Do you have an existing clinic website that doesn’t really bring in business?

This was the case for Dr. Timothy Gateley, DPM prior to engaging the services of Jim McDannald, DPM at Podiatry Growth. He describes his website as a place he would send patients to for them to print out paperwork, but never ranked well in Google or was discoverable by patients.

After a few conversations with Jim, both an opportunity to improve the content on his clinic’s website and increase his practice’s online visibility.

THE CHALLENGE

Prior to working with Jim, Dr. Gateley describes his website as a “landing page” with pictures of him and his staff as well as paperwork for patients to print out. A key goal he worked out with Jim was to transform the website into a place where patients would be engaged. The aim was that a patient would look at the site and think “wow, this guy can really help me.”

“We wanted it to not just be somewhere we send patients to print off paperwork,” Dr. Gateley says. “It needed to be more informational and user-friendly. The bottom line is the website should bring in more business, rather than me always sending patients there.”

Another challenge was to clean up Dr. Gateley’s information online. As he’d worked in other practices before, there were a number of spots with old contact details and information. He wanted to find all those and ensure that uniform, correct details for his current practice would be found online.

Like other podiatry practices working with Jim, Dr. Gateley finds it an advantage that Jim has the background and understanding of podiatry. He’d worked with what he describes as “generic” digital marketing or web development people before, and they just didn’t have the same level of specific knowledge.

“With Jim’s background and training he was able to actually take what I was saying and make it mean something,” says Dr. Gateley.

THE APPROACH

It was important to help make their digital marketing plan easy to understand and show how it was generating a return on their monthly investment.

To avoid any major surprises, the first step was a thorough audit of their current website, Google rankings, Google reviews, social media account, and competitors.

Improving Gateley Podiatry’s online visibility involved:

• Improving the design and interface of their clinic website
• Writing and building webpages that reflect the professional objectives of Dr. Gateley
• Researching and correcting duplicate and inaccurate website listing of clinic contact information
• Developing a plan to request and gather patient Google Reviews
• Ranking higher in local Google search results

THE RESULT

In collaboration with Jim McDannald, DPM, Dr. Gateley has been able to:

1. Increase in the Number of Online Patient Referrals

In terms of the transition to the new strategies for Jim, Dr. Gateley says it’s been going great. Previously, his practice mostly relied upon primarily word-of-mouth referrals, but that has been changing.

“Within a couple of months of Jim helping us streamline online, 50% or more of our patients tell me they found us via Google or Google Reviews,” he says.

2. Better Communicate with Patients

“I immediately knew that it was the right move to let him help me with this because he was speaking a language that I did not speak. He’s been a wonderful resource for growing my web presence and the online reputation of my practice,” Dr. Gateley says.

Dr. Gateley describes how Jim’s medical background meant he was able to put the right medical information on his website, geared to an appropriate level for patients. Jim has also redesigned the website so patient education resources and clinic information are organized in a logical manner. So that they can easily discover what they need without having to waste time searching.

3. “He Always Has My Best Interests at Heart”

Dr. Gateley also notes the significant results that a couple of simple changes can bring. Having Jim come on board with his knowledge of digital marketing made a big difference.

On working with Jim, Dr. Gateley says “I trusted that he always has my best interests at heart. He was able to listen to any of my concerns and execute them well.”

Dr. Gateley describes how he and his office manager were hesitant at first. They hadn’t invested much in marketing before and they were concerned with seeing results for their investment.

“The return on investment has been more than I could imagine,” he says.

Looking to the future, Dr. Gateley anticipates investing more in marketing, especially given the results he has seen already. “I’m actually going to have Jim start working on further marketing initiatives and am prepared to increase my marketing budget each year.”