Has your health brand become lost in a sea of sameness?

Do your marketing assets feel stale and out of touch with your audience?

Did your business neglect to establish proper healthcare branding from the beginning?

Whether your current branding isn’t servicing your business anymore or your brand has evolved beyond your existing branding—it’s time for a rebrand.

Most brands evolve every three to ten years, but healthcare rebranding doesn’t have to be scary or daunting.

The healthcare industry is evolving, too, so it’s crucial to stay ahead of emerging trends—like the rise of healthcare consumerism and the intrinsic value of creating a positive patient experience—or risk falling behind your competition.

Healthcare rebranding is the process of reshaping how target consumers perceive your business and can include everything from your brand perception, name, and tagline to your logo and visual identity to your healthcare website and marketing assets.

5 Signs It’s Time for a Rebrand (or at Least a Brand Refresh)

Here are five signs it might be time for your business to consider healthcare rebranding.

You’re Not Serving Your Ideal Clientele

Growing pains are normal in any successful business. What may have been your ideal consumer five years ago may no longer fit within your evolving business goals or offerings.

Whether you're targeting a new audience or notice a shift in your existing target market, a rebrand might be necessary to attract and convert your updated target audiences.

Being responsive to and aligning your brand values and personality to the current market can help differentiate your brand and keep it relevant for your ideal clientele.

Everything you do with your healthcare marketing materials, messaging, and strategy should pique their interest, fit current trends, and lay the groundwork for future growth.

Your Health Brand Has Become Lost in a Sea of Sameness

Healthcare consumers will associate your logo, imagery, typography, and messaging with your products or services and their benefits.

Today’s healthcare businesses face new and aggressive competition on multiple fronts. In addition to their traditional, long-standing competitors, healthcare organizations must compete with large brands determined to improve access, ease provider coordination, and make care more affordable as consumers continue to take greater responsibility for their overall health.

These market disruptors generally have large marketing budgets and are willing to spend that budget on web design, sleek graphics, search engine optimization (SEO), and more.

That’s why it’s crucial to differentiate your brand and its offerings. Healthcare organizations must ensure they’re meeting their target audience’s wants and needs—and building much-needed trust and loyalty.

Your Marketing Communications Have Become Dated and Out of Touch With Your Audiences

Healthcare branding is more than just communications and marketing collateral. It is the sum total of a patient’s experience.

However, keeping your logos, colors, graphics, and typography aligned with evolving consumer preferences and cultural and societal expectations keeps your brand fresh, modern, and approachable.

If the way your branding looks and feels doesn’t match the demographics of your target audience, you’re likely losing business.

By understanding what motivates and concerns healthcare consumers and rebranding your marketing collateral to align with them, you can more effectively attract, engage, and convert a larger number of high-value patients.

For example, the weight loss industry has undergone a major branding shift in recent years. Long gone are the days of focusing on the act of losing weight. Instead, weight loss companies lean on messages around health, fitness, and feeling your best—all aligned with today’s cultural preferences.

Addressing the changing needs of your target market is one of the most important reasons for healthcare rebranding.

Your Target Audience Has Changed

Over time, your target audience can change—whether from shifts in the health market, consumer behavior, or within the business itself.

If your audience has evolved, it’s time to evolve with them. A rebrand can help your healthcare business shift focus through updated visuals and messaging that better reflects its new strategic direction.

Common reasons your target audience may change include

• Your target audience is too small to generate adequate profits.
• Your target audience is too diffused to market effectively.
• Your target audience does not have sufficient buying power.
• It’s time to expand your products and services and engage a new target audience.

When this happens, your business must reposition itself to align with the values and interests of your new target audience, and a rebrand is the best way to do this effectively.

Negative Reputation

Warren Buffet once said it takes years to build a positive brand reputation and only five minutes to ruin it. I couldn’t agree more.

Bad reviews, poor publicity, and negative word-of-mouth are all reasons to change your philosophy and reintroduce your business.

However, rebranding your business will not change the root cause of your reputation issues. Before embarking on any rebranding efforts, you must first look within your business and correct the issues causing it.

Rebranding can be a great way to separate your brand from negativity, help consumers see you in a new light, and regrow brand loyalty.

Planning for Healthcare Rebranding

Partnering with a specialized health marketing or healthcare branding agency can help you reshape, reimagine, and reposition your brand for growth.

While every branding project is unique, here are some of the key steps our agency typically recommends for healthcare branding and rebranding

Conduct a comprehensive brand audit and analysis

Before beginning any successful rebranding effort, healthcare businesses must first have a deep understanding of their current brand, its identity, values, and market presence.

It is crucial to examine all of these elements (and more) through the lens of their desired target audience and identify ways to better align with patient or potential customer values and their own evolving business goals.

Budget permitting, remember that the best rebranding efforts begin with researching the current perceptions of both your internal stakeholders and external audiences. Both quantitative and qualitative research can help guide your strategy or repositioning to ensure your new or refreshed healthcare brand will resonate with customer needs and market opportunities.

Define the rebranding objectives and goals

To ensure healthcare rebranding success, businesses must clearly identify the “Why?” behind it. Setting specific, measurable goals will keep your rebranding strategy on track. To get started, ask yourself these questions

• Do you want to increase patient (or HCP or customer) trust and loyalty?
• Are you expanding your products and services?
• Do you want to target an audience with more buying power?
• Do you want to differentiate your brand and stand out?

Identify the target audience and stakeholders

Clearly identifying your target audience is fundamental because it will drive all rebranding decisions. You must consider the needs, wants, and preferences of patients, healthcare professionals, referring physicians, and other internal and external stakeholders.

Tailoring your brand messaging and visual elements to speak directly to these audiences - whether doctors, hospitals, patients, or health insurance companies - will help ensure rebranding success and grow your business.

Defining the new brand positioning and messaging

How do you want your brand perceived by your audience, patients, and stakeholders?

Positioning and messaging go hand-in-hand and require comprehensive healthcare brand research and analysis to ensure you hit just the right note. Engage and connect more effectively with these steps

• Market research—As outlined above, research can help you understand the changing needs and expectations of your audience.
• Competitive analysis—to find a unique positioning that will set your company apart. Understanding competitors is a crucial step in rebranding. Identify gaps and opportunities in the market, pinpoint what sets your business apart, and use these unique qualities to your advantage.
• Core values and mission—to ensure they are aligned with your new brand positioning.
• Differentiation—to identify your business’s unique strengths and unique attributes.

Updating Your Healthcare Brand Identity

Your brand identity tells your target audience who you are and what you stand for. We recommend beginning with these steps to leave a positive, lasting impression and connect more effectively with your audience, patients, and stakeholders.

Importance of a strong visual identity for healthcare rebranding

Your visual identity is how patients and stakeholders remember your business. It must communicate trustworthiness, professionalism, and a commitment to high-quality care.

Design or refresh visual elements

Your name, logo, color schemes, typography, images, and other visual elements must be memorable, cohesive, and effectively communicate your brand values.

Whether you’re designing a new logo or refreshing an existing one, it’s important to consider how it represents your values and aligns with the values of your audience.

Healthcare consumers attach feelings to certain colors (e.g., blue as trustworthy and black as luxurious). Those color associations can influence their perception of your brand. In fact, that article mentions that up to 90% of an initial impression of marketing materials comes from color.

 A well-chosen color scheme conveys a sense of calm, trust, and professionalism—be sure to choose colors that align with your rebranding goals and convey the right message.

Likewise, typography can impact the readability and tone of your health website and marketing collateral. Choose font families that are professional and accessible to your target audience.

Create consistent design guidelines for all brand collateral

Once you have identified all the pieces that make up your brand identity, creating healthcare brand guidelines and sharing them with internal stakeholders and marketing partners is crucial for maintaining the integrity of your brand’s identity across all digital and printed marketing materials.

Don’t forget to announce your new brand properly

Crafting a comprehensive healthcare marketing and communications strategy around a new brand launch is essential for effectively conveying your rebranded messaging to your audience. It should be clear, unique, relevant, and evoke emotion. Your new message must encompass the entire essence of your “new” brand—its mission, values, benefits, and more.

Optimize the Patient Experience so That Your Organization Lives Up to its New Brand Promise(s)

In today’s competitive landscape, carving out an unmatched patient experience from start to finish is as critical as delivering top-notch medical care. Your new design and messaging will be meaningless without recommitting to a superior product, service, and patient experience.

Strategies to improve customer service and overall patient experience

• Staff training—to ensure all physicians and medical staff are aligned with and embody the new brand values.
• Better internal processes—to ensure a positive and patient-focused experience that eliminates bottlenecks and inefficiencies. Offer digital alternatives like online appointment booking, telehealth, and patient portals to improve access and convenience.
• Personalized care—to meet the rising expectations of healthcare consumers and keep them loyal to your business.

Upgrade physical facilities and technology systems

Do your exam rooms feel old or outdated? Does your waiting room feel cold and sterile? If so, it’s time for an upgrade. Creating a warm and welcoming environment instills a sense of trust and loyalty among your patients.

Invest in updated signage, appropriate furnishings, uniforms, and leading-edge healthcare technologies to improve the in-office patient experience.

Protecting and Improving Your Online Reputation

Irrespective of all the branding and communications strategies and tactics you may execute, remember that today online reputations can make or break a business.

Incorporate opportunities for feedback throughout the patient journey to build a robust library of online reviews. Not only will this build your reputation and boost search engine rankings, but it will also help reshape your healthcare business’s rebranding efforts.

Try things like surveys, focus groups, patient advisory boards, community events, and social media interactions to encourage more reviews. Be sure to respond promptly to demonstrate your commitment to their health.

For more information about responding to patient reviews, read our blog, “How to Respond to Patient Reviews (+FREE Examples).

