Podiatry Clinic Websites | Podiatry Marketing 8

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Tyson E. Franklin:

Introduction and Guest Introduction

Tyson E. Franklin: Hi, I'm Tyson Franklin. And with me today is Jim McDanald.

The Importance of Clinic Websites

Tyson E. Franklin: And we are going to talk about clinic websites. Now I need some, Whoa, Hey, some cheering going on in the background. Jim, how are you doing?

Jim McDannald, DPM: well. Hopefully people aren't, going too crazy and excitement for, for some website talk. But I think, we've talked a lot of.

Tyson E. Franklin: I'm going to put some applause. I'm going to put some applause in the background when I

Jim McDannald, DPM: that's probably the only way we're going to get applause is if you apply it to this podcast. But, we've talked on a lot of different subjects that they probably more on a, I wouldn't say like theoretical level, but just some thoughts behind why you're doing marketing or what the purpose behind it is.

But today we're going to get a little bit more tactical as far as now that you feel like you want to do something in this space, so how are you actually going to get certain things done?

Tyson E. Franklin: So all websites aren't equal, are they? It's all podiatry clinics are not the same.

Jim McDannald, DPM: No, there's definitely not all equal, right? there's, that's a pretty, there's so much differentiation as far as number one, who's going to build it, what's going to be [00:01:00] on your website, what kind of platform is it built on to give you, functionality to save your staff time.

we'll dive into all of those things today. But yeah, it's, there's no shortage of like details you can get into in a deep dive with clinic websites.

Tyson E. Franklin: Okay.

Building Your Own Website vs Hiring a Professional

Tyson E. Franklin: So I have a quick question when it comes to websites. I know some podiatrists just do it themselves. They jump onto certain platforms and they just do it. Or like myself, I've gone to somebody else and had the website made for me. What is the difference? why not just do it yourself? Or why should you have somebody

Jim McDannald, DPM: No, for sure. That's a great question. I think there's really four different kinds of ways to go about having a clinic website, built. And I think you, you touched on one of them is that there are a lot of, user friendly tools, and platforms out there today, whether it be, Squarespace or WordPress or Wix, so it feels very approachable.

And some of these tools are free as well. and they have these user interfaces now that, that make it. Feel like it's going to be easy to build a [00:02:00] website and you definitely can build, I would say like a, it's easy to build like a brochure style website doing it yourself, but you're giving up some of the kind of, some kind of advanced, technology or tools that are going to cost a bit of money to, obviously make it a better user experience for potential patients, but also having it tied into other marketing channels.

Online scheduling and other stuff that, builds into the second aspect of it. If you're not going to do it yourself, the next step is what I'd say is, either a local internet, website builder, or, as someone that doesn't actually know the specialty of podiatry a little bit,

Tyson E. Franklin: So one of the fears I've heard people say, or one of the, one of the problems I've seen people have in the past, they've gone to somebody else, have the website built for them, and it's a person working in their basement and they do the website, they get all set up, it looks great, but then that person decides a year later to go back and become an accountant or do whatever it was that they were doing before, they don't hand over any passwords.

[00:03:00] The person that's got the website doesn't know how to get back into it. And I've heard that happening a lot.

Jim McDannald, DPM: I think that's a good point, especially when you're building yourself or building it with someone that's maybe not fully committed to that is that, the technology is always changing. The way that the websites looked and the way that the, these different tools, needs specific types of maintenance and updates, if you just set it and forget it from 10 years ago, and you think your website's good now, it still might function, but it may not be secure.

Like you said, if someone, ups and leaves and doesn't give you access to those things, that, that can be a huge, problem for your business, right? If you're... you're trying to get patients to come to your website and make appointments and that functionality, they're not working or someone's not minding the store in a way, it can be a huge lost opportunity for any practice.

Tyson E. Franklin: Cause I've heard, I was a podiatrist. I posted something in the podiatry business owners club a couple of weeks ago, and somebody mentioned something about, Oh, my website, I had not [00:04:00] looked at my website in seven years and it still just kicks ass compared to everybody else's. And I went and had a look at it and I went, it looks like a dog's breakfast.

Jim McDannald, DPM: that's it.

