Providing Web Design Services to Allied Health
When establishing your business, the easy and fun part is the development and refinement of the product or service you are offering. Then comes the realization that you now need to stand in front of prospective clients and pitch your service to them which does not suit everybody. That is the point in which we specialize by developing an online presence for you which acts like your own sales representative who for 24 hours a day will pitch your value to your prospective clients. We recently partnered with the brand new Allied Health service “Connecting Speech Pathology” to bring their vision to life online and reduce the perceived sales burden.
When we were approached by Connecting Speech Pathology, it became clear that their dedication to a service of quality, trust and expertise needed to be at the forefront of their website. The connection between the expertise knowledge in Kids Speech Pathology and the average persons understanding of how to best help their child required a connection through the user-friendly and professional site we developed. After 4 weeks of development, we had launched their website online and since then, the organization has doubled its client list every week, rapidly exceeding the expectations they had for client list build up. We are now back to working with them on some website updates to increase this online presence and improve their client conversion ratio.
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Understanding the Client’s Vision
People hate to feel like they are being sold. We also hate the feeling of “selling” people which was reflected during our first meeting with Connecting Speech Pathology. The CSP team were focused on having a site which represented their values of quality speech therapy services delivered both in the Adelaide Hills in person and online across Australia. Our challenge was to reflect their years of experience in online teletherapy to differentiate them from a community of practitioners who are early career graduates working from the back of their car.
When Connecting Speech Pathology first reached out to us, we started with a comprehensive discussion to really understand what they were looking for to meet their needs and goals. The initial meeting focused on getting to the core of their business and what values we needed to convey which are deeply rooted within their organization. We listened to their vision for an online presence that not only showcased their expertise in Online therapy, but a genuine care about achieving success for their clients.
It soon became clear that the key goal for Connecting Speech Pathology was not just to create an informative website, but one that provided reassurance for parents that they could access a high quality and professional service right from the comfort of their home. This was emphasized by CSP the need to portray a professional yet approachable image of their organization that would give greater confidence to their clients. To achieve this, we gathered insights on their target audience, understood the SEO behind what questions clients are researching online and assessed the competition offering within their industry. Unlike other web builds, we also had to consider the principles of the governing body Speech Pathology Australia as they have some requirements around marketing of their allied health services.
With the clear alignment of the values and goals of CSP, coupled with a deep understanding of the market they were trying to enter, a strategy was formed to translate the vision and core values into a website that matched the needs of the market place. By aligning our approach with their goals, we ensured that every element of the website would contribute to building a strong image of Connecting Speech Pathology in the online market which truly represents their dedication to excellence. This foundational step is vital in setting the stage for a successful website development that matches people with the right services they need.
Building a Website That Reflects Quality and Trust
Logo and Theme
Having been in business for several years already, Connecting Speech Pathology had already settled on a logo and organization name. We discussed under a quick review about the suitability of this important element and luckily, the branding matched the intent of the business well so there was no need to alter it. Using this branding up front helped to give us some insight into the color scheme, typography and look of the business that we needed to achieve.
The logo of the brand needs to be the “anchor” of a website as it provides a constant reminder of the business back to the intended audience. We have found through our research that the most suitable place for the logo is on the top left hand corner serving as the key focus point when a website page is loaded. This achieves a purpose of instant brand recognition for the viewer as well as associates the remainder of the page elements back to that brand to re-enforce its values.
Landing Page
We began as always with our physical web builds by crafting the landing page of Connecting Speech Pathology or otherwise known as a “Home” page. Getting this right meant that we could validate with the client the look, feel and core aspects for the rest of the site. With those features anchored on the home page, we settled on a very clean and professional look to build across the site. Within the homepage, we tried to focus on several key elements including ease of navigation, communicating the 3 core aspects of the service and a clear call to action placed in several positions across the page.
