Driving traffic to our sites in pursuit of patients is a no-brainer; however, how do we seal the deal once our visitors arrive? For many physiotherapy practices looking to boost conversions and turn prospects into patients, setting up a sales funnel may be the solution that transforms your site into a well-oiled machine. 

The concept of a sales funnel is perhaps as old as marketing itself, representing a tired-and-tested method for building up just about any business. In short, a sales funnel works to “push” users through a series of steps that take them from being cold prospects to hot leads. Sales funnels come in many shapes and sizes; however, they can be applied to just about any niche with ease. 

For example, the “steps” of a modern sales funnel for a typical online business may resemble the following: 

• Step 1 – Create awareness for an existing problem 
• Step 2 – Pique your visitors’ interest in the problem 
• Step 3 – Present your product or service as a means of solving the problem 
• Step 4 – Convince visitors to purchase your product or service 
• Step 5 – Incentivize visitors to praise your product; repeat Step 1 

Physiotherapy practices are ideal for sales funnels considering the fact that they thrive on repeat business and referrals. Setting up a sales funnel for your PT clinic can not only drive new patients into your practice, but also create lifelong customers that evangelize your business. Instead of relying on costly or complicated software, you can set up a sales funnel yourself without breaking the bank. 

If you’ve got leads for your PT site that aren’t converting or simply want to make the most of your traffic, where do you start? 

Creating Awareness 

First and foremost, your PT practice needs traffic to generate leads prior to creating awareness; in other words, potential patients need to know what you exist. You can’t set up a sales funnel without traffic, so consider the following as means to building a stream of leads for starters: 

• Content and a strong local search presence so that users may find you organically
• Advertising via social media channels by sharing the aforementioned content
• Referral traffic from paid advertising through channels such as Google AdWords or Facebook 

However, what’s perhaps more important is knowing what to do with your traffic once they’ve landed. Your site should to immediately strive to create awareness of a problem related to physiotherapy beyond the fact that you’re a practice. Think about your visitors’ pain points and ask what’s going to set your practice apart from the competition. 

For example, can you offer a lower price or a payment plan that your competitors aren’t? Have you tapped into a niche that nobody else has? Make those points apparent to visitors to ensure that they see you as a truly helpful resource. 

Incentivizing Visitors to Act 

Once visitors land on your site, you have to work as quickly as possible to drive them into your funnel. Considering today’s users’ relatively low attention spans, you’re going to need some killer copy and an effective design to draw users in with the message you want to convey. Consider a three-pronged approach to grab the attention of your visitors: 

• Hook them with shocking statistics or imagery, coupled with a call to action that they can’t ignore
• Re-emphasize your visitors’ pain points and the potential problems that they face
• Use empathy and authenticity to build trust and allow visitors to see the personality of your practice 

Entering the Funnel 

Once visitors have been hooked, it’s time to bring them into your funnel. This is where an opt-in option on your homepage comes in handy; however, as long as you have a crystal clear contact page or some way to users to get in touch, can begin the process of turning prospects into buyers. 

To help seal the deal at this point, consider having scripts in place for phone conversations and email autoresponders to remind visitors that you’re available to help. 

Creating Lifelong Patients 

Just because a lead becomes a patient doesn’t mean that your work is done. You’re going to need a procedure in place to follow up with patients and give them incentive to provide positive feedback for your business. For example, many of today’s businesses live and die through online reviews. Whether through discounts or positive feedback or referrals, give patients a reason to continue interacting with your brand. 

Setting up a sales funnel requires some legwork; however, the ROI for such a project has the potential to transform your site’s performance. If you’re struggling in terms of converting customers and need a hand, let PatientSites help you get started.

Get started with a Free Evergreen Marketing Blueprint to learn how you can create long-term assets that will attract new patients for years to come.