COVID-19 Healthcare Consumer Survey

The COVID-19 pandemic has substantially changed daily life. To help healthcare marketers across the country better understand how this new reality intersects with people’s healthcare experiences, Geonetric conducted an online survey of 600 internet users across the U.S. The surveys were completed April 3, 2020.

Learn how COVID-19 has affected consumers’ decision-making around healthcare as well as how they are responding to different types of communication from health systems. See data on how COVID-19 has:

  • Impacted consumers’ decisions and plans around seeking care for non-COVID-19 concerns
  • Changed content topics consumers want to learn about
  • Affected content format preferences by age segment
  • Impacted consumers’ trust in their local hospitals and health systems across different demographics

 

Download our White Paper


6 Tips to Improve Email Communication During COVID-19

Your health consumers need information from you right now. Whether it’s details on symptoms, treatments, telehealth, making masks, how to clean their home, protecting their families, making donations … the list goes on. And they need information from a source they can trust – you.

You’re probably creating some of this great content, but are you emailing it? People are turning to their inbox now more than ever. According to research by Paved, open rates were up 15% worldwide through March.

As you get ready to hit send and share vital information via email, here are six tips to make sure you are being as effective as you can in this new landscape.

#1: Test What You Think You Know

Ask any email marketer (experts at Litmus and MailChimp included) and they’ll tell you – email marketing best practices are changing and changing fast. For example, your old send times and days may not be the most effective anymore, now that many people are working from home and looking for information from experts at different, more varied times. For example, according to WorldData, before March, 8:00 – 9:00 a.m. was the best time to send email, but from March 20 to April 1, that time has moved to 2:00 – 3:00 p.m.

WorldData Chart on Email Open Rates by Hour

Also keep in mind is that although your instinct may be to stop email communication, people are turning to their inbox now more than ever – they want to hear from you there. It’s important to keep your communication cadence, while paying attention to your analytics to make any needed adjustments.

#2: Use the Words Your Subscribers Are Using and Looking For

Pay close attention to the words your subscribers are using on your site as well as Google Trends data and keep an eye on the changing use of words that are making an impact in the broader email landscape.

For example, using COVID-19 is not recommended in subject lines of emails. Not only are users burnt out after all of the commercial emails providing “A Letter From Our CEO on COVID-19,” but also there’s already spam being spun up utilizing that term. Using this term scarcely in subject lines and instead using terms like Coronavirus, pandemic, epidemic, etc., will help you avoid getting flagged as spam. This is just one of the new terms that you need to pay attention to trends on. Resources like subjectline.com are a great way to check on recent trends and help you improve deliverability and open rates.

#3: Consider Asking Your Subscribers What Information They Want

Believe it or not, surveys are also popular during this time! Users want to understand how they’ll benefit from giving you their time to take the survey more than ever. So consider asking your subscribers what information they want from you and make it clear that their feedback will inform the details you’re sharing with them.

If you already have a regular newsletter, consider reaching out to those subscribers and asking them directly to complete a short survey about the types of information they’re looking for you to share. Maybe your subscribers are burned out on hand-washing information but they want to know how to stay mentally healthy while at home. You can use their responses to plan your content marketing mix to meet those needs and send out new, requested content to your subscribers.

#4: Don’t Forget to Segment

Segmentation has never been more important for your email subscribers and you. Your new and expectant mothers, for example, have totally different needs than your foundation donors. Meet each of your audiences where they’re at and provide the information they will benefit most from hearing.

For example, if you do have an email segment for your foundation donors, consider telling them how donating now directly impacts your ability to address COVID-19. Whether it’s funding PPE or making sure there’s little to no interruption of care, this audience will want to know how their contributions are helping in this challenging time, and it may even spur them to give more.

#5: Reassure Your Subscribers

As a healthcare marketer, compassion is probably top of mind for you frequently. That’s more important now than ever. Language, images, phrasing, it all goes into reassuring your subscribers that, while taking COVID-19 seriously is necessary, we’re in this together and we will find a way through.

One way you can do that is providing content that helps them make the best of their new normal. Consider stories on topics like:

  • Options to get exercise and staying fit at home
  • Meal planning for healthy eating
  • Tips for cooking together with kids
  • Ways to reassure kids during COVID-19
  • DIY tutorials on making masks for personal use or donation
  • Ways to safely donate blood

You can address the new needs of your subscribers and assure them they can rely on you.

