Written by Author: Lisa Wozniak
As a private practice owner, your strengths lie in your ability to help clients with life’s challenges. Few have learned any marketing let alone web design. Consequently you end up with either a graphic designer, web developer or a friend with great tech skills to help you design your website. While this has helped get your business established online, it’s done little for you in getting your phone to ring and bring clients into your office. So let’s take a look at how to make your phone ring with your website. There are actually three easy steps. When put in place they will make a world of difference to your private practice.
Capture Their Attention
Studies show you really only have 1-2 seconds to capture the attention of your potential client. Within that time you have to quickly show them why they’re in the right place for their specific issue. This means driving right to their pain point and showing them that you understand what they are feeling and that you can help them solve their problem. To do this means making a concentrated effort at marketing your specialty niche. On your home page this means stating your niche in the tabs on your home page, using titles that reflect your specialty and images that portrays the niche and how your client might be feeling.
Provide More Value
In the limited time you have to hold the attention of your site visitor you must provide as much value as possible so that they are certain that you are the professional that they need to see. To do this you need to provide a clear site map or path for your visitor to follow that show them you are the professional for them. For the purposes of this article, let’s say you are a therapist focusing on addiction. On your home page, off to the right you can have 3 images with links the three different types of addictions you specialize in. Let’s say drug, food and alcohol addictions. Each of these graphics and links will take them to a page where you discuss exactly what it’s like to have each of these 3 addictions and examples of what your client may be experiencing. The home page itself will also have a brief paragraph or two discussing a higher level overview of addiction, keeping in mind that you are focusing on their pain points so that they realize you know exactly how they feel and what they are going through. If you have multiple specialties or niches these should be separated by tabs in the top navigation bar. If you are focusing on one niche specialty as we are for this example, you can use the top navigation bar to really market your niche and capture the attention of your audience. So the separation of web pages in this tab bar could read, “Home” “About Addiction Therapy” “Addiction Blog” “Contact Us”. Remember you only have a second or two to capture the attention of your reader so you have to do everything you can to focus on your specialty to show them they are in the right place.
For those therapists who consider that their specialty is their technique or methodology, I really have to caution you against making this the focus of your website. Most potential clients who visit your page will not understand what CBT, Brain Spotting or Emotionally Focused Therapy is, or how it works. They just need to know that you understand what they are experiencing and that you can help them. In fact, this approach can actually intimidate and overwhelm them chasing them away. It’s just like that saying, “People won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
Call to Action
Lastly, your website should have a call to action. Tell them what you want them to do next. A great example of this would be to sign up for a Free Report. In the case of our therapist focusing on addiction as their specialty, your site could have a sign up for a Free Report on “Signs You’re Suffering from Addiction”. At this point you’ve captured the first name and email address of your potential client and can put them on your email marketing list. From this list you can send them regular newsletters to keep them engaged until they are ready to see you as a client.
If you are not interested in email marketing, you can simply replace this with a link to your contact page that says, “Call my office for a Free 15 minute phone consultation”. The bottom line here is that your call to action helps to prevent them from leaving without making a commitment; either to an email list or the opportunity to book time with you.
There are many other bells and whistles that can be added to your website that work very well. However, if you just focus on capturing their attention, providing them with value and direct them with a call to action, you will be worlds ahead of many service providers who’s only online presence amounts to a short page with contact instructions. To learn more about building your list with email marketing, get my FREE eBook EZ List Building here.