2019: The Year of Dental Marketing Conversion
SEO is clearly vital for your dental website but there's a new factor that's caught Google's attention lately, and that's Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO). What is Conversion Rate Optimization you ask? Great question:
CRO is defined by marketers as the experience for your website’s
visitors. Done right, the experience is so compelling that you "convert" a casual visitor into a call or email requesting an appointment.
Ultimately, that's what we're all working so hard to do, right? After all, what's the use of investing all that time, effort and money into SEO if a prospective patient visits your website and thinks "Eh," only to quickly find another dental website to pursue?
Does My Dental Website Suffer From Poor CRO?
Before you start ripping apart your site or searching for a new development company to start a new site from scratch, it's wise to step back and evaluate the state of your current dental website. There are a variety of factors that impact your CRO, from how your copy is written to highlighting insurances you accept or your practice hours. At Golden Proportions Marketing we routinely run every client website through a detailed conversion checklist during development, but you can easily check if your site is meeting the bare minimum conversion standards with our online dental website conversion quiz.
Five Fast Fixes
If you're like my husband, Dr. Larry Winans, you're probably impatient and just want to know a few quick fixes, stat. I get it. Here are my top 5 fast fixes for dramatically improved website conversion.
Make sure your site loads in 3 seconds or under
The Google speed test will tell you exactly how fast your site loads on desktop and mobile devices, as well as what you need to do to fix it. Anything less than 80% need to be addressed asap. Often it's a matter of compressing large images or embedded videos and is a true fast fix for your web company (though we think they should have addressed this along the way if you're paying for SEO!) Here's the real reason it matters: 40% of people who think your site is too slow will go back to search and start over, and 80% of them will never come back to your site. We are THAT impatient as a society.
Use FREE live chat
When a prospective patient is on your site, they may have questions. We are all used to seeing live chat on e-commerce site, so the simple act of having the chat option lets the consumer know that they have your attention immediately. We recommend Tawk.to, a free app that anyone on your team can monitor. There's no reason to pay an expensive monitoring service; your team can handle this. A doorbell will sound when a visitor types in a question and alert your team to the new chat.
Add online scheduling
There are 168 hours in a week, and the average practice is open, at best, 25% of the week. In this impatient, immediate-response society that means you are missing 75% of the time that people could be on your site. With Local Med, you can integrate your schedule with an online app that lets patient choose the date and time that works best for their schedule. Don't worry, Miss Mary isn't going to schedule a crown. You get to limit the types of appointments, times of day and providers in this app. Once someone schedules online, you'll get an alert and can call this patient to go through your usual new patient protocol. Do not miss out on this opportunity, because patients who can't schedule NOW will happily find an office that can.
Video, video, video
I love stats, so here are a few that might grab your attention. In 2019, over 80% of internet time will be spent interacting with video. The average user spends 88% more time on a dental website with video, and sites with video are 53% more likely to land on page 1 of Google. Don't have video on your site? You are missing a monster conversion opportunity! Add custom videos throughout your site - on your home page, in your blog, on your service pages...just do it! Google can't "read" video (yet) so be sure to offer a transcription version to help Google see what your video is about. We personally love www.Rev.com where they will transcribe your videos for $1/minute of video. I can think of better things to do with my time compared to $1/minute of transcription, can't you?
Real patients, real photos
In our media saturated world, we are hyper aware of stock photography. Nothing converts better than authenticity. Arrange for a full day patient photo shoot where you can capture a variety of looks and backgrounds to use on your website (and on your social media, in your brochure, etc). A well-executed patient photo shoot can yield 800-1000 unique shots of 8-10 patient cases. Interview them at the same time and you've got your hands on conversion GOLD.
2019 is the year of conversion rate optimization. If your website isn't converting visitors into appointments, I promise you that some other dentist's website is. Not sure how well your dental website converts? Call Golden Proportions Marketing at 570-742-5656 for a complimentary CRO evaluation and we'll give you a checklist of things you can do to improve your results. Or if you're ready to explore a true, strategic plan that will drive you towards your goals, we'd love to talk.