Tyson E. Franklin: And that's why the fear of sometimes when you do your own website, like I always say, sometimes even parents with ugly kids think they look good.

Jim McDannald, DPM: it's one of those things too, right? these tools are available, so it almost feels like you're like mastering how to build websites by doing, by using some of these tools because they are easy to use. And usually they're a lot less expensive, right? Sometimes people go with that.

Person in the basement or that local provider that doesn't either know podiatry or how to really build out pages about podiatry because. It's less expensive and, and maybe like when you're just starting out or you're, you want to know a little bit about the technology, I think it's okay to experiment with some of these tools, but really, if you want it to, like I mentioned, save your staff time or more be like a kind of the center of your entire kind of like online presence, you're going to want to have someone, committed to it on a consistent basis.

And [00:05:00] that's going to require a little bit more money, and a little bit more investment, in order to make that happen.

Tyson E. Franklin: my friend, Nicky Jed, that that I've mentioned a few times to you, who did my website. And when I talked about podiatrists and some of them doing their own websites and wanting to do it on the cheap and not wanting to get a, somebody to do the website for them properly. And she made a comment to me once and I just went, Oh, this is so true.

She went, you know what? I can probably pick up a pair of clippers and treat my partner's ingrown toenail as well. But I choose to get a professional to do it. She goes, so when I hear these podiatrists say, Oh no, I don't want to spend that money to get a proper website. She goes, yeah, there'll be the same podiatrists that will complain that people go to a chemist shop to buy their orthotics.

Or we'll go and see their local general practitioner to get an ingrown toenail done and not done by them. He said, you sometimes get what you give out.

Jim McDannald, DPM: No, for sure. And like I said, there's this kind of it feels very approachable and it, and you can build some aspect of a website yourself. So like the, like the next levels of [00:06:00] abstraction away from, either doing it yourself or hiring someone locally, at a low cost.

but you do get what you pay for. the next step beyond that, I would say is. More like a high volume, like a podiatry website developer or just a medical kind of, sometimes you see these practice, what's a practice growth engines. I don't want to, I'm not here to slam anyone, but, definitely there, there's larger companies out there available that.

maybe in the ballpark for 1, 000 or 1, 500 a month, that they're going to give you access to a little bit of tools. But with some of these different providers, you don't actually own your website anymore, that it's built on their platform. and while it might be a beneficial website, if tomorrow they decided to start charging you double and you don't own any of the content that's currently on your website, the problem becomes that you're going to have to start all the way back from zero again.

Understanding Website Ownership and Exclusivity

Jim McDannald, DPM: How do people work that out? How do some, how do you know if your website, whether you own your website or whether you don't?

yeah, so it's really in the contract you have [00:07:00] or the kind of the service agreement you have with whatever provider you're using, for me, like I write out very clearly, in any kind of service agreement, I work with podiatry clinics and do this for them. so they can see that they own that content.

They own their domain name. They own the kind of the stuff that we worked on together that they paid for, during, utilizing the services I provide. So it should be in that contract information. And sometimes it's in the fine print and you really have to know. for example, like patient pop is one perfect example of a company that I've heard provides good results for folks.

but there's no, no clause there that where you actually own all that content. they own that content that's on your website. So if they decide to charge you double tomorrow. your only recourse is to start from scratch. Also, you have to be aware of that different providers don't always have, an exclusivity clause in your local area.

if you have a website that's built on a specific platform. And two other podiatrists, either in your town or straight down the street from you, you want to use that same [00:08:00] provider. Some of these services don't provide like local exclusivity. And if you're going to have somebody work on your behalf to build a website or to help you build an online presence, you want to know that they're working in your best interests.

So it's really important to know that whatever, whoever you work with. and the reason that if they are charging 1, 000 a month, very likely they're looking at you at, from a volume standpoint, they want. A hundred of you or a thousand podiatry websites, they don't just want one or two or 10, they're looking at a significant volume of websites to, to be managing and to be building.

Tyson E. Franklin: Okay. So when you build websites with people, do you do it on a monthly fee or do you do a flat fee, build the website and leave it? How do you go

Jim McDannald, DPM: so that's a good question. So I'm that 4th entity. I'm that podiatrist that knows how to write, knows how to, write podiatry content. Build websites, build in tools to, for scheduling and doing those different things, but it's, it is on a monthly retainer, right? it's one of these [00:09:00] things where, depending on the needs of that clinic and what they're trying to achieve in their practice.

