How to Make Your Website Interactive
By: Catherine Maley, MBA
What has your website done for you lately?
Is your website everything you hoped it would be? Is it bringing you new patients ready to book procedures? Is it making you and your staff more efficient? Is it saving you time and money? If not, it may be time to go the next level by making your website interactive.
Although you may have been, and continue to be, frustrated by this subject of website design, search engine optimization, etc, the Internet really is your friend. You want to embrace it. The Internet has the ability to acquaint you with millions of people all over the world as well as those in your own neighborhood. It gives prospective patients access to you 24/7 and at their convenience. It also levels the playing field. Nowadays, little-old-you can have just as much exposure as any competitor or even big corporation. Of course, it takes time and money to set up a website; but the secret is to make the most of that effort. Let’s look at your choices:
Standard Website
A standard website is a stagnant, informational tool. It’s your customized practice brochure converted to an html file and uploaded to the Internet. It’s your on-line practice information that gives your patients information about you and your practice. Think of it as a one-way street. It typically gives your visitors the basics about you and your practice such as your credentials, before/after photos and includes your telephone number prompting them to call you for an appointment.
This type of website, while not fancy, can help reduce the redundant telephone calls you get at your practice asking about your hours, directions and your suite number. It can also answer other questions about your and your practice quickly and easily so people don’t have to call your office. They get their information promptly when they want it.
Interactive Website
The interactive website takes your standard website and makes it sing! Not literally, unless you program it that way, but it really bumps it up to a whole new level. Think of an interactive website as a super highway with two lanes going in opposite directions. Not only are you giving information, but you are getting information back as well.
Interactive means involving your visitors. It’s an exchange of information with your visitors. It can be the deciding factor for how long a visitor will stay on your site. You only have 10 seconds to interest a visitor to stay put so an interactive website can make the difference between a visitor clicking on you and leaving or staying and getting to know you virtually which leads to getting to know you physically.
Ways to Make Your Website Interactive
The beauty of interactivity is that you can add as you go. You may want to start with some simple basics and then add more comprehensive features later. The following features can be added to your website for interactivity:
“Contact Us”
Email
The first and most obvious kind of interactivity is to have a way in which someone can send you a message or contact you. It helps start a dialogue with the prospective patient and build rapport. It also answers their questions and prompts them to make an appointment.
You can do this by making your e-mail address a "clickable" link on your web pages. This is normally enough, but sometimes people are not surfing on their own computers and can't click on the mail link because they don't have an e-mail program on that particular computer. The answer is to put a contact form on your web site. This allows anyone to contact you, no matter where they are surfing.
Keep your contact form simple and fast to fill out. If the prospective patient clicks on your contact page and sees ten or more fields of information to fill out, they will most likely re-think asking you anything. And, even though you may only require them to fill out certain fields, they may not see the asterisks and will opt out because this is asking too much. Keep it simple for now until they get to know you. Ask them only their name and email address and include a box for their question. Be sure the question box has unlimited character space so the prospective patient can freely explain, in detail, what they want to learn more about. You can always ask them for more information later when you have bonded with them and they are more comfortable with you.
Telephone – “Click to Talk”
There is interesting new technology that allows your visitor to click a graphic that says, “Push to Talk” or “Click to Talk Now” and has a picture of a telephone or a friendly receptionist. When the visitor clicks on that graphic, a pop up window appears and asks them for their telephone number. Their telephone number is then routed to your office immediately and your staff promptly calls the prospective patient to give them more information and schedule an appointment. The prospective patient is very impressed that her telephone rings and your staff are at the other end. Now that is service on-call!
Patient In-Take Forms
Encourage your patients to fill out new patient forms ahead of time. They can complete the forms on-line and click on the submit button. Their forms then route directly to the correct staff person. Or, they can print the forms out, complete them and bring them along to their appointment. This will save both of you time during their office visits. It will also help bond that new patient to your practice. This can be especially helpful if you are experiencing no-show issues. The new patient is much more likely to keep their appointment if they have submitted the paperwork ahead of time. Be sure your forms include your "Privacy" statement so the patients feel comfortable sharing the personal medical history with you over the Internet.
Guest Book
Adding a guest book to your website will give you great information about who you are attracting. The trick is give them something of value so they give you back something of value – their name and email address. Nowadays, many Internet surfers are wary of sharing personal information with anyone until they know they want to develop a relationship with them. With this in mind, you may want to add a carrot. Rather than request the visitor sign your guest book, have them click on a special offer. Then, they simply need to provide their name and email address. They can then download a special coupon or you can use an automatic-responder to email them a special coupon for their first (or next) visit to your office. This way also ensures they entered a legitimate email address.
