When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in early 2020, telehealth services became a crucial tool for healthcare professionals to continue providing quality care to patients. As the world returns to a "new normal," telehealth remains as popular as ever. Industry analysts expect the telehealth market to grow by over 38% by 2025.
With this immense growth comes both opportunities and challenges. Telehealth providers now have access to new technologies and ways of doing business that allow them to improve patient care. However, the competitive landscape has also intensified.
This is where growth-driven design, or GDD, comes into play.
In this article, we'll explore how GDD can supercharge your telehealth services. We'll examine why it works, how to use it, and some real-world success stories. Let's get started!
The Importance of Effective Promotion for Telehealth Services
With the move towards telehealth, healthcare providers gained many of the same benefits as other online businesses. Suddenly, they could reach patients well outside their neighborhood. Patients could get care from their couch, and healthcare providers would save on overhead costs.
However, these perks also came with new challenges. Just like other online businesses, telehealth services need innovative promotion to stand out and reach potential patients.
The telehealth sphere grows more crowded by the day. Patients have ample choice when selecting a virtual care provider. So what makes yours special? Why should patients pick you over the others?
Growth-driven design, or GDD, provides a framework to address this challenge. It helps you keep improving your website to boost traffic, leads, and conversions.
Differences Between Traditional Web Design and Growth-Driven Design
To fully grasp GDD, it helps to contrast it with traditional web design approaches.
Traditional web design is like building a house. You plan everything out, build it all, and then you're done. Maybe you renovate every few years. GDD is more like tending a garden. You start small, plant some seeds, and keep nurturing and growing over time. You're constantly tweaking and improving based on what you see working.
Read our full blog post on GDD vs. Traditional Web Design for more info.
Core Principles of Growth-Driven Design
Now that we've got the basics down, let's look at what makes a website truly "growth-driven."
Agile Methodology
The Agile methodology was initially created for software creation but underpins much of growth-driven web design. Pioneered in 2001, Agile emphasizes adaptability, collaboration, and working software over documentation. It focuses on rapid iterations called "sprints" rather than rigid sequential steps.
GDD adopts this flexible, modular approach for telehealth website design. There's much more to Agile, with sub-methods like Scrum, but that's the gist.
Data-Driven Decisions
They say data is the new gold, and GDD puts that gold to good use! It uses data to guide your design and digital marketing choices. You get a constant stream of info on how people use your site. Then, you use that to figure out what's working and what's not.
Compare that to the old way, where you'd just go with your gut. Why leave it up to chance when you can know for sure? After all, data-driven organizations are 23 times more likely to acquire new customers.
Continuous Improvement
Now, picture Agile and data working together in a never-ending loop of getting better.
You make changes based on data, which creates new data, leading to more changes. It's a cycle that never ends. And a product that never stops improving.
In the fast-paced world of tech, you can't afford to stand still. Traditional methods can get old fast, but Agile and GDD help you keep up with the times. Plus, customers love it because they will see that their feedback matters.
Why Growth-Driven Design is Perfect for Telehealth
We talked about how Agile was made for software and how data-driven decisions are big in e-commerce and finance. So why use GDD for telehealth? As it turns out, there are tons of benefits.
Adaptability
Any online business faces rapid change. However, telehealth has a dizzying number of rules, regulations, and ethical considerations. It's no wonder it's been slow to go digital. GDD lets you roll with the punches. You can quickly adapt to new requirements and patient needs.
Say there's a new HIPAA rule regarding patient data storage. With GDD, you can quickly update your systems to comply—there's no need to rebuild everything from scratch.
Patient-Centric Approach
At the end of the day, you want a platform that works well for everyone. Sure, it should make life easier for healthcare providers. But let's not forget the main goal: better patient care.
With GDD, you put patients first in your design choices. This leads to more personalized experiences, better outcomes, and happier patients.
For example, you might create personalized patient portals. Through these portals, patients can schedule appointments, view their records, and chat securely with their doctors.
Data-Driven Insights
GDD provides invaluable data to improve the patient journey by continually monitoring user analytics and gathering patient feedback. You can track their interactions, from when they hear about you to the appointment and follow-up care.
Key Elements of Growth-Driven Design for Telehealth
We've made the case for GDD in telehealth. We know what it is and why you should consider it. The next question is, "How?" This section will overview some best practices for implementation.
Launchpad Website
In the app world, they call this a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). It's a basic version of your site with just the must-have features.
Why do this for telehealth? It lets you start helping patients faster and on a smaller budget. Plus, you can begin gathering data right away.
