January 2008

How to choose the 'perfect' website for your practice

by Dr. Eric M. Osansky

Every website company makes the claim that their websites really do bring in new patients, improve the compliance of your current patients, generate referrals, and even help to reactivate patients. But while some websites can help to bring in a few new patients every now and then, improve retention, and maybe bring in an occasional referral, most websites simply aren't designed to grow a chiropractic practice.

In fact, the two primary factors most website companies focus on when designing a website are 1) the image of the site, and 2) the amount of information that it has. These two factors are without question important to the success of the site, but they alone won't help your practice to grow. You can have the best looking website that has hundreds, even thousands of articles, but doesn't do a good job of bringing in new patients each month, improve patient compliance and referrals, and doesn't help to reactivate your patients.

Sure, many companies will try to sell you on their websites by telling you that they offer search engine optimization, a free online newsletter to your patients and prospects, maybe even some nice videos. And once again, these are of great importance with any website, but alone is not enough to justify the initial setup cost and fees you're paying each month.

Many website companies don't even offer a full‑blown online demonstration of their sites, as they reveal some of the features, and then try to get you to call them so their "sales force" can try to convince you that their websites have everything you need and want. And for someone who is unfamiliar with websites and doesn't know any better, before they know it they can be locked into a long‑term agreement with a website that doesn't produce any results.

So what should you look for when choosing a website for your practice? Well, besides some of the obvious components, such as great content, an online newsletter, and many of the other basics, here are some of the things you want a website to do:

***  Have multiple methods of capturing the contact information of the visitors. Besides offering an online newsletter to visitors and patients, since many people won't find a newsletter appealing enough to exchange their contact information you should have other methods of getting their name and e-mail address. This of course will enable you to follow up with them, thus improving the chance of eventually getting them in as a new patient.

***  Help overcome the fear and skepticism of chiropractic. Many people who visit your website will be afraid and skeptical of what you do. As a result, including some pages that help to combat this fear and skepticism can lead to more new patients.

***  Offer a true system for improving patient compliance, generating referrals, and reactivating patients. Most websites claim they do these things, but the fact remains that most websites do a poor job of actually growing a doctor's practice. When choosing a website you want to make sure they have real systems in place for improving compliance, getting patients to refer, and reactivating your inactive patients.

***  It should include separate benefits for your current patients. Some websites do come with a separate log‑in feature for your patients, which is a good idea. This not only offers additional benefits to your patients, but if you set this up the right way it can also help to convert a few visitors into patients as well.

***  Include audio messages from the doctor and patients. One of the great benefits the internet has over print media is that you can include audio messages. And unlike television or radio, you can do it for a very low cost, and have a message as long as you'd like. Because of this it makes sense to have a personalized audio message from the doctor. And it's also a good idea to include some audio testimonials from your patients.

***  A doctor's blog is a nice touch. Blogging is becoming more and more popular, and having your own doctor's blog serves two main benefits. First, it helps to build and maintain the relationship with both visitors and patients. And second, it helps to improve the search engine rankings, which of course will help to drive more traffic to your website.

These are just some of the features you should look for if you want to choose a website that will really help your practice grow. While you no doubt can settle for a static, low cost website that won't contribute to the growth of your practice, why would you want to do this when your website can be a major component in building the practice of your dreams?

(Dr. Eric M. Osansky, a Life University graduate, is the author of "Instrument Adjusting Riches," and creator of the "Instrument Adjustment Multimedia Websites." For more information, visit www.InstrumentAdjustingSuccess.com  and subscribe to his FREE six‑part e‑mail mini‑course on how to promote any type of adjusting instrument. You can e‑mail Dr. Osansky at instrumentdc@aol.com )