#6: Share Your Reasons to Celebrate

Have you been seeing success with treating COVID-19 cases? Are you recognizing your hard-working frontline staff? Has your community made generous donations of meals or PPE supplies? These stories of connection and encouragement are all happening, despite how hard things are right now. Take the time to recognize and celebrate all the wonderful stories happening in your community and share them with your subscribers, too.

Use Email to Engage and Connect

Email is an important part of your crisis communication plan. As you create new content for your social and website platforms, don’t forget to use email to connect and engage with subscribers who want to hear from you.
Do you need help figuring out your email mix or want some help reviewing your email plan? Or are you just getting started with email marketing? Contact Geonetric and get support from our experts.

Health Consumer Needs During COVID-19: Survey Results and Discussion

Join us as Ben Dillon, Chief Strategy Officer at Geonetric and David Sturtz, Vice President of Business Development at Geonetric, discuss findings from the survey.

In addition, Joy Weller, Manager of Digital Media and Marketing at EvergreenHealth (Kirkland, WA), Christina Peaslee, Executive Director of Marketing Communications and Content Strategy at Cape Cod Healthcare (Hyannis, MA), and Darren Moore, Digital Content and Brand Manager at LMH Health (Lawrence, KS), will be joining us to share how their organizations are tackling COVID-19 communication on the web and what are the next priorities for their teams.

Watch on-demand and learn:

  • What COVID-19 topics consumers want to hear
  • What formats they prefer for engaging with content
  • What information sources health consumers trust
  • How well consumers are navigating changing care options and opportunities around telehealth
  • How this data compares to real-life communication strategies at play at organizations like EvergreenHealth and Cape Cod Healthcare
  • What healthcare marketers are focusing on next

Telling Healthcare Provider Stories During COVID-19

COVID-19 has thrust healthcare workers into the spotlight like never before. We’re all feeling vulnerable, and there’s surging interest in the people we rely on to take care of us.

Social media posts by medical professionals have gone viral. An Iowa nurse’s posts describing what it’s like to work on the pandemic frontlines were shared tens of thousands of times and received over 1 million likes, including from actress Liv Tyler. News outlets regularly carry stories about health professionals working tirelessly to save lives, and it’s common to hear references to “healthcare heroes.”

The Power of Narratives

Your own employees’ first-person narratives can powerfully reinforce the basic information you’ve shared about how patients can help stop the spread of coronavirus. It’s invaluable for your external audiences to hear about how their actions may impact a nurse or doctor with a face and name. And when patients see medical professionals’ dedication and commitment, they’ll feel reassured someone will be there to care for their family, if needed.

Inside your organization, employees benefit from hearing the stories of their colleagues. Your organization has told them how to do their jobs safely and effectively, but personal narratives can fill a need that’s just as vital — the drive for human connection during a crisis. Workers want to know how their colleagues in different roles, departments, and buildings are coping. Most importantly in this time of social distancing, everyone wants to know they’re not alone.

Topic Ideas

Consider soliciting first-person content about topics like:

  • How medical professionals are supporting each other and managing their physical and mental health
  • What a day is like for an urgent care employee during the COVID-19 outbreak
  • How the pandemic is affecting:
    • Healthcare professionals who aren’t on the COVID-19 front lines, like maternity nurses, social workers, or diabetes educators
    • Employees who work in nonclinical areas, like food service, housekeeping, or a call center
    • Medical students, resident physicians, and their training
  • How medical staff are trying to protect their own families from the virus
  • What healthcare workers want the community to know

Post content that’s most relevant to other employees on an internal forum, like your intranet. Share information that’s appropriate for the public on your content marketing hub, crisis resource hub, and social media.

What Some Health Systems Are Doing

Tidelands Health published a story about the work of critical care nurses during COVID-19 and included photos of care professionals the community doesn’t normally get to see. The article quoted a nurse explaining what keeps her motivated: “I got into this job because of my love of caring for other people,” she said. “Running away is not really an option.”
But you don’t need a full article to get the message across. On Mercy Cedar Rapids’ Facebook page, the organization shared a physician’s photo of the emergency department team, along with his words of pride about the work they’ve been doing. It was one of Mercy Cedar Rapids’ most popular recent photos. The community posted hundreds of thankful comments in response, giving the medical team valuable encouragement.

