A hospital website redesign is a substantial project. It’s the kind of long-term initiative many people dread — unless you’re content-obsessed like us, of course — so it’s worth putting in the prep work to do it well the first time.
Part of that prep work is writing a comprehensive request for proposal (RFP) — a document that outlines your project goals and invites bids from vendors to complete it. The clearer and more specific your RFP, the better proposals you’ll receive, and the easier it will be to choose the right vendor(s) or agency partner(s) for your website revamp.
Let’s review how to write an RFP for hospital website redesign so you can:
Related: Laying the groundwork for a major website update? Read our guide to hospital website redesigns with step-by-step advice for beginning this process.
Website migrations are complicated, but writing an RFP doesn’t have to be. This document boils down to 5 must-have elements.
Start your RFP with an overview explaining what vendors need to know about your hospital or health system.
Include your:
Consider including marketing assets like your brand pillars, healthcare personas or messaging architecture to paint an even clearer picture of your organization. These details give vendors the context to create a targeted proposal.
View our healthcare persona template.
What’s the reason for your website rebuild? Are you:
Share the purpose of the RFP, along with the insights that led to your decision to revamp your website. If results from an audit, user survey or even website heatmap played into your decision, give vendors a high-level overview of those findings.
Read how one health system outlined the reason for their RFP.
This section should include the details that give vendors a sense of the project’s scope and staffing needs:
*A note about your timeline: Set aside time during the kickoff phase to brainstorm with your vendors. Tap into their expertise — that’s why you’re hiring them, after all. We often carve out time at the beginning of this process for conversations around location-specific content strategy.
Aside from the obvious RFP elements above, we recommend adding other important details:
Reviewing proposals, hearing presentations and selecting your partners can take months. Set an expected timeline for this process and share it with vendors in the RFP. They’ll appreciate the transparency.
Detail the success criteria, too. What do you consider during the decision-making process? See how one health system shared their deciding factors below.
Pro tip: Don’t underestimate the value of experience in healthcare website content and design. Healthcare-focused agencies know:
It’s no fun reaching out to several vendors for information you forgot to request. Outline clear directions for submission to avoid that headache and get solid proposals the first time. Include:
Finally, provide a list of the information you need from vendors. At the very least, request a company overview and details about qualifications, experiences, approach, pricing and references.
(Yes, ask for references — and set aside time to speak to them! It’s tempting to skip this step, but you can learn how vendors worked with past clients, solved issues and performed. Take full advantage of it.)
The vendors you choose for this project will be your teammates for a long time. Make sure they’re the right ones. Be open to partnering with multiple vendors so you can work with experts in every area.
What’s the benefit of working with specialized vendors over a full-service agency? To start, it adds more creative potential to your team. 4 “brains” are better than 2.
It also helps you avoid hospital website mistakes sometimes seen in full-service-agency builds (like content being done as an afterthought) — and makes it easier to achieve all of your objectives.
Web design, content strategy and technical development are different skill sets. Work with experts in each one.
Looking to work with a healthcare content agency that has extensive experience with hospital site migrations and mergers?
Aha Media Group has served 12 of the top 20 academic medical centers on U.S. News & World Report’s Hospital Honor Roll and participated in over 100 major hospital website rewrites. We have proven expertise in medical writing for the web, deep knowledge of SEO and a focus on healthcare content.
Contact us about your upcoming website revamp to learn more about our experience and how we work.
With more than 20 years of experience in client services and a wealth of knowledge in healthcare website strategy, Kim oversees all website content projects at Aha Media. She’s proudly supported Stanford Medicine, Mount Sinai Health System, Johns Hopkins Medicine and most of our current roster of clients.