Address previous issues to regain trust

In healthcare rebranding, reputation management is crucial—especially if you are trying to overcome a negative perception of your brand. Identifying and addressing previous issues is crucial before and after launching your rebranded business.

Address previous issues and build trust

• Open and honest communication
  Be transparent about previous challenges and the steps you’ve taken to address them.
• Demonstrate a commitment to quality care
  Implement new protocols, if needed, and communicate them to your patients and staff.
• Train physicians and staff
  Invest in training to ensure the same issues will not resurface, and all members are aligned with the new brand values.

Improve the quality of care and highlight new initiatives

• Patient care metrics
  Prioritize, implement, measure, track, and publish quality of care metrics to illustrate your commitment to patient satisfaction.
• Patient education
  Keep patients informed and actively involved in their healthcare to ensure their preferences and needs are always top-of-mind.
• New initiatives
  Showcase any healthcare initiatives that can differentiate your business and further demonstrate your patient-first commitment.

Leverage positive patient stories and testimonials for reputation enhancement

If you have a selection of positive patient stories and testimonials, it’s important to highlight them across several platforms to build and bolster your brand reputation. Here are a few places you can share positive reviews after your healthcare rebranding is complete

• Google Business Profile
• Corporate website
• Location-specific landing pages
• Blog
• Social media
• Paid ads
• Printed collateral

Implement strategies to manage and monitor online reputation

Managing and monitoring your online reputation is just as important as building it. Here are a few strategies for keeping it as positive and healthy as possible

• Actively monitor and respond to online reviews on platforms like Google, Yelp, and healthcare-specific review sites. Address positive and negative feedback promptly and professionally. Do not get offended by negative feedback—instead, address the issue appropriately, and when possible move the conversation offline.
• Stay active on social media and engage with your audience. Share timely, relevant, and valuable content, and respond promptly to comments and messages.
• Implement search engine optimization strategies to elevate positive feedback and reviews in search rankings.

Optimizing Your Online and Offline Presence

Your digital channels are often the first points of contact potential patients and stakeholders have with your business. Once you’ve reimagined your brand, it’s time to

• Build/update your rebranded website
  • Ensure it reflects the new brand identity (e.g., logos, color schedule, fonts, messaging, etc.)
  • Make it an optimal experience for users search on mobile devices
  • Review and update content so it accurately represents your new brand, any changes to services, and brand initiatives, values, etc.
• Optimize your website to enhance search engine visibility and user experience
  • Implement on-page and off-page SEO. Focus on keywords, meta tags, and high-quality content.
  • Ensure your website is easy to navigate and has an intuitive user path that guides users to desired actions.
  • Improve page load speed to increase engagement and improve search engine rankings.
• Leverage digital marketing channels to increase brand visibility and reach
  • Develop and share a regular cadence of high-quality, relevant content.
  • Use personalized email campaigns to increase patient engagement.
  • Invest in Google Ads or social media ads to increase your health brand visibility.
• Incorporate social media strategies to engage with the community
  • Create and post engaging content regularly to increase engagement.
  • Engage with your community and respond promptly and professionally to build trust.
  • Use visual elements (e.g., images, infographics, videos, etc.) to increase engagement.
• Traditional advertising
  • Be sure to consider traditional advertising media such as outdoor, television, radio, print and direct mail.

Healthcare Success’ Own Rebranding Case History

Finally, I’d like to share an anecdote about Healthcare Success’ recent rebranding. It is an excellent example of how branding can elevate your brand and attract more of the customers you want.

As mentioned, brands evolve over time, and our healthcare marketing agency is no different. In fact, the company we founded back in 2006 is a far cry from the agency we have become today.

If you’ve been following us for a number of years, you probably noticed that starting in 2022, we reimagined our healthcare brand, repositioned our content, and rebranded our visuals to appeal to new audiences.

Why did we do this?

We realized our healthcare branding and messaging no longer reflected the work we were doing today, nor was it consistent with our target audiences and strategy going forward.

We knew a rebrand was needed in order to keep us differentiated in the market and attract more of the clients we are best suited for today.

After following all of the due diligence we recommended above, we redesigned (and reimagined) every aspect of our marketing, including our logo, website, PowerPoint decks, trade show booths, content, speaking schedule, and more.

The results have been spectacularly successful for us. Our marketing is once again congruent with both our target audiences and our strategy. As a result, we are enjoying record growth.

If you’d like to explore how we can help you build or rebuild your healthcare brand, start by reviewing our portfolio, or reach out to us to discuss our process and next steps.

In fact, we often include healthcare PR services in our marketing plans along with other key strategies, including branding, digital marketing, traditional advertising, internal marketing, and professional referral building.

So, What Exactly Is PR?

Public relations is a strategic process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between businesses, organizations, influencers, and their target audiences. Often, these relationships are managed by trained professionals. PR is responsible for building and maintaining a positive brand reputation and public image.

The goal of PR is to positively influence public perception by leveraging the tools of marketing, communications, and advertising

The main functions of healthcare public relations include

• External / media relations – building media relationships and earning media coverage to build awareness and goodwill (more on this topic later)
• Crisis management – managing brand and corporate reputation before, during, and after a crisis
• Community events – building goodwill and engagement on a grassroots level
• Public affairs – advocating for a cause and building a coalition among civic leaders
• Thought leadership – building expertise to generate media coverage and create lead-generation opportunities
• Corporate and internal communications – engaging employees, partners, suppliers, and other key stakeholders about the company (e.g., annual reports)
• Organic social media – nurturing online relationships (often a shared function between marketing and PR departments)

How Is PR Unique Among Marketing Strategies?

Both marketing and PR focus on selling or promoting a product, service, or brand, but their approaches differ. 

While most marketing strategies are direct and designed to yield results in the short term, PR is indirect and should be considered a long-term strategy.

If you need an immediate and definitive return on investment for every marketing dollar you spend, PR is not the right strategy for you.

Instead, think of public relations in healthcare as the strategic management of internal and external communications. It focuses on building relationships between the organization and its stakeholders (e.g., patients, families, healthcare professionals, employees, the media, and the public).

Healthcare PR creates a platform that boosts trust, credibility, thought leadership, and reputation.

In recent years, the lines between PR and other marketing strategies have blurred. 

Maggie Habib, the founder of mPR, a healthcare PR agency, says, "As the media landscape has changed, it's not just earned media we're seeing. Instead, we're seeing a highly integrated approach where social media, patient reviews, and branded communications are coming together to be a larger and more significant part of the PR and marketing mix."

What Is Publicity?

Publicity is an important subset of healthcare public relations focused on getting the press to favorably talk or write about us—to influence the influencers.

But how do you do it? What are the hooks that can get a skeptical reporter’s attention? And, how can a healthcare PR company help?

Here are just some of our favorite strategies you can leverage to create buzz-worthy content the media will promote

• Human interest stories that evoke emotion
• A point of view (e.g., opinion pieces that present a problem and your proposed solution)
• Data (e.g., a national survey, localized data, advocacy group data, etc.) 
• Hard news (e.g., a new product, service, CEO, offering, etc.)

The Evolution of Earned Media

Thanks to social media, marketers often think of “press” more broadly as “earned media,” which includes both traditional news outlets and user-generated content on social media and reputation websites. This combined digital currency builds credibility with patients and caregivers and increases online visibility. 

Here are four ways you can partner with your PR agency for healthcare to build your earned media presence.

1. Keep your patients happy
   Designing a care module around the patient experience increases satisfaction among patients and caregivers and improves your business growth. It encourages more user-generated content, like positive online reviews and testimonials—not to mention word-of-mouth recommendations.
2. Get involved in your community
   Connecting with your community by sponsoring a local event builds brand awareness and helps you connect with potential investors, patients, and caregivers. It also builds credibility, trust, and respect for your brand.
3. Be responsive and stay positive in the face of bad press
   You've all heard the saying, 'There's no such thing as bad press,' but that's just plain wrong. Engaging with investors, stakeholders, doctors, medical staff, patients, or caregivers—wherever the story is—is crucial. Crisis management includes being responsive and staying positive and factual. When done right, healthcare public relations can help
   1. Change the narrative.
   2. Disprove misinformation.
   3. Share valuable data, statistics, and social proof.
4. Promote good news
   Sharing the good news about your business (e.g., new hires, new products, new services, community events, etc.) builds a positive online reputation and helps mitigate potential negative press. When necessary, you can also balance negative news with positive stories about your business. In these situations, it's important to contact reporters to correct any mistakes, inaccuracies, or omissions in their stories. 

Why Your Business Needs a Healthcare Public Relations Strategy

Today's healthcare consumers are increasingly conscious of public health matters, rising healthcare costs, medical debt, and access to care.

You must offer easy access to convenient, transparent, and affordable healthcare to attract a larger volume of younger generations (e.g., Millenials and Gen Z).

And you must increase your online visibility through healthcare digital marketing and PR strategies that amplify each other and your organization's products and services. 

A healthcare PR firm can also support search engine optimization (SEO) strategies by creating and amplifying newsworthy content (e.g., expertise, achievements, and initiatives) to your target audience.

“Healthcare is having a post-pandemic moment, and everyone wants to be a healthcare company,” Maggie posited, “while that means there is a lot more noise around healthcare, there is also more appetite for companies and organizations that have a compelling or meaningful story to tell about healthcare outcomes, costs, or access.”

Impact matters, locally and nationally. Healthcare organizations need a steady supply of the right stories, data, and perspectives to make a lasting impact in their market.

Request a proposal to learn how a healthcare public relations agency can help your brand build trust, credibility, and thought leadership and grow your patient volume.

Studies have shown many positive effects of healthcare environmental design on medical outcomes. In addition to improving the patient experience,well-designed healthcare environments help reduce patient anxiety, speed recovery, provide an overall sense of well-being, and improve health outcomes.

In this post, I explore how environmental design for healthcare businesses can elevate your brand perception and patient experience. 

