Get a "Virtual Counselor" to convert more leads

Web Marketing is more than just getting lots of traffic. It is also critical to convert website leads into new clients or patients. Some practices have invested in telephone intake (hiring the right people, training them and developing protocols and resources) to ensure they succeed, but have done nothing to ensure the same success in their email leads.

Consider the following:

• McGraw Hill Sales Statistical Studies indicate that about 96% of all sales happen after 5.6 exposures to information.
  
  
• Internet researchers, particularly those conducting medical-related searches, are hungry for information.
  
  
• There is a small window of time and opportunity when consumers research a service and are in the market for it.
  
  
• The majority of website-based leads come in the form of emails, rather than phone calls.

What does this all mean?

It means that you only have a concentrated period of time to do multiple follow-ups with email-based leads if you want to convert more of them into patients or clients. If you only rely on one superficial, follow-up email you may be losing more than 90% of potential business!

Why? Because most consumers don't buy or engage in anything when they first hear about it and the Web allows them to be "in the market," yet remain somewhat anonymous or voyeuristic. They want to hear and see more before taking the next step.

Some suggestions to improve your practice’s ability to convert more website leads into clients:

- Secret shop your practice’s website and your biggest competitors' sites to see how you compare. Don't make the mistake of assuming you are the only website a prospect visits or contacts. There is undoubtedly competition within your market who you can secret shop. Set up a fake email address with Yahoo or Hotmail and send a question to one of your competitors. Take note on how long it takes them to respond and how they respond.

- Develop more strategic follow-up emails that do more than just tell them to call you. Superficial, text-only responses that don't offer something new, or provide web-friendly "next step" actions, fail to keep potential clients moving down the decision-making path that leads to your front door. Make sure you respond with the information about your practice. How will your email lead know who is responding without the name of your practice spelled out? You should have a link to your site at the bottom of the email. You spent a lot of money building your site; show it off.

- Finally, you should be responding to your email leads with follow up information on your practice areas. Your site has a lot of information on it. Part of the reason we require so much content is to encourage you to reference the information on it in your email responses. Copy the URL of the page into your email response when talking about the specific practice area in question. If you need help doing this, your Account Manager will be able to walk you through it.

- Implement Virtual Counselor, an online database that captures all website leads and automatically follows up each one individually with strategic emails. After your initial efforts to convert an email lead, Virtual Counselor takes over and keeps you in front of each prospect during this crucial window of time, without burdening you or your staff.

These simple steps help differentiate your marketing from your competition even further. If you would like to discuss these topics in more detail, contact your Account Manager.

Optimize Your Blog for Maximum Exposure and Effectiveness

In this blog post we’ll discuss the ins and outs of … blog posts! Many of our clients have blogs on their website and post regularly. They include topics such as recent and upcoming events, news from their particular industry, special promotions and updates from the office, or just the general musings of the poster. We’ve found fresh content from regular posters adds a significant benefit to their optimization efforts. But how can they get even more out of them? Here are a few tips for getting the most out of your blog page.

• Post Regularly! – More is better! Post as often as you can, because the more content you add to your blog the more the search engines see your blog (and thus your website) as relevant, updated and important. If you’re diligent, you’ll see an improvement in your search engine results almost immediately. Also keep in mind you can have as many contributors to your blog as you want. Therefore, if you sign up several skilled wordsmiths in the office, they can share the task of posting regularly.

• Include Keywords in the Title – The specific URL of your blog post is the first five to eight words in the title (depending on length) so make sure those words count! Refer directly to whatever you’re discussing in the body of your post. If you’re not sure if the words you’ve chosen are frequently searched, use this tool. Try not to cram so many keywords into the title that it’s unintelligible, just use a few of the most important ones.

• Link Back to Other Pages on Your Site – You want users to visit more than just your blog, right? So send them to the rest of your website! Don’t just link back to your home page though. Provide text links to the specific pages that address what you’re discussing. If you’re not sure how to do this or need help, ask your AM.

• Use Social Networking to Your Advantage – Search for other blogs out there like yours – trust me there are tons! Reading other blogs in your industry will give you ideas on what to post on your own blog. But there’s more. You can comment on other people’s blog posts and include a link to yours. One caveat – never spam someone else’s blog! Add a comment that is relevant such as more information related to the topic, not just a link. By doing this, you may even establish relationships with other bloggers to share ideas and strategies.

• Advertise Your Blog! – Include a link to your blog in your email signature. If you have a list of clients or patients, make sure to let them know. Tell friends and family about it and ask them to pass it along. Make sure that you have something interesting for them to read though (see “Post Regularly” above). There are so many simple ways to let the world know about your blog. The only limit is your imagination.

• Make it Fun – This is perhaps the most important advice I can give. If posting to your blog becomes a chore, it will show and viewers will lose interest. It may sound contrary to all the tips I’ve just given…but posting to your blog does not have to be complicated or time consuming. Just enjoy it. If you do, you’ll be inclined to post more often.

So get out there and turn your blog into the powerful web marketing tool that it is! And stay tuned to 24-7 AMs for more valuable tactics.