Mini Contact Forms

“Mini Contact Forms” provide Internet users with two very important things:

• Ease of Use – The form is simple and can be filled out quickly
• Accessibility – The LASIK practice can be contacted on any page they are on

The idea behind providing Internet users with mini contact forms is to give the website a personal touch and to make getting contact with the practice as easy as possible.
Most of the time, when a user visits a LASIK website, he or she looks for specific information, and if they can’t find it within two clicks, they go back to the search engine to find another website that will give it to them.

If the user is willing to contact your ophthalmology practice, he or she doesn’t want to search for a way to contact you; the user wants to be able to send you an email immediately. By placing mini contact forms in the same location on every page of your website, users are able to give you their information fast, without needing to go to a separate contact page.

Many times, our mini contact forms will be accompanied by calls to action, like “Speak With One of Our Doctors,” “Schedule a Free Consultation,” “Contact Our Practice,” or “Speak With Dr. Joe.”

Recently, we had a client using a mini contact form that was averaging 900 emails a month. They asked us to replace the mini contact form with just a call to action. We objected, but they insisted and we did it. The very same day, their emails dropped to almost nothing, and stayed that way for a couple weeks.

After seeing next to no activity for a while, we suggested to the client asked us to place the mini contact form back on the site. Their emails immediately jumped back up to an average of 30 per day.

We believe that the faster a visitor can access a practice, the better. Mini contact forms are not only easy to use, but they allow the user top access the practice as quickly as possible. By providing this, mini contact forms can generate more activity for your website.

Following are some examples of ophthalmology websites with mini contact forms:

• The Carter Eye Center in Dallas, TX
• Griffin & Reed Eye Care in Sacramento, CA
• Berg·Feinfield Vision Correction in Los Angeles, CA
• Buckley Vision Institute in Colorado Springs, CO

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. Some ophthalmology 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 sometimes a small window of time and opportunity when consumers research LASIK services and are in the market for a surgeon.
• The majority of website-based leads come in the form of emails, rather than phone calls.

What does all of this mean?

It means that you only have a concentrated period of time to do multiple follow-up with email-based leads if you want to convert more of them into patients. 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 patients:

• Secret shop your practice’s website and your biggest competitors' to see how you compare. Don't make the mistake of assuming you are the only website a prospect visits or contacts.
• 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 patients moving down the decision-making path that leads to your front door.
• 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.

Talk to your Page 1 account manager to learn more.

Bill Fukui
Page 1 Solutions

Now I'm a Believer...In Web Video

Using video on the web isn't a new idea, but historically, it's been very problematic. Bandwidth used to be the biggest problem. It used to be that in order to put video on the web, you had to compress it until the picture was barely recognizable, and the viewing area had to be the size of a miniature post-it note.

As bandwidth becomes less and less of an issue, more clients are deciding to use video on their sites. I used to be a bit skeptical as to whether or not this was a good idea. Because of the conflicting platform standards out there, it's still possible that if you put video on your site, some people might not be able to view the video, which can mean that the viewer is prompted to download software and/or there's a gaping hole in your site. That can hurt credibility, and certainly means that, more than likely, someone who encounters these problems is going to leave your site and find the information they need elsewhere.

Having said all that; having presented the worst case scenario, it's now safe to say that the matters that made video risky in the past have settled enough to make video a worthwhile venture for a LASIK practice marketing itself on the web. The Internet has grown to embrace video, and some suspect that the Internet and television will eventually merge to the point that a website without video will seem archaic. But let's focus on the present.

Video can do so much more for you than just making your site look more high-tech. By adding more types of media to your site, you increase your exposure on the web. There are entire sites on the web that are dedicated to people looking for video. So, if you have a video about farsighted astigmatism, you could submit your video to all of those video sites in hopes of getting more incoming links, and therefore more exposure. Search engines like Google and Alta Vista have entire pages of search results dedicated to serving up video, audio, and images as search results. Those results won't likely generate new patients directly, but indirectly, this diversity in media can make your site more successful in the eyes of the search engines.

Video also increases your credibility. The public perception of video on the website is definitely that video is technically impressive, but it also sends the message that you know what you're talking about. Like it or not, if you say it on video, you're message is more convincing.

Lastly, video increases the time that the average person spends on your site. Not everyone will watch your video, and those that do watch your video are not likely to watch the entire video unless it's very short, but that's not crucial. A longer visitor session is more likely to generate an email than a brief, thirty second visit. If you can extend your average visitor session to four minutes or more, you'll find that you're getting more emails.

So, if you have a video that you send out to potential patients, consider putting it on your website. For example, if you're featured on the news, be sure to get that video out there. If you don't have any video, don't worry. Page 1 is now offering custom video production that will bring your practice to life on the web. Contact us today for more information and don't let a web marketing resource go to waste.

Jonathan Fashbaugh
Page 1 Solutions

Create Authoritative Sites

The following is a quote from Planet Ocean's monthly newsletter -

"However, you can bet it's going to be the most authoritative sites with the best incoming links that will continue to rule the top of the search results."

To those of us who have been working with search engine marketing for LASIK surgeons over the last five years, this is no surprise. Gone are the days when you could just post a 5-10 page LASIK practice website that lists your practice areas and bios for the doctors and expect it to be successful. If you want to get good search engine results you need to have exceptional content that stands out from other practices in your area. Remember, consumers are not interested in practices with pretty pictures on their site. They want to find information that is helpful to them and they want to visit a doctor that demonstrates a level of knowledge and expertise in handling their specific problem.

Oh, and by the way, the second part of the Planet Ocean quote had to do with incoming links. Guess what. If you have the most authoritative content, you will attract more links from other websites. They will want to link into your website because it will be a good resource for consumers.

It all comes down to content.

How does your website's content stack up to the other ophthalmology websites in your market? Is your website the authority website? If not, you might want to rethink your LASIK website marketing strategy.

Dan Goldstein
Page 1 Solutions