Read on to learn:

• What is healthcare environmental design?
• How it helps to build and support your brand
• How it enhances the patient experience
• And how to work with your marketing agency

What Is Environmental Design?

Environmental architecture and design is a thoughtful augmentation of existing layout, lighting, and interior design elements that impact how a space feels and how people move through it.

When done right, healthcare environments impact how consumers perceive your brand and the quality of your products and services. Environmental design helps to reinforce healthcare businesses as places of care, comfort, and compassion. It also involves improving patient safety, accessibility, and patient well-being.

Environmental design for healthcare focuses on the following areas

• Exterior branding and signage
• Exterior wayfinding (e.g., directional and informational)
• Interior branding, signage, and graphics
• Interior wayfinding (e.g., interactive, directional, informative, and regulatory)

How Can It Help Build and Support Your Healthcare Brand?

Environmental branding design can shape perception and build connection, trust, and credibility in four ways

1. Creating a memorable first impression
   Visually appealing environmental design that delivers a clear, functional, and intuitive path for patients, visitors, and staff creates a warm, welcoming, and non-intimidating environment. It fosters a sense of calm, builds trust, and sets the tone for their overall experience.
2. Reinforcing brand identity
   Designing and implementing consistent and intuitive design elements across every touchpoint creates synergy and allows people to interact independently with and navigate your space seamlessly, frictionlessly, and intuitively.

3. Supporting brand differentiation 
   Strategic healthcare environmental design that’s clear, intuitive, and stylish sets you apart from competitors—especially those with bland, sterile office spaces. Consider your unique brand positioning, target audience, and brand values to create engaging, memorable, and helpful experiences throughout your space.
4. Elevating brand reputation
   Environmental design creates feel-good, immersive experiences for patients, visitors, stakeholders, and staff. This attention to detail shows that you care about your patients, boosting trust, satisfaction, and word-of-mouth recommendations.

How Does It Help To Support the Patient Experience? 

Intentional environmental design is purposeful and considers patient needs and wants. It helps support patient perception and experience in several ways

• Eases navigation and flow
• Improves safety
• Reduces wait times
• Positively impacts psychological well-being from pre-visit interactions to post-visit care and every step in between

Healthcare brands that prioritize patient-centered care and stylish, peaceful, thoughtful, and healing spaces that are easy to navigate exponentially improve comfort, privacy, and functionality while leading to higher patient satisfaction and better health outcomes.

Supporting patient well-being

There is a clear link between patient well-being and the creative design of healthcare spaces. Environmental design companies and skilled healthcare creative agencies understand that thoughtful environments can influence a patient’s healing process and directly impact their health outcome. 

A well-designed interior that intentionally creates a calming and soothing atmosphere can reduce stress, improve patient comfort, influence their healing process, and directly impact their psychological well-being and health outcomes. 

In a research report prepared for Johns Hopkins, an impressively high percentage (80%) of published studies found positive links between environmental design and patient health outcomes.

Here are three ways you can quickly alter your space to support patient well-being

1. Arrange a warm welcome with comfortable, conversational seating
2. Provide as much natural or warm lighting as possible
3. Create a warm, immersive experience with engaging graphics, stylish logos, calming tones, and a bit of nature (e.g., potted plants like ferns, pothos, or succulents)

Improving wayfinding and accessibility 

Navigating a large healthcare facility can be challenging and stressful for patients, visitors, and even staff, especially if they have a disability. Wayfinding is the strategic use of signage, visual cues, color, and other design systems to help people navigate a large or unfamiliar space.

It also helps reduce confusion, alleviate stress, and lower non-attendance rates. Incorporating accessibility features like braille signage, ramps, handrails, and proper lighting improves inclusivity and allows people of all abilities to get where they need to be without assistance.

How to Bridge the Gap Between Branding and Environmental Design

While healthcare environmental design and branding are very different marketing concepts, they can complement one another to elevate your healthcare business and its patient experience. Together, they can

• Deliver a branded patient experience that is cohesive, stylish, intuitive, and fun
• Build emotional connections and attract more patients
• Boost your brand perception and reputation
• Help your business stand out in a crowded marketplace
• Enhance brand awareness and tell your brand story through thoughtfully designed spaces and elements

But, these benefits come with several unique marketing challenges. 

The good news? They also come with remarkable marketing opportunities. 

In this article, I identify several common challenges and how to overcome them with effective marketing strategies. 

12 Marketing Challenges Unique to Multilocation Brands

Multilocation businesses typically prioritize revenue cycle management, billing, coding, collections, and other cost-cutting methods. 

While these are undoubtedly important, many fail to consider that a comprehensive marketing strategy can offer a significant competitive advantage and the power to drive substantial growth.

Here are some of the most common challenges of running a multilocation business and how to overcome them with strategic, data-driven marketing.

1. You don’t have a multilocation marketing plan

If each location runs its own marketing strategy—you're losing time, money, and resources. You’re also delivering confusing and disjointed messages to doctors, staff, patients, and referring doctors.

A multilocation marketing plan requires careful consideration of the unique needs and characteristics of each location while also maintaining consistency and alignment with your overall brand messaging and marketing goals. It must address these key areas

• Listen
  It must listen to and understand what healthcare consumers say about your products and services. 
• Engage
  It must engage your target audience on their preferred channels. 
• Connect
  It must connect with consumers personally to build trust and loyalty.

Here are a few elements to consider when building your plan

• Competitive landscape
• Target audience
• Market positioning
• Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT) analysis
• Budget
• Patient experience
• Strategy and tactics (e.g., traditional advertising and digital marketing)
• Metrics and reporting
• Staff training
• Public relations

2. You don’t know what you stand for

As you develop a marketing plan, articulating your guiding principles is essential for maximizing efficiencies, improving the patient experience, and driving growth and profitability. 

These principles also set brand expectations with new acquisitions as your business grows.

• Define a unique selling proposition (USP)
  Your unique selling proposition sets your brand apart from competitors and gives patients a clear reason to believe. It should be precisely defined and communicated consistently across all locations.
• Create a strong brand positioning statement
  Clearly communicate each location's unique value proposition, target audience, and key benefits, and consider their local market conditions and consumer preferences.
• Create clear and consistent messaging
  Your brand messaging must align with your USP and positioning and be consistent across all locations. This includes your tagline, mission statement, website content, social media profiles, and shared content.
• Standardization
  Building and implementing standard operating procedures (SOPs) for each location is essential for maintaining consistency across your operations, services, and products. A big part of this includes training staff to deliver the same level of service, quality standards, and messaging across all locations.
• Patient experience
  Develop a personalized patient experience at every consumer touchpoint to build trust and loyalty and have teams quickly respond to consumer inquiries or complaints to retain and build patient volume. 
• Continuous improvement
  Build processes that continually identify areas for improvement and implement changes as needed. Examples include conducting regular performance reviews, analyzing patient feedback and online reviews, and tracking key metrics.

3. You haven’t chosen a brand architecture model

Brand architecture defines the relationship between the parent brand and each location (and their unique offerings). An established brand architecture ensures your brand stays organized across locations while giving each the flexibility to adapt to their local market.

Multilocation businesses have several options when it comes to choosing a brand architecture

• Branded house
  A single, strong parent brand that is applied to all products, services, and locations.
• Endorsed brand
  A single, strong brand that supports each location, while each has its own brand identity.
• House of brands
  Multiple sub-brands that operate independently, each with its own brand identity.

No matter which architecture model you choose, every brand that knows what they stand for has 

• Purpose—your reason to exist beyond just making a profit.
• Vision—something to strive for; a big, hairy audacious goal.
• Mission—how you will work toward reaching your goals.
• Values—that guide your communications and actions.
• Personality—how you act and speak to your doctors, staff, patients, and referring doctors.
• Position—what sets you apart from competitors.

4. You aren’t delivering a consistent message

Creating and promoting consistent messaging across all locations and channels is essential for building and maintaining brand equity, trust, and loyalty among your patients, doctors, and staff.

Consistent messaging can also help improve operational efficiencies by streamlining marketing efforts (saving time and money!), improving employee training, and increasing brand recognition among patients. 

For example, how do you want to handle inbound inquiries? Do you want phone inquiries, emails, texts, and form submissions to continue going to each practice, or would you prefer to have them re-routed to a centralized call center? 

5. You don’t have doctor alignment

Regardless of the ownership structure, it’s important to remember that doctors are a highly influential force in any hospital or practice.

As your healthcare brand grows, getting continuous doctor feedback, buy-in, and cooperation on your overarching medical philosophy is essential to its success.

Everyone within the business must remain flexible and cooperative to ensure a smooth transition. To do this, provide doctors with a clear outline of internal and external benefits following the acquisition:

• Consistent patient experience
• Better quality of care
• Easier access to improved technologies
• Improved compensation and benefits packages, 
• More buying power
• Fewer practice management tasks and responsibilities

6. You haven’t created a culture of buy-in around your brand

When doctors and physicians are aligned with your integration plan, getting buy-in and cooperation from all stakeholders (e.g., clinical and administrative staff, employees, suppliers, and patients) will be a much easier task.

As with any organizational change, there is a period of uncertainty and unrest. Support your doctors and physicians by building a people-first culture that makes your staff feel valued and delivers a consistent patient experience in each location at every transition phase. 

Here are a few benefits of creating a culture of buy-in:

• It leads to a more cohesive and successful brand.
• It ensures all locations are aligned with the brand values, mission, and objectives.
• It improves employee engagement and satisfaction.
• It leads to higher employee retention and a more positive culture.
• It encourages innovation and creativity.
• It delivers a more consistent experience among locations.

7. You’re not retaining patients

There are several things a multilocation healthcare brand can do to retain patient volume, even if they’re currently experiencing a decline.

