Building a Website that Works

Your website is an employee. That employee has a job, and should be fired if it's not performing. Let's give your new employee a clear job description...

Your website is your key sales employee

The job of your website is fairly simple - moving potential patients to actual patients. That's the main goal - and anything else you put on your website is secondary. And honestly, it should take some work to find those secondary things.

I prefer Donald Miller's StoryBrand framework when it comes to anything marketing or sales related.

StoryBrand's tagline - "If you confuse, you lose" - is perfect. Making your website, marketing copy, and everything else crystal clear is the goal. Nothing kitschy or cute - nothing overly creative that forces people to think (that's confusing, and that's losing customers). Just think about it: if people walked away from a sales appointment wondering, "what do they actually do?" - you'd fire your salesperson.

Before we start, know this: I highly recommend you follow this script. Don't worry about being cute, or changing things because you want to be different. This process works, and if you follow this outline, your website will perform as well as some of the top websites in the world.

Let's walk through your website structure...

Header / Hero Section - make your offer, brand, and call-to-action clear

The header / hero section is the very top of your website - probably covering the top 1/3 to 2/3 of a screen - with the following pieces:

• Your logo in the top left
• A large, clear statement of what your ideal customer wants
  • For example: A doctor for your family, who you can see today without a copay
• A short description of what you do
  • For example: Direct Primary Care - membership medicine for families in Southern Maine
• Call-to-action button(s)
  • Ideally one in the upper right next to 1-2 other menu items, and one underneath your short description
• If possible, an image of a happy patient using your services (NOT a generic photo of a happy person)

Success Section - a picture of success

This section quickly shows what the ideal outcome would be for your patients.

What would success look like in your patients' lives? For your ideal customer, what would they experience or feel after signing up for your services? These should be very short, punchy, and clear. For example:

• No more worrying about the cost of seeing a physician.
• Save money and time, knowing your physician has your back.
• No more hurried appointments - spend whatever time it takes to get healthy.

The Stakes - what happens if they don't sign up?

This section shows you understand their worries and problems, and paints a picture of what happens if they don't sign up for your service.

Try to keep this at 3 or 4 points maximum, and you can do this creatively (one bigger section, or a few smaller points - just make it easy to read and relate to).

Here are a few to pick and choose from, or come up with your own:

• Is it stressful wondering whether you should go to urgent care or the emergency room?
• Have you delayed care because of a high deductible?
• When is the last time you spent the time you needed with your family physician?
• Are you tired of waiting weeks or months to get in for a routine appointment?

Value Proposition - what value can you bring to your patients?

This should be the answer to your patients' problems - even answering what's at stake from the previous section.

• Same or next-day appointments, guaranteed.
• 30-60 minute appointments available.
• 24/7 telephone access for urgent care questions or concerns.
• No copays, office-visit charges, or deductibles.
• Unlimited office visits.
• Highly discounted labs, medications, and X-rays.

Be the Guide - show empathy and guide them toward their success

This comes directly from StoryBrand - your role (you and your website) is to be the guide in your patients' lives, not the hero. You're not rescuing them from anything; you're guiding them so they can realize they are the hero for building the life they want.

This section can be a short paragraph where you communicate empathy and show a bit of authority, include some testimonials, or - if you're targeting business groups - list some of the businesses that you've helped. Just make sure that any testimonials are printed with permission, and don't reveal any PHI (unless explicitly authorized).

• We know: great healthcare is important, but it's hard to know what's best. Let us be the quarterback of your health plan, starting with what matters most: caring for the health of you and your family.

Pricing

Include simple pricing for your main target audience. Include a call-to-action button (become a member) underneath, with any alternative pricing options as a secondary call-to-action button.

The Plan - what can patients expect the process to be?

The best plans are done in three steps - it shows that it's an easy process, and it gives them a clear path of what to do and what to expect to become a patient of yours.

For example:

• Learn about membership
• Choose your plan
• Schedule your welcome appointment

The Explanatory Paragraph - longer text that explains the problem and how you solve it

This paragraph is lower on the website page because it's honestly more about helping search engines and even LLMs find and deliver your website to the people that need it.

If you have a feature where you can only show the first 4-5 lines of this paragraph and then reveal the rest by clicking 'read more' - that is ideal.

I won't include an example here, but this is where you get to take the problem, how you're the solution to that problem, and how they would experience success after being a patient of yours. Be sure to include any 'searchable' terms that people might use in this section - like any of the following: Direct Primary Care, DPC, cash-based clinic, membership medicine, non-insurance specialist, etc.

BONUS: Lead Magnet Section

This isn't necessary, but if you have a piece of material (a checklist PDF, or other items) that would offer value to potential patients, you can offer it to them in exchange for an email address.

It gives you a potential lead for a future patient, and offers them a valuable piece of information from a trusted source.

It's not necessary, but it could be a good sales tactic as you're looking to grow your business.

The Junk Drawer - your footer section

Too many websites try to answer everybody's questions or make everything 'findable' through the top menu of their website. That's a waste of a menu.

People that are visiting your site for a certain purpose will find that information if you put links to it in the footer. Need to put forms on your website for current patients? Link to that in the footer. A blog / newsreel where you want to post your health tips and tricks? Link to that in the footer.

None of that extra information makes you money - it's a value add for current patients. Your website's main goal is to gain new patients - don't allow that other stuff to get in the way! It's OK if your footer is huge with a lot of links - that works!

Final Tips

You've made it this far. Here are a few extra tips to make sure your website is performing well:

• Put more calls-to-action on your site than you think. In essentially every section you should have a main call-to-action, and only sometimes a secondary one.
• Focus more on words, not on design. Many web designers are just that: designers. They're often not marketers. If you're choosing a web designer based on other website designs rather than marketing tactics, then that's what you'll get - a designer.
• Other than the explanatory paragraph, keep everything shorter than you think it needs to be. Don't sacrifice clarity, but normally if you can say something in fewer words, it's clearer anyway.
• Hiring your niece or nephew can work - just make sure you control the words and have the ability to update it later.
• Squarespace is fine. Wix is just OK. WordPress is better. Just make sure your web guy keeps WordPress updated regularly.