2007 TechNO Expo

Web site function and design gurus share stories of their clients' e-business successes.

Stephan Svensson
Director of Marketing
Inetium, Bloomington

Ridgeview Medical Center is an acute care hospital based in Waconia with multiple clinics in the Twin Cities metro. They wanted to maximize their investment in redeveloping their Web site and provide the local community with a helpful, comprehensive health care resource. Informed decision making plays an import role in health care, so the Web site needed to provide the right information, at the right time, and in the right location.

Inetium created an easy-to-use, browser-based, content-management system that allows Ridgeview’s nontechnical staff to publish information to the site. Ridgeview doesn’t need to continually pay a consultant to maintain the relevance and accuracy of the information.

Ridgeview licenses consumer health care information about diseases, treatments, and procedures from a third-party source and seamlessly integrates the content into the “Health Information” area of the site. The end-user is unaware that the information is being delivered in real-time from an external source. Licensing content lowers the labor costs associated with creating content.

The Web site allows consumers to register for health care education and classes on line; the process is easy and secure. Setting classroom capacity limits, class cancellations and notifications, and refunds have been completely automated. Ridgeview has realized at least a 50 percent reduction in the labor hours associated with managing online registrations.

The site enables users to submit information requests and pre-register for health care procedures on line, so it’s essential that the site adheres to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996, which requires that health care organizations ensure the privacy of medical records. Personal information is encrypted based on HIPAA recommendations. Only authorized individuals can access Web pages that display confidential patient information.

Paul Frett
Director of Experience Strategy
Popular Front, Minneapolis

Popular Front has been working with Manhattan Toys, a Minneapolis-based toy manufacturer, for several years to enhance its Groovy Girls plush toy line. The goal has always been to drive sales. But in this case, the target audience was tween girls ages 6 through 12. This isn’t your prime buying audience, but obviously they are key to the buying experience.

When we first started working on the Groovy Girls Web site, we let go of the traditional online catalog and instead created an experience that allowed tween girls to become part of their own Groovy Girl world and interact with other girls in a live, completely safe, Child On Line Privacy and Protection Act–compliant setting. In this way, the Web site became a natural online extension of the doll play.

Girls visiting the Web site can create their own Groovy Girl persona, choose room décor elements for their online character, and even interact with other girls via online Groovy Girls parties with a photo booth and dance room. The site has maintained an 80 percent retention rate (girls who sign on, create a character, and return to the site again and again) over the last two years. And sales of the dolls have climbed at the same time. The site is being updated to prepare for a national marketing roll out—the first of its kind for Manhattan Toys.

We are also working with Argosy University to enhance their national and location Web sites to provide the user with better insight into the degree programs the university provides its students. During our strategy process, we discovered that across their various nontraditional student audiences and demographics and psychographics, that two key paths arose pertaining to how visitors to the site were seeking information.

The first path was “I know exactly what I want and just need to know if Argosy offers it.” This audience was looking for MBA or PhD programs in very specific areas. They wanted quick access to the detailed course catalog that would help them evaluate the school’s offerings.

The second path was the “I need a change in my life, but don’t know exactly what I want to do.” This audience needs reassurance and guidance just like they would get from an admissions counselor at the school. While the first audience path through the site went right to course details, the second audience needed to be engaged and was prime for video content that showed the experience of being at Argosy as well as the outcomes they could expect in the real world.

We created a “viewbook” experience using video that shows a variety of professors and students across the various degree programs, as well as employers that have hired Argosy graduates. The viewbook has been live since September of last year. Argosy started the last quarter of the year 3 percent below goal for inquiries, which are online requests for information. These requests are considered the e-commerce of the Web site. As of the end of the year, they were 8 percent above goal—the viewbook was the only major item that changed. Engagement media can be very successful when strategically used to reach the proper audience with very targeted content.