Start by taking steps to improve the patient experience. Help patients feel valued, listened to, and respected. For example, you can start by providing convenient and accessible services (e.g., online appointment booking, telemedicine services, and mobile apps) and minimizing wait times.

Understanding the unique pain points of your local audiences, improving internal operations, building a structured communication strategy around alleviating their fear, uncertainty, and resistance, and managing their perception will be well worth your time and effort.

Also, your front office staff is crucial in assuaging patient uncertainties. Prioritize training for front office staff and those dealing directly with patients so that they can respond positively and persuasively to questions and concerns.

8. You don’t understand your local audiences

Multilocation businesses need on-point healthcare marketing services catering to all brick-and-mortar locations—not just one. This ensures each that location gets the appropriate attention and online coverage to adequately inform their communities about their products and services. 

Here are a few questions to consider

• Does each location offer a unique specialty?
• Are the locations urban, suburban, or rural?
• Are you tailoring services to meet local needs?
• Are you tailoring your messages to ensure they resonate with local patients?
• Do you understand the cultural and demographic differences that impact their healthcare needs and preferences?
• Are you adapting your services to serve those needs better?

There are also several things you can do to ensure your practices rank high in local search results

• Create unique paid search ads for each location
• Create unique landing pages for each location for better SEO and to avoid duplicate content
• Create a comprehensive Google Business Profile for each location
  • Be consistent with listings (e.g., business name, address, contact information, etc.)
  • Ensure all listings are complete, accurate, and up-to-date
  • Post regular updates and respond to patient reviews
• Implement local SEO strategies
  • Include location-specific keywords in their content
  • Create content that is relevant to local audiences
  • Use local schema markup
  • Get listed in local directories
• Encourage patients to write reviews
• Consider each location in your internal email communications (e.g., share local news, highlights, or spotlights for each location in your corporate communications)

9. You haven’t implemented a multilocation SEO strategy

Multilocation healthcare brands must consider and cater to their unique search engine optimization (SEO) challenges to improve visibility, target local patients, improve the (local) patient experience, and increase traffic (leads and conversions). 

Here’s what you need to do:

• Optimize each location’s web content to ensure it ranks nationally and locally 
• Optimize each location’s web content to ensure it ranks for multiple cities or business addresses within the same city

To do that, businesses must implement a multilocation SEO strategy requiring a skilled healthcare SEO agency. Along with various technical tasks, multilocation SEO includes local SEO practices for each location to enhance its visibility and credibility using consistent and accurate information. Tactics may include

• Local keyword research
• Local landing pages
• Google Business Profile optimization
• Directory listing management
• Review and rating management
• Local link building

10. You don’t have a strong doctor referral program

A strong doctor referral program is essential for increasing patient loyalty and supporting word-of-mouth marketing, which can drive long-term growth for the brand.

Recruiting, hiring, and training a team of physician liaisons can be essential to help your business grow through doctor referrals. 

What’s more, you can and should leverage your physician liaison “on the ground” strategies with “air war” content and B2B digital marketing strategies.

11. You don’t have a provider recruiting strategy

If you’re short-staffed in one or more locations, analyze the current compensation package and workplace culture before recruiting physicians, nurses, and physician assistants. A robust recruiting strategy is essential to adequately address workforce shortages, maintain quality of care, keep up with demand, stay competitive, and build your brand reputation.

While many doctors, physicians, and nurses want to do what’s best for their patients, they also want a lucrative compensation package and an organization that shares their mission, vision, and values. By developing an effective recruiting strategy, you can attract and retain top talent and ensure your multilocation healthcare brand provides high-quality care to patients. A healthcare recruiting strategy may include

• Clear job descriptions
• Competitive compensation packages and benefits
• Employer branding
• Employee referrals
• Recruiting events
• Recruitment partnerships (e.g., educational institutions, universities, or other healthcare organizations)
• Diversity and inclusion initiatives
• Interview process

12. You don’t have scalable programs

When marketing several locations, it’s important to consider the unique offerings at each (e.g., competitive outreach, levels of care, service offerings, priorities, specialties, providers, etc.) and build programs that can accommodate where they are now and where you want them to be in the future.

To ensure growth and success, it is crucial to create a unique marketing program for each office that follows branding and messaging guidelines and supports their individual growth needs and goals.

Tactics may include

Optimizing location pages for each business website

When it comes to local search, having a well-designed landing page for every location is crucial for dominating local search results.

Whether patients need a primary care physician or specialist, they often search for nearby health facilities. An SEO-optimized location page helps search engines rank your local businesses based on their proximity to user searches and present them to relevant audiences.

Leveraging online reviews

Online reviews are one of the top three ranking factors for local search. 

Encouraging patients to share feedback on their experience and developing a thoughtful response strategy can significantly impact your search engine ranking. Google's algorithm values patient reviews and greatly influences whether someone clicks through to your website.

The best way to manage Google reviews for multiple locations is to create a Google Business Profile (GBP), which offers location management functionality. To add multiple business locations, your business must first verify a primary GBP listing, then each location can be individually created, edited, updated, and managed.

Using directories and local SEO

Local directories make it easier for people in your community to find your business, products, and services. These directories can also help boost your local SEO strategy by increasing the online visibility of each location and building high-quality links back to their pages.

Add each practice location to these directories to improve your online presence and increase brand exposure to local searchers

• Google My Business
• Facebook
• Yelp
• Healthgrades
• Vitals
• WebMD
• RateMDs
• ZocDoc
  

Dominating Local SERPs (paid, organic, local search)

Combining the local SEO strategies above with comprehensive paid and organic search strategies that differentiate your businesses with location-specific keywords can help move your locations into the highly coveted Google Local Pack.

Building relationships with referring doctors

Leverage the skill, experience, and expertise of physician liaisons and providers to grow your business and create more opportunities with referring doctors in your area.

Examining analytics for each location

Once you build a primary Google Business Profile and add your practice locations, you can easily track and examine analytics for each using Google’s Looker Studio. This free tool lets you easily connect to various data sources (Google Ads, Analytics, and social media platforms), view data by locality, and share insights with stakeholders.

This data also provides crucial insights into location performance (e.g., total page visits, form submissions, phone calls, or other crucial conversions), allowing businesses to identify where additional optimization or different SEO strategies are needed.

Building and maintaining an effective marketing strategy for a multilocation business is challenging. However, with the right tools, tactics, and support team, you can streamline challenges of all sizes, outpace your competition, grow brand recognition, and increase revenue.

If you’ve been revamping the same marketing plan for a few years, now is the perfect time to reevaluate everything through the lens of market innovations and advancements in digital marketing technologies.

And we’ve got everything you need to get started.

In this article, you’ll learn:

• 4 Advertising Planning Strategies for 2023
• 6 Marketing Strategies That Outpace Market Disruption

4 Advertising Planning Strategies for 2023

Avoid the popular maxim, “let’s circle back on this after the holidays,” and get ready now. November is the perfect time to take note of popular trends and plan your paid search advertisements.

Here are a few things to consider, but the key takeaway is video content reigns supreme:

1. Reach the right audiences on CTV (Connected TV)

Do you have cable TV? If not, I wouldn’t be surprised.

More and more people are cutting the cord on cable as connected TV and streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, HBO, and Amazon Prime continue gaining momentum.

According to Axios, traditional pay-TV providers like Comcast, Verizon, and Dish Network have lost a staggering 25 million subscribers since 2012 and are expected to lose another 25 million by 2025.

Your B2B and B2C audiences are streaming. Your ads should be streaming, too.

CTV is ideal for B2B and B2C healthcare organizations because it allows:

• Precise programmatic targeting to patient audiences and providers,
• The ability to optimize campaigns in real time,
• And the accurate, actionable, and timely data to be effective.

What’s more, tying specific ad campaigns to patient outcomes with traditional TV advertising can be challenging. Programmatic CTV offers a more trackable alternative, making it easier for marketers to reach broader, high-intent audiences.

For example, pharma marketers can track and attribute increased prescriptions to specific ad campaigns.

2. Tap into the full potential of video ads beyond TV

Do you want to build trust, increase engagement, and improve credibility? Shift your focus to social media videos in 2023.

Running video ads on platforms like YouTube and TikTok can deliver up to 66% more qualified leads annually. Here’s what it means for healthcare marketers:

• It makes you more relatable.
  Find a way to relate to your target audience on a personal level. Google Trends can help you dig into their online behaviors and uncover hidden consumer insights and SEO opportunities.

• You become a resource for education.
  46% of global viewers use video content to learn something new. Boost engagement with video strategies that go beyond brand awareness and into thought leadership.

• It helps show healthcare consumers you care.
  People are 1.6 times more likely to engage with videos that appeal to their values and passions—even if the production quality is suboptimal.

3. Tailor video content for each social media platform

Video content is not a one-size-fits-all way to generate leads. Your video length and messaging strategy must be adjusted for each platform and follow each platform's guidelines to ensure compliance.

• Facebook
  To capture higher engagement, Facebook recommends keeping videos under one minute unless you’re posting a Story, in which case 20 seconds or less is best.
  
  Facebook users love the authenticity of user-generated content, so look for and share relevant content often. Facebook is also great for building transparency. Showcase behind-the-scenes content about your products and services and respond to frequently asked questions.
  
  Tip: This platform prefers native content, so avoid sharing YouTube, TikTok, or other video links.

• Instagram
  For healthcare marketers, the place to be on this platform is in Stories. Instagram stories take up 72.6% of the app’s total ad reach, so keeping people engaged is essential. For best results, keep stories under 45 seconds (or three 15-second slides), and include a clear call to action on each.
  
