Most
of you have websites for your business. If you don’t,
you are missing out on one of the most cost-effective
ways to market your practice.
Unfortunately, most small business websites are
grossly underachieving. A common reason for this is
no promotional strategy to encourage visitors to their
website. What specific promotional activities are you
using to encourage your patients and potential patients
to visit your website?
If your answer is “not much”, here are six things you
can do to increase the number of people who visit your
website.
1)
Exchange or Trade Links with other sites
Partner
with companies that target the same market you do, but
offer a different product or service. You put a link
to their website on your site and they do the same for
you. Exchanging links with other sites is mutually benefiting
to both sites. When your partner site promotes your
link, they could drive traffic to your site. The more
sites you link to the more people will visit your site.
2)
Use Viral Marketing
Viral
marketing allows you to spread the word about your business
at a low cost. This is a marketing method that can be
quite effective; you can attach information about your
product or service to a certain media such as a funny
video, entertaining game, or an informative article
or e-book.
Make sure you include a link to your website. Then email
it to friends and patients if you have an opt-in email
database. With this strategy, people will forward your
message to friends and co-workers and your business
gets the exposure.
3)
Search and use proper keywords or keyword phrases for
your sites content
Search
engines look for certain keywords that they would show
in their results page. Having the right keywords and
phrases is a critical factor in getting high rankings
in the major search engines. Your web site doesn’t get
ranked high because of flash and fancy graphics. It’s
relevant content that gives you the advantage. Your
website must have information about your industry. Use
key words and phrases of your industry. The more relevant
your web content is to the most popular search requests,
the higher your site will rank in search engines. Higher
rankings mean more visitors.
4)
Write Articles that can lead traffic to your site
Submit
articles to sites or write articles for other peoples
newsletter. Attach your sites description and services
at the end of your articles as well as the link to your
site. Lots of organizations are always looking for content
for their newsletters. This is an effective tactic to
showcase your expertise on a specific topic.
5)
Join Forums and Blogs, Social Networks and other Online
Communities
Contribute
regularly to demonstrate your expertise and credibility.
Find ways to subtly mention your site and how you help
your customers. People will begin to trust you and visit
your site.
6)
Lastly, develop your own e-newsletter
This
is one of the best ways to demonstrate your expertise.
Don’t spend your time talking about your company. Focus
on providing your readers with information that will
help them solve their issues, save money, time or even
improve their self-esteem. Email newsletters are very
good at developing relationships and keeping in touch
with your current patients. You can send one out for
less than $40.00 a month.
