The conversation continues about QR codes. According to Mobio™, QR barcode scanning in North America grew 1200% in the last half of last year. Quick response codes already make sense with consumer products for purchase information, competitive pricing information, coupons or discounts, but how are they relevant for healthcare? Relevance is the key question about how QR codes can work with your healthcare marketing strategy. Are you just adding QR codes because it’s a hot ticket right now, or do you actually provide a value added to your current or prospective patients?
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September 30th, 2010
EricC
Surfing the Web nowadays, I guess you get used to being bombarded by advertisements on almost every Web site that you visit …. no, not THOSE sites … I’m talking about your normal everyday run-of-the-mill Web sites. I usually make it a point not to click on any paid ads that I happen run across … mainly just for spite. Well, that and because I feel like I’m harassed enough by advertising in other media during the course of a day. Even when I do a generic Google search, I avoid the “sponsored links” like the plague. Again, I really don’t have one significant reason for this other than they happen to be “ads” and they happen to annoy me. The few that I actually have clicked on in the past gave me no results related to my initial search so that may have also jaded my enthusiasm for them.
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Health content is essential to the success of a hospital’s Web site. If a patient or user is searching for information on a particular diagnosis or treatment but are unable to find relevant information on your Web site, they will not only visit another site, but their experience may also leave a lasting negative impression of your organization. As a user, if I could not find relevant, in-depth information about bone cancer on a Web site, for example, I would assume that the hospital does not have the necessary services to treat me, or that it is simply not a very sophisticated hospital. Most purchase this type of content from a health information vendor and some even create their own content. Regardless of how it is obtained, the key is to provide some type of health content on the Web site; which can be evaluated using the following questions as a guideline:
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Recently, Greystone.Net was helping a client hospital with a business plan for its Web site. As part of the arrangement, we designed, launched and managed a web satisfaction study for them. This is something that we are doing more and more these days, as organizations seek to add customer input into their redesign efforts. My background is in research, so I am usually heavily involved with these engagements.
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You’ve probably heard the old adage that as soon as you make your Web site “idiot proof” they’ll go and make a better idiot. No offense intended to any user of any Web site, but people do the most amazing things. I’m in the midst of user testing for a client, and again I’m seeing people do things that I never would have expected.
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I recently helped my 3-yr old daughter prepare her wish list for Santa. What I thought would be a simple task proved to be a significant challenge, as she wanted virtually every single toy in the catalogue! I tried my best to explain to her that even though she has been very good this year, it is Santa’s job to pick out a few toys that she would like best.
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I was part of a presentation recently where one of the speakers made this statement: “When you go to a Web site, what do you do? You search, right? That’s how everybody finds what they are looking for.”
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Ralph Waldo Emerson said that it was, but on the Web, I’m not so sure. I’ve always advocated consistency in design and navigation for three reasons:
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Those of us who hold dear the notion that the user of our Web sites is king are perplexed when that user does something that doesn’t make sense. Here’s a great example:
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