  Keep Instagram users engaged and boost interactions by focusing on things like:
  
  • Storytelling
  • Trending topics
  • Healthy-living tips
  • Humor
  • Pop-culture
  • Memes

• YouTube
  The sweet spot for B2B and B2C YouTube videos is between six and eight minutes. This is plenty of time to share engaging content, including:
  
  • Patient testimonials
  • Product demonstrations
  • Tutorials and how-tos
  • Expert interviews
  • Event videos

• TikTok
  The most-liked TikTok videos average between 21 and 34 seconds. 

And yes—before you skip this section—your audience is on TikTok. Several healthcare professionals use this platform to share health advice, battle misinformation, and connect with patients. The clock is ticking for B2B businesses to dominate this space. 

Remember that TikTok is all about fun, so keep your content light, honest, and consistent. And throw in some of the latest TikTok trends, when appropriate, to boost engagement.

If you want to make a bigger impact and maybe even find yourself on someone’s FYP (For You Page), create a general theme for your content and messaging. Not only will this cultivate brand awareness, but it will also further solidify your brand as a “friend” and thought leader in your space.

4. Level up your game if you seek Medicare Advantage members

As you likely already know, Medicare Advantage is growing, and the landscape is becoming more competitive. But what you might not know is that seniors are the fastest-growing demographic using social media:

• 84% of Baby Boomers have a Facebook account
• 82% of seniors say YouTube is their preferred online video site and are more likely to engage with a post if it includes a video.

Stand out with consistent and relevant video content that attracts this growing audience. 

YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world. Leverage this powerhouse and create value-added content for older generations. They’re online, and they’re searching for the solutions you offer. Create a channel and fill it with videos that demonstrate your product, showcase testimonials, or give easy-to-follow how-to tips.

Remember, it doesn’t need to be overly produced or flashy. This generation values clear, concise, and straightforward messaging.

6 Marketing Strategies That Outpace Market Disruption

Your competitors are gaining momentum.

Is your brand ready for the future of healthcare? Are your executives prepared to make the changes necessary to recruit and retain top talent? Are you building innovative, digitally-focused strategies that rival your competitors?

Reclaim your position in the industry—and on search engine results pages (SERPs)—by reevaluating your marketing strategy from the bottom up. 

Prioritize these six strategies to outpace market disruption in 2023:

1. Develop a better-defined brand

Don’t get lost among your competitors. Develop a memorable brand that amplifies your mission, vision, and values.

Having a strong brand:

a. Increases brand recognition,

b. Improves customer loyalty,

c. Builds positive word-of-mouth advertising,

d. Raises advertising curiosity and effectiveness,

e. Lowers price sensitivity, 

f. And drives recruitment efforts and lead generation.

Healthcare branding is essential for building patient trust, reinforcing patient-provider relationships, and building patient loyalty at every touchpoint along their journey. 

Healthcare organizations that infuse their brand values into their content marketing strategy will create lasting, impactful impressions. 

Whether you’re a new brand or market disruptor looking to make a splash on SERPs and social media platforms or an established brand in need of life support, here are a few things you can do:

• Leverage your patients' voices (e.g., testimonials, reviews, etc.) by sharing them across your online properties to exemplify your commitment to your patients.
• Build compelling visuals that tell a brand story to engage your target audience. Infographics are three times more likely to get shared on social media platforms than any other type of content.
• Create a community around your brand that meets the needs of your patients and their families. For example, addiction treatment centers might recognize a growing need for families, spouses, or parents to come together and support one another while their loved ones attend your rehabilitation program.
• Inspire your audience into action with unique and engaging campaigns that promote things like preventive care or address your most frequently asked questions.

2. Add staff recruitment into the marketing budget

Hospitals are focusing on staff recruitment as much as lead generation in 2022. At the same time, more than half expect to lose money due to the spike in costs including paying travel nurses during pandemic surges, increasing turnover rates, and rising labor costs.

As a result, many U.S. hospitals have been forced to make marketing cuts to match these turnovers, layoffs, and restructures and focus on higher ROI tactics and strategies.

It’s critical for high-demand industries, like healthcare, to prioritize talent acquisition strategies to remain competitive as more nurses are retiring early or leaving the profession due to burnout. 

Right now, it’s a “seller’s market,” meaning you need to bring your A-game to attract top talent. Here are a few tips to help you get started:

• Promote from within to create a culture of trust and loyalty.
• Work with local training programs, schools, and job fairs to attract the right people.
• Create a referral program with compensation for existing employees.
• Reassess compensation packages often to ensure they remain competitive.
• Offer unique benefits like flexible scheduling, tuition reimbursement, and childcare allowance to help your organization stand out.

3. Take the leap with integrated marketing 

Today’s healthcare consumers are heavily influenced by top consumer brands delivering streamlined, reliable, and unified messaging across many online and offline platforms. (Think Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign that ran in print ads, commercials, billboards, and across social media.)

Now, consumers expect the same immersive experience from your healthcare organization. 

Integrated marketing leverages online and offline marketing tactics to create multiple impressions of your brand across every touchpoint and lead consumers through a seamless brand journey.

4. Consider the latest updates and changes in digital marketing 

As healthcare organizations begin developing their digital marketing strategy for 2023, taking a proactive approach to your SEO strategy is a must. 

Here are some recent Google updates and changes we’ve covered this year and why you should prepare for them:

• Google’s Helpful Content Update
  Optimize your website to comply with these latest people-first algorithm changes to ensure your website ranking doesn’t take a hit.

• Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
  Universal Analytics is going away on July 1, 2023, meaning it will no longer collect or process data. Make the switch to GA4 now to familiarize yourself with the platform and replicate your favorite UA reports.

• Google’s Responsive Search Ad Changes
  In June, Google prioritized responsive search ads over expanded text ads. If you haven’t already, it’s time to take advantage of these automation and machine-learning tools because they’ll boost conversion rates and give you better campaign insights.

• Google Business Profile (GBP)
  Google renamed Google My Business to Google Business Profile at the tail-end of 2021, but it’s still a big deal. This new and improved tool fully supports larger businesses with multiple locations and is one of the best (and free) ways to improve local SEO.

5. Prepare for market disruptors 

Hospitals and health systems have much more competition than at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Market disruptors like Telehealth and other digitally-driven healthcare services have carved a straight, unencumbered path toward faster and more direct access to healthcare—bypassing traditional doctors.

Healthcare businesses must reevaluate their doctor-access strategies and communication tools to improve patient experience, protect patient volume, and differentiate themselves.

Outpace competitors and meet the rising demands of healthcare consumers by offering apps and other digital health tools to assist with things like:

• Scheduling appointments
• Accessing personal health data
• Messaging care teams
• Receiving virtual care

6. Compete with consumer brands

In addition to bolstering digital services to compete with market disruptors, healthcare businesses must also compete with retail health clinics like CVS Minute Clinic, Amazon Care, Walgreens Health, and Target Clinic, offering affordable, faster, and after-hours access to care. 

To compete with these high-value offerings, traditional healthcare businesses need to innovate and focus on things like:

• Competitive advantage
  Offer luxury patient experiences these competitors cannot, like a concierge, valet parking, and longer hours.
• Convenience
  Implement telemedicine services if you haven’t already. Signing in for a quick video chat with a doctor is worth its weight in gold—especially for someone who’s not feeling well or struggling with a chronic health condition.
• Quality
  Don’t be shy. Advertise your number of qualified physicians and nurses and show healthcare consumers you’re ready to handle their care quickly and efficiently.

If you want more out of your healthcare marketing in 2023, we can help. The marketing experts at Healthcare Success have more than 20 years of specialized experience helping hospitals, health systems, and multilocation practices across nearly every specialty reach their marketing and advertising goals.

Healthcare Marketing 101

When it comes to running a practice, don't make the mistake of thinking that medicine is above money. Call it a career, call it a vocation, but call it a business, because your accountant does. The simple fact is; patients mean profits, and practices are like any other small company battling for market share. They need to attract consumers. So why do so many physicians recoil at the prospect of marketing their services?

Even if you're an excellent physician, patients won't be queuing up in your waiting room if they don't know you exist

It's an emotive issue, explains Stewart Gandolf, co-founder of Healthcare Success and a leading practice marketer. "There's a stigma attached. Doctors mistakenly believe there is a correlation between how good a doctor you are, and how busy you are," he says. "So doctors who need to market are bad doctors, and look needy and sleazy.
"It's a mistake, because there are good doctors who market and there are bad doctors who market. It helps both get business."

It's a concept that has divided the market neatly into doctors who are paralyzed by their principles, and those that understand the need for practice promotion. As Gandolf says: "It's a window of opportunity for the smart, but most physicians sit around and wonder what happened."

If the perception that marketing is a dirty word is holding you back, a short aphorism could help. Put simply, says Rachael Sizeland, founder of RAS Marketing, if you aren't out marketing your services, somebody else will be.

"Even if you're an excellent physician, patients won't be queuing up in your waiting room if they don't know you exist," she explains frankly.

But if the thought of promoting your services brings you out in a cold sweat, don't panic. Marketing is not all about slick, big-budget advertising campaigns. "It is not the same thing as selling," says Gandolf. "It's about building the product to match what the customer needs, not trying to get the consumer to fit the product."

What this translates to is effective, low-cost methods that can build your profile without snapping your purse strings. And, as with all successful businesses, it all comes down to pleasing the customer.

Marketing to the converted

When it comes to promotion, your current patients are your best assets. As Aileen Culligan, account director at Dubai-based public relations firm Asdaa, outlines; "In healthcare, it is a market of habit. Doctors and patients build an emotional bond and doctors need to focus on patient loyalty. They can get patients by word of mouth."

Even better, says Gandolf, it costs nothing to cultivate them. "Patients already have a level of trust in you. Asking them for referrals, following up appropriately and giving them a good experience is your highest return on investment.

"Patients may have had great healthcare, but give them a little extra, and it will open the door to recommendations."

While acknowledging that many doctors feel uncomfortable about asking patients to refer on friends or family, Gandolf argues that physicians that don't ask, don't get. "A lot of practices are perceived as busy, so if you're not asking for referrals, patient won't think to do it."