Ideas for Getting Started

Consider making a social media post like this with a photo and a few words from a different employee each day for a week. Or:

  • Offer to ghostwrite a first-person story based on an interview with a busy healthcare worker
  • Ask a nurse to record a short video clip describing what she’s thinking and preparing for at the start of a shift, and then record another clip after the shift
  • Publish a Q&A conversation — on a podcast, video, or written blog — with a healthcare provider about their experience
  • Start a blog with short entries contributed by one or more employees a few times a week

Yes, your healthcare employees are swamped. But some will still want to take time to make their voices heard. Telling stories can be a therapeutic form of stress relief.
And you don’t need a polished, five-minute video or 1,000-word blog post to leave an impact. Especially in times like this, audiences care more about the message than the production value.

Reach Out

Need help getting started? Contact Geonetric. Our experts can help you tell the stories of your “healthcare heroes” and galvanize support for your organization.

The Value of Healthcare Content Marketing During a Crisis

The Role of Content Marketing in a Crisis

A recent NRC Health survey found that 43% of people are turning to their local hospital or health system for information about the coronavirus. But what does that mean in the face of a public health crisis, such as the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic?

At Geonetric, we define content marketing as a strategic approach to create valuable, relevant, and consistent digital content with the goal of stimulating your audience and helping connect them with your brand. It means you have the chance to connect with your community with educational, informative content that helps them stay healthy.

Focus on Empathy, Not Conversions

Rather than focusing on driving conversions and appointments, use this time of crisis to create content that shares empathy, provides guidance, and tempers anxieties.

For example, you might consider articles about:

Answer Frequently Asked Questions

Your patients and community members have many questions during a healthcare crisis, and some of them might be coming in to your front-line staff on the phone or in the clinics.

Ask your team members what they’ve heard and brainstorm potential content marketing assets to respond, such as:

  • Video Q&As with experts
  • Infographics to help visually break down complicated information
  • Listicles for tips
  • How-to articles for guidance

If the answer isn’t robust enough to warrant a content marketing article, podcast, or video, consider adding it to a neatly organized FAQ section of your crisis communication hub.

Involve Your Stakeholders

In times of healthcare crisis, people want information they can trust. Invite your doctors and medical specialists to be part of your content creation as experts.

This could be in the form of a live Facebook video, or perhaps a question-and-answer-format blog post about myths and truths of the crisis. University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics hosted a live Q & A session on Facebook to answer questions and concerns from their followers.

Coronavirus Q&A Live graphic from UIHC

It’s not just infectious disease experts that people want to hear from during a pandemic. Consider inviting your mental health professionals, nurses, dieticians, obstetricians, and physical therapists to provide information for various audiences on how to stay healthy.

Publish & Share

Once new articles and assets are published on your website or content marketing hub, get them ready to share across:

  • Social media channels – When a new story publishes, share it with your social followers to drive traffic and keep them informed
  • On your site dynamically – If possible, employ tagging and taxonomy functions to display content across relevant related pages of your website
  • Local media – Alert local newspapers and news stations of tips and expertise to share with your community
  • Your email newsletters – As you’re reaching out to your subscribers, be sure you’re updating them with relevant crisis articles and tips to stay healthy
  • Your intranet – Any articles that are written to help the community understand the crisis can have equal value to your colleagues and teammates, so share your recent blogs and content assets to your intranet, too

Have a Governance Plan in Place

If you follow the advice provided here, you’ll be spinning up lots of content. You’ll be answering questions and concerns, directing traffic for a community in need, and fulfilling requests from stakeholders to keep your audience informed. That’s why it’s so important to have a solid crisis content governance plan in place.

Not Sure Where to Start? Mine for Ideas

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, social media and search engines have seen a spike in traffic. Not just because more people are online, working remotely, and socializing digitally, but also because people are trying to learn everything they can about the virus.

As a healthcare marketer, you’ll want to seek out the types of queries people have about the crisis. You can start with your own social media accounts, by reviewing comments and questions people have left on your page or to your account.

