7 Steps to a Website that Actually Attracts Patients

Nearly everybody in the world is online and they are actively searching to find the best products and services for their wants and needs.  Where once the advice of friends and family was enough for a referral, now it is taken politely and followed by some online detective work by themselves.

Whilst it is lovely to have your own website, getting the structure and content right for it to become a patient generating machine requires some very specific strategies. You have all of 8 seconds to grab their attention to convince them to read on.  So it has to be good and it has to be about them.

Read that last bit again, “…it has to be about them”.  Unless they can see that you can help them, they will switch off in droves. As tempting as it is to talk about yourself, and how clever you are, you must resist.  It must be about them.

A Niche Service

Sure you can do lots of things but for marketing purposes target just one area. People seek experts so show them you are one.  You can still do lots of things but for attracting clients you need to find a niche.  Don’t panic if you are a generalist in a specific location, for the location itself can be your niche.  Become the expert in that location by connecting everything in that location to physiotherapy health service provision, eg., walking trails, parks, gyms, other health services.

Headline Their Problem

Craft a headline that addresses your niche directly.  The best way to do this is to aim to turn some people away, so that the people you want as patients are absolutely convinced you are for them.

More importantly the headline must also address their problem.  For example, you may be a back pain physiotherapy expert, but what people are really seeking is quick relief, whilst avoiding surgery and drugs.  So put those words in the headline along with “back pain”. Remember people don’t know that they are looking for physiotherapy, they are more focused on fixing their back pain.

Talk About Them

Now that you have their attention with your killer headline, the first piece of text on the website must explain how you can help them.  Resist the urge to talk about yourself.  Address their concerns and solve their problems.  On another page you can talk all about your qualifications, courses attended and experience.

Few, But Good Images

High quality professional images that are relevant and sparse (not too many of them) is your objective.  Your goal is to get website visitors to read; not admire the beauty of your site.  Professional quality images of you and the team at practice are best, so invest a few dollars in a professional photographer every couple of years. Plus you’ll be able to use those images in a host of other ways to promote the practice.

Free Gift

Give away something for free to delight them and maybe even create some indebtedness.  For physiotherapists the easiest thing is information in the form of a downloadable book.  Of course that information could be on another webpage, but when packaged up as a PDF book it appears to be more valuable.

Call to Action

You have to tell visitors to your site what you want them to do otherwise they’ll likely just wander off somewhere else after reading it. Your goal is get them to make an appointment but be mindful that rushing them can be a turn off.  The process of attracting patients’ needs to be seductive and if you go in too strong too early with “Make an Appointment Now” you may scare them off.  So provide the capacity to make an appointment but also provide other options to get more information.  Perhaps you could provide email contact and offer a personal phone call to progress them through to making an appointment.

Website Address

Your domain name is your website’s first impression, so make it a good one.  Choosing it after you’ve done the above work ensures that it will be most relevant to your website content.  Other domain name choice considerations are that it be short, memorable, easy to say and easy to type.  A domain name using the .physio domain extension helps achieve all of those goals for physiotherapy and physical therapy websites.  Plus it offers improved SEO, more click-ability, enhanced user confidence and greater customer satisfaction with your website content.

Visit www.dot.physio to register your domain.