A User-Friendly & Attractive Website – Marketing Staple #3
A website is a useful resource of information, as well as a place customers can go before they even visit your office. Websites work for you 24/7, cultivating a sense of familiarity and availability.
Is a Website Really Necessary?
Absolutely. Don’t settle for less than at least a one-page web presence. In our day and age, the initial consumer response to advertising isn’t always a phone call. As a matter of fact, many people – especially the younger, up and coming segments of your target market – want to visit a website, and they want to do it before they call. Even when they think your mailer is pretty and your office looks nice, these folks are not inclined to call if they can’t browse around a website first and get a feel for your practice while in their own environment and comfort zone. There are plenty of barriers to people pursuing dental care, as we’re sure you’re well aware, so you want to do your best not to give them any more excuses not to call. The combination of a good looking and memorable logo, an eye-catching and motivating direct mail piece, and an informational and easily navigated website is a recipe for marketing success.
Mahogany Desk Analogy
In the not-so-distant past, when businessmen wanted to give the impression to clients and colleagues that they were professional and successful, they got big mahogany desks for their offices. This high quality furniture often had quite a commanding presence in an office, almost seeming to yield a position of authority in and of itself. When behind such a desk, the stature of said businessmen could appear greater, as could their abilities and achievements. Nowadays, websites are like mahogany desks once were... A website shows potential patients that your practice is professional and successful. When you have a user-friendly and attractive website, you and your practice have a constant representative with the authority of information and a standing presentation of your branding image.
Plus, the longer you go without a website, the longer you seem “behind the times.” If you’re behind the times with everyday technology like computers and the World Wide Web, what kind of message might that send about the technology that you have in your office? We’ve said it before, but it’s because it’s true – sometimes perception is everything.
Get Your Staff Involved
Your marketing extends from your logo and direct mail pieces, all the way to your individual team members. Get your staff excited about your website. We understand that technology can feel overwhelming to those who are new to it, so teach your staff how to navigate your website. Show them how it can make their daily work responsibilities easier, and how it can make your practice more convenient for patients. For example, first-time visitors to your office can download new patient forms from your website and bring them in already filled out to expedite the paperwork process. Patients can also learn more about your services, technology, and the importance of good oral health. This empowers them with info and better prepares them to accept treatment proposals. People can even apply for CareCredit® financing online from a link on your website.
Be sure that each member of your team has been to your website and can find information that patients may call or ask about. Above all, make sure that your staff knows and shares your web address! An easy-to-remember domain name is a smart domain name. Feel free to ask us for help in brainstorming and researching available domain names.
The Advantage of Marketing Cohesion
One of the advantages to having us design your website is cohesion in marketing, which is crucial for smooth branding. Not that other web designers aren’t expert at what they do and couldn’t design something close to the look and feel of your other marketing pieces, because we’ve seen it done. It’s just easier for us when we’re already designing other marketing projects for you to then design a website that’s true blue, through and through in line with and matching the rest of your marketing. Imagine this scenario: Mom gets your mailer in her mailbox, it catches her eye and she likes the “feel” of it, so she goes to your website. When we’ve designed your website, too, Mom then gets that same feeling when she’s browsing it and this hopefully leads her to call your office. At least we believe this is more likely when a custom website and mailer can validate and reinforce each other with the same graphics.
To learn about the website optimization procedures that come with the design of our sites, see LEARN MORE.
Three-Star Website (1-5 pages)
Design Fee: $2,750
Four-Star Website (6-10 pages)
Design Fee: $3,950
Five-Star Website (11-20 pages)
Design Fee: $6,950
Please Note: If you'd like to add a single page to your website, rather than upgrade to the next level, each additional page is $600. If the website is part of a Homestyle Package, each additional page is $450.
Domain Name Registration & Web Hosting
We host all of our websites with GoDaddy (with clients as the owners of their sites). Because we host so many sites, we’ve been able to obtain discounted prices. Right now, it’s only $195 for domain name registration and two years of web hosting. This includes privacy with your registration, to protect you from spammers and others who harvest information online, and emails @ your web address (ex: DrSuccessful@WebAddress.com). If you’d like to register additional domain names to point to your website, it’s $50 per extra name. This is actually a dominant differentiator of our sites: that you own your domain name and site, and that there are no monthly fees. The only maintenance fees we charge are for periodic (semiannual to quarterly) updates, and that’s only when you request them. No other website company in the industry that we know of delivers the high level of customization, total ownership, and affordability that you get in every Practice Cafe designed site.
