Online presence is one of the most critical elements of a successful marketing program. In the era of technology, many—if not most—prospective patients will first come across your office through an Internet search. Your website must be eye-catching, professional, and thorough. It should paint the complete picture of your office: individualized services, state-of-the-art technology and professional staff. In the first few seconds of accessing your website, prospective patients will form an opinion regarding your office. Therefore, it is critical to invest in high-quality website engineers, content writers, and marketing personnel.
With internet marketing especially, you may be tempted to find ways to cut corners and lower your overall costs. However, doing so will substantially weaken your marketing program and cut into your overall profitability. Invest in a high-quality, experienced marketing team to build a solid online platform for your medical aesthetic office. The rewards will far outweigh the cost. Read more about the benefits of investing in high-quality website initialization, content building and link development below.
Invest in high-quality website engineers or staff from the get go. While you may be able to find companies to create a website for a cheaper price, the product reflects the cost. And it’s far more complicated to scrap a website and re-create a new one, especially when you consider that it needs to be properly integrated into search engines like Google. The take away message here is that you’ll spend more money hiring the right team to correct a poorly formed and developed website than you will if you pay to have it done right the first time.
Your website needs to be clean, professional and easy to navigate. Steer clear of flashy designs and complicated navigational tools. You want prospective patients to navigate your website with ease so they can quickly and efficiently learn about the services, products and technology you offer. Make it easy to return to the homepage (i.e. have a banner on each page). Keep in mind that many people may access your website through a mobile device, so you’ll want to make sure your website can adapt to any screen. Lastly, make your contact information easily accessible, either in the footer or main menu. You don’t want prospective patients struggling to find ways to get more information or reach out to your office. Make it obvious.
Aside from a clean and professional design, the content of your website is the most critical component. It won’t mean much that your website is easy to navigate if the pages don’t lead to well-developed, informative content. Your website should effectively portray all of the key details of your office—your services, technology and staff—in a consolidated space. This means that you’ll need to invest in high-quality writers and content developers. Writers can be hired either in-house or contracted out. Either way, be careful in your selection; you want professionals with experience in both writing and the medical field, ideally. Your website content needs to be original (i.e. not duplicated from a similar site) in order to be searchable on platforms like Google.
Well-developed website content will also contain robust inbound/outbound links, as well as searchable keywords, phrases and page titles. The take away here is that the content on your website needs to be original, professional and searchable.
High-quality content goes hand in hand with proper link development. Inbound links are like the gateway to your office. You want them to be logical, well-placed and natural. Ideally, the team you hired for website initialization and content development will have experience in link building. Beware of companies that sell inexpensive links in bulk. More is not always better. In many cases, these bulk-type links are poorly developed and placed on totally unrelated pages, negatively impacting your presence on search engines like Google. The cost to repair this damage will far exceed the cost of having an experienced SEO team develop high-quality links the first time around.
There are several important numbers you need to know to track the progress of your marketing program. As with every marketing avenue, you’ll need to know your internet marketing ROI every quarter. How many prospective patients first learn about your office through an online search? How many patients inquire about your services through website forms? These are key numbers that will help you determine your projected and actual return on investment. They’ll also help you plan for the future and tailor your marketing program to the times. For example, if you notice a 50% decrease in the number of prospective patients visiting your website, you may need to invest more in SEO and link development.
An increased number of well-placed and tailored inbound links will lead to increased online traffic, contributing to your overall visibility. The idea is that this will ultimately lead to increased patient conversion. Keeping track of the numbers allows you to gauge the success of your online marketing plan and implement targeted changes to improve your online presence.
Online marketing is a central element of your marketing program. Invest in a high-quality professional team to develop and maintain a clean, informative, and well-guided website.