Veterinary Mobile Wellness

Transcription

1 Veterinary Mobile Wellness

2 Introduction: Executive Summary We asked our LifeLearn Update newsletter readers, who are veterinarians, practice managers and other practice team members: How often you use your phone to find and contact local services in your community? The results? 72% reported that they use their phones to find a local service often or occasionally just like the new clients you want to attract so you can grow your practice. Smartphones and other mobile devices are taking over as primary tools for finding local resources. This means mobile-friendly websites for browsing and search are becoming especially important for veterinary practices and other pet-care businesses. So what exactly is a mobile-ready website, and how can you make sure your practice isn t missing golden chances to reach pet owners on all their devices? That s what this report is all about. Veterinary Mobile Website Wellness = Reaching Local Pet Parents on the Go Simply put, if your website is mobile-ready for any device, you ll be the local practice that invites smartphone and tablet users to call you for an appointment instead of some other local resource. _2 / 12

3 Inside these pages, you ll discover: The importance of mobile-ready website design (responsive design) The difference between a poor mobile experience and a great experience Why this matters so much to your practice, right now How to determine if your website is mobile friendly or if it needs help Steps to make your site fully mobilized so it attracts more business If you want local, on-the-go pet owners to find your practice, to like what they see, and to call your team for an appointment, then it s time to mobilize your veterinary website. _3 / 12

4 What Is Mobile-Responsive Design? Defining Mobile-Responsive Design (also called responsive web design) At a March 2013 search engine conference, Matt Cutts from Google offered this caution to all marketers 3 : Be sure you look at how your site looks and performs on mobile. It s important to make sure your site is lean and loads fast, since that s important on mobile. During that same conference, Duane Forrester from Bing added, Mobile usage will soon go from 9 billion to 25 billion devices. Look into responsive design and how your site renders on a phone. Think about how people are looking for content based on their situation/location, etc. This is something you can do NOW. The search engine world is talking about responsive design for mobile because they want to help their audiences (people doing searches online) find the most useful and helpful websites on mobile devices. Without a responsive veterinary website, you could be missing out on significant opportunities to connect with local pet owners who don t have patience for a poor mobile experience. Let s go through these concepts so you have a clear understanding. First, it s important to know about mobile responsive design (responsive web design) and what it means to veterinary marketing success. Here s what it is in a nutshell: A responsive website automatically changes the website s layout to fit the device you re using to view it: phone, tablet, laptop, and so on. It ensures that your website displays as intended, regardless of the device that s being used to view it. _4 / 12

5 Mobile usage will soon go from 9 billion to 25 billion devices. ~ Bing Certain websites have mobile responsive design built in, with highly sophisticated frameworks and breakpoints so the same website immediately adapts to multiple versions as needed. 4 On the other end of the scale, many websites are not appearing properly on mobile devices, or the businesses have separate mobile sites they need to maintain separately, which can be a major hassle for upkeep. The next important concept is the mobile-friendly experience. What does that look like? _5 / 12

6 What Is The Ideal Mobile Experience? Understanding the Difference between a Poor Mobile Experience and a Great Mobile Experience Think about your own experience using a smartphone or tablet and how various websites work for you on those devices. Have you ever experienced these issues on your device? The website takes forever to load when you click on it in Google results. (In a Google study 5, 64% of mobile users want sites to load within 4 seconds; 82% within 5 seconds.) When it loads, the entire website is on the screen with itty-bitty text and graphics. You can t see the business name or location. You can t find a phone number to call. Or if you do, it s not a click-to-call number so you have to try and remember it and separately type it in. The navigation choices are tiny and you have to zoom/enlarge the screen to see them. Once enlarged, you can t see all the options, so you have to maneuver around the page. You can t see the helpful or important content you want at a glance. Instead, you have to clumsily scroll around, zoom in or out, and try to read chopped-up sections. You just started reading the text and a big pop-up interrupts you and since your screen is small, you accidently hit that pop-up and it takes you to another (annoying) site. Due to all these problems, you give up and go to another website. This list describes a poor mobile experience. And if you re shaking your head at these problems and thinking, Yes, I see these problems all the time, you can bet we all do including your potential clients. Now, let s think about a great mobile experience. We ll start with a list and then show you a side-by-side comparison. _6 / 12

