Why Some Websites Work and Others Fail…

Are you frustrated, or just plain fed up with your website and online marketing?

If so, you’re not alone.

Most websites are built with the best intentions but when it comes to getting your phone to ring with patients ready to buy, well they don’t deliver.

What’s the difference between a website that works to grow your practice and one that doesn’t?

It’s a question we get all the time which is why I asked our design team to map out our best practices below so you can understand what goes into building an effective website, one that works for your practice.

Why would we reveal our website formula, the one that makes our member practices, on average another $500,000 per year?

Shouldn’t we be worried our competitors will use it too? They could, but the odd thing is none do. Their focus is on cranking out low-cost sites, ours is on results. Which you want is up to you, but before you decide, take a look at the best practices that make the half-million-dollar difference.

What does it take to have a website that converts visitors to prospects, to become patients, so you can grow your practice?

Building a website that gets visitors to contact your practice doesn’t happen by accident — or by building a site and hoping it will work. At MedPB, we use proven methods to get the phone ringing so the practices we work with schedule more appointments and are more successful. It’s both an art and a science:

Science: Our high-performing websites are based on decades of experience in direct response marketing and website design, and on data from hundreds of sites we’ve built and whose performance we track. Too many web designers lack an understanding of direct response marketing or access to long-term performance data and build sites based on whim, not science.

Art: We begin with a clear goal and knowledge of how to generate leads using an action sequence that prompts patients to contact your practice. Turning that into an attractive and engaging site is where the artistry comes in. Website design is both an organic and a structured process. Our designers creatively combine content, design and usability factors, applying knowledge from test results and experience (see science, above).

The standards for websites and your patients’ expectations of their online experience are constantly changing. What worked three years ago is ancient history. We continually review results and fine-tune our designs and content, techniques and strategies to keep our client sites performing well.

At MedPB, we’re experts at getting a higher percentage of your web visitors to take action and become a lead — a new patient. Here’s a summary of the best practices we follow to build effective websites:

1. Stay focused on the prospective patient’s interests, needs, and concerns

• Delight and engage prospective patients with attractive design and conversational copy
• Make the site easy and straightforward to search and browse
• Create a perception of need for prospects to take action to contact the practice
• Meet common expectations for ease of use on any device such as quick page loads, etc.

2. Get Patient’s Attention

• With a clear headline or question and an engaging graphic or photo
• Clarify the benefit or value of your services
• At a minimum, make a positive impression; ideally, make an emotional connection

3. Create an Action Sequence

• Establish a clear visual hierarchy from headline to subhead (if any) to Call-to-Action
• Give potential patients a reason to take action
• Create a sense of urgency

4. Design Effective Calls-to-Action

• Tell people what to do and what they’ll get
• Simple and clear
• Visually dominant, but not overdone
• Interactive

5. Position Calls-to-Action Strategically

• Place CTAs both above and below the fold
• Use thank-you pages for additional CTAs

6. Place Key Elements Above the Fold

• Phone number should be prominent without distracting from the action sequence; placement can make an element prominent as much as size

7. Build Trust

• The overall quality of the site design and content establish trust
• Testimonials play a key role in cementing trust, possibly a critical role
• Awards & security seals: unique awards should be featured: seals are secondary unless there is an online store

8. Make Forms Quick and Easy to Use

• Only ask for the information needed for the potential patient to take the next step; additional information can be collected at later points
• A privacy message (or link to the client’s privacy policy) tells patients that their email will not be shared or sold
• Keep the form design clean and uncluttered so the patient is not distracted

9. Provide Guidance on Follow up

• Help practices convert calls and contacts to appointments via phone appointment-setting systems and recommended automated email responses

10. The Right Text

• Keep it patient-centered, brief and concise, but convey the right details
• Keep the voice (first or second person) consistent throughout the site
• The tone should be professional but friendly, accessible
• Articulate benefits and support them with simple proof points

11. Use Top Quality Images

• The quality of the photos and graphics reflects on the practice and on MedPB

12. Use Video of the Practice Owners Whenever Possible

• People enjoy watching videos more than reading text
• The quality of the video should reflect the practice

Bottom Line: Put science and art together and our websites attract more patients and generate more leads.

Have a question on how to attract more patients, reach your goals, and get more out of life? Talk to us today and take action to grow your practice.