The health of your practice now depends on your homepage more than ever before
As the world adjusts to a life of voluntary or even mandatory self-isolation as a result of the current pandemic, you’re probably thinking that elective surgical procedures are the last thing on consumers’ minds. Not true!
As the Panic Phase subsides, internet usage has surged. It will only get busier online during the Boredom Phase as websites become the de-facto primary medium for interaction between you and your audience.
People are about to become starving for engagement, education, and entertainment that distracts them from current events and enables them to feel connected to the outside world. Those that are interested in your service are likely to continue with their online research. They will be looking for one thing – a compelling website that communicates exactly how you can serve them and is responsive to their requests for interaction.
If it wasn’t already, your homepage is now your strongest marketing tool
Because the times call for it, I’m going to be blunt – unless your homepage is getting a 5 out of 5 on every one of our measures, it’s not going to cut it.
The time is now to stop viewing your website as just a website. Instead, view it as one of the few available doors to your practice during a time when most of your colleagues are likely to go into hibernation mode. Your website, right now, is the key to the money you believe you’re worth, the money that enables you to once again do the things you enjoy with the people you love. It’s your ticket to freedom and opportunity. It’s the difference between merely surviving and thriving. It’s your future, and it’s your legacy.
Ignore me now and stagnate tomorrow. Even if your business was doing well before COVID-19, it won’t be long before your smarter colleagues up their game and leave you behind in the dust.
It takes 0.05 seconds for users to form an opinion about your homepage1Sweor.com. 2020. 27 Eye-Opening Website Statistics [Updated For 2020]. [online] [Accessed 13 March 2020]
Yes, that’s 5-centiseconds fast. Here are some other massively relevant statistics:
- 88% of consumers will research product information before they make a purchase online or in the store.2PYMNTS.com. 2020. Study Finds Consumers Research Before They Buy | PYMNTS.Com. [online] [Accessed 13 March 2020].
- 75% of consumers judge a business’s credibility by the design of its website.3Laja, P., 2020. First Impressions Matter: Why Great Visual Design Is Essential | CXL. [online] CXL. [Accessed 13 March 2020]
- 88% of online consumers are less likely to return to a site if they’ve had a bad experience.4business.com. 2020. Design Mistakes That Hurt Conversion – Business.Com – Business.Com. [online] [Accessed 13 March 2020]
Your website is the destination hub for everything else you might be doing – whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok. If a fast, interactive and persuasive website doesn’t greet your audience at some point in their journey, it won’t be long until doubt and uncertainty creep in, and they start looking elsewhere.
For prospective patients seeking benefits that elective medical procedures provide, the stakes are even higher. If your homepage doesn’t demonstrate a clear and reliable solution to your prospective patient’s problem within the first few seconds, they will leave quicker than you can say “cataracts”.
So what can you do?
Audit your homepage
For many of you, the only way you will protect the practice that will give you the life you want is to take your web presence to the next level. I’m not talking about a meagre website make-over, a lick of paint and few new pillows strewn about the place, I’m talking about a full-blown tear-it-down and start again situation.
Sound terrifying? We get it. If you’ve spent years building your website or hundreds of pounds outsourcing the job to various “professionals”, these words won’t be very nice to hear. The good news is, with the right guide, this process is much, much easier than you think. If you don’t have a website yet, then count yourself lucky, because you’ve just saved yourself a heap load of time and energy.
We’ve adapted DigitalMarketer’s 7-point homepage audit to enable you to do just that. Get your editable copy here.
(NOTE: Want to see how your practice marketing measures up against the best in class? Take this 5-minute quiz to see how you stack up in the 9 areas of practice marketing and get specific tips and advice on how you can improve your weak points and better leverage your strengths).
About the author
LiveseySolar
LiveseySolar’s mission is to double the size of 150 cataract and refractive surgery practices. Using our proven marketing frameworks and deep market knowledge, our customers can predictably and sustainably grow their practices so that they can enjoy a healthy balance between both worlds – a successful private practice and a happy life.
Meet our Founders
Rod Solar
Founder & Scalable Business Advisor
Rod co-founded LiveseySolar and acts as a Fractional CMO and Scalable Business Advisor for our customers. He’s on a mission to help transform the lives of 10,000 people with vision correction surgery by 2024. To achieve that, he inspires his customers to make confident decisions that will help 50,000 people take the first step towards vision correction.
LiveseySolar completely transformed the way we were approaching this… We’ve gone from having just the dream of having a practice to having a practice up and running with people making inquiries and booking for procedures… It’s extremely pleasing. We feel lucky we connected with LiveseySolar.
— Dr Matthew Russell, MBChB, FRANZCO, specialist ophthalmic surgeon and founder of VSON and OKKO
Laura Livesey
Founder & CEO
Laura Livesey is the co-founder & CEO of LiveseySolar. She has developed powerful refractive surgery marketing systems that increase patient volumes and profits for doctors, clinics, and hospitals, since 1997.
Rod and Laura know as much about marketing surgery to patients as I know about performing it. They are an expert in the field of laser eye surgery marketing. They know this industry inside out. I believe that they could help many companies in a variety of areas including marketing materials, sales training and marketing support for doctors.
— Prof. Dan Reinstein, MD MA FRSC DABO, founder of the London Vision Clinic, UK
