A lot of my clients are doctors or nurses who are launching medical device companies or healthcare apps. Sometimes they have been in business for years; sometimes they are brand new.
For newbies, they need to focus on making their products as safe and effective as possible. The emphasis is on getting through the necessary pilot studies and regulatory requirements.
For established companies, the focus is on keeping up with demand and training staff.
That’s all how it should be – but it means they rarely get to focus on their marketing. When they come to me for help, there are some common issues affecting their websites. Here’s what to do about them.
Disorganization
The goal of your website is to get your website visitors to take action: buy the product, launch a demo, schedule a call. If your site is disorganized, visitors can’t take that action. They probably aren’t even aware there’ s an action you want them to take. Instead, they wander aimlessly. And then they click away.
Website disorganization takes many forms. You might find that the product page is overloaded with detail. Sometimes, I’ll see the menu has become loaded down with the wrong stuff.
You need to know the thing that your visitor most wants to see. What are they looking for when they visit your website? It kills me when those crucial pieces are buried several links deep from the homepage.
Here are a few ideas to combat a disorganized website:
- Pull excess information off the product page and into an FAQ page or Research page. Then hyperlink those pages to the product page.
- Make the menu simple and easy to understand; do not overwhelm with huge drop-down lists.
- Think of what your visitors will be most interested in and make that information easy to find.
Too much jargon
It will surprise no one that doctors like medical jargon. The thing is, their website visitors probably don’t. For one thing, the buyers may not be doctors. For another, it gets in the way of understanding what the new product does.
The time to use medical terminology is when you need to indicate which illnesses or procedures your product addresses. The time not to use it is when you are trying to explain product design or how to get in touch with you.
The idea here is to be as clear as possible so people can easily understand what your product does.
No focus
A lack of focus often happens when a business starts expanding. Maybe they used to sell their technology to a department but now they are trying to sell to the health system as a whole.
That type of change can affect the website in a variety of ways. Maybe the website still addresses only the Department Director when they also need to address the C-suite. Or maybe they’ve added a little jump-off icon directing the C-suite to a page just for them but it still looks a bit rinky-dink. Or maybe the website ignores the change altogether.
The thing is, that only works until a high-level health executive takes a peek at the website – and mistakenly decides the product is not a fit.
Your website has to know who it’s talking to. If your business talks to a few different types of customers, there are ways to handle it, but you need a strategy. Otherwise, you leave your web visitors feeling like you don’t understand their situation – which is the kiss of death to any sale.
If your business’ target audience shifts completely, you need to do a full website overhaul. Similarly, if you’ve just added a new category of customer, you need to create content that is designed for their needs – and make it accessible from the homepage. Whatever your situation, you want the person who visits your site to instantly feel that you are talking to them.
Website strategy is more than just having a website.
If you find your website suffering from disorganization, too much jargon or lack of focus, the odds are you need to revisit your website strategy. Once you know where you are headed, it will be easy to make the improvements you need on your site.