It's building out a custom set of different, marketing, tools and utilizing different marketing strategies to really benefit the practice and, get those specific types of patients they want to have coming into their clinic.

Tyson E. Franklin: Okay. okay. okay. I think I've got that right in my head. So when you're building a website for someone, you're not just building a website. You're also helping them manage that website month to make sure they're putting the right

Jim McDannald, DPM: Yeah. It's some of the stuff we've talked about in previous episodes, to be honest, Tyson, we first, you have to know. who is the clinic and who is the doctor you're working with to understand what's going to give them, financials, financial freedom, but also professional satisfaction, what do they want to see more of in their practice?

You could call it that way. so it starts with like understanding what their vision and what they want to build. and then it's up to me to help translate that into something digital, starting with a website, because that's really your. home base for your online presence [00:10:00] on the internet.

It's a great functional website. So understanding what that is, and then it's about building out content around that vision or what that objective is. I think a lot of no patient comes to a website looking for, 30 paragraphs about heel pain or, or just a wall of text. They want to see themselves sitting in the treatment chair and seeing that doctor, that team of, at the podiatry clinic taking care of them.

So it's a matter of coordinating different types of media where that also be. photographs, videos, written content, and just building out a website that really projects that level of expertise, is where I come in, not only from a building standpoint, but also. Maintaining and also gradually, improving over time.

Tyson E. Franklin: Yeah. And you're doing this mainly for North America, aren't you? So if someone's listening to this in Australia, just contact me and I'll tell you

Jim McDannald, DPM: Yeah, no, that, that works. the great thing about being a digital marketer, building [00:11:00] out websites for people that can build it anywhere. Obviously, some of your contacts might have a better understanding of, an Australia, Australian podiatrist or a podiatrist in New Zealand, or other folks on your side of the planet, but yeah, definitely, worked with mostly us based podiatrists in the past, but definitely Canadians or anyone else that.

just wants to know more about, building out websites, but, that's that's the different differentiation as far as the different providers. there's different types of tools and kind of platforms, I would say that also can make a difference in how many tools can be plugged into that, is important.

Obviously in the United States, it's about being HIPAA compliant as well to making sure that your tools are not, being scofflaws when it comes to patient privacy and other things like that. making sure that whatever platform the website is built on is adaptable, and willing to play within the rules of whatever location that it's based in.

Key Elements of a Successful Clinic Website

Tyson E. Franklin: Okay, so what are the sections, if you're looking at a website, there must be certain sections that you think should be on the website. It's not just like one [00:12:00] page and it's like a brochure that you see, sometimes you just scroll through them. It's one thing after another thing and it just keeps going.

What sections do you think are mandatory on a

Jim McDannald, DPM: Yeah. So I'd say the first and most important thing is the homepage, right? And the home, when you look at the homepage, it's what is that banner image? showing right when you land, right? Because that's the kind of first impression that you make, as a practice and as a provider is when someone lands on your homepage.

So making sure what a

Tyson E. Franklin: So I'm being sent a center stage. What is this? What is it? What is center stage when they turn up?

Jim McDannald, DPM: that might be a throwback to a different episode. I'm not sure. but if you haven't listened to that episode, check out episode seven. but yeah, you just want to have that be very clear to the paid, and the patient's mind, no confusion about. what you, the type of care that you want to provide.

and then it's just, building trust on that homepage. Maybe it's showing things like, the number of reviews you have on Google or some actual written patient reviews, just building trust and rapport with that patient. And then as you build out different sections of that website, it's really about, I would say what type [00:13:00] of treatment, if you don't have it on your homepage, what are the other types of treatment you want to provide?

do you want to do heel pain? Do you want to provide surgery? having some very clearly, and well designed pages on those topics is hugely important. also on that homepage, before I jump too far, is that you would make sure your phone number and the way to contact you in your clinic stands out visually.

So that there's, people don't have to click three times, search like two pages deep and wonder where's your phone number and where is that either contact form or way to make an online appointment, I'd say.

