David Magrini, head of marketing for Aetna, discusses how the healthcare benefits company and marketing agency G2 redesigned Aetna’s Web site to better reach consumers over age 65.
Q: Why did you decide to redesign the Aetna Medicare Web site?
A: We had a Web presence which was pretty much informational. We had not used the Web for its strengths as a transactional vehicle for the product. We had transactional capabilities on the site, but they were hard to find. It seemed like no one in the healthcare space was really doing a great job of utilizing the Web to drive leads. We also wanted to better appeal to the demographic group of people who qualify for Medicare.
Q: How did Aetna and G2 approach this?
A: We wanted to talk in simple language through the voice of the consumer. We ask them questions about what is important to them in health care coverage, and we deliver information based on what they indicate is most important.
Q: How is the site targeted?
A: It’s very customized. We are also segmenting the site to serve both people who know what they want and have a quick question, vs. people who need lots of information and who may be new to Medicare. We did a lot of research, that’s a cornerstone of how we go to market. We really studied how this demographic views Web pages and implemented those ideas.
Q: How is the Web site more transactional than before?
A: Keeping with the idea of making the site more transactional, there is a constant reference to a dedicated phone number to call, option to download an enrollment kit and an informational kit [that can be saved]. In the future, we hope to bring to the site the ability for a user to click to chat to a sales representative. There really are no dead ends with it. Through extensive user testing, we also tailored the site to the target demographic. For example, there is an option to enlarge the text size on the site if someone needs to see it better.
Q: What were the results?
A: From September 16 through October 16, the Aetna Medicare site had 235% more Web visits than over the same period in 2007. Also, over that same period, there were 500% more page views and 200% more unique visitors. And anecdotally, the feedback [from site users] has been really positive.
