Attracting potential patients to your website in a sea of competitors is an obvious task for any practice or clinic, but just as important is converting that interest into actual business. There’s little point in having an attractive website and great social media presence if all the hard work that goes into that doesn’t lead to bookings.
If your practice is attracting plenty of ‘window shoppers’ but not increasing your patient list and bookings, read on for our 10 tips to convert clicks into bookings.
1. Keep your website design simple
An elaborate and complex website may at first seem attractive, but the novelty soon wears off when you can’t find what you’re looking for and pages take a long time to load. Keeping your website smart and simple will help improve the user experience, and means potential patients will be more likely to find the information they need to help them decide to make a booking. You can still make your website unique and attractive by incorporating your branding, which should also transition into your social media platforms.
2. Attract the right traffic
It stands to reason that you’re more likely to convert clicks to bookings if your website is attracting the right kind of people. Consider your SEO strategy carefully to help the right people find you when they start an online search. Check that you’re using the most effective keywords that relate to your services, without being too generic. And if you’re using social media to attract potential patients to your website, think about which platform is more likely to appeal to the type of person who is most likely to be interested in the service you’re promoting.
3. Provide all the necessary information
Giving a potential client all the information they need via your website and social media, without the need for them to pick up the phone means they’re far more likely to convert to a booking. If however your website doesn’t include all the information they need, potential patients won’t wait around long and will soon move to a competitor’s website. All your platforms should be set up in a way that allows potential patients to both explore your services as well as to book and pay online. And even after a booking has been made, setting up a system to generate automatic reminders and take payment will help to reduce cancellations and no-shows.
4. Make your landing pages relevant
If you’re running ads or promoting a certain treatment on your social media accounts it’s imperative that any links lead potential patients to the right place. Clicking a link on a post about something that interests you only to find yourself on a home page or total irrelevant page is very frustrating and will likely put people off immediately. If you’re promoting more than one treatment at once, consider which you’d most like to set up your link to based on which service is least booked or most profitable.
5. Show off testimonials
Testimonials from loyal patients are incredibly powerful, and written in their own words can quickly prompt bookings. People are far more likely to invest in a service that is recommended by a current patient, and most will actually trust an online testimonial as much as a personal recommendation from friends or family. For a modern website which performs better in Google search, consider video testimonials.
6. Set yourself apart from your competitors
It’s likely that visitors to your website will have visited other websites before arriving at yours, and unless you set yourself apart from your competitors they may well leave to click on another website. This is where your unique selling points come in. Your website needs to convey what sets you apart from your competitors, whether that’s a better pricing structure, special offers, or superior services. Make these clear and you’re more likely to retain that website visitor and convert them into a booking.
7. Provide timely support
Potential patients are likely to have questions when they’re looking at your website, no matter how much information you provide and how visibly. It’s therefore a good idea to provide various ways to communicate. An FAQ page is essential, but also consider an online chat function, video calling, a call back service, and of course email and telephone. Ensure all of these are backed up by prompt and informative replies, or you’ll lose the attention and trust of those potential patients. Providing great communication will help increase patient satisfaction, build trust, and encourage bookings.
8. CTA buttons
Calls-to-action (CTA) are attention grabbing and engaging, and therefore an effective way of attracting bookings. These need to be placed in such a way as to prompt visitors to click on them, so consider a combination of positions, above the fold, at random points below the fold, in sidebars, and above your footer.
9. Pop-ups and slide-ins
Whilst you may have designed a perfectly navigable website including all the information a potential patient could need, sometimes people need a quick and eye catching way to find what they’re looking for. Pop-ups offer means to show the right service to the right person, and at the right time. Slide-ins offer a less intrusive option, whilst still attracting attention by staying on the user’s screen whilst they scroll. Consider using a combination of pop-ups and slide-ins to direct visitors to newsletter sign-up, special offers, or simply any particular services you’d like to promote. e-clinic integrates with Mailchimp to allow you to send follow up email marketing campaigns to the email addresses you’ve collected in this way.
10. Track your conversions
When you’ve worked hard to attract traffic to your website and convert those visits into bookings, it’s important to evaluate that work and which elements are most effective. Collecting this data means you can make adjustments to your strategy to build on your work so far and make informed decisions to make the process increasingly efficient and effective.
Whilst busy social media accounts and exciting websites are eye-catching and attractive to visitors, it’s what happens after a potential patient clicks on them that really matters. It’s important therefore to pay as much attention and give as much time to converting website and social media traffic into engaged patients and bookings as attracting them in the first place.
