FAQ #8 – Do You Really Need More Than A Simple Website?

Are you wondering why some orthodontists are investing more than $10,000 on their websites and others only about $40/month? There are lots of reasons for the price discrepancy, including custom design vs. template, but the real question is what is the site designed to do? And, are you working with someone who understands not only what you want your site to do, but how to do if for the orthodontic industry?

Watch today’s video for these answers and many more. Leave me your comments and questions here and I will be happy to respond.

Bye for now,

Brian J Devine

Here is the transcript for the video it you prefer to read…

Today we’re going to cover question number eight and that is, do I really need more than just a simple website? I like this question because it really does get to the core of the matter. Why do you have a website? And if you’re thinking that you just want a simple website that gives a little bit of information to your patients so that if somebody wants to look up a little bit of detail on you they can find it, then yes, a simple website that is very inexpensive will do that. If your goal is to get new patients on a regular basis and have your website designed to do one thing extremely well which is to get your phone to ring, then you’re going to have to spend a little bit more money to make that happen.

Now, why is it more expensive? Well, you’re going to need to hire somebody or at least outsource to someone that has a really good designer because having just a simple website will get the information across, but it won’t necessarily be compelling. So if you have a great design and it draws people in and your designer understands the rule of thirds and that color photos of bright, smiling faces are going to bring in more patients than if it’s just bland, boring images…your site will get people to take action.

You are going to be spending a little bit more on a good design and a designer who understands those things.

Then you’re going to have to spend a little more money because you need good copy.  You can write until the cows come home, creating all the material yourself, but a good copywriter is invaluable.  Because a good copywriter is going to understand that it’s not just about getting the information across, it’s getting the information across in a way that’s compelling, in a way that’s going to get somebody to want to call you.

How do you do that? Well, one of the easiest ways to do that, and you can do this in all of your marketing, is to circle the first word of every sentence throughout your marketing whether it’s online or offline. And if the first word is we, us, our, or doctor, then your copy is not compelling. You’re spending too much time talking about yourself, about your practice, about what you do.

When you want to be effective you change all of that language to focus on the words you and your. So when somebody is reading your website and going through the copy they are hearing over and over again you will enjoy, you will benefit from, you’ll see, you’ll be glad to know, all of those types of phrases throughout your copy, is going to get that phone to ring much more than if it’s not in there. So, feel free to use that for all of your marketing but it’s especially powerful for online marketing.

You also need to have social proof when it comes to your website, and social proof means testimonials. I don’t recommend that you call them testimonials.  Testimonials is a marketing term and it throws up the red flags and everybody thinks: great, now you’re going to tell me how terrific you are.

However, you do want them, so call them: what our patients are saying, what patients say about us, anything like that that doesn’t throw up the red flags. But you want to have that social proof, so you need to have a website that’s designed and laid out in a way that people can very quickly and easily navigate, get the answers to their questions, has a clear call to action witch hopefully says “free consultation”.

I go back and forth on this with doctors and with consultants that tell you never to use the word free, to always say complimentary. Well, when it comes to online marketing if you want to have the phone ring more or have people fill out your form online more, use the word free.

Now, if you are just so busy that you really can’t take on a whole lot of new patients, use the word complimentary. It won’t get clicked on as often and it won’t get a phone call nearly as often, but maybe the type of person that is going to respond to the word complimentary is more like the kind of person you’re going to want to bring in to your office anyway.

So when it comes to that sort of thing that’s why you want to make sure you’ve got a good consultant or you’re outsourcing to a company that really understands online marketing, understands website design, and that’s why, maybe, if your goal is to get that phone to ring or get people to fill out that form online, get new patients, a simple inexpensive website’s probably not the way to go.

Hopefully that’s given you some food for thought and I didn’t confuse too much of the issue, but that’s my answer for number eight and that’s it for today.