What’s the real purpose of your website?
For most companies, the idea is to serve your community and bring in new patients.
Unfortunately, that focus can lead to websites that do the exact opposite — they focus so much on you, the company, that you drive new leads away.
How can you build an effective website that reflects your patient-centered way of running your practice?
It's simple: You create a patient-centered website.
To do this, we recommend the book "Building A StoryBrand" by Don Miller. It's a must-read for anyone who wants to great a powerful connection to their patients and leverages the power of story.
Here are seven tips for creating a "StoryBrand website" in the clinic space.
Who’s the Hero?
Did you know that everyone’s favorite word is their own name? Studies show that we have a unique brain activation when we hear our own name compared to others.
The first tip for building a StoryBrand website is to take advantage of that knowledge to build a strong, trusting relationship with your prospective customers from the very first sentence of your site.
How do you do that? You don’t know exact names, but you can make them feel known by focusing on a strong desire, related to your products and services, which is common to your ideal customers.
Talk about how their life is better once they get that desire — which you can help them do.
When you start by bringing up this desire, every ideal customer will feel like you’re speaking directly to them, which is the entire point — they are the hero of the story!
Once you share that, be sure your “Book An Appointment” button is easy to find. You don’t want to lose a sale from someone who immediately sees the benefit of your offer.
What’s the Problem?
If everyone could achieve their ideal goals easily, we’d have a perfect society. Of course, that isn’t the case. The reality is that there are obstacles when we try to achieve our aims.
By talking about the problems that your ideal customer faces, you once again help them feel known.
When you address the external, internal, and philosophical issues they face, you leave them whispering, “How do they know???” The key is to talk about both the actual problem and the prospect’s emotion because of that problem.
When you dial in on the feeling, the desire to overcome the obstacle gets much stronger.
How To Be The Guide
In a wedding, the bride is the center of everyone’s attention. However, in an effective website, the guide (which is your company) needs to be secondary but essential in helping solve the problem.
How do you communicate that without becoming the hero? By focusing on how you’re similar to the customer (empathy) and how you can be trusted to help them (authority). You want to ensure that you display both empathy and authority in a way the customer can understand.
Consider using patient testimonials, brief statistics, and social proof like the logos of businesses you’ve worked with or places you’ve been featured.
Don’t get into a long-winded discussion of the history of your business and how great of a leader you are — even though you certainly are. The focus here is on how you can help patients.
What’s the Plan?
The plan is the way that your product or service helps the customer achieve their goals.
The best StoryBrand websites break this down into a few easy-to-understand steps that clearly lead customers to their primary desire. We like to break down your plan from start to finish in three steps.
For whatever reason, people like 3's. How can you break up the process for recovery (or whatever success looks like for your patients) into three steps?
We often recommend something like:
Here's our simple process:
1. Book an appointment.
2. Get a personalized treatment plan.
3. Start seeing results right away.
What does this do? It simplifies an otherwise confusing process of signing up with you. It helps people visualize what is involved in working with you. Great guides have a plan. It's ok to tell people your plan. It helps them trust you.
Now it's their time to do something about it.
Call Them to Action
You might think it’s silly that you have to tell a patient where to click, or to pick up the phone and call you.
Silly or not, it’s a reality born out by thousands of user tests. People don’t act unless they are told to. So tell them! Call them to take action on the plan.
Put a “Book An Appointment” button all over your site. Make it easy for someone to click the moment they are ready to go with you.
It’s not pushy; it’s confident. You’ve shown that you understand their desires and challenges. You’ve proved you’re a valuable guide and have a clear plan. Asking for the sale is the next logical step, and you’ll see the conversions that result.
The Customer Avoids Failure
At this point, your website has done a lot of work connecting with your ideal customer. However, what’s the purpose of taking action now if it doesn’t matter?
But it does matter, and that’s what you have to show the customer next. There’s a lot a stake in their next move.
Start by talking about the negative emotions and failures they’ll avoid by taking action on your plan. Remind them of the problems they face and that they’ll have to keep living with them if there’s no step forward.
You don’t have to overdo it and become overdramatic. But make sure it’s clear that the problems will remain or get worse without action.
And Celebrates Their Success!
We all love a movie with a happy ending, and an effective StoryBrand website has a great finish as well. Talk about how the customer will feel when they achieve their goals.
You can use testimonials, lists, or even videos to show customers what their life will look like after using your product or service. Talk about how it will be better and how your customer, the hero, will have saved the day.
Are You Ready to Make Your Website Effective?
If you don’t make changes to your website to make it more effective, you’ll get the same results you’ve always gotten.
After all, “Doing the same thing and expecting different results is the definition of insanity.”
However, if you use StoryBrand website design, you’ll see a big change in your business.
You’ll attract more ideal leads, convert them at a much higher rate, and connect authentically with your patients.
You’ll be able to make the difference with your practice that you always dreamed of — in your own life, in your community, and with your patients.
Are you ready for a truly effective website that shows off the patient as the hero of the story? If so, we’re here to help.
If you're not a Clinic Sites customer already, why not start a free trial today by clicking here.
