For a great deal of your website, much like public relations (PR), the return on investment (ROI) is not easily quantified. Metrics do exist, but without context and tracking, they can be difficult to quantify into ROI.
Your website should tell a story, lots of stories, ideally stories that are told and shared by one potential customer to another or by one satisfied customer to a potential customer. The value and credibility when one person provides information about your practice to someone else is immeasurable.
It is possible to use a page on your company website that replicates conventional “call to action” marketing pieces. These are called “landing pages,” and the ROI of these pieces can be directly measured with proper analytics and tracking.
However, much of your company’s website pages should serve to replace and/or replicate outdated outbound marketing systems, for example:
- SEO and Google My Business (GMB) is the new Yellow Pages – “Googling” a business for their address and/or phone number has replaced the old yellow pages book as a source for directory information.
- Your Website is the Brochure – Your website is an opportunity to provide information about your practice with the advantage of being able to present considerably more information than the average office brochure with the added ability of frequent updates and edits as your company evolves.
Related: How To Set Up Your Google My Business Page
A customer’s first impression of you and your business used to be via the yellow pages. Their expectations were fairly low and they were never really able to form an impression about your business. The Internet has changed the potential customers “first impression” experience and, more importantly, it has changed their “first impression” expectations.
We also suggest that client’s use their website to reinforce a sale after the sale has been made and to prevent buyer’s remorse. You’ve spent 60 – 90 minutes with your patient. Hopefully but not realistically you’ve answered every question they have and allayed every fear they may have after they leave your office. Your website can help to answer unasked questions and allay latent fears that any consumer who just spent thousands of dollars is bound to have.
In short, ROI of your website is tough to directly quantify since your website is designed to serve so many functions. But in this day and age, it may be even tougher to operate your business with the opportunity costs of not have a website for your practice. If your business is not online, you may not exist to many potential patients in your target demographic.
