lists, tables, accordion menus, etc., so your content is easy to read, and both people and search engines can find what they need on the page quickly. 

3. User-centric content

Beyond how you display content, a major fundamental of digital marketing — especially for healthcare organizations — is that the content you create puts the user first.  

Content must consider the users’ needs and answer their questions before it ever addresses your organization’s business needs. To accomplish this, use user-friendly and easy-to-read language, have crystal clear calls to action on every page, and distinctly show what the next logical step is in the users’ path through your website. 

4. Images and multimedia

A frequently overlooked and powerful fundamental for digital marketing success are images and multimedia. Making seemingly small changes to the images on your website can lead to huge gains, both in the load speed of your pages and how you rank in Google Image search results. 

The most important factor to nail here is file size for load speed reasons, but it’s also essential to consider the overall image quality, the alt text description, and keyword-rich file names. 

All of these factors contribute to page load speed and reliability but also help your site reach more users through search engines. (If you’re a VitalSite® user, you won’t have to worry about image file size — the Image Manager takes care of it for you.)  

5. SEO metadata and an internet mindset

Metadata includes your page titles, meta descriptions, header tags, and descriptive URLs, along with organically using SEO and localized keywords in your content. Making sure your pages include this data will help boost your search engine performance and ensure prospective patients will see your organization when they search for care.  

It’s also crucial to adopt an “internet mindset” to understand that all of the content and SEO metadata on your site needs to be continuously updated, assessed, and optimized to keep it current and effective for your marketing goals. 

Time to supercharge! 

Once you’ve mastered these fundamentals, it’s time to supercharge them to maximize your marketing ROI! Here are a few ways you can take these building blocks of marketing success to the next level. 

1. Invest in advanced metadata like Schema.org markup

Schema.org markup helps search engines understand the content on your pages beyond basic metadata. Implementing it can result in rich snippets and enhanced search results, helping your content stand out.  

For healthcare organizations, Schema markup can be used to display things like facility images, maps, provider ratings, and business hours on the search results page, giving users the information they need and showcasing your organization before they even get to your website. 

2. Track content performance

Content shouldn’t be a “one-and-done” endeavor. Knowing what’s working (and what isn’t) is key to refining your strategy. Use tools like Google Analytics to monitor how users interact with your site, what pages are keeping them engaged, and where they’re dropping off. 

Reframing your digital marketing tracking and reporting efforts as content performance tracking is a fantastic way to help you better understand how well your content is, or isn’t, serving users. Using that data to continuously make improvements to your site will keep your digital presence dynamic and ensure it meets consumers’ preferences and pain points. 

3. Implement workflow or governance standards

Creating great content is only part of the equation. Workflow and governance standards ensure that it stays relevant, up-to-date, and aligned with your business goals. Establish standards for regular audits and analysis of your website content to help your entire team understand how to keep your website content fresh, accurate, and aligned with changing user needs and expectations. 

You can also set day-to-day workflow standards to support your daily content creation as well as your ongoing content strategy. 

 Ask your team questions like: 

• How often does content need to be reviewed, republished, or archived? 

• Who has the power to say “yes” or “no” to content requests for the website? 

• What happens when there are competing priorities or requests? 

• What happens when content goes stale or is underperforming? 

4. Leverage generative AI tools

One more way to power up your marketing efforts is by utilizing everyone’s favorite hot tech topic: generative artificial intelligence. You can use tools like Chat GPT and Jasper to streamline your content writing and production tasks, including generating campaign ideas, developing outlines for service pages, identifying common patient questions, writing short-form copy like headlines and UI text, and more. 

By building on these fundamentals and investing in advanced techniques, you can supercharge your digital marketing efforts to improve your ROI and reach your long-term marketing goals. The digital healthcare marketing landscape is always evolving, and staying ahead means being willing to take your strategies to the next level to stand out in a crowded marketplace. 

Looking for ideas to supercharge your strategies?

Geonetric has been helping healthcare organizations stay ahead of the curve for more than 25 years, and we can help your team as well!

Whether you’re looking for SEO, content marketing, or web design help, we have the solutions you need to supercharge your digital healthcare marketing efforts and see incredible results. Contact us today to get started! 

Join Geonetric CEO Ben Dillon and a panel of our experts as they dive into:

• Using personalization to improve conversion rates
• SEO strategies in the age of AI
• Data use post-HIPAA tracking guidance
• Gen Z marketing strategies
• Design trends to improve user experiences

You’ll leave this webinar with a better understanding of the trends that will impact our field in the coming years and how your organization can leverage them as part of a successful digital healthcare marketing strategy.