You can also explore tools like Google Trends, which gives you glimpses into popular and on-the-rise searches. Likewise, Google Search Console and your website’s internal site search can help you understand what crisis-related information your site visitors are looking for.

Get Started

If you’re ready to put your content marketing to work during a crisis, but aren’t sure where to start, reach out to Geonetric. You’ll work with expert content strategists, writers, and developers who can help you build content marketing assets or a branded content marketing hub to support your marketing efforts, patients, and communities.

4 Ways to Ease Content Management During a Crisis

1. Update Your Editorial Style Guide

COVID-19 has introduced a new lexicon to our communities. Make communicating about the new virus and an unprecedented public health situation easier by creating an addendum to your style guide and sharing it across your organization.

Editorial style guides help your team develop content that’s clear, accurate, consistent, and reflective of your brand. If your team already has a style guide, it likely includes guidance around voice and tone, grammar, punctuation, formatting, and tricky words.

Consider adding entries on:

  • Acceptable ways to refer to the virus
  • Any new program, facility, or location names related to COVID-19 care
  • Definitions of terms that have become popular during the COVID-19 outbreak, such as “home quarantine” and “self-isolation,” and guidance on when to use them
  • How to refer to your telemedicine services
  • Preferred resources for COVID-19 information (for example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
  • Words to avoid

Need help? Review The Associated Press Stylebook’s new entry on coronaviruses.

2. Create a Central Resource — or 2

Build a crisis resource hub. The hub makes it easy for people to access information, and it also makes managing content easier for your marketing and communications team.

Consider two hubs — one on your internet for external audiences and another on your intranet for internal audiences.

3. Streamline Your Workflow

In the early days of a crisis, adrenaline may keep your team fueled through a surge of urgent communications. But as the initial phase passes, the need for communication stays steady, so streamline your workflow as much possible.

For general COVID-19 information, link to reputable national resources, like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). You can even embed their public health media library content about the coronavirus on your own site. This lets you connect your website visitors with accurate, up-to-date information while saving you and your stakeholders time.

Focus your time, and the time of your stakeholders and subject matter experts (SMEs), on content that’s specific to your organization or community. When sending content for internal review, help your SMEs provide efficient, effective feedback by giving clear expectations around the purpose of the content you’re creating, their role, and the deadline for their input.

4. Create a Content Review Schedule

As news breaks, recommendations are updated, policies change, classes and events move online, and volunteer or donation needs evolve, your team is creating a lot of content.

Make sure your community is seeing — and acting on — the most current information by establishing a crisis content review process.

It may not be realistic to review every page of COVID-19-related content every day. So set a schedule to review higher-priority content often, and other content less frequently.

For example, you may set schedules to review:

  • Pages that generate the most traffic
  • Pages older than a time range chosen by your team
  • Pages that contain the phrase “COVID-19” or “coronavirus”
  • Pages that mention a specific policy, need, or class that’s just changed

Create a plan that fits your content needs and your team’s capacity.

Documentation & Tracking

Document your plan, and then use a spreadsheet to keep track of:

  • Pages to review
  • Person responsible for page review
  • Review date
  • SME or stakeholder for content (if needed)
  • Changes made to published pages

Need Help?

Need help managing your COVID-19 content — or the hundreds of other web pages you’re responsible for? Geonetric’s healthcare writers and content strategists can help. Let us know how we can jump in as an extension of your team so you can meet your short-term and long-term marketing and communications goals.

Healthcare Marketing & Communications Strategies During COVID-19

Your to-do list is likely changing frequently. Geonetric’s digital marketing and content experts are here to help. Watch this free webinar and get guidance and recommendations combined with real-life examples of what your peers are doing to effectively communicate with their communities and internal teams.

Get answers to your top questions about:

  • Building a patient resource hub to house all of your expanding content related to the coronavirus
  • Creating new content that answer coronavirus-related questions
  • Updating and motivating internal teams through effective communications
  • Communicating with patients about expanding telemedicine services to prevent gaps in care
  • Navigating patients to the safest and most appropriate care setting
  • Pivoting non-COVID-19 communications and campaigns
  • Reassuring patients and keeping their needs top-of-mind while developing COVID-19-related content on your site
  • Updating Google My Business pages to reflect new hours and protocols and making updates to Schema.org
  • And more

Use Telemedicine to Reach Patients During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Increased Patient Demand

If your organization offers telemedicine services, you’re probably aware of the surge in virtual patient volume attributed to the spread of the coronavirus within the United States.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the White House are advising Americans to stay home. The need for care and patient-provider communication has increased — both for people who are experiencing symptoms of the virus, and those who need routine care for other health concerns.

