From many, one: Up until last year, regional units for American Red Cross Blood Services (ARCBS) maintained 30 separate Web sites, creating a confusing landscape for potential donors. Information on where or how to donate blood was placed haphazardly, with essential information sometimes difficult to find.
A new site, (http://www.redcrossblood.org/), redirects all 30 regional Web pages to a single source and offers a clearer experience. And donors have responded with one of the most life-giving currencies around: Donation appointments at centers are up 35% at facilities since the site’s late-December soft launch, while visits to mobile bloodmobiles have increased 38% over last year’s levels.
“We now have a universal listing of blood drives in one place,” Greg Haines, online marketing manager for ARCBS told Direct Newsline. “That’s the number-one reason fueling the growth.”
The launch of the unified site could not have come at a more critical time. Shortly after its end-December soft launch, Haiti was hit with an earthquake, underscoring the need for blood donation. The new site effectively funneled an increase in donors’ desire to help, which was spurred by the media attention given to the disaster.
Thankfully, ACRBS recognized the need for a new site before the Haiti earthquake. “The landscape was broken,” Haines said. In addition to the multiple sites’ lack of uniform design, the 30 separate sites would cannibalize each others’ search results, often resulting in donors not being steered to appropriate local donation venues.
The new site, which was designed by online marketing agency BusinessOnLine, does more than serve as a single funnel for regional operations. Its design turned the traditional structure of such sites on its head. Instead of focusing on the need for blood, the emphasis was put on the donor experience.
“People donate because it makes them feel good,” Haines said. “To capitalize on that, we have asked people to share their donor stories.” More than 1,000 people have offered testimonials on why they donate – and that was before the site’s official launch this week.
But the site was also designed and tested for other types of usability. ACRBS conducted several usability tests before it was launched, with people evaluating how easily they could find information about hosting blood drives, or becoming donors, or volunteering their time.
Here’ too, their feedback proved invaluable: Since the soft launch, offers to host blood drives have increased by 50% above a similar period a year ago.
The next step, according to Haines, is to integrate the site with all of ARCBS’s back-end systems. This will allow it to design targeted outreach campaigns based off the data it collects. Haines anticipates exploring this during the upcoming year.