7 A great mobile website experience includes these features: The website loads quickly when you click on it in Google results. When it loads, a lean version of the site gives you quick access to the main content you need, which is just a click away. (Google study: 78% of users want important information just 1-2 clicks away) 5 The business name/logo is at the top, easy to read, and you can see where the business is located. You may even see a Get directions option. The phone number is easy to see, and when you click on it you ll automatically call that number. All navigation is easy and responsive, with text and graphics that are easy to view. (No interruptive pop-ups to annoy you.) Due to these pleasant features, you decide to call the business (or practice). Now here s a side-by side comparison: a poor mobile experience vs. a great mobile experience. This one provides the most critical information at a glance Practice name and location Contact information One-touch calling and ing The most common navigation buttons are readable, accessible This one doesn t provide much information at a glance, so it forces users to fuss with scrolling and zooming to find what they need. If your practice is offering the mobile experience on the left, you could unknowingly be turning potential clients away and potentially frustrating your existing clients. Let s explore the reasons why. _7 / 12

8 Why A Good Mobile Experience Really Matters Why a Mobile-Ready Site Matters So Much to Your Practice Right now, practices across the country are getting wise to the fact that non-responsive sites could be pushing away prospective clients, so they re upgrading their websites to a mobile-ready system. Or this? (Mobile-friendly) Now, it s not just important to have a mobile-ready platform, your content also needs to appeal to what local pet owners want. In a Google study of mobile users, these are the top 3 actions users want to take when they visit your website on their mobile devices: 5 Your location or operating hours Click-to-call phone number to reach you The option to your practice Another study involving mobile users found that when sites aren t mobilefriendly, potential clients won t be back: 5 The majority of responses indicate they are likely to revisit mobilefriendly sites, but they ll move on if they come across a non-mobilefriendly site. A frustrating mobile experience would hurt the perception of the brand. All these findings point to one simple fact: Mobile-friendly veterinary websites have a major advantage over those that aren t right now, and in the future. Now we have a question for you. What does your website look like on mobile devices? Does it look like this? (Not mobile-friendly) _8 / 12

9 Determining If Your Site Is Mobile-Friendly Or Not How to Determine If Your Website Is Mobile-Friendly (or Not) There are quite a few free online tools to test if your site is responsive or not. For example, you can simply enter your website URL into Quirk Tool s Screenfly tool and you ll be able to see how that page appears on various devices. BONUS TIP: You may want to use these mobile site test tools to see if your local competition is already mobile-friendly, or simply view their site from your mobile device. This is important for two reasons: This test is incredibly helpful. You ll know immediately if: a) Your website is an excellent resource for pet parents using their mobile devices, or b) It s difficult to use and needs a responsive design so your prospects don t give up and move on to another local veterinary website. If your website is clearly NOT mobile-friendly, don t be alarmed. You have options to remedy this situation. If your competition s site is mobile-friendly, you ll want to catch up sooner than later so you re on a level playing field with local pet owners. If your competition s site is not mobile-friendly, you ll have a chance to be the local practice that stands out from the rest, providing an awesome mobile experience. _9 / 12

10 Optimizing Your Site For Mobile Devices Steps to Make Your Site Fully Mobilized so It Attracts More Business If you find that your website is not mobile-friendly, you have 3 options: 1. Leave it the way it is. You can hope local pet owners won t mind working their way around your site, and you can also hope your local competition isn t mobilefriendly either. But, you d be taking a big risk by doing this. You risk turning away potential business on a daily basis, and your current clients may be annoyed if they can t quickly find your phone number to reach you while they re on the go. Assuming that client satisfaction is your goal, this may leave a negative and lasting impression. 2. Hire a development company to create a separate mobile-friendly version of your site. Mobile website design is a highly technical skill that requires a knowledgeable and reputable resource. You can certainly find this type of resource, but you may also find that their work is time consuming and expensive. Plus, your service provider will likely create a separate mobile version of your site, since they didn t build your website and it s not on a mobile-responsive platform. They re only dealing with the mobile version; they re not touching your core website. This means you ll have 2 website versions to manage and update at all times: your regular website and your mobile website. This doubles your efforts. _10 / 12

11 3. Convert your website now to a system that s instantly mobile-ready at all times. If your website is ready for an upgrade, it makes perfect sense to convert it to a modern platform/service provider that offers mobile responsive design built into the framework. Once this one-time conversion is complete, your website is your mobile site. No need for separate sites, extra costs, or hassles. Your site is always ready for mobile users at launch and in the future meeting the needs of more local prospects and clients. _11 / 12

12 Need help getting started? You only get a few seconds to make a first (and lasting!) impression online. WebDVM4 website designs are modern, professional, customizable, and they re also fully responsive. Let LifeLearn s experts handle the heavy lifting. We ll set up a mobilefriendly website that works simply and conveniently within your veterinary website and displays as you want it to. Reach more local pet owners. Call us on or click here to see for yourself. Sources: 1. LSA-Local-Mobile-Search-Report-2013-Press- Release-FINAL pdf blogging/60903/ _12 / 12