Expansion of Telemedicine Coverage

To slow the spread of COVID-19, especially among elderly patients who are at-risk for complications if they catch the virus, Medicare has expanded coverage of telehealth services. Now, beneficiaries can access virtual visits at no additional cost, and providers receive reimbursement at the same rate as in-person visits.

Health insurance providers Aetna, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Cigna, Humana, and UnitedHealthcare are waiving cost-share for members who access virtual health visits to assess coronavirus symptoms; some are waiving cost-share for routine health services, as well. In addition, they are updating health plans to cover COVID-19-related diagnostic and treatment services.

Telehealth platforms, such as Avera eCare, are testing how telemedicine can allow providers to see patients at high-risk for the virus over video, limiting the number of people potentially exposed.

How Health Systems Are Responding

Hospitals are realigning resources to care for patients with COVID-19 and implementing safety and infection prevention measures that limit the number of patients and visitors allowed on-site. Telemedicine technology can help fill gaps.

Examples of Improving Access

Organizations are optimizing and expanding their telemedicine services to protect the health of providers and to make care as convenient, affordable, and safe as possible for patients. For example:

Online COVID-19 Risk Assessments

Online self-evaluation tools can save your staff time while patients answer questions about their symptoms. Geonetric launched a self-assessment that’s free to clients to help patients decide whether they need to get tested for COVID-19.

Best Practices During the Pandemic

Make sure your telemedicine offerings are in the best shape possible for ongoing, increased use. Follow Geonetric’s tips for promoting telemedicine the right way and our guide to writing about telemedicine services.

Talk to your healthcare staff, telehealth technology service provider, leadership, and other stakeholders about:

  • Primary care and urgent care services that can move fully or partly online to an e-visit or video visit format
  • Offering e-visits, video visits, and other digital options to answer COVID-19-related questions, perform screening and triage, and monitor and manage symptoms
  • Using telemedicine to access guidance from infectious disease doctors, pulmonologists, and other specialists, bringing their expertise to your patients at the point-of-care

Promote Your Care Options

Part of your telemedicine strategy needs to include access to care messaging, so patients can understand when and how to appropriately use your telemedicine services, make a phone call, or physically visit a physical location or emergency room.

Use your website and other digital platforms to help patients understand changes to your services; for example, update your behavioral and mental health service line content if you now offer counseling through virtual visits.

Get Expert Help

Add Geonetric’s knowledgeable content strategists, writers, designers, and digital marketers to your team. We can help you effectively promote and leverage your telemedicine services during this public health crisis. Explore other free COVID-19 online resources.

Guide Patients Through Care Options During the COVID-19 Outbreak

Informing patients about your organization’s care options — and which choice is right for their specific needs — is always important. It’s even more critical in this moment, when healthcare organizations are experiencing or preparing for increased patient volumes and stressors due to the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S.

Promoting Access to Care on Your Website

Does your organization currently have “access to care” content on your website? If so, review it, and consider updating or augmenting it to reflect any changes necessitated by the coronavirus outbreak, following the guidelines in this article.

If you do not currently explain access to care options to patients, now is the time to add this content to your website. Create a webpage specifically about the options for care your organization offers, who should use them and when, and how these guidelines reflect safety and quality measures put in place due to COVID-19.

Coronavirus Care Guidance

Knowledge is power. Educating patients about COVID-19 and, if needed, the next steps they can take to get help can dispel fear. Include information about the symptoms of COVID-19, specifying:

  • What symptoms can someone manage at home? How?
  • What factors (such as an existing health condition or immune system deficiency) or symptoms mean someone should get medical help

Most healthcare facilities are asking people to call ahead before they visit in order to prevent the spread of the disease. Make it clear when a patient should call their primary care provider, use an e-visit, call a nurse line or COVID-19 hotline, send a message through MyChart or another patient portal, or go to the emergency room (ER).

