“You never get a second chance to make a first impression”. It doesn’t matter how much money you’ve spent making sure the design of your physical therapy website is top notch, or whether you are super-search engine optimised, if you want to use your site to get new clients then you need the following 10 elements on your website home page. Wherever possible we’ve not only explained the importance of each key element but also how they practically translate to helping you get new clients and build customer loyalty. At each stage we’ve included DIY resources so you can do as much as possible yourself, and with the least amount of cost.
We’re big fans of the Hubspot marketing blog. It features some of the best, most useful resources covering a whole range of marketing topics. Sadly I can’t afford to sign up to their platform as much as I’d love to, but it’s not going to stop me ranting and raving about their awesome resources! The infographic on at this link served as the foundation of this article which we’ve then adapted specifically with the physical and manual therapist in mind.
Wherever possible we've tried to include practical advice on how to bring to life each of the sections in the most cost-effective and practical way possible and included links to useful related resources, such as this one (again from Hubspot), which is a free workbook download: “The ultimate guide to redesigning your website”.
The 10 key components of a webpage for a physical therapy practice are as follows:
If you haven’t already got a brand or business name - here’s some help on you how you can go about creating one:
Remember this advice also applies to people who have an existing logo and want to spring-clean it, as much as it does to someone creating a new logo.
Fiverr describes itself as the marketplace for creative and professional services. It’s basically a way to link up with a whole range of designers who can very cost-effectively help in the creation of all sorts of artwork including branding and logo development. Designs basically start from £5 (hence the name). It’s a great resource for small businesses and the self employed (Tweet This).
If you have a bit of design flare and fancy creating your own logo or you already have a logo and want to modernise it, but lack the software to do so, try sites like Canva or Relay. There’s a really useful podcast and written transcription that you can read at this link on “How to easily create visuals without a designer”.
Next to your heading or sub-heading/brand statement. This is how you sum up what you do in one concise phrase. For Co-Kinetic it’s “Practical resources for physical and manual therapists”. Here’s how you find yours…
We found a great blog post at WebsitesInWP which outlines a fun 2 step process to help you sum up your business in one sentence (Tweet This). There’s also a good post here on how to describe your business in two sentences.
Make sure your headline/business statement is right up there on your website, near your logo so that it’s the first thing you see.
After you’ve got your logo and your brand statement the next thing to ensure you have on your home is one or more calls to action.
So your potential client is on your home page, now what? You need a call to action or CTA. To take things further you want them to interact with your website. A commonly used phrase in modern marketing is the “Know, Like, Trust, Convert” factor. First someone has to get to know you, whether that’s through your website, or your social media profiles. The second step is that you then want them to learn to like you by giving them useful information or resources that help them. The third step is for them to transfer that like to trust, at which point the chances are that you’ve got yourself a new customer and you hit the conversion point.
We already know as therapists that trust is a particularly important part of what we do, so you need to move through this process responsibly, carefully and considerately ie. no spamming or hard selling. That’s a bit like walking up to someone you don’t know, saying hi, and then asking them out for dinner. It might work for the quirky types who like that style but the majority are likely to run! So don’t do it online.
This is how Wikipedia defines a Call to Action (CTA) in marketing terms.
Your call to action needs to be persuasive but resist the temptation to go for the hard sell. Remember your website visitor doesn’t really know you yet and certainly hasn’t moved to the stage of ‘like’, so it’s way too early to get them to trust you just yet.
Hubspot has some good advice about the physical appearance of the call to action button but be realistic about what your potential client is looking for at this point and therefore what action they are likely to take (Tweet This).
Your visitor may be an existing client who’s just jumped on your site to get your phone number, address or find a map of how to get to your clinic for their next appointment (so make sure these are easy to find from the home page). The visitor you’re wanting to catch the attention of through your call to action is the new customer who may have found you through a recommendation or through your online or offline marketing efforts (although there’s definitely no harm in offering your existing clients added value if they spot a CTA they like while visiting your site, it all contributes to building the relationship).
