Our primary aim was to communicate our new intent and to achieve our 9 business goals. We wanted to create an online membership user experience that surpassed our objectives and really engaged our primary audience – our private physiotherapist members. We used insight, knowledge and expertise to build a website that our members would love.
Discovery
We had a clear vision for the organisation and a well formulated marketing strategy that would help us achieve our business goals – the website was a key tool to allow us to do that
New PhysionFirst logo
We developed a new brand identity including a new logo, colour palette, style and tone of voice – the website needed to convey all this and change perceptions of Physio First
We have plans in place to increase the membership numbers 15% year on year
Member engagement was essential, we work with our members, not for them. We also wanted to reduce membership churn by 10% through engaging with them – online is the primary place for this. We wanted to vastly improve membership experience:
Members are able to update their interests in order to see content based on their expertise or specialism
Special interest groups networking area. Members of a committee in CRM can gain exclusive access to content available only to that specific group. They are able to add meetings, discuss topics with commenting and replies to threads and share documents.
There is a powerful resource library with multi-level permissions for various types of member
There are different views for Prospect Members and Members, who see different content and access different membership benefits
We created 5 unique benefits – they are all delivered via the website from our market information to practice benchmarking, Data for Impact (our evidence programme), our brand new Quality Assured Practitioner accreditation and our LinkedIn forum. The website was essential to promoting them.
Other features that were important to members are:
Online Find a Physio directory with integration to online booking system
Online event listing and event detail pages
Online magazine with article management for admins
Fully integrated with Miller MTL CRM system for
Physio practices
Contacts and members
Events
This has had a dramatic effect on results already. We compared results in the two weeks following launch with the same period the previous year:
We had a 51% increase in the number of users on the site.
Bounce rates (people entering the site and immediately leaving) reduced by 40%.
We had a 352% increase in page views
The time spent on the site increased by 197% from 01.37 to 04:49
Objectives
We developed a full website brief that included the following objectives:
Communicate our new strategic intent, brand values and position in the marketplace
Ensure that the design reflects our new brand values, colours and logo
Ensure that it is extremely simple and easy to understand what makes Physio First membership essential. We must convey trust and be highly professional. We want people to understand this within 3 seconds of visiting the new website
Make it extremely easy for a private physiotherapist considering joining Physio First to understand what we do, the benefits of becoming a member and to be able to join instantly online (our plan is to increase membership from 3000 to 5000 by 2018)
Capture leads from potential members so we can actively market to them, encouraging them to join
Allow existing members to access crucial industry information (resources), manage their membership online (login), change their communication preferences (account)
Encourage members to join our LinkedIn group
Ensure that our new website works in conjunction with this system sharing relevant information between the two
Promote the conference and other Physio First events, allowing members to book online
Increasing traffic to 6,000 users per month
Be easy to update and amend
To provide physiotherapy information to members of the public whilst allowing them to find a physiotherapist near them and to book online
Vastly improve the user experience (measured via membership feedback and time on the site)
Activities
We selected 5 potential web partners and we created a thorough brief and a matrix of requirements against which we scored each potential web partner: understanding of our requirements, value for money, reputation, experience and a match with our culture.
This was then analysed by the Chairman, General Sec, Office Manager, Assistant Manager and Laura our outsourced marketing director before selecting Pixl8. We also performed due diligence on Pixl8, spoke to their customers and evaluated their growth and size, profitability, customer satisfaction and existing business relationships.
We employed Laura Pegg of We Are Circle to project manage the website project and the rest of our transformational programme
Next we assembled a website steering group who were responsible for bringing our vision to life. They ‘met’ every two weeks - all done via conference call and Google hangouts to allow maximum collaboration.
Pixl8 created a series of collaboration documents using Google docs. This allowed us to work effectively agreeing the spec, structure, resources, required etc
We planned the whole structure, audited the existing content and planned all the new copy and resources
We built the new brand and approved new designs with Pixl8
We worked across different stakeholder groups including the website steering group, Pixl8, MTL and Blue Zinc
We tested the site thoroughly, setting up a testing group
Laura worked with our creative partners, Pages, to develop all the new copy using a full style guide which allowed us to achieve the right tone of voice. The tone had been developed in an earlier communication strategy workshop with the executive.
We had significant training with Pixl8
Together with the marketing efforts, the project totalled over 200 hours of work over a 9 month period.
Marketing
We created a whole platform of engagement techniques to launch the site including an animation, email campaign, posts on social media platforms and advertising.
Challenges
Working to tight timescales – careful planning and collaborative working practices allowed us to overcome this. Plus lots of hard work.
Being in different parts of the country – we used Google hangouts and conference calls and booked the meetings in at the beginning of the project so we could all meet.
Limited budgets – we achieved a huge amount with a limited budget. We overcame this challenge by selecting the right web partner and costs never escalated.
Time – our website steering group includes two Exec members who are volunteers so the fact that they had to give up a great deal of their time is testament to their commitment to achieving the vision for private physiotherapy. The challenge was overcome by their dedication and that applies to everyone involved in making the project a success.
Complexity - The site was highly complex and despite this has been launched really effectively, with wonderful feedback.
Achievements
2 weeks following launch versus same period in 2015
Statistics - two weeks after launch
We had 51% more users than the same time the previous year.
Bounce rates (people entering the site and immediately leaving) reduced by 40%.
352% increase in page views (18,240 pages were viewed in 2 weeks, compared to 4,034 the previous year).
The time spent on the site increased by 197% from 01.37 to 04:49. This shows the engagement levels.
3 months following launch versus the previous quarter
If we compare July, Aug and Sept this year to the previous quarter March-June, we have 19% more users (12,177) & 147% more page views. Remember this is also in the summer months, which should be affected negatively due to the holidays.
The number of time spent on the site has risen by 81% (3:45 versus 2:04)
For the same period in 2015: Sessions: 4,759, Page views 11,724, Users 3,464. 38.7% returning users. Average time on site 2:26
At this time we hadn't begun our search marketing activities, so this shows how far the site has improved without proactively marketing it.
Feedback & Testimonials
“Love your new website.”
Christine Williams, Society of Musculosketal Courses (a key stakeholder)
“I have just had a look at the new Physio First website. I think it looks fabulous - so much clearer, helpful and it works on my phone!!”
Lucinda Brock, PF member
‘’We have advertised with Physio First for some time and the addition of the new commercial pages on the webiste makes it much easier for us to connect with our main physiotherapy market”
Chris Webb, Vivomed (commercial strategic partner)
“Well done! Finally! It was worth the wait. I note it is CMS so now you can keep updating and changing stuff as it happens rather than a full rebuild. Good job guys.”
Wendy Emberson, PF member
“...works great on mobile! very proud to direct people to it...have put on my facebook and twitter to alert other physios to take a look...”