So how can you encourage word-of-mouth recommendations? In this instance, a cutting-edge logo or a 10ft billboard isn't going to cut it. Instead, it's about learning to think of patients as more than a medical record. "The real issue is the product," Gandolf stresses. "It's the sum total of the experience the patient has. Do you find ways of making billing easy for them? Do you smile at them? Do you treat them as individuals?"

Dubbed 'internal marketing', your success in this approach can make or break your practice. According to a survey by Healthcare Branding Group, a poll of 3,000 senior level executives from the healthcare sector showed that more than 40% of respondents marked patient experience as the driving force behind consumer perceptions of medical facilities. "Whether you know it or not, you're marketing to your patients every time they contact your practice," Sizeland says.

Typically, patients look for clear and simple reasons to choose one healthcare provider over another, explains Matthew Pearman, an account director for PR firm Memac Ogilvy. So, while high quality care is certainly important when it comes to customer appeal, it can be difficult for patients to assess.

"I think, if you ask someone in the street to distinguish between, say Welcare Hospital and The American Hospital; in my opinion, I don't think they could identify the difference," Pearman says.

Instead, explains Gandolf, patients use proxy measures to determine value. For example, in a restaurant, if the tables are dirty, customers subconsciously believe that the kitchen is dirty. In the minds of diners, grubby tablecloths equate to sloppy food hygiene. If your waiting room or your bedside manner is shoddy, patients have less faith in your skills. "Patients judge what they can't see by what they can see," he says. "So a way of differentiating yourself is simply by getting to them on time, and treating them well when you see them.

"Stand out from the crowd in terms of your service, and you'll do better than the guy down the street."

'P' is for profit

If you're ready to reassess your internal marketing, some small points can help lay the right groundwork. A basic model many marketers use is the 'Four Ps approach', which can help determine your marketing mix.

Product - The first 'P' refers to your practice and the services you offer. This is your product. "Think about the needs you're serving in the marketplace," Gandolf says. Pinning down your product is key to establishing the brand values of your practice and defining what makes you stand out.

Sizeland recommends coming up with five or ten adjectives that describe what your business; for example, 'friendly', or 'thorough'. "These words are going to inform everything you do," she explains. "Your words become your brand, and the whole package should follow that philosophy."

Once you've found your unique identity, your practice and your staff have to live up to it. "From having your first logo and brochures designed, to the way your staff talk to patients, your brand values should come across," Sizeland stresses. "Staff need to know what's expected of them. If your practice claims to be friendly, they need to be friendly."

If you can come up with a message, adds Gandolf, and hammer it over and over again; "That's effective. That's marketing."

Place - The adage 'location, location, location' holds true for marketing. An integral part of your plan is your physical facility. Are you pushing the right services for the local demographic? Can your patients get to you? "Identify who exactly you want to be communicating with," advises Pearman. "Who do you want to focus on and how are you going to do that?"

The appearance of your practice is another deciding factor, adds Sizeland. "Does the appearance of the practice reflect your brand? What does your waiting room say about your doctors?"

To help look at your practice through new eyes, try checking in as if you were a patient.

How many forms do you need to fill in? Could you simplify the process? Is your practice easy to navigate round? Performing a 'door-to-door tour' can help pinpoint areas for improvement.

Price - Simple but key; how much are you charging, and does your practice live up to its price tag? "Your charges should be appropriate to your market," says Sizeland. "Make sure you are not pricing yourself out or under the range of your target patients."

Promotion - "Whether internal or external, marketing should be consistent and professional," Sizeland stresses. "Get your name out there by working traditional, affordable measures."

In short, adds Gandolf; "Doing anything is better than doing nothing."

Small measures; big results

Once you have a brand statement, how can you translate these platitudes into practice?

For your internal marketing plan, take a look at the following:

Information leaflets - "Leaflets or brochures explaining your practice statement and exactly what services you offer are a vital part of the marketing wrap," Sizeland says. If your patients don't know that you can treat skin lesions, you'll lose them to a dermatologist who can.

Information packs on specific conditions or procedures can also help educate patients, helping to push the message that your interest goes beyond that day's appointment. "From the moment patients contact you, they should be impressed that you're offering them extra, more than they expected," Sizeland explains.

Dr Soliman Fakeeh Hospital, Saudi Arabia, has taken this point on board with the launch of its free patient teaching center. Open to all hospital patients, the center is staffed by doctors, health educators and nurses, and aims to help patients achieve a better understanding of their illnesses. What it also provides is a more customer-focused experience and a reason for patients to come back.

Appointment reminders - These have a double bonus; along with cutting the number of no-shows your practice notches up, appointment reminders help project an impression of efficiency. Patients are left with the image of an organised practice.

Timely follow-up - Consider sending new patients a 'welcome to the practice' note. Again, alongside giving the impression of a caring, compassionate doctor, it's another opportunity to use your brand and highlight your services. "New referrals only work if you can keep them," says Gandolf. "All the marketing in the world won't help you if you have a terrible product. You need both; good promotion and a good product."
If these measures seem too simplistic to make a real difference to your bottom line, remember that while good customer care is not rocket science, it will help your business grow. "Patients see things differently to you," Gandolf stresses. "It's a key principle, so put it on your screen and highlight it; 'You are not the patient.'

"When you find yourself starting to say 'Well, I wouldn't respond to that,' stop. You're about to make a mistake."

Community minded

Outside of your practice, one of the most effective, low-cost ways of boosting your profile is involvement in community events. Gandolf recommends patient appreciation days as a good source of new referrals. "Invite your patients and ask them to bring friends or family, and offer a free check-up," he suggests. "It's slightly quirky and you can get a bunch of new patients."

Welcare Hospital, Dubai, is a follower of this method. In support of World Hypertension Day, the Hospital offered free blood pressure screening to all walk-in patients. By aligning itself with a major, nationwide campaign, the Hospital received newspaper and radio coverage, and is likely to have gained new patients.

"This is a way of getting coverage from the local media, and it's a feel-good thing," Gandolf confirms.

"These sort of activities can aid in building a profile," Pearman agrees. "The Dubai Bone & Joint Clinic are particularly good at positioning themselves within the community. Take the Emirates Arthritis Foundation as an example. Under this umbrella they launched the region's first arthritis support groups.

"That sort of exposure is good exposure."

Start now

Marketing, whether internally or externally, doesn't mean bankruptcy and shouldn't cause you an ethical dilemma. But as the market becomes more competitive, explains Sizeland, all physicians will need to sit up and take notice.

"I can't think of any practice that doesn't need to market itself," she says frankly.

To stay ahead of the game, Gandolf warns smart physicians to begin planning their strategy now. "Whatever flurry there is in the marketplace, as practices wake up to marketing, it will be a speck of what's to come," he says. "If you can hear the rumble of the river coming down the mountain, it might be along way away, but it is coming.

"If you want to stand out, do your homework now."

Case Study

Casebook: Moorfields Eye Hospital, Dubai (MEHD)

Despite being Moorfields Eye Hospital's first foray into private care, the facility's Dubai-based branch has quickly grasped the importance of the customer in a competitive market.

From the moment patients step out of the lift, their first view is of the Moorfields crest etched into the sliding glass doors that lead into the reception area. It's a deliberate branding ploy, explains medical director Dr Chris Canning. "We use the crest everywhere we can, so patients learn to associate the established Moorfields brand with the clinic," he explains. "It's very striking, so patients remember it."

The facility itself is designed in a circular format, so patients follow a logical path during their appointment. The layout, Canning explains, was selected to give a natural sense of progressing through the stages of the clinic.

The first stop is the reception area, which leads on to check-in desks where patients are booked in. The facility is smart-card compliant, so paper-free beyond this point. Patients are then led in to a waiting area, surrounded by individual appointment rooms. Each pod has a light above the door, which is activated once the attending nurse or physician inserts the customer's smart card into the computer. "Staff can see at a glance which rooms are occupied," Canning explains. "It means patients aren't disturbed during their consultations."

The goal of a calm patient experience, Canning notes, has been prioritised during the design of the clinic. The appointment rooms, while facing the patient waiting area, also back on to a second, hidden corridor. This path, Canning says, allows staff to flit between rooms without crossing the central waiting area. "The idea is to keep the room as tranquil as possible, to minimise stress for waiting patients, " he explains. Digital whiteboards displayed in the corridor allow staff to see immediately which patients are in which room, and how long each has been waiting.

MEHD is equally adept at the smaller touches. Patients with upcoming appointments can expect an SMS message the day before, reminding them of their visit. "We're in the final stages of organising this service with Du," Canning says. On leaving the clinic, all patients also receive an individual folder holding their diagnosis, the results of any tests they have had, information sheets, a copy of their prescription, and details of any upcoming appointments. "Should they want a second opinion," Canning explains, "They have all the information to hand." Referring GPs can expect an equally comprehensive brief, he adds. "We're still working out the best way of communicating with primary care physicians here, but whether by fax, post or secure email, they'll receive the same information."

The facts: Top three marketing essentials

Be patient-focused. Build your practice around what your patients want, rather than what is convenient for you. Your current patients are your best source of future referrals.

Build your brand and use it in everything you do. Establish the image you want to portray and ensure that your corporate message, from your practice literature to your staff's telephone manner, is consistent and credible.

See your marketing plan as an investment, not a cost. "It's a question of how much you make, versus how much it cost," says Gandolf. "US $30,000 sounds like a huge amount of money, but not if you're making $300,000 as a result.

To me, it seemed like an incredible waste of time, resources, and money. I also knew the likelihood of a viewer choosing the correct club location and phone number in a few seconds was slim to none. Thankfully, they did what I recommended and came up with an electronic solution that allowed people to input their zip code and be directed to the right club.