To meet the needs of their communities, some organizations are implementing new options, like virtual care visits, or making virtual visits to screen and triage patients for COVID-19 free to patients. Geonetric has developed an online self-assessment using Formulate, our form builder, specifically for healthcare websites. Geonetric clients can implement this assessment today to help patients understand their risk for infection and take the next step when appropriate.

Correct Myths & Misconceptions

Unfortunately, you’re fighting misinformation exacerbated by fear. A survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that, while most respondents recognize someone who thinks they have symptoms should stay at home and call a medical provider, 25% believe they should “seek care immediately at an emergency room or urgent care facility.” This number rises to 38% among respondents with lower incomes. Your role as a healthcare communicator — providing trusted, factual information — is essential.

Guidance for Other Healthcare Concerns

Most hospitals are canceling nonemergency procedures or changing how they deliver routine care. Your patients have questions like, “can I still get my checkup to renew my prescription?” and “what should I do about this skin rash?” Make sure your access to care information directs patients to the care option that is appropriate for their needs, so users understand when and how to get the care they need.

Promote Telemedicine

When you promote telehealth options for nonemergency care, it can help your organization increase capacity elsewhere in your organization for acute care needs — and, again, keep people safe at home. Learn more about leveraging telehealth services during the COVID-19 pandemic and what other health systems are doing.

Voice & Tone

The language you use matters. Avoid a negative, frightening tone or voice, and reassure patients your organization is there for them, providing care and support when your community needs it most. This approach can help patients gain more peace of mind while they’re social distancing at home, or if they or a loved one must seek care for COVID-19 symptoms or another healthcare issue.

Follow Web Writing Best Practices

Stress can affect anyone’s ability to find and process information. Make sure your content uses language your readers can understand and follows other best practices for online health communications.

An Example: Cone Health

Cone Health, a system based in Greensboro, NC, partnered with Geonetric to make their care options promotion dynamic, patient-focused, and intuitive. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, they’ve deployed an alert banner that directs people to resources about the disease.

The health system also offers a helpful infographic to guide users, step-by-step, through what to do if they think they might be infected [PDF], highlighting the availability of free MyChart COVID-19 e-Visits.

Cone Health developed a Q&A page with Cynthia Snider, MD. Dr. Snider answers questions like:

  • What is COVID-19?
  • How does it spread?
  • How can I protect myself?
  • What are the symptoms?

Learn more about how to answer common questions about the pandemic and tailor this content to the needs of the geographic area you serve.

We’re in This Together

There’s a lot on your plate right now and things are changing quickly. Contact Geonetric if you need help putting together a care options pages on your site, or other services to address pressing issues that have arisen due to the coronavirus outbreak, or to help make sure your day-to-day marketing tasks continue to get done.

How to Build an Effective Crisis Resource Hub

What types of information should your resource hub include?

To start, ensure you’re answering common questions and the most important information everyone should know about the virus, such as:

  • Symptoms
  • How the virus is spread
  • Treatment options, in a hospital or at home
  • Prevention methods
  • When to get care

While other organizations are likely providing this information, it’s still valuable to include it on your website for area residents who turn to your health system as their primary source of information.

Create Information Unique to Your Health System

Focus your crisis resource hub content on local concerns. People want to know:

  • Steps you’re taking to protect people at your facilities – Describe any changes in sanitation and sterilization, or other protocols keep patients and guests safe, which may include policies and practices at long-term care and nursing home facilities.
  • Facility changes – If any of your clinics, gyms, or other wellness facilities are closing or changing hours, update your visitors with this information and include any information on virtual events that may be taking place instead of on-site events.
  • Myths and facts – Anxiety and panic can lead to misinformation spreading across your community. Use your crisis resource hub as a place to share facts, address rumors, and debunk false statements.
  • Visitor policies and restrictions – When the crisis is a communicable disease, clearly communicate changes to your hospital visiting policies.
  • What supplies they need for their home – Help people plan ahead and cope with social distancing or isolation scenarios by explaining what types of medicine, food, and other supplies to keep on hand at home.
  • Where to get care – Explain options for care, including when to take advantage of virtual care options and when to visit an urgent care or emergency room, for patients with symptoms of COVID-19 and for other needs.

