Strategic Website Update Designed To Impress
“I’m looking for a strategic partner who cares about the whole business and who can take us to the next level, not some agency that only cares about their own interests and chasing the latest shiny penny.”
That’s how Ellen Mughal, Vice-President of Marketing and Business Development for McCaffrey Health Center, described her needs for a digital agency when she first came to Beacon Marketing. Strategy and a higher sense of professionalism: that’s what they were looking for, and that’s what they got.
Dr. Sean McCaffrey, his wife Rebecca and the rest of the McCaffrey Health Center team have built their holistic health and wellness practice by developing and fostering a Facebook following, hosting a local weekly radio show in Springfield, Illinois, and appearing on a weekly TV segment on the local Fox affiliate. With a twofold goal of heightening awareness of the company brand and bringing Dr. McCaffrey’s personal brand profile to a more national audience, Beacon Marketing conducted a brand audit to identify the strengths upon which to build the brand and the gaps in brand presence that should be eliminated in order to take the brand to the next level.
The first area that required attention was the company’s website. Prior to Beacon Marketing’s involvement, much attention had been given by the McCaffrey team to building a robust Facebook page and community, so the website was not viewed as having particular value. Rahna Barthelmess explained, “The website needs to be the hub of the company’s digital presence, a place where the community comes to learn more about the company and its activities and gain an overall understanding of the brand and its offerings. Social media platforms play a vital role in the brands digital activities but without a strong website, the company will miss out on a core part of a complex, strategically grounded digital presence.”
There were five over-arching elements to be considered:
- Content/navigation
- SEO
- Graphics
- Marketing automation
- Integration with email and social media
Because of their long-standing involvement with the Facebook community, McCaffrey Health Center has a large body of a raw content from which to pull. In addition, the radio and TV activities provided rich and engaging content, but there was no clearly-organized, easily-accessible repository for all that content. The existing website was completely centered around weight loss, even though that was only one small aspect of the company’s expertise and offering.
This has become critically important as digital PR efforts have ramped up. Having a graphically strong website ensures that when interested media conducts their background research on Dr. McCaffrey and his practice, they start looking at his body of work at a website that is marked by contemporary design and filled with well-ordered, impressive credentials and content.
Marketing automation was also installed as a part of the redesign, to monitor traffic, capture and nurture leads and provide a smooth delivery mechanism for follow up with individuals looking for the healthcare solutions that McCaffrey Health Center could supply. Leads started coming in immediately and have continued coming in every day. To support this, a process for sales follow up was established.
Old Website
To better highlight the services offered by McCaffrey Health Center, individual pages were built and search engine optimized to be more easily found. By structuring the new website around the complete offerings the company provides to the community, visitors to the website could access information relevant to them, understand the breath of expertise Dr. Sean and his staff provide and investigate the areas of most interest to them. The vast library of content was categorized within the blog section of the website to allow visitors to quickly find answers to their pressing questions and see what advice Dr. Sean had for them. By creating special areas on the website, the latest TV and radio shows could be featured, while forms provide an easy way for patients to interact with staff.
The end result is a SEO optimized, mobile ready, 175-page website built in less than three months with tons of new content and a level of professionalism that just wasn’t there before. Within two weeks of launching, website traffic was up 25% and continued to grow by 50-80% in the following months.