Optimising the marketing mothership: your website

A well-optimised website with seamless design, personalised content and interactive tools like chatbots is essential for engaging patients and driving business growth.

Three seconds. That’s how much time most new visitors will spend on your website. So, if you don’t catch their attention in those three seconds, they may be lost forever.

A professional-looking and functioning website design is a critical success factor for building your online presence, but that is just the beginning. You also need well- organised, dynamic content that will attract and engage visitors so they will spend more time on your site.

The copy should be designed to convert visitors to learn enough about you and what you offer to ultimately become customers.This goal requires giving visitors a memorable experience on your site. Develop your site to be consistent with your practice location, facility and brand. It also needs to stand out from the competition.

Every component of your site serves as a reflection of you, your business and your brand. It will determine what prospective patients think about you, and how they feel about you. Well-crafted copy has the power to start a conversation with visitors that will lead to a consultation, whether virtual or live in your practice.

Before you start writing your copy or assigning someone to write it for you, understand what your visitors want and need. This will help you keep the conversation all about them instead of just about you.

Great, unique content can help win the hearts, minds and wallets of the patients you are most interested in attracting.

How your website can help you ace your bottom line

Despite the rise of social media channels for creating brand awareness, a robust modern website is still an essential component of an effective marketing strategy. This is especially true if you want to attract patients and clients of all ages and stages.

You may never know what the weapon of choice may be for each patient you want to attract, so it is wise to cover all your bases.

5 components of a killer website

1. Your site should be set up to be mobile-friendly,
   as most people search on their phones or tablets vs on their laptops.
2. Ensure that your site loads quickly
   to avoid users opting out.
3. Simplify your site’s navigation and search
   to make it easy for visitors to find what they are looking for.
4. Optimise your content
   to grab more attention from search engines.
5. Eye-catching visuals
   help to keep viewers engaged. Invest in photos from a photoshoot instead of stock photos.

Hyper-personalised communication

The more personalised and custom content you put out there, the more effective it will be at elevating your profile and keeping your practice top of mind. Hyper-personalised communications vehicles can help to attract new customers and promote what your practice or medspa offers.

This may include everything from website copy, blogs, videos, photos, social media posts, e-books, messaging and anything else you may be using to increase your online presence and attract more patients.

Unique content is the only way to stand out in today’s competitive market. Personalising your content to stay on brand and unique to your practice philosophy and image will raise your standing in your community. Analyse the copy that you are putting out in all forms to make sure it is not deviating from the messages you want patients to receive.

Chose a vendor with experience working with medical professionals and who understands the pervasive need for unique, and educational, content creation. Invest in extra time and a decent budget to get exceptional copy, graphics and content creation that attracts more patients – and the kind of patients you want to have in your practice.

You may think the strategy of using content created by a freelancer halfway across the world (or using generative AI) is saving you money, but in fact, it may be doing the reverse. It can cost you money in lost growth, new patients and more treatments, decimating your brand and many future opportunities.

Be sure that your content creator is not creating duplicate content for your practice as well as many others, which is a common dilemma. Google doesn’t like duplicate content and may punish you for it, plus you don’t want to see your content on someone else’s site. This is violation. Random freelancers may not to be up to speed on the rules governing physicians or medspas and the nuances of the doctor-patient relationship.

Why you need a chatbot

By now, unless you are living under a rock, you will have heard about OpenAI, the original project that brought AI into our lives, founded by Elon Musk (of Tesla and X) and Sam Altman (the tall nerdy guy who warned the US Congress of the potential dangers of AI).

ChatGPT hails from OpenAI. It was designed to generate human-like responses to questions or information. Thus, it is being used for conversational applications, such as virtual assistants and chatbots.

If you have ever shopped online or booked a flight or hotel, you have been exposed to chatbots. They are now routinely used for all forms of customer service functions. These are now readily deployed as instant messengers on websites to answer questions and FAQs online. They are getting more prevalent and smarter all the time.

