Dr. Marketing is Jack Harms, President of The Marketing Department, where he specializes in helping companies, including health systems and occupational health programs, improve their competitive advantage. To submit a question to Dr. Marketing, please send it to VISIONS Editor Karen O’Hara: kohara@naohp.com.
Q: Dr. Marketing, how can we make our occupational health program website more effective? Dr. Marketing: First, design it differently than your printed sales literature. Almost all printed collateral material describes services and what is unique or different about how they are delivered. Sometimes, but not always, the material includes claims about what a customer will gain from using those services.
Q: Why doesn’t that approach work well for websites? Dr. Marketing: Assume the viewer already has a basic idea of what your program does, has conducted an Internet search for occupational health clinics, and will view the sites of numerous competitors in your marketplace.
Q: What should our program’s website look like? Dr. Marketing: Organize your home page as follows:
Emphasize benefits. Benefits are what the customer will gain from doing business with you. In business-to-business selling, benefits are defined in dollars-and-cents terms. Prospects will care little about what you do and how you do it if they don’t at first perceive a gain. The gain is what they are buying. The services are what you are delivering. Point out attributes (advantages) of your service that generate the benefits. These need to be unique to you, (e.g., outcomes warranty), not something found throughout the industry (e.g., board-certified doctors.) If you claim to deliver greater benefits than your competitors, you have to prove it through differentiated advantages. List services as a “sidebar” so viewers can quickly verify the validity of your program as a supplier. Give your services names that differ from those generally used in the industry and relate those names to benefits. For example, “wellness” describes a feature while “productivity improvement” describes a benefit.
Q: How extensive should our website be? Dr. Marketing: The size of a website is virtually limitless, but that doesn’t mean it should be like a hall of mirrors. The design solution is to create individual, themed pages that are easily accessed by clicking on icons and highlighted phrases. Collectively, themed pages provide all the information and detail necessary to satisfy any level of interest.
Q: How can we make it even more dynamic? Dr. Marketing: Use animation, pictures, and sound, but don’t make it so complex that there are delays in downloading and the viewer gets impatient.
Q: What are some of the other ways we can guarantee repeat visits? Dr. Marketing: 1) Keep your website current. Conduct scheduled maintenance at least quarterly. 2) Use all of the Internet’s capabilities to explain your company, including links to external resources such as government agencies and affiliated vendors. 3) Conduct and download a guided video tour of your facility. 4) Feature an audio recording of client testimonials. 5) Carry on discussions with prospects and clients via a real-time “chat room” feature.
