The Website: Not Just Another Pretty Face

CARY, N.C. - Feb. 28, 2014 - PRLog -- Does your website add any real value to your business? Think about that.

“It’s not about the glitz and glamour,” says Wendy Coulter, CEO of Hummingbird Creative Group, Inc., a Cary, NC branding agency. “A good website creates functionality that helps reduce costs, attract more business and get the message out there to more people.”

In 2013, Avance Care, a growing medical practice in the Triangle with three locations, hired Hummingbird to help promote a patient care model that shortens wait times and tedious paperwork.

The new website offers downloadable forms and automatically sends them to the correct location once a patient submits them electronically. There’s also a live chat feature with staff and a real-time calendar showing wait times and next-available appointments. Kiosks in each office provide another opportunity for patients to enter information, bypassing the front desk altogether. Hummingbird also provides search engine optimization and social media, as well as other digital marketing and traditional marketing services to Avance Care to make sure patients and prospective patients can easily find and access the site online.

“A lot of times marketing is considered fluff,” says Dan Gregory, Hummingbird’s director of operations. “But marketing is really a business enabler. It’s not just how you talk about the business; it’s how you do business. If it’s not cohesive–website, print, advertising, all of it—you get this disjointed, bipolar feeling.”

Coulter and Gregory say three features are essential for a website to drive business:

Scalability: “A site needs to be able to accommodate the growth of a business and to handle multiple functions easily,” says Coulter, who was able to assess server capability for Avance Care and suggest appropriate changes.

Consistency: Present a united front. “We’re able to manage the website, the functionality, the collateral materials and grand-opening activities as well,” says Gregory. “We update the news and blogs, and they update too. It’s a very fluid and coordinated effort.”

Functionality: Simply put, a website needs to perform useful functions for potential customers.

Jon Fowler, the practice manager at Avance Care, says the new site is a big improvement. “Not only is it aesthetically better than the other website, it’s so much more functional. You can get to anything in less than two clicks.”

Of course, the fewer clicks, the better.

About Hummingbird Creative Group
Founded in 1995, Hummingbird Creative Group is a creative services firm specializing in building brand identities through effective marketing, advertising, graphic design, public relations and technology services.  From initial focus on branding strategy through implementation, Hummingbird consistently provides strategically sound creative, thoughtful and well-executed marketing plans, measurable results and extraordinary client care.  Hummingbird combines award-winning creativity with sound marketing principles to develop branding ideas that FLY! For more information, visit www.hummingbird-creative.com or call 919-854-9100.