Certainly by now all home health care agencies have a website. But, is your website serving as an effective referral engagement tool? Are you using the website to attract and screen employees? Are you, in fact, up to date on the power of having a good website, and all that that entails?
You want referral sources and customers to:
Find you when they are searching for a home health care agency for services
Find the information they need to know if you are the right fit
Have a satisfying experience while on the site
Return if they have questions
Call you or refer to you
Refer others to your site and to your agency
Feel the power of your extended brand through a quality experience online
And, if you are a really savvy home health care agency, you want your website to:
Admit patients
Serve as an employee portal
Compliment your business by adding value with information and resources
The reader must be able to find what he or she wants quickly and easily. The statistics prove that the first glance at a home page is a “make-it or break-it” chance to keep that person on the site. The design must be eye-catching and relevant to your targets, and those targets must be differentiated so the searcher can easily find information pertaining to his or her particular need. Think about who you want to engage, and make it inviting for that particular type of searcher to come in and look around.
Website readers are NOT traditional marketing brochure readers. The Information on the home health care agency website must be concise and easily readable at a glance. The text should be written with the end user in mind, and not with internal industry acronyms and words that mean little to someone outside the industry. Each page should have headers and bullets. The content has to engage the user, not simply cover the services you provide. The content has to be current and maintained, and written with both search engines and real people in mind. Today’s website is not meant to be static. It is meant to be a living extension of the business, and should be treated as such. After all, you do not write, design and print a website and then forget about it. The website serves as a Yellow Pages, as a customer engagement tool, as a place to inform and educate. It should be maintained regularly and integrated into the strategic marketing plan for the home health care agency.
Some suggestions for designing a basically good website are first and foremost to minimize “noise”. Avoid busy design, and keep it simple, but branded to your business. Leave off the Flash, as Apple does not recognize it and you are cutting out users of iPhones and iPads (a pretty large audience). Never use music as background unless it fits the content on the page and there is a button to allow that music should the reader choose to listen. Use video, but let the searcher determine whether or not to view it.
Use a CMS (Content Management System) platform like WordPress that search engines like. Think about the visuals and match them to the business/agency brand. Think consultative when establishing the navigation and content.
There are certainly many ways to find new referral sources and new customers for your home health care agency. Each and every one of those ways has (or should have) a connection to the website, and those connections, when they bring the searcher to the site, should expand their knowledge of your agency and bring them one step closer to an ongoing relationship.
About Merrily Orsini
Merrily Orsini’s professional background combines her skills in technology with her expertise in communicating and a fondness for interacting with people. Her business ownership began with a geriatric care managed in-home care agency, a venture that garnered her the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 1996. She would later sell that business and found corecubed in 1998, a digital marketing company that focuses on marketing aging care services using strategy, design and integration. Recognized nationally for her expertise in strategic marketing for aging related services, particularly home care and home health services, Orsini is considered a thought leader in the industry and is involved in numerous organizations within the home care and aging care industry. She is the past Chair of the Private Duty Homecare Association of America, and recently served on the board of the National Association for Home Care and Hospice. Learn more about Merrily at merrilyorsini.com.
