Whether your a Naturopath, Nutritional Medicine Practitioner, Herbalist, Homeopath, Acupuncturist, Myotherapist, Bowen Therapist, Health Coach, Remedial Massage Therapist or any other Natural Medicine Practitioner, if you don’t have a website, you are losing business and losing money.
I’m often asked by practitioners who have physical clinics if they need a website even though they don’t do Skype consults.
The answer is a resounding YES!
Not only do clients expect to be able to look you up online, it is the most effective way to market your practice.
1. Google is today’s Yellow Pages
When someone wants to find a practitioner, the last place they will look is the Yellow Pages.
Search engines – Google in particular, are hands-down the number one place that customers find businesses. If you don’t have a website, you can’t be found on Google.
Google My Business even brings up your contact details including phone number and clinic address along with a map when people search for you. They can click straight through from the listing to call you from their phones.
2. Potential clients want to check you out before they book a consult.
People want to know if you can help them with their specific problems before they hand over their hard-earned cash.
Your website is the ideal place to display your in-depth knowledge and clinical expertise to potential clients.
If they can’t find you online, chances are they will book with someone that they do find.
3. Share your passion.
This is my favourite reason for every practitioner to have their own website. We all have a particular area that really gets us excited. Your website is the ideal way to share your passion and your knowledge with current and future clients.
We all know how popular Dr Google is. Why not be the go-to source of reliable, credible, referenced information for people who are looking for help?
Once they see you understand them, they are one step closer to picking up the phone and booking a consult with you.
4. Save time with FAQ.
Let’s face it. We’re all running short on time these days. One of the easiest ways to save time in your day is to have a FAQ, or Frequently Asked Questions page on your website.
Here you can have a list of the questions that you find yourself answering on the phone over and over again. Business hours, pricing, special services you offer, whether you take card payments or cash only, and so on.
It’s an easy way to free up your precious clinic time by reducing the number of phone calls that you don’t really need to be taking.
5. Build your reputation.
A blog is one of the simplest ways to build your reputation with both clients and peers. Especially if you are a newly graduated Practitioner just starting out.
Regular articles around your area of interest and expertise shows that you are well educated and know what you are talking about. It instills confidence in your clients, and draws respect from your peers.
6. Educate your clients.
One of the hardest things about being a practitioner, is not overloading your clients with information during a consult.
It’s stressful for your client to have to take notes, and it can be frustrating for you when they forget vital pieces of information.
A website allows you to post articles with hints and tips to help people progress through their treatment protocols.
You can share recipes, explain the benefits of drinking water, or write a cheat-sheet on how to get a good night’s sleep.
7. Take bookings.
Automate to save time!
Many clinic software programs now have the ability to integrate to your website.
No more late night phone calls to your mobile because clients can book an appointment with you even when your clinic is closed!
The program that I use* takes payment on booking, drastically reducing the number of no-shows. It can even be set to book in a short phone call prior to the consult to confirm details, and automatically sends out questionnaires.
8. Strengthen your referral network with other Natural Medicine Practitioners.
Your website is a fantastic way to connect with other practitioners who share your interests. More importantly, it allows you to connect with those who work in other areas of health.
If you love supporting women to regulate their hormones, but don’t really like working with children, it makes it easy to connect to others who specialise in paediatrics.
Likewise, other practitioners can see your expertise, and send their ladies with amnorrhea to you.
9. Build an email list.
Email marketing is one of the most effective, and certainly most affordable methods of promoting your business. Building an email list of current and prospective clients enables you to keep in touch via a regular newsletter to build rapport. Read more about it here.
It’s a great way to educate your clients – you can link to your blog post about drinking more water – and when your clinic has a special promotion or event coming up, you can let them know. Many platforms* even provide a button to book an appointment or purchase a product within the email itself!
10. Connect with your ideal client.
As Natural Medicine Practitioners, we all know how important it is to connect with your client. To build a warm, nurturing relationship of trust.
Through publishing articles on your blog and sending them out in a weekly email, you can build this connection with your ideal client. I love it because by displaying your knowledge and the areas of health you are passionate about, you will naturally draw in clients who fit that demographic.
This means that your practice fills up with your ideal client, rather than those cases that you prefer to refer on.
As you can see, any Practitioner serious about building there practice needs to have a website.
Publishing blog posts and sending email newsletters are a fantastic, cost-effective way to continue educating your clients and building relationships even when they aren’t sitting in the chair next to you in clinic.
If you are already run off your feet in your practice and don’t have the time to build or maintain a website, I hear you! If you’d like a qualified Nutritional & Herbal Medicine Practitioner to write your articles and newsletters on your behalf, please click the button below to to book a free call with me. I look forward to having a chat about how I can best support you so that you can focus on what you do best – taking care of your patients.
*Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. Please note this will be at no extra cost to you and I only link to products that I have used myself and thoroughly recommend.