This solution has become what we now call vanity phone numbers.

I recently interviewed Bruno Tabbi, the Founder and President of Ignition Toll Free, one of the nation's leading providers of toll-free vanity numbers, to discuss the benefits and how they can dramatically increase advertising response rates.

I met Bruno through 1-800-VARICOSE, which he leased to several of our clients in various geographies. Unlike “owned” toll-free numbers, some numbers are leased on a market-by-market basis, so that a business in Los Angeles can use the same vanity number as a business in Chicago.

Bruno and I recommend all healthcare businesses get a vanity number to reinforce your brand, improve word-of-mouth marketing, and help build relationships with people. 

They can also: 

1. Make your brand more memorable
2. Boost credibility
3. Help you build long-term marketing campaigns
4. Help expedite your service ROI
5. Increase your click-through rates by 33% on online display ads 

In this podcast, Bruno shares valuable insights about the benefits as well as his expert best practices.

In case you don’t have time to listen to the entire podcast, here’s a summary:

How do vanity phone numbers work?

A vanity number is a unique set of digits that either spell out a word or are memorable in some way (e.g., recognizable patterns of numbers or letters) to capture the attention of potential clients and encourage them to call your business.

A memorable vanity number can help your business stand out in a saturated market, like healthcare. 

Local Versus Toll-Free

It used to be that people had to pay for long-distance phone calls, so having a toll-free number was essential. Today, healthcare consumers can call anyone across the country without additional fees, so 1-800 numbers have essentially become the “dot coms” of telecom. 

Also, local numbers are no longer easier to dial than long distance. Today, people across the United States must dial area codes all the time, even if the local number matches their phone's area code.

Given these two options, I think you’ll agree it’s easier to remember vanity 800 numbers, like 1-800-MEDICARE, than a unique 10-digit phone number.

Vanity phone numbers allow businesses to bypass these area code requirements and advertise highly-memorable numbers.

They also add legitimacy and trustworthiness to your business. Bruno explains, “If somebody sees 1-800-VARICOSE or 888-BARIATRIC, they associate it with an established, reputable, and decent sized company." 

Vanity Area Codes and Prefixes

“We have something called the default dial rate, which is phone numbers people recognize instantly, with 800 and 888 being the highest,” Bruno explains, “ If someone's already using the 800 version, don’t be tempted to compete with a lower grade number, like 833.“ People are less likely to remember phone numbers with a local or lower grade prefix.

For example, 800 and 888 numbers are being dialed correctly over 92% of the time. In contrast, lower-grade toll-free prefixes, like 833, 844, and 855, are misdialing as much as 40% of the time (e.g., if your website were a dot ORG instead of a dot COM, you would have several people entering the wrong domain), according to Bruno. 

Another interesting point Bruno makes is that text messaging is less expensive for businesses using a toll-free number than a local line. "When you enable text messaging with a toll-free number, it's cheaper, and you're less likely to have outbound campaigns blocked than you are through local numbers." 

Many people may not realize they can send a 1-800 number a text message, and that's okay. "Many toll-free numbers use a call-to-text feature where you call a number and simultaneously deliver a text message," Bruno explains. This helps businesses establish a direct link to prospective customers allowing them to reply via text message with links to their digital assets.

Cons of a Partial Vanity

Numbers like 1-800-500-CARE are called partial mnemonics (partial vanity phone numbers). Not only are they less effective than 1-800-DENTIST, but partial or hybrid numbers may also hurt your response rates.

Partial mnemonics can reduce response rates by as much as 75%. There’s not a single company nationwide that’s successfully used partial ones. 

“It’s easier to recall vanity numbers like 800-FLOWERS, 800-GOTJUNK, 800-DENTIST, rather than a partial vanity number, like 800-222-ROSE,” says Bruno, “and that remains true even if the word is longer than seven digits, like 800-PROGRESSIVE.”

Best Places to Use Vanity Phone Numbers

So much of advertising is fleeting. It’s a visual or auditory reference that’s presented and gone quickly, so having custom toll-free vanity numbers to help prospective clients remember your business is essential.

Here are some practical ways to use these in your advertising:

• Radio
  Vanity numbers are essential for radio ads because there’s no visual reference, so it’s got to be memorable.

• TV
  Displaying these on TV ads gives people visual and auditory cues to help them remember and recall later.

• Billboard
  This format requires easy, memorable messages that can be read and understood quickly.

• Newspaper
  Sharing this type of number in newspaper ads is another great way to help people easily remember your contact information and recall it later.

How Vanity Numbers Increase Response Rates: The Data

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Ads with vanity numbers outperform those with generic numbers by 33%. 

Toll-free vanity phone numbers help make your business memorable and easy to reach. Almost 85% of people are likely to remember a vanity number after seeing or hearing it in an advertisement and 58% of consumers prefer to dial a vanity 800 number over a numeric toll-free one to reach a business.

• Radio & TV
  Television and radio ads outperform those with generic numbers by 33%. When heard on radio or TV ads, vanity numbers generate 58% more calls.

• Billboard & Print
  A vanity number delivers up to 84% improvement in consumer recall when used in outdoor and print advertising vs. a numeric toll-free number.

• Online Advertising
  When vanity numbers are used, display ad response rates often increase by more than 20%.

• Word of Mouth
  These numbers can increase word-of-mouth advertising by as much as 200%. 

6 Expert Best Practices on How to Choose the Right Vanity Phone Number

1. It’s okay to go long.
   It’s okay to go over the typical seven digits for vanity phone numbers (e.g., 1-800-ALLSTATE is recognized by phone carriers as 1-800-ALLSTAT. The extra digit at the end is irrelevant.
2. Make it easy to remember.
   Choose higher grade numbers, like 800 or 888, and choose a word connected to your business or industry to increase memorability.
3. Treat it like your last name.
   Anytime you say your business name, your vanity number should immediately follow because people will use that information to look you up online.
4. Repeat your vanity number.
   Repeat your vanity number on radio and TV ads five times to capture audiences who may be scanning stations or just tuning in. Be sure to spell the number out one time at the end.
5. Make it the focus.
   Feature your vanity number and make it the focus of your print, radio, and billboard ads to increase calls and sales.
6. Put it everywhere.
   Make your vanity phone number part of your brand and incorporate it into your logo. You can add it to business cards, email signatures, PPC ads, websites, eBooks, white papers, signage, promotional materials, and more.

I want to thank Bruno again for sharing his time and expertise with us. I hope it's provided you with new and valuable insights into the benefits of using vanity phone numbers in your healthcare advertising.

For a more in-depth look at this topic, I highly recommend listening to our podcast in its entirety.

Of course, if you need help with your marketing or vanity numbers, be sure to contact us.

1. 1. Why we decided to rebuild our site completely,
   2. Why you may need to similarly “start anew” with your website, and
   3. How you can learn and benefit from our experiences.

It's our job and passion to help our clients and readers drive better results from their marketing efforts. That's why we're sharing our story—and success—of our website overhaul. We hope you find something helpful to apply to your organization.

So, let’s start with the rationale behind our decision to invest in creating a new website.

The healthcare industry is constantly evolving, and it’s essential for all healthcare businesses—and their websites—to evolve to stay competitive. Therefore, if your website reflects where your business was more than a few years ago, it is absolutely time for a change.

Likewise, to stay relevant in the face of constant change, our agency's business model and clientele have changed multiple times since our founding in 2006. Starting around five years ago, we made the strategic decision to refocus our business to serve larger healthcare clients that would benefit most from our expertise. Today our clients include:

• • Retail and healthcare brands,
  • Hospitals and health systems,
  • Life sciences manufacturers,
  • Health plans,
  • And multilocation practices and providers.

As we continued pivoting our business model to fit our agency's growing capabilities and the changing healthcare landscape, we looked at our website with fresh eyes. We recognized it was time to create an entirely new website that would better reflect where we are today, who we serve, and the services we offer.

Our decision to completely overhaul our website was not made lightly.

Though we made several incremental improvements in recent years, we also realized it was time for a massive change. To get our website where it needed to be, we had to break apart every page and rebuild it top to bottom with new performance-enhancing technologies, a new user interface and user experience (UI/UX), and new creative to give it a modern look.

Everything we do at Healthcare Success is rooted in healthcare marketing. From the strategy and writing to the designing and development—we have our clients covered end-to-end. The new website, therefore, needed to reflect that.

Because we put our hearts into the work we do for others, finding time for our marketing can be challenging. However, we also know how vital it is to showcase a website that meets the changing needs of our clients.

What’s more, while we receive a fair amount of clients from word-of-mouth referrals, our website (and probably yours) drives a significant portion of business. 

Like us, your website is now the marketing epicenter of your business.

Let’s pause our case study for a moment, to consider how vital your website is to your business.

Today, B2B buyers and healthcare consumers find websites via SEO (search engine optimization), paid search, social, directories, offline advertising, and referrals to name a few. It's often a person's first contact with your business and heavily influences whether they'll contact you—so first impressions are crucial. 

If you rely on your website to generate business as we do, optimizing its design, content, and performance every few years is especially essential.

Chances are, your business has evolved since you launched your current website. Does your website currently reflect who you are and who you target? Does it reflect the new competitive realities of your market? 

As you look upon your website with fresh eyes, you might find your design, functionality, or content feels outdated or no longer in line with your business objectives. While you may have gotten away with incremental changes for a time (like we did), there comes the point when an outdated website is costing you business.

Your website needs to answer questions like:

• • Who is this company?
  • Do I like and trust them?
  • Are they experienced?
  • What do they do?
  • Are they suitable for my business?
  • Is the messaging clear?
  • What is the user experience?

Does your website set your users up for success and answer all their burning questions quickly and intuitively?

To achieve these goals in our own business, we realized we needed to build up our marketing content to create a cohesive buyer's journey that included marketing and sales. 

