To achieve success and maximise the use of technology, every business in any industry should have an online presence, including the healthcare industry. People are constantly searching for healthcare solutions on the Internet. Even if your clinic or hospital is well-known, in this modern era, it is almost abnormal when there is no online presence. To convince you even further, here are 6 reasons why your healthcare practice should get a website:
1. Building Awareness
Online marketing is one of the most effective ways for most businesses to get potential leads or sales. Some of the most common online channels would be Google Ads and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). In order to make use of these online platforms, your healthcare practice needs to have a website. Patients would always be searching on Google for the nearest clinic that provides the necessary treatments they are looking for. Hence, with SEO hosting, your website could appear on the first page of search engines such as Bing, Yahoo and Google to reach your targeted audience. If you have no clue what SEO hosting is, read about it on Quora. It also explains why it is important.
2. Cost-effective Marketing Strategy
Compared to printing flyers, brochures, paying for a full-time staff to handle certain tasks may be very time-confusing and expensive. Handling a website costs actually less than most physical marketing activities. Having the right content on your website helps to save manpower by getting their questions answered through the website without the hassle of reaching out to a physical person.
3. 24-hour Customer Support
Gone are the days where patients would have to line up and queue for many hours just to make an appointment or to purchase their necessary medications. With a medical website, you can ease the lives of your patients by providing an easier way for them to access the necessary information, purchase their medications, and also make their appointments. Through having 24/7 customer support online, all enquiries can also be answered without having the need to go out of their way and visit the practice. Whenever they want to inquire if a certain doctor is available, they could easily reach out to online customer service support. Aside from that, you can also have a frequently asked questions (F.A.Q) section to answer the common questions asked by your patients. This will make it easier for them to access information as well, without the need of calling or starting a conversation since the answers are already written on the website.
4. More Credible and Trustworthy
Nowadays, if your business or company does not have a website, it doesn’t seem very credible or deemed as trustworthy. All businesses are expected to have some sort of online presence to portray a positive reputation and image. Ultimately, your patients will always look for a particular medical practice online first before heading over to the physical building. Aside from that, patients are actively seeking details of the medical practice such as the opening hours, address, branches, and so on. By having a proper website, they could easily access all this information and make a quicker decision after choosing the best option for them.
5. Reach A Wider Audience
Without a website, you could be missing out on potential patients from all around the country. For instance, if a patient is currently residing in Penang but is willing to travel to look for a clinic located in Selangor, they will turn to search engines and search for the particular clinics available that offer the treatment they are seeking for. This is why having an online presence is so important. Your healthcare practise could be missing out on potential patients that are not around your geographical area.
6. Be Ahead of the Competition
Trust us – almost every healthcare practice has its own website. Even if they don’t have one, eventually they will. The reason being we are all moving towards digitizing products and services, especially when we live in the era where the majority of the time everyone is either using their phones or on their laptops/desktops. In order to attract the maximum number of patients to your healthcare practice, you need to stay ahead of the competition by outperforming them in every way possible.
