HopeConnectLearn
An educational patient-centric website designed to provide Hope, Connection and Support for Hairy Cell Leukemia patients
Web Services
- Digital Strategy & Discovery
- Website Design & Development
- Search Engine Optimization
- Paid Social Media Advertising
HopeConnectLearn
HopeConnectLearn is a non-branded education website supported by Innate Pharma S.A., a global, clinical-stage oncology-focused biotech company. Innate Pharma is dedicated to improving treatment and clinical outcomes for relapsed/refractory Hairy Cell Leukemia (HCL) patients. As an unbranded site, HopeConnectLearn aims to raise awareness of HCL, inspire hope and educate patients about the disease and treatment options.
The Challenge
- Hairy Cell Leukemia (HCL) is a rare form of Leukemia with only 1,000 cases diagnosed in the US per year.
- There are several effective therapies to combat this disease, however, 40% of patients will experience relapse. There is an unmet need for messaging specifically for relapse/refractory HCL patients.
- To stay true to the name, the website must inspire hope, create a sense of connection and provide learning opportunities for HCL patients and caregivers.
- According to the legal requirements from the FDA, unbranded sites must provide unbiased information on treatment options.
The Strategy
- In order to differentiate the HopeConnectLearn website, we started with a competitive audit of sites providing educational content for HCL patients.
- Based on the research findings of the competitive landscape and audience needs, we mapped out key areas on the website to discuss the facts about Hairy Cell Leukemia and areas to provide a sense of community for patients.
- To support the long-term SEO strategy, we included pages to target high volume Hairy Cell Leukemia search terms.
- We wanted to promote the key asset, the patient brochure, and encourage patients to share their own journey living with Hairy Cell Leukemia.
- To allow for ongoing interaction with the patient community, we created a HopeConnectLearn facebook page.
The Results
- The Innate Pharma team were delighted with the look and feel of the new site.
- Traffic continues to grow along with downloads of the patient brochure and referral traffic to Lumoxiti.com.
- Combined with social media promotion, HopeConnectLearn is growing their community and engaging with patients on multiple platforms.
Wireframes
After our research phase, we dove into wireframes to map out the information architecture and click path strategy to guide users to key pages. Wireframes allow us to stay laser-focused on meeting the goals for each page and defining the purpose behind each content block.
We wanted to provide a flexible template for HopeConnectLearn to add more content and graphics as their site continues to grow.
Homepage
The homepage layout is strategically designed to guide users to the main landing pages where they can find information about Hairy Cell Leukemia symptoms, treatments and relapse or refractory disease.
The imagery and videos were carefully selected to resonate with the target audience. As Hairy Cell Leukemia can be managed with treatment, we wanted to show that patients can maintain a regular lifestyle with their diagnosis.
Building the HopeConnectLearn Facebook community was a clear goal from the start of the project. To encourage patients to connect on Facebook, we incorporated a prominent area on the homepage dedicated to this goal as well as an embedded Facebook feed.
We ensured that the design was fully mobile responsive as most users would be accessing the site from their mobile device or tablet.
About Hairy Cell Leukemia Page
The About Hairy Cell Leukemia page serves as the main landing page to educate users on what the disease is, how it’s caused and how common it is before guiding users to learn more about the symptoms and treatment options.
Large graphics and statistics help to communicate important messages such as the median age of diagnosis, disease prevalence, and the development of “hairy” B cells - the hallmarks of disease.
The inner pages of the site have a horizontal navigation bar to facilitate easy access to all educational pages. Similarly, related pages are linked at the bottom of the page to support the SEO strategy.
Living with Hairy Cell Leukemia
Competitor sites often lacked the patient engagement aspect that is the cornerstone of HopeConnectLearn’s mission. In order to create a community feel and encourage patients to share their own journey, we created a section on the site dedicated to Living with Hairy Cell Leukemia.
On this page, users can read more about the HopeConnectLearn patient community, support for caregivers and find additional patient resources. As the community grows, we will include stories from real-patients about their personal experience living with Hairy Cell Leukemia.
Connect With Us
Although lead generation was not the major focus for the website, we still wanted to be able to collect stories from patients about their own experience with Hairy Cell Leukemia. If users opt-in to receive information from Innate Pharma in the future, this will also facilitate future email marketing activities.
Social media channels are also highlighted prominently to encourage users to join the conversation on either Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