So, we got to work.

Step 1: The Team

Great things in business are never done by one person.
- Steve Jobs

To start, we assembled a lean marketing team, allowing for greater accountability, autonomy, and flexibility in their roles throughout the entire process. Here are the key roles and their primary responsibilities throughout the whole process:

• Founder/CEO/Marketing & Creative Director
  That’s me. As you can imagine, I wear many different hats at Healthcare Success and was the driving force (aka “nag”) behind our website relaunch. Giving our website a fresh face was only part of my objective, but I’ll dive more deeply into that in a bit. First, I’d like to share the other team roles that were crucial to the success of this relaunch.

• Project Managers
  Behind every great project is a great project management team keeping track of all the moving parts. They're responsible for ensuring everything gets completed in the correct order, and all tasks are completed on time. They're also responsible for regular status updates, milestone/gatekeeping, scope creep, eliminating bottlenecks, and quality assurance (among several other things).
  
  If you're planning a website redesign or other project that involves several departments, having a strong project management team—that’s not afraid to say no—is paramount to its success.

• Senior Art Director and Graphic Designer
  Our new website is stunning, but it's so much more than just a pretty face. Our “Art Club”  folded their creative prowess into an intuitive website built for thought leadership and lead generation. They understand that people are naturally drawn to good design and first impressions are crucial—but they're also keenly aware that usability, navigation, and conversion opportunities are central to great design.
  
  While they're responsible for things like typography, page layouts, imagery, and color schemes, they're equally responsible for coordinating with the content and development teams to ensure they deliver an optimal user interface.
  
  Did you know it only takes visitors 50 milliseconds to form a first impression of your website design?

• Content Director & Editor and Senior Content Writer
  Content isn’t as sexy as graphic design, but it’s the backbone of any successful website. It supports organic SEO, lead generation, and conversions. Our content director worked in tandem with our skilled SEO team to identify keywords and landing pages that required brand new content that aligned with our evolving business objectives. Once aligned, it was time for our senior content writer to breathe new life into our service pages with brand new content aimed at our target audience.
  
  First-class content tells your story. It entertains, resonates, and compels your audience to take action. Don't settle for mediocre content on your website. Promote your products and services with highly effective, thoughtful copy tailored to your unique target audience for the best results.

• SEO Manager and SEO Analyst
  SEO is the beating heart of any website. Taking regular steps to improve it is crucial for its continued success. At the start of our project, our skilled SEO Manager and SEO Analyst reanalyzed our website content from top to bottom. Our website has been around for nearly 20 years, so as you can imagine, this was no small task.
  
  They reviewed every page and identified which were the strongest and which could benefit from additional optimization efforts. Here is a quick checklist we used to analyze our current site:

• • Inventory high-performing content.
  • Determine new SEO goals.
  • Optimize existing content as needed.
  • Identify content opportunities.
  • Set up 301 redirects.
  • Update site architecture.
  • Update XML sitemap.

Working closely with our talented Content Director & Editor, they were able to map out content gaps, identify new competitive keywords, and advise on navigational improvements that would improve our sitemap, Google rankings, and, therefore, conversions.

Once they completed the deep internal work, they also analyzed our top competitors. This analysis identified additional optimization opportunities that would enable us to surpass competitor SEO strategies and outrank them on the search engine results page (SERP).

• Developers
  Developers are often the unsung heroes of projects, mainly because much of their work happens behind the scenes, and you typically don't hear from them unless there's a problem. But I like to think of them as our secret weapon. Our relaunch wasn't just a reskinning of the old site—it was rebuilt from the ground up using updated tech and best practices.
  
  A strong, technically savvy development team can take graphic designs and content and turn it into a secure website that functions well, loads fast, and is accessible on all screen resolutions and devices. 

If you’re thinking about a simple reskinning of your website, keep this in mind:
A great-looking site that functions well and loads quickly often receives more traffic and has better conversion rates.

Step 2: The Audit

If you don't know where you've come from, you don't know where you're going.
- Maya Angelou

Before undertaking this giant in-house project, there was considerable prep work to be done. 

However, it's important to note that our website was performing well. 

We didn't undertake this project because our site was fundamentally flawed. It was attracting lots of high-quality leads and generating significant revenue. However, something important was happening—our business was evolving, and it was time for our website to evolve along with us so it could continue serving our needs well into the future.

Conducting a thorough website audit with fresh eyes before going headlong into developing a new one will help you avoid missteps. It will also help manage expectations and identify which aspects need to be changed due to recent trends and emerging practices in tech.

We audited our website from several angles:

1. General Competitive Analysis

Our business strategy has evolved over the last five years, and we knew it was time to update our website to meet the changing needs of our business. As part of that, we re-identified our competitors and analyzed their website content, layout, and functionality.

We also conducted a thorough SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and strengths) analysis to identify gaps (read: opportunities) in our existing website. This is a great place to start if you're looking to make some changes to your current website.

2. Brand & Creative

As I've mentioned before in other blog posts, branding is highly subjective. However, our design team did their due diligence and a lot of behind-the-scenes brand work to support their design decisions with relevant data and research. They reviewed our website alongside our marketing analysts to identify which creative elements failed to connect with our target audience and which resonated.

They also looked at current industry trends and used their depth of knowledge to identify which made the most sense for our living brand.

A skilled creative team with specialized healthcare experience can help you achieve your vision and deliver a website poised to attract new business.

3. SEO

SEO (search engine optimization)—and I can not stress this enough—is what built the Healthcare Success business. As I mentioned before, it’s at the heart of everything we do and is vital to any website. It should be regularly reviewed to ensure your content targets the right keywords and audiences.

It's important to schedule regular SEO audits into your ongoing strategy, but it should also be high on your to-do list during a website relaunch to stay competitive. An SEO audit should include identifying competitor weaknesses and developing SEO strategies to outrank them. Not only will this help drive highly targeted traffic (e.g., leads) to your website, but it will also encourage higher conversions.

Side note: Sadly, most healthcare organizations launch their new websites without understanding the vital importance of SEO in the relaunch process. Because most website design companies do not understand SEO (even if they say they do), an entirely avoidable SEO disaster follows. In fact, people often call us after a botched website launch to perform "revision surgery" to regain their SEO rankings. If they'd only called us before…

4. Content

It might be cliche, but content is king. It has the power to evoke emotion, persuade action, and help businesses stand out. As part of our content audit, we needed to prioritize which pieces of content needed to be refreshed before launch, which could change post-launch, and which could stay the same.

Significant changes included updating our buyer personas (e.g., target audience) and applying it to our messaging.

We also knew that we had to take a hard look at our calls-to-action, navigation, voice, and tone to ensure they were in line with our new business objectives. The main navigation pages were the first to be scrutinized as they are among the most important.

Creating SEO-friendly content that resonates with your target audience will drive engagement, clicks, and conversions.

Step 3: The Project Plan 

If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail.
- Benjamin Franklin

As I alluded to before, our previous website was working. It was ranking extremely well organically on Google and generating leads, but I knew it wasn’t serving our evolving business needs as well as it had in the past.

I put myself in the shoes of my target audience and read through the key pages of our website. I quickly realized our language and keywords conflicted with our objectives. We had to make some drastic changes—not only to reposition our content and update our design but also to modernize the underlying technology. 

It was no small undertaking, but I knew it had to be done to remain competitive in our market.

Our skilled project management team wasted no time preparing pre- and post-launch project plans, timelines, and tasks to keep everything (and everyone) moving forward in an organized manner. As veterans of their craft, I knew we were in good hands. 

In a matter of days, we had a concise plan for auditing our existing website from every department (e.g., design, development, content, and SEO) and a clear path for analyzing new and existing competitors. 

Thinking about overhauling your website with fresh new designs, targeted content, and undated tech?

Here are a few things you’ll need to do to ensure its success:

1. Analyze your existing website and define your goals

• • How is the site performing?
  • Which areas need immediate improvement?
  • How do you want your site to serve your business?

2. Build your team

• • Identify key stakeholders (e.g., creative, UX & UI, content manager, and a few executives), but keep your team lean to avoid falling behind schedule.

3. Analyze your existing content

• • Strategic, easy-to-read content significantly contributes to organic search engine ranking. Try to transfer premium, highly desirable content to your redesigned website and scrap or rewrite the outdated ones. High-quality content is one of your most valuable assets and connects you with your target audience.

4. Prioritize the user experience

• • Keep things like smooth navigation, clear direction, engaging content, and alluring calls to action in mind to create a positive user experience and increase conversions.

5. Budget

• • Our CFO and I agreed upfront that our new website was an extremely high priority, and we would need to set aside the (substantial) budget required to rebuild it to our high standards. We also needed to budget our time and resources to ensure our internal website redesign didn't impact our client work. Our project management team was crucial in protecting everyone's time and ensuring everything stayed on track. Overhauling the technology that supports your website is an investment, but it's often necessary to remain competitive.

Step 4: The Execution 

Sticking to the schedule is essential when working on a project as complicated as a corporate website redesign. Once again, it was time for our project management team to shine. 

They kept all departments moving in the right direction at the right time and helped eliminate obstacles along the way.

Each department had weekly meetings. However, it was equally crucial for all team members to come together once a week to discuss their progress and any issues or needs.

Identifying and resolving issues was essential to ensure the project stayed on track.

The Results 

Though it’s only been a few weeks since launching our new website, we’ve already seen excellent results. We look forward to seeing growing results from our team’s efforts over time.

For fun, here, here are a few snapshots of our progress over the years (Source):

It’s important to remember that websites are living, breathing entities and are never truly “done.” Whether your website is two weeks old or two decades old, you should always be actively improving the design, functionality, and content to remain timely, relevant, and competitive. 

While there’s plenty left to be done, we’re proud of our new website. It better represents who we are, our capabilities, and how we work.

Let us know what you think!