Recently, I asked the question; “What do you really want to know about marketing your practice online?” One of the questions was about turning site “lookers” into phone “callers.” Great question!
The question is, why does someone look for a chiropractor in your area, come to your website, and then leave the site without calling you? Why didn’t they choose your office?
The same can be said about any form of advertising. If you mail out 1,000 postcards and only got a 1% return, why didn’t everyone else call? Did they even see your postcard? What would have made the difference?
That’s what’s great about marketing online, you know that people are looking for someone right now and ready to call someone right away to get the help they need. They weren’t looking around online for something else and then stumbled across your site. They likely typed in “city name + chiropractor” and were ready to call the best office they could find.
They probably called someone, so why didn’t they call you?
Every person will have a different reason for looking for a chiropractor. Some are looking for someone to help a specific condition (”Will this chiropractor help me with my headaches?”), some are looking for someone open during the hours they want, maybe some are looking to make sure they find the “best” chiropractor in town.
If people are visiting your website and not calling, it’s time to take a hard look at your site and make sure people are getting the information they need. Are your office hours clearly identified? Or do they need to go several steps to find out when you’re open?
Do you list what insurance types you accept? Do you take auto accident cases? What conditions do you treat? This is all important stuff to some website visitors, but you still want to balance out not having so much information available on your site that people can’t find anything.
It’s a mistake to think that people will read every word on your site. They scan. The review, but they definitely don’t want to read every word. Can they find what they need quickly? If not, they may just move on instead of looking for it.
Once they found all the information they need, I think what happens next is they either need to feel like they “connect” to you, or that others have proven you to be the best. When someone Googles your name, what do they find? If nothing, it’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it doesn’t help. Does your office have online reviews? Good? Bad?
Does your site have a video? This is a great chance to let them see you and hear you in action. A great opportunity for them to say, “They seem good.” Your site isn’t just a business card, it’s a chance to walk people through every reason why they should choose your office over everyone else.
If all else fails… test new stuff! I’ve changed so much stuff on my site over time until I got it to where it is now. You can even run a split test. That means each visitor sees a slightly different version of your site. In the internet marketing world, it’s all about testing until you get things just right.
Just don’t give up. All advertising is going to the internet. The time to establish yourself in your area is now.
Tell me your thoughts on this post! What else do you think would help someone call your office instead of moving on to someone else?
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Graet info. Thanks
Thanks for posting this Philip. We are seeing the occasional new patient via our website and its helpful to know that it takes time and testing to “get it right”. I appreciate the info.
Philip, do you think its worthwhile to have a short questionaire (or verbal) to give to patients that have indicated that they came in because of the website to find out exactly what prompted them to move from looker to caller?
Good info. I also think that giving people a foretaste of what is actually going to happen in the office will be helpful. The Rockford region seems very pragmatic and wants to see the whole package first.
Always something new to think about!
@Virginia Beach Chiropractor, I absolutely want to know how each patient found our office, but this may be something you just ask verbally to get better answers. I’ve found that many people just know they found me via “the internet,” but aren’t sure what they typed or even what site they were on.
It also may be a combination of things, maybe they saw your site, then Googled your name, then watched your video… it can be a few things that helped make their decision.
Great information. I would really like to know, though, if I’m looking for an SEO guy in my area, what should I be looking for as far as credibility.
It’s really difficult to just “take their word for it” for sure. References and word of mouth are best, but you can certainly get a lot out of a meeting with them. I try to meet each client face-to-face before starting any work. That seems to make everyone feel better.
After that, you should just look for improved rankings in a reasonable amount of time. (Think more like months instead of hours.)
Thx Philip. We’re on the right track
I have been working on this online stuff for a while now and I am starting to see the benefits as you have to constantly be keeping up with stuff
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