Create individual pages for these topics that are easy to share on social platforms, in newsletters, and through your intranet with employees and staff.

Address High-Risk Audiences

Consider creating targeted content for people with distinct concerns and questions because they are:

  • Caregivers
  • Immuno-compromised
  • Living with chronic conditions, such as cancer, diabetes, heart failure, kidney disease, and lung disease
  • New parents
  • Parents of newborns, school-aged children, or teens

Use resources in your hospital, such as doctors and clinical leaders, to explain how people in these groups can protect their health. Refer these audiences to services and resources within your system for help.

Sample Wireframe and Content Layout for COVID-19 Resources Hub

Geonetric’s expert content strategists and designers partnered to create this sample wireframe to help you build and organize a hub quickly and with all the right information.

Wireframe of a COVID-19 Resource Hub

 

Use Plain Language

Make information easy to understand by creating highly readable content:

  • Be conversational, speaking in an active, second-person voice
  • Break down complex medical concepts, using a series of short sentences
  • Use common words and spell out acronyms on first reference
  • Write clear, descriptive links (never use “click here”)

People tend to scan web pages, rather than reading every word, so use techniques that help them quickly and easily find the information they want.

Link to Reliable, Accurate Outside Sources

Create a space on your hub landing page for links to trustworthy, accurate sources of information outside your walls, such as:

  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
  • World Health Organization (WHO)
  • National Institutes of Health (NIH)
  • Local and state health departments

These organizations are on the front line of the crisis and can provide the latest, most up-to-date information. Google recently launched a COVID-19 hub of its own, complete with trending keyword data, common search queries, the latest articles from reputable sources, and more.

Employ the Power of Content Marketing

If your organization uses content marketing, promote those assets in your crisis resource hub.

See examples of videos, blog articles, and other content healthcare marketing teams have created to guide their audience during the COVID-19 virus outbreak.

Don’t forget about older articles that are relevant to the current crisis. Review, update, and share articles on topics like:

  • Handwashing techniques
  • Hygiene to prevent the spread of germs
  • Sanitizing and safeguarding your home during illness
  • Keeping your children and family safe from illness
  • Tips for eating healthy
  • Stress management

Reach out to doctors, nurses, and front-line staff to provide input and insight into the content you’re creating. They are useful, trustworthy sources of information for your audience.

Choose Images with Empathy

Public health crises are scary. Where you can, use images that evoke feelings of calmness, trust, and security. This can help reduce anxieties. Photos of your staff helping patients, or pictures of your waiting areas and amenities, can help convey empathy and familiarity.

When possible, avoid images that could fuel anxiety, like needles or people in hazmat suits.

Create Meaningful Conversion Paths

Make sure people can get to your crisis resource hub, no matter where they are on your site. Likewise, ensure people can get to other related content and services if needed. These might include:

  • Links from service line or foundational content pages to your resource hub, letting people know that you have updated information they can trust
  • Links from the crisis resource hub to related services, such as virtual health and telemedicine, urgent care, or health assessments
  • Alert panels, which can and should appear on every page of your site, alerting people of any updates regarding the crisis. These panels can link to your crisis resource hub, as well as individual pages, such as visitor restrictions and how your hospital is keeping patients and visitors safe
  • Related locations where someone can receive care, such as urgent care or family practice clinics
  • Decision trees and checklists to help people access the right care when they need it, such as choosing between urgent care and emergency care, or when it’s time to call their doctor

Share Your Crisis Resources

Use social media to share pages from your crisis resource hub, content marketing articles, videos, and more. In your email newsletters, create a special section for up-to-date crisis communication. When sharing links, use UTM codes so you can track the source of website traffic.

Update your business listings, and consider a Google post to provide fast updates to users on the search engine results page (SERP) for your organization’s locations.

Build a Workflow to Assess & Iterate

As the crisis unfolds and news evolves, bring your team together to assess the content you’ve created. New questions from your social followers and front-line staff may come up that produce opportunities for your team to create new content.

And of course, as information becomes outdated, update, or archive your pages.

If you need guidance planning your crisis communication hub or creating content for your audience, contact Geonetric. We can serve as an extension of your team when your community is counting on you like never before.