Focus on the essentials: secure login, appointment scheduling, and critical patient resources. And don't skimp on security! You're dealing with sensitive info, so make sure it's locked down tight from day one, even if it's just a launchpad website. Otherwise, you may find yourself in hot water.
Continuous Improvement
With your launchpad site live, the next phase focuses on listener feedback and analytics to drive continuous enhancements. Try A/B testing, where you make two versions of something (like a "Book Now" button) and see which works better. Minor tweaks can make a big difference!
User Research and Personas
A customer persona is your ideal customer on paper. For telehealth, you might have a few: busy professionals, elderly patients, and parents with young kids.
If you're not sure who your personas are, do some digging. Conduct surveys and interviews, and observe how people use your site. Once you know who you're serving, you can make better choices about design and content.
SEO and Content Strategy
This advice is suitable for any website, so we're including it here too. Use SEO best practices or hire an SEO agency to help people find you online. That means doing keyword research, using meta tags, getting quality backlinks, and more.
But here's an important tip: write for humans first, then tweak for SEO. Create helpful content (i.e., blog posts, FAQs, video tutorials, or case studies) that answers patient questions.
Implementing Growth-Driven Design
Next, let's combine all these GDD components to create an execution plan you can implement for your telehealth services.
Initial Planning and Goal Setting
Like any good business plan, start by clearly defining your targets and metrics for success. Consider your current patient acquisition and retention rates and your online competitors. Set realistic but ambitious targets for website visitors, leads generated, and patient conversion rates.
Developing Your Launchpad Site
With the strategy set, it's time to start designing your minimal viable telehealth website. First, you'll need to hire a telehealth website development company. Then, work closely with your professional web designers and developers to select the right web platform and content management system.
The technical build process, information architecture, visual design, and content creation may involve some iteration. But you want to avoid over-engineering things upfront before you have any patient data. Get your basic GDD launchpad live quickly and start refining from there.
Continuous Monitoring and Data Collection
Now the fun starts – watching your telehealth website performance data roll in! Make sure you're set up to capture metrics across your site. Focus especially on traffic sources, patient engagement, booking rates, and satisfaction.
If you want to improve, you need data. And to get data, you need a system to capture it. Tools like Google Analytics, HotJar, or CrazyEgg are invaluable for gathering intelligence about the patient journey. Review these reports frequently and track progress against your KPIs.
Updates and Improvements
In Agile development, teams work in short bursts called "sprints." Each sprint focuses on one task or set of tasks. After each sprint, they have a meeting to discuss what worked and what didn't. These are called "Scrum meetings" in Agile speak.
Invite key team members and stakeholders. Discuss the data you've collected and any feedback from patients. Then, plan what to tackle next.
Tools and Technologies to Support Growth-Driven Design
To aid in your GDD implementation, many software platforms and healthcare technology tools are available:
● HubSpot CMS
● WordPress with GDD plugins
● Unbounce
● Google Analytics
● Hotjar
● Crazy Egg
● Zapier
● Typeform
● Calendly
● Zoom
Case Study #1: 98point6
98point6 is an innovative telehealth startup that fully embraced growth-driven design from the beginning. Their story began when they noticed many patients were unsure how to fully utilize online services.
By implementing GDD, 98point6 refocused its efforts around digital triage to direct patients to the right level of care. Their AI assistant guides patients through symptom assessments and recommends the next steps to schedule appropriate telehealth consults.
They saw a big jump in patient engagement and satisfaction by constantly tweaking and improving this system based on user data. Plus, their business grew significantly.
Case Study #2: Wimbledon Clinics
Wimbledon Clinics in the UK is a traditional healthcare provider that had to pivot fast when COVID hit. In a matter of days, they managed to transition to telehealth services out of necessity.
By adopting GDD, they tested different video platforms and settled on Zoom as the best fit for their patients. The results were better online presence, happier patients, and more repeat visits. All because they were willing to adapt and improve based on what their patients needed at that time.
conclusion
Growth-driven design offers quick flexibility for telehealth. It allows you to adapt quickly, prioritize patients, and make smart choices based on real data. By starting small and improving over time, you can create a telehealth service that really works for your patients and your business.
Are you ready to try GDD with your telehealth services? We'd love to help! Contact Eternal Works to learn more about our telehealth website development services. We can supercharge your online healthcare presence.
Remember that the future of telehealth is now. With GDD, you can make sure you're ready for whatever comes next!