Tyson E. Franklin: I've seen that on some websites where especially podiatry websites, I'll look at them and I can't find their phone number. I can't find their phone number. I can't find their email address. And I'm missing, where's the contact section? And I'm scrolling down the page and eventually I'll find out where they are.

I'm going, Oh, that, that is annoying. I reckon it should be really

Jim McDannald, DPM: And you're probably motivated to find their numbers, right? Can you imagine someone that's just looking around to see who the professional, heel pain specialist in the [00:14:00] area and there's no way to contact them. It's really clearly, on their website. What are they going to do?

They're going to bounce back to Google and probably go to a different clinic. And that's just what's going to happen if you don't have a website that kind of brings them in and shows them how to contact you or give them that kind of a good user or kind of a good patient experience. beyond that, I think it's important as far as like displaying your location and your hours, or at least a link to that.

so they know how do they get to where you're at. That's probably one of the most common reasons that maybe people my generation or older will, will call into a clinic. If you can, and this is one of the ways you can save time for your staff. you don't want them on the phone, either taking credit card numbers or having to get people like verbal directions.

If you have a link on your website. That's really easy. it's a huge time saver for you and for your staff. so they can really provide a great in clinic experience for the patients that are already there and not just be hanging on the phone. not wasting time, but just like their time is better used in other ways.

also I would say that like an all, an online bill [00:15:00] pay, like I mentioned, You don't want someone on the phone and running over a credit card. that's not a good use of your staff's time. Have an online bill pay link on the website. Also having a link to,

Tyson E. Franklin: don't give it, don't give out accounts, even in Australia, I know North America is a bit different, but in Australia, simple way, don't give out accounts, then you don't have to chase any up. Just, that's my tip.

Jim McDannald, DPM: yeah, there's definitely different ways to everyone wants to pay with a credit card

Tyson E. Franklin: Yeah.

Jim McDannald, DPM: So you've got to have that option. obviously a link to like your, our team or to who you are. So people really want to learn about, how are you contributing to the community? What's your background and your training?

you do have that there, but it shouldn't necessarily be all about you on your homepage. It should be more about the needs of your patient, and what they're searching for. And the last but not least, having it like, like I said, with a phone number or a contact form, making it brutally plain to see like multiple ways for them to interact and get onto your clinic schedule.

It's hugely important. So those are the kind of like the sections [00:16:00] or the links that should be on a homepage to really like Show patients like who you are and the services you provide.

Tyson E. Franklin: especially the whole online booking. When my last podiatry, I sold it five years ago and back then we were the online booking was just starting to come in and I was very much against online bookings. I was like, no, I like the personal touch of the phone. You can ask questions. But probably the last 10 times I've either seen a physio, my GP, or any other health provider, I've gone to the website and I'm looking for the online booking thing because it is so much easier to just get online, book it at night time, in my time.

I don't have to worry about doing it during the day. Find a spot, book myself in, so I can really see the advantage of having the whole online, the online booking portal. You've got to

Jim McDannald, DPM: No, a hundred percent, especially with the way that, people interact these days, especially people younger than us. their preferred ways of communicating is much different than older generations. I would say [00:17:00] by having multiple ways to contact your clinic, whether it be through... The phone number or through the contact form.

Some people are using chat bots and other ways to text, can be beneficial. but like the younger generation doesn't want to talk to anybody on the phone these days. They want to text or have a website to be able to make that book that appointment or move it forward. So if you're, I think there is a bit of a trade off, right?

your ability to filter patients has maybe decreased a little bit when you do have some of these. online booking, systems. I think some of them are better than others as far as when you're allowed to make an appointment. Cause I know that, controlling your time and really seeing the patients you want to see is really important.

For certain providers, certain podiatrists compared to others, but really the more, the more successful you are, the further along you in practice, the more volume you're seeing, the kind of, the more you can filter things out. But like I said, you want to make sure you have ways for these different forms of communication or this way, these paid protective patients want to communicate with you and you're not, if you just have a phone [00:18:00] number there, that's not clickable.

And there's no contact form or no way to text your clinic. You're really going to be missing out, especially if you're trying to go after a younger, more active, clientele in a way.

