Digital marketing for healthcare is all about the customer. In a sector experiencing rapid digital transformation, integrating your touchpoints and journeys is more important than ever

We all know research and decision-making for 'your money or your life' are lengthy processes for our customers. That's why you need a dedicated healthcare digital marketing strategy to reassure your customers at every touchpoint in their journey. Customer journeys and customer experience are important elements of all professional marketing, but where pharma and healthcare really come into their own is the complexity of their customer's omnichannel decision-making journey. As we know, Digital Transformation in the medical sector is rapidly altering the traditional marketing and distribution methods for healthcare and pharmaceuticals, empowering healthcare providers and patients with a choice of platforms and touchpoints to suit their needs. As an example, take McKinsey's illustrated target prescriber journey below. …

Chart of the Week: 97% of consumers have abandoned a purchase because the service wasn’t convenient enough, showing that e-commerce needs to compete on more than price.

Convenience is the backbone of e-commerce and a huge reason that online shopping has boomed over the last few years. Shopping online offers the convenience of purchasing items when and where it suits you, via a payment method of your choice while also having your item delivered via a method that suits you. It’s no wonder then that convenience is changing the way people shop and how they view certain shopping options, as the National Retail Federation’s latest research shows. This is why e-commerce brands need to consider more than the quality and price of the products they are offering when it comes to showcasing their proposition.

Inconvenience causes cart abandonment

When it comes to the most important things to consumers when online…

Chart of the Week: More than three in five consumers say that retail innovations or solutions have made shopping experiences easier, with online shoppers seeing the biggest benefits

More customers now expect a seamless, personalized shopping experience. Whether they are buying in person or online, people want a quick and easy experience, something that is being made more possible with retail technologies. In fact, more than three out of five consumers say that technologies used in retail and retail innovations have led to an improved shopping experience, according to the latest research from the National Retail Federation (NRF). When it comes to shopping online, 80% of customers say the same compared to 66% shopping in-store. Despite the fact that there is an increased focus on mobile shopping experiences, only 63% said that shopping technologies and innovations improved…

Chart of the day: customers expect more personalized experiences according to businesses and that's why they are prioritising improving CX

Customer Experience (CX) improvements are being led by customers wanting more personalized experiences according to new research. Customer expectations are essentially driving CX prioritisation. 7 in 10 businesses said they were improving CX because customers expect more personalization, whilst 6 in 10 simply said they want to improve customer loyalty, which makes sense, we all want loyal customers! I think they are right though, customers expect far more personalization and many businesses are still not personalizing the experience for customers. It's great to see that businesses realise that customers have a desire for personalized experiences, but now they are expecting this and therefore it's important that businesses start to prioritize this and act fast. You'll notice the least concern was competitors delivering a better experience,…

Chart of the day: the more senior someone is in a business, the more they believe that they offer a good customer experience (CX).

The Customer Experience industry report 2018 by uisertesting.com has found that executive level professionals and those who work in CX management think they have a good CX, whilst UXers, product manager, and researchers believe their CX is less good. Executives may be far too confident about their CX which leads the report and me to suggest that the more senior managers could be less aware of the real CX in their business. Respondents also reported that good CX is critical to their businesses success, CX is recognized as being incredibly important to the success of a business. User research is also recognized as helping business growth. The majority also want more user testing…

New Mckinsey research highlights how to improve satisfaction

McKinsey's research on customer satisfaction highlights that consistency of service delivery is crucial. They have themed their findings around the 3Cs of Customer Satisfaction, thats: Customer-Journey Consistency Emotional Consistency Communication Consistency We all know that the economic climate and easier on-line access to goods and services, increases customer choice and this can lead to lower levels of loyalty, if we don't look after customers after the first touchpoint and beyond. We're recommending this research since it shares research on customer satisfaction across 14 sectors: Brokerage, banks and health providers ranked high whereas car insurance, retail, telecoms and postal services were less favourable as shown on the graph:

Findings highlighted that brand and service are key to customers, and research from 27,000 USA American consumers across 14 industries found that effective customer journeys are important.

Let's look at the…

Recommended best practices for Product Listing Pages

This is the third in my series of posts to share best practices on design and user experience for retail sites. My post aims to give you some tips to consider for testing improvements and designing your Product Listing Page (PLP).  For each site page template type I have created a wireframe summary of a typical responsive site layout for desktop or tablet rendering showing key design elements, to give you a toolkit to review and optimize your pages. If you work in design or merchandising for a retailer, or are involved in design at an agency for retail client’s accounts, then I hope these templates and tips will help you along the design/re-evaluation process to maximise results from your pages. For retail sites, PLP pages sit within the category hierarchy and provide a list of all products available within a chosen category. For large catalogue retailers, these are usually…

Recommended design patterns and best practices for retail Home Pages

This is the first in a series of posts from me in which I hope to give you ideas to consider for testing improvements to page elements on Ecommerce sites following emerging best practices. In each post I will provide a wireframe summary of a typical layout showing key design elements, to give you a toolkit to review and optimize your pages. In this first guide, we have focused on Desktop and tablet design and merchandising elements since in today's era of mobile responsive and adaptive web designs, the smartphone experience is usually simplified in style and content - so it needs separate treatment which we cover in our mobile marketing guide. If you work in an ecommerce team at a retailer, or are involved in design for your client's accounts, then I hope these templates and tips will guide you along the design/re-evaluation process to…

Recommended design patterns and best practices for your Checkout Funnel

Checkout design is the last in our series of posts covering design best practices for different parts of the Ecommerce customer journey. Previous posts include discussion and examples and potential design elements to test for: Home page Product listing or category page Product page Site search pages Shopping Basket design

Design issues for the checkout pages?

Checkout is the most critical part of the conversion path in some ways since it throws many challenges, due to the multiple stages, with each step influenced by the previous one. It is further complicated since it's not necessarily linear; so there is no standard path from start to finish and so this depends on the user's profile, where some steps can be skipped. In the Smart Insights Ecommerce design guide, I focus on 3 stages: 1. Sign-In /Register 2. Personal Details and Addresses. and 3. Payment. One size doesn't fit all for the checkout flow,…

How the Designer Rebecca Minkoff is using Touch Screens to recreate the Online Shopping Experience

Retailers have become creative in their use of digital technology to create an interactive shopping experience, as the trend continues as buyers are showrooming and stores are looking for ways to interact with their buyers in-store to boost sales. During Christmas, we showcased how retailers such as Ted Baker and Barneys created exciting digital displays and this has been embraced on a personal level, by the Designer Rebecca Minkoff in her American Stores. The Minkoff stores were looking for 'a problem-solution approach' to technology; to take away the frustrations and pains of shopping. Their solution was to provide touchscreens as part of the shopping experience. In-store shoppers can request items and ask for assistance in their dressing rooms via touchscreen wall technology. There are instant…