To survive and thrive, Healthcare organizations require an influx of new patients and in 2022, savvy organizations recognize that relying on physician referrals alone is simply not effective.  A multi-channel digital marketing approach is required, with website and landing pages playing center stage.  Yet without a conversion-centric website strategy, it will be next to impossible to convert traffic, paid or organic, into patients (learn about 7 Completely Avoidable Healthcare Marketing Mistakes in 2022 in part 1 of this series). To generate qualified leads, medical facilities are taking the time to research the psychology and motivation behind their prospective patients and apply these learnings in a customer-centric website design.  In digital marketing terms, this is leveraging the power of conversion rate optimization (CRO), the practice of increasing the percentage of users who perform a desired action on a website.

Below are 7 CRO healthcare marketing strategies to increase patient conversions:

1. Highlighting Benefits/USPs Above the Fold:  The simplest way to differentiate yourself from the competition is to identify your organization’s unique selling points (USPs).  A well-formulated USP focuses on a customer-centric lens which expresses your benefits and service offerings through real customer value.  Consider what your potential customer’s unique needs or challenges are and how your organization can solve them. These benefits should be some of the first elements a user sees above the fold on your home page. According to website builder for WordPress Elementor, “above-the-fold refers to the portion of a webpage that is visible without further scrolling or clicking. Designers place the highest priority items above the fold as this area gets the most user attention and readership.”
2. Adding Social Proof to Gain Trust:  Social proof is a means of validating your organization from third-party sources. These informational sources can hugely influence your clients’ sales journey.  According to lead gen software provider optinmoster “Social proof is a psychological phenomenon where people conform to the actions of others under the assumption that those actions are reflective of the correct behavior. Marketers use social proof as a tactic for conversion rate optimization by easing the minds of worried customers.” For medical and healthcare organizations social proof include physician ratings, patient testimonials, Google and Yelp reviews (as well as other local citations), medical and business certifications, awards, and any information that can persuade and influence.  Although your social media channels are owned and managed by your own organization, sharing your reviews and testimonials on these platforms helps your potential audience engage with your brand as well.
3. Ensure Your Call to Actions ( CTAs) are Click Worthy: Often appearing in the form of a button or image on a website or landing page, a CTA is a visual and/or textual directive that encourages users to take some form of action.  A critical part of the sales funnel, a well-constructed CTA adds value for the potential customer.  For example, a prospective patient may happily download a free resource about their particular healthcare concern in exchange for their contact details. In this way, you have provided value for the user while achieving your goal of capturing valuable lead information. Not every prospect is ready to “call” or fill out a contact form. Your website needs to provide a variety of CTAs to respond to the needs of users at every stage of the lead generation process.
4. Create a Frictionless Mobile Experience: According to Broadband Search as of January 2022 mobile has taken the lead at just above 55 percent of the market, with desktop devices taking up 42 percent. Mobile optimization, which refers to optimizing a website specifically for mobile devices, is the basis for all mobile digital lead generation efforts.  The goal of mobile (and desktop) optimization is to remove any source of friction so that the user experience is easy, pleasant and provides the user with the information they are seeking. When a customer has to work hard to gain information the chances of them “bouncing” (exiting the site) is high. According to A/B testing platform Crazy Egg, some of the hallmark features of a mobile-optimized website include the following:
   1. Larger buttons
   2. Smaller images
   3. Auto-fill form fields
   4. Auto-detect location settings
   5. Guest checkout option
   6. Multiple screens instead of scrolling
5. Optimize for Click to Call: According to Forrester Research, click-to-call functionality increases ROI by an average of 143%. You can enable click-to-call technology for mobile users by providing website visitors with your phone number via a clickable link. In its most basic form, a click-to-call button is a website feature that allows customers to call you directly from your website.  To increase the number of calls from your website display your phone number prominently on both at the top and bottom of all your website pages, on landing pages and blog pages. Track your efforts by using call tracking and analytics software like CallRail. This allows you to track attribution from various customer journeys (i.e. Google ads, Facebook etc.)  by using dynamically inserted phone numbers for each channel.
6. Optimize Your Website for Page Speed: Slow page load time doesn’t just create a negative user experience it increases bounce rate. Don’t test user patience, make sure your site loads in just seconds.  Adding just a second of page load time can negatively impact user engagement. In research conducted by the Aberdeen Group they found a one-second delay in page load time yielded 11% fewer page views, a 16% decrease in customer satisfaction, and a 7% loss in conversions.  Furthermore, a speedy website will help boost your visibility in Google.  There are many factors that can impact page speed including heavy videos and images, too many plugins, and messy code for starters.  There are free page speed testing tools available that also provide recommendations to fix page load issues. Our favorites include Google Page Speed Insights  and Pingdom Tools.  Both are easy to use and allow you to test both mobile and desktop issues.
7. Use Live Chat to Boost Your Conversion Rate: According to top 10 marketer Neil Patel, live chat can boost your conversion rate by 45%. Live chat tools have been used effectively for years as a customer engagement and support tool as it is a simple and inexpensive way to reach out to prospects and start a direct conversation with them in real-time.  Companies like The Chat Inc. take live chat one step further by using their Live Chat functionality to generate leads by collecting lead information and scheduling appointments with trained lead closing professionals.