The marketing health of your Healthcare website is reflected in its personality - how it communicates and interacts with target personas. The following is part 2 of a 3 part series on how to develop a human-centered strategy based on a holistic understanding of your brand, how it’s perceived, and how it functions.

“38% of people will stop engaging with a website if the content or layout is unattractive.” (Adobe)

This post outlines how to develop the right content and voice for a healthcare site.

PERSONAS

During the Discovery phase and in addition to a Creative Brief we utilize Persona Profiles. These are profiles of people you want to engage with your brand. A Persona Profile provides helpful information when defining the audience and marketing strategy.

A Persona Profile doc includes the following:

• Demographics: What is the age range, gender, location, interests, and type of device the person uses (e.g. mobile, desktop), etc.
• Pain Points: What issues does the person have that they are looking to have addressed?
• Niche: How is the website a solution to the person’s problem?
• Needs & Motivations: What are the needs and motivations of this person, why would they visit your site?
• Website Features: What features address the person’s needs and motivations?
• User Journey: What information does the person need to know during the 3 phases of the user journey - awareness, consideration, and decision?
• Search Phrases: What phrases would this person enter in a search engine to find your site?

This is an important part of determining the marketing strategy including the messaging and content of a site. See an example of a Persona Profile.

COMPONENTS

Persona Profiles are helpful when determining who to communicate with and how. This shapes the voice and content of the site, comprised of the following:

• The page copy including headlines, sub-heads, and paragraph copy as well as alert banners and instructional text when people complete actions.
• Photography, video, infographics, and illustrations.
• Messaging used in Calls to Action (CTAs) which are critical to converting anonymous users into known prospects.
• SEO text used in meta information (page title, description, image, and other tags search bots index). This also includes structured content such as Schema, an advanced SEO markup.
• Email communications that people subscribe to.
• Social Media postings including text and visual imagery.
• Editorial content in blogs.

Publishing all of this content with a single voice is a challenge, to say the least. Content is ephemeral and typically created by several people over the years. Having a Content Style Guide, similar to a brand style guide is an effective way to define the voice of the brand. A Content Style Guide includes the following:

• Content strategy overview
• Brand values and mission statements
• Unique Selling Position (USP), if a commercial company
• Voice & tone guidelines
• Grammar, punctuation & formatting
• Persona Profiles
• Usability guidelines

WHAT TO SAY

Some of the ways Healthcare websites communicate positive personality traits include the following:

• Be helpful
• Be clear
• Be easy to use
• Be accessible
• Be responsive
• Be positive
• Be social
• Be modern
• Be secure

Be Helpful: Websites that include FAQs, chatbots, contact forms, and great content that addresses each persona’s needs, motivations, and pain points.

Be Clear: Websites that include a simple, upbeat design, direct language that is easy to understand, and a clear purpose for each page.

Be Easy to Use: Websites that include a simple and familiar design optimized for mobile devices, an effective information architecture and navigation, and fast page load times.

Be Accessible: Websites that are ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant and meet the most recent standard (WCAG 2) as well as follow the principles of inclusive and user-centered design.

Be Responsive: Websites that include ways for the target personas to ask questions, get answers, and interact with site content.

Be Positive: Websites that include upbeat messaging, a simplified bright color scheme, a clean white background, and content that highlights how the website can solve the user's problems.

Be Social: Websites that include social media integration including the ability to share page content on social platforms, via email and RSS as well as displaying social content in a visually pleasing and engaging way (see an example at Flow Flow).

Be Modern: Websites that utilize best-in-class user experience and user interface (UX/UI) design techniques, such as easy-to-read, bold typography, interactive features, ample white space, and site speed optimization.

Be Secure: Websites that are HIPAA compliant and utilize best practices for web application security including managed hosting platforms such as Pantheon and AWS that provide extra levels of protection for the full technology stack.

SUMMARY

How well your site looks, speaks, and acts is the foundation for how target personas perceive your brand. Communicating positive personality traits is critical for a Healthcare website to succeed. Improving these traits is a key component of a healthy, holistic, and profitable long-term web strategy.