Chatbots have emerged as an essential component of a modern and functional website. The technology is constantly improving can say and do helps to keep up with patient needs and demands. You may start with basic tasks, such as, ‘Where is the office located?’ or ‘Is there parking nearby?’ and go from there.

Your chatbot can be programmed to take on many more complex tasks, such as:

• Do you offer a specific treatment?
• What skincare brands do you have?
• When is the next appointment available?
• Can I get laser hair removal in your clinic?
• I want to reschedule, cancel or book an appointment.
• What days are Nurse Suzi working?

The capabilities of chatbots are skyrocketing. For example, they can help to resolve common service issues like refunds or appointment cancellations. In some cases, they can be programmed to customise recommendations for products and even schedule appointments.

Conversational AI is taking it to the next level. For example, you can get an answer to many queries in a quick minute rather than staying on hold for minutes to hours awaiting the opportunity to speak with a real human – I mean the flesh and blood kind.

The myriad of benefits includes reducing the workload of office personnel, responding in real-time to patient queries, directing more complex questions to medical personnel when needed, and being available to take calls and direct patients to the right person within the practice.

There is really no limit to what a chatbot can do. The benefits far exceed the costs involved in setting up a system for your business.

This is true for all patient segments today. Even more mature or less tech-savvy patients to be more sophisticated and personalised, giving each client a different experience. For example, they can be programmed for your specific needs such as asking customers what they need help with and sharing a list of options for clients to choose from.

There is really no limit to what a chatbot can do, and the benefits far exceed the costs involved in setting them up. Programming an intelligent chatbot is like having your office open 24/7 for patients to get answers to simple, more specific queries.

Clients are now acclimated to dealing with chatbots in a wide range of everyday businesses and services. Customising what your bot understand how to deal with a chatbot, and those who are timid about it will have to learn post-haste.

Over time, the technology has become more accessible, affordable and customisable. Your practice’s chatbot can be quite different from that of your competitors’ chatbot if your goal is to stand out.

Setting clear goals

To ensure that you choose the best tactics to meet your marketing goals, get clear about what those goals are. Consider both your short- term and long-term goals:

• What are your key priorities and timeline?
• Are you trying to expand your online presence, generate more leads, attract more patients interested in having treatments or surgery, or all of the above?
• Are you on a mission to build up your practice for more repetitive non-surgical treatments, injectables, exosomes, microneedling, and/or other energy-based devices?
• Are you keen to drive more interest in spa services?
• Is attracting a new market sector, such as male patients or Gen Z, top of mind?
• What does success look like for your personal business goals?
• This will help you define all the components that belong in your marketing plan for delivery in the next quarter or year. Schedule regular brainstorming sessions with the whole clinic staff and marketing team to review key messages and timelines, and keep everyone who has a say in the loop.

Evaluate how you are planning marketing tactics, including monthly specials, offers, events, webinars, blog posts and social media content. Plan your key messages based on the services you offer, and then decide how to differentiate them from your competition.

The aesthetics marketing funnel

In its simplest form, there is a funnel that happens to someone buying your product or service.

At the very top of the funnel, they might not have any need for your product or service yet or at all. However, you still want to make an impression on every prospective client for the time when their status changes and they are ready to commit to having a treatment or buying a product in your practice.

The theory is that when they do need you, they will remember you. However, that will only happen if your marketing, positioning and what you offer are memorable and your messaging resonates and strikes the right emotions.

The overall goal is to consistently influence as many potential clients as possible. The more you do, the more likely it is that some will remember you over all the other clinics and practices in the market.

Technology is your BFF

There is a plethora of new tools, channels and technological advances that turn up in our inboxes daily. The fast pace of digital marketing and communication presents challenges for busy doctors and clinic staff to keep up with all the trends. However, it is important to stay on top of new advances and be ready to adapt swiftly when innovations that have the potential to revolutionise the way we communicate and work pop up.

For those of us who are not ‘techies’ by nature (that includes me!), new technologies, systems and automation may present challenges beyond our capabilities. The more you can automate systems in your business, the more efficient you can be, which ultimately makes for a happier staff as well as a better bottom line.