Tyson E. Franklin: So what's your thinking on having a blog section? And how often should someone write a blog and put it on the

Jim McDannald, DPM: So the way I address blogging, it might be a little bit different than some of the other service providers out there, but to me, the first step of any good website, something like I talked about either with the treatments or the kind of. The things you treat, you should have dedicated pages to things like heel pain and plantar fasciitis or surgery or just obviously those things you want to see a lot of.

I see blogging as more a way to connect with your community, to show involvement in your community. To show partnerships you have with other either health care providers or other local businesses. It's a way to get their name out, in front of your audience or on your website and basically produces links back to their website.

So to me, blogging is really about [00:19:00] connecting with, like I said, these partners either be medical or local businesses. Giving them some, FaceTime on your website or on your social channels. And then that link building aspect. But I would say that until you really have a solid foundation with all those different sections I'd mentioned previously and pages built out for all the different types of care you want to provide, like blogging is like that, the cherry on top or the frosting as opposed to the real foundation of a strong website strategy.

Tyson E. Franklin: Yeah. So some of these other things you're talking about are more like evergreen articles where you'll talk about neuromas and you'll have these different things of things that you enjoy treating. And you'll have a good article written on that is probably not going to get changed or edited in any way.

So they're always going to be there. And then the blog come in over the top. Talk, especially like topical items, like I usually recommend to people when the Australian opens on, or say, Wimbledon or the US Open. Every day,[00:20:00] do a search for foot injuries, say US Open, foot injuries, Australian Open. And if there's a player, high profile player, that's hurt their foot, Then write a blog article about it because people are searching for that information and it's a great way of just popping up in the news items that, that people actually want to read

Jim McDannald, DPM: Yeah, that can be a successful strategy once you get these basics done. I think along the long lines that we're talking about here with those kind of These kind of standard pages or these kind of built out kind of resources for different topics about things you want to treat is that you're having a section that is like a Q and A, like a frequently asked questions, like when should I see a podiatrist about heel pain?

When should I, what can I do? What are some home remedies now that you're going to be treating via your website? But there's certain things that are already out there on MayoClinic. com or WebMD and stuff. You're never going to beat those folks, but just having some helpful resources that answer some basic questions.

Or help educate patients about some of the things that you treat. So when they come to your practice, they're [00:21:00] like teed up and they have a general expectation of what you're going to do. One section I did forget about, which can be very valuable both on an organic and a paid way, is what are called the Areas We Serve pages.

a lot of times patients are, and this is what I built, build a lot with the clinics I work with, even if they have a reasonably good website or they've had someone build one two years ago and now they want to work. With somebody new, people are searching for podiatrist, Boston, foot surgeon, Boston, but it's not only the Boston area.

Maybe someone lives in a suburb of Boston. So finding those five or six different suburbs, maybe around where you practice or the nearby towns where you practice. And build out like a specific page that you treat, patients from Smithville or Morristown or somewhere. so when people do talked about when people are searching for podiatrist, Morristown or, podiatrist, Boston, you're going to come up in the rankings.

And this is something we're going to get into a little bit [00:22:00] later on in a different show around search engine optimization and how you can. give people what they're looking for and Google with a relevant result that might benefit your practice as well.

Tyson E. Franklin: Yeah. That was actually going to be my final question was going to ask you about making sure locality and guide locality areas. And suburbs and towns are in on your website somewhere, especially when you're in a smaller town, say Cairns or you're in Toowoomba, which will mean absolutely nothing to you when I say Toowoomba, but there's certain regional areas that you'll go through the website and it's really hard to actually find, they're in Toowoomba, but it's hard to find them in Toowoomba, for example.

The Power of SEO and Final Thoughts

Tyson E. Franklin: So I think having the locality areas mentioned is a really

Jim McDannald, DPM: And I think one aspect, just backing up a little bit, you said, why don't you want to build it yourself? Or why don't you want to a cheap provider that's going to get away? websites are, to be honest, they're this SEO aspect of things. It's almost like an invisible thing [00:23:00] that people don't really know exists, right?

Like until you understand the power of it. Until you realize that typing things like podiatrist, Boston and how powerful ranking number one can be for that. And so you figure that out. Like then you realize why it makes sense to pay someone. Two or 3, 000 a month to build a website for you, if they can get you in that top three, because when you don't know about that, you look at a website, you're like, wow, that looks like a, the prettiest website, the most visually appealing website that doesn't have call to actions that doesn't have a way to make an appointment that isn't ranking well.

