Summary
Healthcare information is confusing, full stop.
9 out of 10 American adults struggle with health literacy. This means most people find it challenging to understand health information and use it to make decisions about their care. (Learn more about the health literacy and numeracy crisis.)
Healthcare marketers have a responsibility to make health info easier to understand. Writing in plain language (using bullet lists, avoiding jargon, writing concisely) is a start, but it’s still not enough to make content accessible for all patients.
Fortunately, interactive content can help.
Text alone is often not an effective way to communicate health information. Interactive elements can improve a reader’s understanding.
How does interactive content marketing help readers (and marketers)?
Most resources about interactive content marketing are geared towards industries like tech and ecommerce. Our industry is different. We’ve found that those resources don’t really apply in healthcare.
So we’ve pulled ideas from interactive health websites that you can draw inspiration from. See 6 examples of ways you can use interactive content in healthcare marketing.
We know why visual content is great for audience engagement. The imagery gives the brain a break from reading, and the extra white space gives the eyes a chance to rest.
Interactive visuals bring this to the next level by encouraging readers to touch or click a part of the image. Touching a screen can be easier than reading and scrolling through a list. Interactive visual content, like WebMD’s symptom checker, makes finding info quicker and easier.
Medical animations and videos explain complex medical concepts in a way that:
There’s an added benefit to this type of interactive content: It improves user engagement. Including video content on a webpage can increase user engagement time by 88%. See how UW Health leverages an engaging medical animation on this Conditions page.
Creative web design also makes for more interactive health websites.
Certain design choices can shorten page scroll (and reduce user overwhelm) by tucking extra info away behind clicks. This way, the reader can “opt in” to reading more content. See how Children’s Hospital Colorado condenses its value propositions in this design block on their homepage.
Children’s Hospital Colorado doesn’t stop at their homepage. Check out this “choose your own adventure” moment on their parent resources page. Readers can select from drop-down menus of topics and ages to tailor the content recommendations to their needs.
Remember the era of Buzzfeed quizzes? Nothing was more pressing than finding out which Taylor Swift lyric best represents your life. There’s something about a personalized quiz that just draws people in. Take advantage of this in your content marketing.
A brief “quiz” can engage your readers, encourage interaction, and collect data about your audience. Boston Children’s Hospital quizzed their audience’s knowledge of congenital heart defects (CHD) on Instagram, eventually linking to their Conditions page for more information.
One of the most confusing aspects of healthcare for consumers is cost. From an outside perspective, it can feel as though prices for health services are random and unpredictable.
In an effort to improve hospital price transparency, many health systems have added interactive price checker tools to their websites. These tools provide personalized cost estimates based on the type of treatment and a patient’s insurance.
Below, Mount Sinai’s Patient Price Estimator offers an estimate for allergy skin tests without insurance.
Maps offer users a visual way to explore your hospital locations. NYU Langone Health’s interactive map gives users the ability to scroll over different areas, click on specific locations to learn more, and click to find a doctor or call the location direction within the tool.
Looking for more ways to make your content engaging and accessible for all of your readers? We help hospitals implement interactive content and other techniques in their content strategy.
This CTA was originally going to be video strategy but it felt like only a part of this blog. Is there a different CTA that feels more appropriate?
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AUTHOR
Ahava is a leading expert in healthcare content strategy and is recognized for her ability to make complex medical information accessible. She has spent nearly two decades transforming how healthcare organizations communicate with their audiences. Ahava is trusted across the industry for her clarity, evidence-based approach, and thought leadership.