Navigation plays an important part of any website layout. The reader wants to be able to flow through the webpage in a logical way and effortlessly “bounce” onto the next intended location. The key to defining a good navigational layout is actually in providing a basic process flow map that provides a “journey” for the reader to take. By minimizing the decision making through obvious choice pathways, this enhances the feel of the website to the reader and re-enforces the “trust” that you understand your subject material.
Another key aspect of the navigation is the informational delivery of the core services. By condensing your services into 3 core focus areas, you make it easier for the reader to understand what your business specializes in and what area of interest they want to pursue. These core services once defined on the home page can then be linked to their own services pages and thus provides an additional opportunity to build further web presence through optimized content delivery.
Finally, the last key aspect focuses on the placement of the call to action button. For a service business page, an action button is the means to convert prospect into client. The locations of the call to action buttons meant that a prospective client can read as far into the information as they need to gain confidence and then be lead clearly to the next step that they should be taking. Again, mapping our our navigation meant that each logical pathway end point should have a call to action button prompting the person to “do something” with the information they have just learned. These key locations are the difference between a sale and just another person reading your website.
About Us and Contact page
The About Us page and the Contact Us page are written after the Home page as the 3 foundational pages of a business website. Not only do they give the prospective client additional information to support their trust in your services, but they are also the means of converting the client. Getting a webform back from a client gives you the opportunity to have a discussion with a client who has been informed of your services and determined that you are likely the right person for the job. This process cuts down an enormous amount of your time having to field cold calls of customers asking all manner of questions which could easily be answered from a web page.
The additional value of a comprehensive About and Contact page is that search engines like google are able to read through them and assign an EEAT value (Experience, Expertise, Authority and Trust) and rank your site higher when people are searching for your services. While we don’t specifically build out your website to just rank on google, it is important to know that this kind of metric helps you get in front of your client and ahead of your online competitors.
Results and Continued Success
The launch of the new website for Connecting Speech Pathology marked a significant point in their business by moving from the traditional and slow word of mouth to a dynamic online presence reaching further than just the local community. The immediate results were promising and the success reflected in the weekly doubling of their case load. The effectiveness of a well-designed and strategically developed website was apparent and boosted by a social media strategy to introduce the launch of this new site.
While the figures tell one side of the story, the client feedback has also been overwhelmingly positive. Both from the internal parties but also by external parties within the same industry. The clean lines of the website combined with the navigational layouts have prompted several positive comments even from a Google Adsense manager who is looking to support CSP through some paid advertising on google. The professional and user-friendly design helped to establish trust and a sense of quality for families looking for speech therapy services for their children online or in the Adelaide Hills.
After the initial launch of the 3 core pages (Home, About & Contact), we were re-engaged to continue with the build of the websites presence. We are now finalizing the services pages and regional coverage to help expand their online presence, covering more aspects of their services and providing valuable resources for their clients. These future projects aim to leverage the latest digital marketing strategies to further enhance the reach of the business into the online world. The aim of all of this is not to “sell” people allied health services, but to connect those who need Allied Health services with a trusted allied health professional.
Summary and Future Plans
We have thoroughly enjoyed partnering with Connecting Speech Pathology to transform their business reach into the online market place and having done so, seen the benefits come back to them in multiples. By deeply understanding their commitment to values of quality and trust through allied health services allowed us to build out a clear and professional website which built a stronger connection with the audience.
As we continue our work with CSP, we are seeking to expand their digital footprint and enhance their online resources. The recent change in the industry to allow online telehealth therapy has caused a surge in smaller businesses offering sub-par services by simply moving online and this is where Connecting Speech Pathology stand out through leading practices in the telehealth space. Their experienced speech pathologist has over a decade in working online before the rest of the industry moved through COVID-19 and it becomes clear that the benefits to both child and parents is worth the trial of the new approach.
We will continue to support Connecting Speech Pathology through regular updates, review of their on-site SEO and some simple hosting through our secure servers. As they grow as a business, we will continue to leverage the strong foundations built upon the website to extend and broaden the reach of the business as required. For now, they are keenly focused on delivering the best quality services both online and in-person for the allied health industry.