And there are great websites that do not rank well. It's like a, it's like a pretty car that you can't drive, right? it's I don't know, like living in a city where the speed limits 30 miles an hour, and you've got a Lambo or something, I don't know, and you're just, you have to go the speed limit.

As opposed to like, when you see that SEO and the like, that this is an opportunity. you can have. a dinky kind of website that [00:24:00] has amazing SEO juice to it. have a little,a little mini Cooper put it on the racetrack and you're just flying because of like how it's been built and you've opened up your eyes to the power of what a good clinic website can be.

yeah, that's where I sometimes see it can be, what is, what is the return on investment of something as opposed to are you just going to make me a pretty website, versus a crappy looking website? So that's one level of kind of complexity that, maybe isn't explained very well, or the words, search engine optimization feels so Mysterious that people can use it in kind of nefarious ways to try to, it feels almost like not magic, but just you don't know how it works. So like, how can it be a real thing?

Tyson E. Franklin: I think it's with anything, sometimes we only ever see what's on the service. So you see a good looking website, you assume it must be a good website, but it is also important to have visually good looking website because patients, I think when they come to your website, they can straight away, they might even, they may not [00:25:00] even consciously say, Oh geez, that's an old out of date website.

But subconsciously they can probably notice the difference because they've seen so many good ones as time's gone on and they don't know why they don't feel comfortable with your website. They can look at it and it's out of date, but they don't realize that's what I don't like about this particular clinic.

And then they'll move on to somebody else that may have a better

Jim McDannald, DPM: us humans,

Tyson E. Franklin: especially I think in regional areas when you might go to a town and there's only four podiatrists. So they're probably going to look at all four websites and do a comparison.

Jim McDannald, DPM: we're superficial in nature, right? We have a kind of a flight or fight, fight or flight kind of response to certain things. And we know like within, a short period of time, like what our gut instinct is. And to try to get beyond that gut instinct or kind of our initial first impression of something, we've all, met somebody that first time and just had a bad interaction with someone.

And maybe you learn, maybe you spend more time with that person in the future and you realize that was just a bad incident, but if you go to a crappy website and you have that Ooh, I don't know, gut [00:26:00] feeling like that person's probably not likely to come back to it.

So I think it is, you're right, like the aesthetics matter. The way it's built matter, especially the way it's built at the beginning, right? You can sometimes retrofit these things a little bit, but when you build a website that looks great and performs well from the beginning, like you said, it just builds momentum and it can be a real benefit to anybody's practice.

Tyson E. Franklin: It's like finding a partner.

Jim McDannald, DPM: Yeah. No,

Tyson E. Franklin: I've got to them. They've probably got a great personality. There's got to be that, there's that attraction that attracts you to it in the first place. So I think your website is the same.

There's got to be something that's going to attract you to it. And as you get into it, you're going to work out whether you like it or dislike it.

Jim McDannald, DPM: exactly. You have to decide is this something I can be with long term, right? it could be the best looking thing ever, but unless there's a, like this is something you want to like, go through the good times and the bad times with. And that can be not only your website, but the person you're working with, right?

if, how well, that does that [00:27:00] provide a response to your emails or, if you're having, issues with something, if something's broken, and they're not responding for a week or two. it is one of those things. It is a relationship or at least a, a partnership that has to be built on trust and be seen as a long-term, long-term thing for

Tyson E. Franklin: I'm just writing something down for a future episode, Service Peebs, where we should do an episode that just things that annoy us about other businesses and make sure we don't do it in podiatry. Anyway, Jim, just looking at the time, I think we should wrap up on this. any final words before we

Jim McDannald, DPM: No, I think it's a matter of just like we talked about, just diving a little bit deeper into the surface of websites to really understand. What you're trying to achieve with it. And there are opportunities to save staff time, to improve the patient experience in your clinic, to make websites work for you.

It's just a matter of how people view it and truly understanding that opportunity exists, with the different options out there.

Tyson E. Franklin: That sounds good. okay, Jim, I will talk again next week..

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