Also, reassure them their information is safe with you and you will not be sharing it with anyone else. Have a privacy statement they can click on to read so they are comfortable giving you this information about them.
Newsletter – E-zine
Offer a free email newsletter or “e-zine” to your visitors. Use a sign-up form where they can sign up for the newsletter by entering just their email address. This not only grows your email database; it keeps your visitors informed about what’s new in your practice as well as in the world of cosmetic enhancement. It’s important it be up-to-date, newsworthy and interesting so they continue to receive your communications rather than unsubscribe. It’s also very helpful to add exclusive web offers with very tight deadline dates so they respond now rather than wait. Making your newsletters professional looking and aesthetically pleasing also helps them get noticed and acted upon rather than passed over with just a glance. You want to send your e-zines on a consistent basis, perhaps monthly, so you keep your name in front of a pool of potential aesthetic patients who may act now or later.
Be sure your newsletter provides links to your web site and information on how people can subscribe and unsubscribe. Encourage the readers to forward the newsletter to friends and people who might also be interested in your services by adding a simple link that says, “Send to a Friend”.
Media Center
The more a visitor perceives you as a highly-skilled physician, the more likely they are to pick you over the others. Often, media coverage you’ve gotten equates to expertise in the eyes of the lay person. Adding a media center that includes videos of you being interviewed by the media, or even speaking at an event, should be added to your website and can even include a link called “Doctor in the News”. List any and all publications you have written for, any mentions you’ve gotten in print, any awards you’ve received, any clinical studies or specialized training you have completed. Your visitors should know about anything that goes above and beyond your standard education that portrays you as the expert in your field. This added value on your website can differentiate you and have you stand out on the Internet.
Videos
Videos are hot right now and highly recommended if you are assertively marketing on the Internet. It’s very compelling for your visitors to see and hear you in a video, as well as see your office through a virtual tour and meet your staff through video introductions. The more a visitor feels they know you, the more likely they are to book an appointment.
Let your visitors also click on patient stories told by the patients themselves. Nothing is better than letting a patient tell another patient how great you are and how happy they are with their result. Since quantity is still a perceived value, include several patient stories ranging in various demographics so the visitors can relate to at least one.
Bulletin Boards/Blog:
Bulletin boards draw the visitors to your website because this helps your visitors share their views with each other. You can keep visitors coming back to your site by using a bulletinboard or onlineforum. The beauty of the bulletin board is that your visitors create your content. However, in order for this to work you must have enough traffic. Announce on your website, in an e-zine and in a direct mail piece, a specific period in which there will be a discussion on a certain hot topic.
You will have to install a script on your site in order to have a bulletin board or one hosted on another server for free (with advertisements) or for a monthly fee (without advertisements). Just know the downside to this technology. When you allow free flowing comments in an unsupervised format, you could get comments you didn’t expect and don’t desire.
Survey
Offer a short survey of less than five questions and have them provide their email address so you can tell them the results. Make it intriguing so they are curious what others will answer. You may want to offer them a chance to win something simple like a complimentary facial or a vendor’s gift basket if they participate. The survey is another vehicle for you to use to collect email addresses and communicate with would-be patients.
Search Tool
Your visitors want to get to information they care about - fast. Get them there quickly by offering a search box so they can enter a key word and go straight to it. The more pages your website, the more important this feature becomes.
Downloadable Forms and Articles
Allow visitors to download pages and special links to articles you’ve written or read. Be sure your name, logo and telephone number is on each page to prompt them, or anyone else they show it to, to call you.
Online Store
Consider selling products on-line. You can offer your own skin care line as well as other skin care lines you carry. Your e-commerce site helps build patient loyalty and further bonds your patients to your practice since they return for refills and look to you for their skin care needs off and on-line. Patients may perceive you as a true industry leader if they see you have the technical savvy to run an online store. Shopping cart vendors can handle the entire feature for you to keep it simple.
Online Patient Education
To help your patient better understand a procedure, offer them simple intuitive “courses” on your website. These courses are professionally produced and include visuals as well as audio. With a click of a button, they can watch and hear the explanation of the procedure they are interested in learning more about in laymen’s terms. This feature differentiates you from the others who don’t offer this feature on their websites, will help convert more visitors to new patients, and will save you time during the consultation.
Conclusion
Making your website interactive takes knowledge, time and money. Of course, using professionals helps save money in this area since they know what they are doing and can do it in a fraction of the time others without the experience would take.
Incorporating even a few of the above ideas will help turn your stagnant website into a more exciting, interactive website that potential patients want to visit again and again.
See you on the Web!
Catherine Maley, MBA
President and Senior Marketing Strategist
Cosmetic Image Marketing
866-563-3332
Catherine@cosmeticimagemarketing.com |