The holy grail of the call to action at this point is to get your potential client to give you an email address (but please don’t immediately start spamming them with a load of sales emails). Try and get into their heads and figure out what it is that they really want information about or help with. If you can't come up with anything then try asking your current clients.
Then set about creating or sourcing something that will ‘serve’ them. We’ve given you some ideas below as a starting point, feel free to invent and experiment but whatever you do you must make sure you’re measuring it (see below for details)!
Offer a document download or print out
Offer advice - buttons might say:
The only way to see if what you’re doing is working is to measure it. Google Analytics is a phenomenally powerful tool that’s free and gives you all the opportunities to track what you’re doing without costing a dime. If you haven’t got it set up on your website yet, then get it installed ASAP! It’s very simple and just requires copying and pasting a small piece of code into one or more web pages or your CSS template which then ensures it’s present automatically on every page using that style sheet.
If you’ve used a web developer then you should already have it installed (if not then ask your web developer to do it and consider firing them for not doing it automatically!). If your site is hosted on one of the web-based platforms like Wordpress, Squarespace, Wix etc. then it should be pretty easy to install. Just Google for instructions (Tweet This).
We’ve included more specific details on installing Google Analytics and setting up goals in our follow up article on how to implement some of the ideas found here (Tweet This)(Tweet This).
If you’re already a full site subscriber you can access all the leaflets we have available, just download them and then store them wherever you need to in order to offer your document download. If you’re not a subscriber you’ll find two leaflets available free of charge as part of your registered account (use the Register button above).
If you want more leaflets, you can either purchase each leaflet individually for around £1 per leaflet or take out a subscription to the client and patient resources section of the website.
This is too big a section to describe in detail here but if you want to know how to set up document downloads on your website we have outlined a few options in our follow up article "Optimising your physical therapy website to generate new leads and get new clients". (Note: This is a subscription-only article which can be purchased individually or is included as part of a subscription to the Entrepreneur Therapist or within the Full site subscription).
Make navigating your website as easy as possible with simple/clear headings and trying to limit this to 7 items or less. A search box is also a useful feature for visitors to find what they’re looking for.
When your service is healthcare-based, establishing trust is key so make sure to include details in an About Us/Staff/Meet the Team/Our People section. Wherever possible include pictures and biogs and keep these up to date. It’s also a good idea to include links to your social media profiles but only if they are professionally orientated. This is a time for reputation building, not a diary of your personal life lived through Twitter! At the very least include LinkedIn if you have a LinkedIn profile (and if not, it’s worth setting one up!).
The other thing that patients will frequently look for is location information so make sure a Contact Us page or Find Us page are…easy to find! It’s easy to include an embedded Google map and it makes a Find Us page look pretty, but make sure you also include the text for your full address on the page as well (Tweet This). A Google Map won’t easily display the actual address, just a pin on a map.
Video is growing rapidly in popularity and live video is social media’s golden child of the moment as we write this article (July 2016) so if you (or someone else you work with) loves being in front of a camera then get your camera out and start filming! It doesn’t have to be of a super-professional quality but do some reading up on the basics of video filming to make sure you’ve got the simple stuff covered. Remember this is all about developing your reputation as a therapist and building trust. Why not answer your frequently asked questions by video, or talk about a topic in the news, or talk about a certain injury or condition. Interview staff members, maybe even ask current customers for a testimonial by video (this adds to your social proofing - discussed in more detail further down the article).
Other resources you may find useful:
Most people are visual, so you want to make the home page look inviting with the use of a graphic/image and/or video, while making sure to use media that is relevant, illustrates what it is you offer and is also in keeping with your ‘brand’. If your budget or photography skills are less than adequate, we’ve found some useful media resources below (Tweet This).
Want to get a bit more sophisticated with perhaps an explainer video or an infographic?
“Features tell, but benefits sell!” Gregory Ciotti from Help Scout put together this excellent article on how benefits, not features, sell products and services (Tweet This). A great exercise for any business is to create a list of your business’ features, and for each feature ask yourself a) what the benefit is and b) what problem it solves. Trust me, it’s harder than you think. We like to practice what we preach so our latest marketing leaflet does just this (scroll down the page at this link and you’ll see a colourful table - what do you think? Did we miss anything out?)
