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4 catching Web-site strategies

By Yamia Benhaim

Just a few years ago, the Internet was not a paramount factor in determining a chiropractor’s success. Today, the Web is well on its way to rewarding those chiropractors who take advantage of what it has to offer.

The Internet has had a great effect on how chiropractic services are offered. Some chiropractors keep the use of the Internet simple, limiting themselves to e-mail to communicate with other chiropractic professionals. Others have embraced the Internet wholeheartedly — using it as a communication and marketing resource.

If you are winding down your practice towards retirement, jumping into the Web is probably not important. But if you are trying to build or maintain a successful practice in today’s environment, ignoring the Internet could be a major mistake.

Consider these Web-site strategies:

1. Convenience. People expect convenience today.

If you think of a Web site as a support or contact center, you can see a wide range of advantages for your patients. By providing constant access to essential information — from the practice phone number and driving directions to frequently asked questions and the doctor’s biography — you can use the Internet to serve patients 24 hours a day without requiring them to make a visit or call.

2. Business. A second strategy for your Web site is to use it to transact business — that is, to bring in revenue.

Imagine presenting all the products offered to patients in your practice — supplements, pillows, mattresses, wallets, ointments, etc. — in a store that never closes. The never-closing store can also provide detailed information about every product without the aid of a sales clerk.

A business strategy is also a convenience strategy, because a Web-based retail store is a convenience to your patients. They can buy products whenever they need them. And if you have your business center properly designed, they can even pay their bills online to you.

3. Education. A third strategy for your Web site is to use it for education.

As an educational vehicle, the Internet presents opportunities for you to reach potential audiences with important messages and educational topics.

While print remains the more familiar format for chiropractic educational materials, the Internet can be a great support medium. You can provide visitors with information about subjects ranging from exercises and posture to diet and nutrition. Your Web site can supplement print publications, such as brochures and newsletters.

In fact, some practitioners are using their Web sites to provide comprehensive information that would otherwise be published only in specialized health publications.

Additionally, your site can link visitors to other educational sites for enhanced patient education.

4. Marketing. Marketing is the fourth strategic use of your Web site.

But to leverage your Web site as a powerful marketing tool, you will have to change your utilization of it — from a static publication to a proactive medium that communicates with patients and draws them into your practice.

E-mail communication is one way to achieve this. When you obtain permission to send patients periodic marketing e-mails, you have the potential to create a dramatic response.

Some of the most effective newsletter systems have an added feature that allows e-mail subscribers receiving a newsletter to forward the issue to a friend. This serves as an e-mailed referral with your name and information on the newsletter. This is called viral marketing — your customers willingly promote you on their own.

7 ways a Web site can change your practice

Here are seven ways that a well-designed Web site can help your practice:

  1. Credibility. With your credentials and other information about you posted online, patients become acquainted with you before they come into the office.
  2. Regular communication. A well-designed Web site can provide more consistent communication with your patients through monthly newsletters.
  3. Patient convenience. Patients can communicate through e-mail and your Web site; they are not tied to your office hours to contact you.
  4. Improved efficiency. Patients can download and complete forms prior to coming in to your office. Or, with the right technology, they can complete their patient-intake forms online for even better efficiency.
  5. Increased revenues. Patients can order products directly from your Web site.
  6. Improved visibility. An active Web site makes it easier for patients to find you, with a map on your Web site and through search engines.
  7. Better patient education. A good Web site can serve as a vehicle for effective patient education.

Internet technologies are constantly evolving. No matter which strategy fits your practice, be sure to stay informed and adopt new approaches. Your future patients will demand you offer Internet options.

Long ago, people could ignore innovations like automobiles and gasoline, as long as they had a good horse and carriage. Those days are gone, and so will the days of chiropractors being able to ignore the Internet and its tools.

Image Yamia BenhaimYamia Benhaim is the founder of ChiroMatrix.com, and specializes in web consulting for the chiropractic community.