Workstream # 2: Establish a Timeline

Contents

• Best practice: organize your efforts into three phases
• Launch phase
• Reinforce phase
• Sustain & refresh phase

When you're done with this article, we recommend: Workstream # 3: Use best practice terms, explainers and disclaimers

The Most Effective Campaigns Organize Their Efforts into Three Phases

The most effective Check-in Express campaigns are ones that organize budget and collateral into
three parts that plan for meeting potential patients at every stage of the decision funnel.

The Launch Phase

The best launches start about 2 to 3 weeks before the go-live date, with “coming soon” collateral, and lasts 90 days after go-live.

The launch should include at least several forms of marketing:

• In-facility collateral – Alert current and potential patients to the new online check-in
  service with
  • lobby posters,
  • tent cards,
  • rack cards,
  • a short blurb on the phone tree greeting,
  • a slide on waiting room TVs, etc.
  • Having advertisements in the waiting room in particular, can assist staff in clearing up any confusion for walk-in patients should they get upset about online check-in patients being seen before them.
• In-house communication – Drive staff awareness and adoption by using posters, flyers,
  print or email newsletters, etc.
• Health system website – Your website should be equipped with intuitive and highly
  visible elements to drive awareness of online check-in and increase conversions.
  • Use your home page banner with a call-to-action button to guide patients to the right
    page(s)
  • A hub page with dynamic first available times by location (for multi-facility health
    systems) so patients can “comparison shop” available times, and make a landing page
    for the reservation form as well.
  • We also recommend a fixed “anchor button” in your top navigational menu so patients can find online check-in from any page on your website.
• Outbound marketing – Use at least one form of outbound marketing to reach patients
  who may not have been to your health system before. Effective examples include
  • billboards,
  • radio spots,
  • search engine advertising
  • social media posts/ads
• A press release – Announce your new online check-in service via press release and get
  the word out

The Reinforce Phase

This phase covers day 90 to day 270 post-go-live.

• Remind patients who may have heard about the service but have not used it yet
• Broaden the reach to potential new patients. 
• Examples of collateral include
  • direct mailers,
  • reaching out to bloggers for coverage,
  • mass media coverage such as radio interviews or TV ads

 

The Sustain and Refresh Phase

This phase spans from the 270-day mark onward.

• Many customers under-execute at this stage because they do not budget for it and tend to move on to other initiatives.
• However, this phase may be the most important part because it is where you harvest the ROI.
• Use this time to recharge your existing promotions by adjusting or completely revamping the creative design.
• Make adjustments based on the first few cycles of A/B testing and try new calls-to-cation, for example.
• Reallocate funds towards what is working and drop what isn’t.

Next: Workstream # 3: Use best practice terms, explainers and disclaimers