To understand the difference and really nail your benefits, read the following article: “Features Tell, but Benefits Sell”
I was listening to a podcast the other day on the best ways to get your business found on Google and the single one thing that stood out was making sure you had reviews on Google (those are the yellow stars you see under the company name in image below). In fact the guy being interviewed (link below) said if he only had time to do one thing of all the things he’d discussed in the podcast, it would be to make sure your Google Business page was set up and that you were collecting reviews (Tweet This).
Other resources you might like:
Over 75% of home pages have social media links, with Facebook and Twitter being the top platforms of choice (assuming of course you have professionally-orientated Facebook or Twitter pages - if not, don’t add them! Tweet This).
Hubspot’s advice about resources is very sound. “Again, most visitors to your website won't be ready to buy ... yet. For folks who are looking for more information, offer a link to a resource centre where they can browse relevant information. Not only does this keep them on your webpage for longer, but it also helps you establish your credibility as a thought leader in your industry.”
If you haven't got time to create the resources yourself (or need a helping hand) why not use our printable, downloadable patient information leaflets. You can purchase these individually, as part of a subscription to the patient section or they are included within a full site subscription (purchase details can be found here). We've also made two leaflets available if you register on our site (it's free!).
Other suggestions for creating useful resources could be to create blog posts around questions you find yourself being asked on a regular basis, or discussions you regularly have with clients, or even hot topics in the news that fall into your area of expertise. But remember, this is about establishing trust and credibility, so stick to what you know or use trusted sources of information (Tweet This).
If you're anything like most of the therapists I speak to, you hate showing off and you'll be your own worst salesperson. I get it and I empathise 100%! I hate it too. I want to put the journal and website in front of people and just let them make their own minds up on whether it works for them (Tweet This). So let others speak for you....here are some ideas:
OK I know I said 10 points, but I couldn't resist adding this one because it's becoming increasingly important for a couple of reasons. Firstly it's important for the customer experience but secondly (and arguably more importantly) it's becoming a key factor in Google's search algorithm which decides how to rank sites. If your site isn't mobile friendly, your chances of appearing high up in the Google ranking reduce considerably. It's so important that Google have even developed a tool to test it! Enter your website address at this link to see if your website is mobile friendly.
Although I have no doubt that there are some excellent sites out there, I only found two before I ran out of Google energy! If you've got a clinic or therapy website you love and want to share with us, please add your website in the discussion area below and we'd love to take a look and recommend it to others :-)
The two we really liked are:
Remember that small can also be beautiful. You don't have to have a big expensive website in order to convey a professional appearance or to make it work for you in terms of capturing leads. It just needs to do the basic things well and the 10 (sorry 11!) things we've outlined in this article should get you off to a flying start.
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Tor began her professional life training as a physiotherapist at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, UK. She went on to complete a BSc in Sport & Exercise Science at the University of Birmingham whilst also achieving a WTA international tennis ranking.
After graduation she worked for a London marketing agency and then moved into medical journalism where her passion for publishing was born.
At 27 she established sportEX medicine, a quarterly journal for general practitioners focusing on sport and exercise medicine.
sportEX grew into an internationally known journal for all sports medicine practitioners, including physical and manual therapists; articles covered the practical application of evidenced-based research alongside professional development with expert contributors drawn from across the world of medicine and rehabilitation.
With a passion for technology as well as publishing and sport, Tor's leadership grew sportEX into the Co-Kinetic journal and website which included a more collaborative, royalty-based form of publishing as well as a wider content remit. As well as the quarterly magazine Co-Kinetic, offerings now include e-learning opportunities, breaking clinical research infographics, marketing kits for therapists, business growth tools, and a business discount club.
Tor's focus is providing resources to help practitioners and therapists develop their businesses and to work more efficiently and effectively, a topic that she speaks regularly on at global conferences.
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