Use customized landing pages to attract patients on the Internet

Fine-tune your advertising to provide users the information they seek.

Agustin L. Gonzalez

Let us assume that you have opened an account with Google Adwords and that you want to advertise two things: your office and the fact that you specialize in some specific service such as dry eye or low vision. (See “Customize your Internet advertising,” August issue, for more information on Google Adwords.) Because the ads in adwords are small in nature and limited in characters, you could place two ads, one for the office and the other for the low vision services you provide.

Let us assume someone is interested in your adword message for low vision and for your office. What happens next? You can follow various strategies to improve the interest of the person clicking on your ad, and the simplest way is to direct the person to your website. However, you run the risk of losing the person if the message does not specifically address his or her topic of interest.

Once you start advertising online, one of the best strategies is to create a specific landing page to customize your advertising message. This strategy is based on the fact that the person who clicks on your message is interested in more specific information based on the ad banner or Google Adwords message. A landing page is nothing more than a continuation of the advertising that will validate the message using a specific web page.

Purpose of a landing page

Landing pages must be created with two things in mind: a clear purpose and ease of use. A clear purpose will provide information to facilitate and achieve a call to action, which results in that person making an appointment. The page also must be easy to use while providing information and directing the user where to obtain more detailed information.

I have seen many optometry websites that were created with an artistic concept or have tons of multimedia. Remember that when a visitor goes to your site it is important to have a nice presentation, but it is more important to have a clear understanding of the reason he or she is there to begin with. The number one reason people go to your website is to obtain information on you. They do not want their time wasted with videos or flash and they are not there to judge the artistic value of the web creator.

Basic components

An effective landing page should have five basic components. The company logo will provide the branding experience you want for your services and will clearly connect the ad to the landing page.

The landing page has to be clear and concise and should have few navigation options. I limit mine to three pages: the landing page, one for the office website and one for directions. Excessive navigation options will distract users from the primary message.

The content needs to be clear, legible, credible and useful, ideally in the form of facts that satisfy the user’s search inquiry. A clean way to display this text is by using bullet points.

There needs to be a parallel message. The messaging should closely match the adword’s copy and use the relevant keywords. If you want to use images, try to limit them to message-relevant images. The idea is to enhance the message that got them there and promote the user to take action by either calling the office or making an appointment online.

Lastly, make it a clear point to have a call to action. You want the user to either call or fill out a form so you can contact him or her, and you have to make this as easy as possible. The phone number should be placed clearly in the top right of every page. Add a concise and visible contact form that is easy to fill out and obtains just enough information for you to contact the person.

Your ad must have credibility; users need to immediately see a reason to trust you and what you offer. Otherwise, they will hit the “back” button to find the information they want somewhere else. You can achieve credibility by providing links to online reviews of your office or visible trust symbols such as the American Optometric Association logo.

Remember, it is tempting to clutter the information, but you do not want to distract from your purpose. Yes, your pages should look good and be visually appealing, but they should be simple.

Landing page strategies

There are many other ways to decide upon specific landing pages for your office. Pages and ads can be targeted to the specific “problem” the visitor wants to solve. If you want to create a specific dry eye or allergy practice, you will link your Google Adwords advertisement with a page that directly goes into information and services provided by your office for this patient profile.

You could also use a demographic/psychographic “persona” based on your practice. If you are targeting a specific demographic or geographic area, your landing page would show a map or have products that appeal to that demographic segment. Another example would be if you advertise emergency red eye services, your landing page could display an emergency phone number and perhaps state the fact that “red eyes” can just walk in to your office.

These strategies are called “user-directed segmentation” and this is an extremely powerful way to improve your online marketing. The key is to be creative and experiment with different messages, segmentation choices and organizational structures. You will be amazed how easily you can capture the right audience and get the patients you want.

• Agustin L. Gonzalez, OD, is in private practice in Dallas and serves as adjunct faculty at InterAmerican University. He can be reached at GonzalezOD@live.com.
• Disclosure: Dr. Gonzalez has no direct financial interest in the products mentioned in this article, nor is he a paid consultant for any companies mentioned.