How a great website can quickly help podiatrists win more clients

If you’re in the podiatry industry there is strong chance that you or a colleague you know has neglected their practice’s website. Instead choosing to rely on other channels to bring in clients. But these sources are not completely reliable for sustaining a practice because they are often dependant on affiliations, location, and chance.

This is where a website can deliver another method for obtaining patients that compliments your existing sources. As 80% of people looking for health services research online before seeing a health professional. This means that if your not online, you do not control your brand in the eyes of 80% of your potential customers. You, therefore, have limited visibility to most potential clients. In addition, a site creates opportunities for further marketing opportunities like advertising on Google. While a site can also complimenting your existing advertising like print Ads through the inclusion of a link to your site. In this blog post, I will discuss just some of the reasons why investing in a site for your practice is one of the best investments possible. I’ll also touch on the ROI of a website further toward the end of the post, and show how we can quantify it easily.

Using high-quality content to attract patients and win their confidence

A properly designed site makes your practice more visible on Google to more clients in a wider geographical area. When potential clients do find your practice, a site helps educate clients and show expertise through it’s content. This helps create confidence in your practice, and helps to make you less of a commodity in the minds of patients. In a competitive local market, this can create a strong differentiation against your competitors.

Booking system opportunities

Once someone has decided to see you, having a site with a booking system is another differentiation from competitors. This is because it makes it easy to make an appointment. It also streamlines the process, eliminating any anxiety that a patient might have. This is because customers, and businesses follow scripts that become subconscious. But for a 1st-time patient, they have a problem, but they do not know the solution, the process or the cost to solve it. Having detailed, yet easy to consume content in addition to an online booking system providing a stress-free linear process for researching and booking your services, ultimately solving their problem. Then, if you recall that 80% of people researching for health services online before booking. So having the capacity to book outside of hours, separates your practice from others because it compresses the booking process from 3 steps that are spread out over potentially 24 hours to 2 steps that can be completed in quick succession, that is research, book. Remember this is a process that 80% of prospective patients can follow.

Changing customer preferences and expectations

When considering the value of a site, it might be easy to wonder if its a necessity. Perhaps your business has been successful to date for example. But it’s clear that customer preferences are changing and are influenced by experiences in other industries. In other words, if I can order a pizza online or book a tire change, why can’t I book an appointment with a podiatrist in the same way? This is an expectation that other industries are experiencing already. The accommodation industry is an example of this. Where the industry has effectively forfeited control of their prices and brand to 3rd party booking sites. Essentially becoming commodified and forfeiting 10-18% of any booking to whichever booking site facilitates it. This trend can already be seen in the health space with booking sites like Health Engine. While larger podiatry groups like My Foot Dr are also capitalising on the opportunity that this capability gap left by their competitors has created.

Reducing phone calls and email

A well thought out website is not just for undecided patients. Its also for those that are existing clients or those that have already booked. Catering to their information needs via a website can significantly reduce call volume for routine questions like pricing, open hours, referral requirements, location etc. While this is something that front of house staff will appreciate while the advantage to independent podiatrists is greatest.

Understanding the montary investment

The value of a website for a podiatrist practice is very high. If we assume that a new customer will generate $588 (Semi-Customised Orthotics + consultations costs) in revenue as a median price. If the cost of a website is $1650 then the capacity for a healthily return on investment is self-evident. But if we take a regional hub like Huonville in Tasmania, where an average of 100 people search for podiatrist every month. Then we can conservatively assume that a site will result in a 2% increase in customer conversion. In other words, an additional 2 patients per month or $1176 in additional revenue P/M. So within three months, the website can return $3528 in revenue.

Understanding the time investment

Any website designer that has worked with a medical client knows that their time is often finite and structured. This makes creating an effective website not just about the monetary cost but also a time cost. We understand this 100% and we make every effort to save your time, and to limit the stress of getting a new website. While our inclusion of 5 pages of copywriting means that most customers only have to review the content, rather than create it from scratch.

Measuring the results

Once your new site is complete monthly reporting can detail all traffic to your website and its sources. As well as other useful information like how long they spend on your website, and if there are any issues with your website. An example of this can be seen below, in this example, the client is a surf school in Sydney.

The green row is the current position of this particular client’s website for that search term. While red dominates a drop in search visibility. In practice, this level of detailed reporting can significantly improve a website’s results. An example of this can be seen below where the client’s search position has declined for a particular area that they service: The capacity to identify why a website is effective and how it can be improved can greatly enhance it’s performance as a sales tool, ultimately help to get more customers.

Closing thoughts

A website can often not be seen as a priority for some podiatrists. But the flexibility a professional website can deliver in helping to gain more customers as well as improve the experience of your existing clients is undeniable. As more and more people grow to view the internet as their primary method for finding and communicating with businesses, the value of a website can only improve. While there is a great selection of website design agencies out there that can deliver great results. Where we can deliver a great experience is in the personalised customer service that we provide to all our clients, our dedication to providing ongoing support and the after-mentioned high-quality reporting and monitoring that we can provide our clients.