converting website visitors to members

Copyright 2011. Medical Group Management Association. All rights reserved.

Converting Website Visitors to Members

Deborah WhiteMedical Group Management Association

June 14, 2011


Introduction

• Deborah White– Acquisitions marketing and market development

• Medical Group Management Association (MGMA)– Headquartered in Englewood– Professional association with a certification body– 22,500 members – medical practice managers and executives– $365 annual dues


Creating a great Website without a marketing strategy is like…


SITUATION

Every month, hundreds or thousands of people visit your association’s Website.

What’s your strategy and process for converting the visitors to members?


MGMA case

• 20,000 average unique homepage visitors per month

• 5,600 average first-time homepage visitors per month

• 23% prospect e-mails collected each month

• 14% converted to members each month

• $0 monthly direct cost of web-conversion program


Agenda

Five-step process for converting Website visitors:

1. Choose 1 KPI and collect 5 other website stats2. Draw traffic with content and search3. Drive traffic with promotion4. Convert visitors to members or leads for sales5. Measure results

MGMA case study, group activity and action plans


Step 1 – Choose 1 key performance indicator (KPI)

• Don’t get side tracked by too much (or the wrong) data

• Fitness logCalories Run (miles) Weights (mins)

Monday 1586 3.5

Tuesday 1809 30

Wednesday 1205 3.5

Thursday 1590 30

Friday 1487 3.5

Saturday 2198 7.0

Sunday 1816


Step 1 – Choose 1 KPI

• What is your ultimate goal of your program?

• How would you measure just that?

• Suggested KPI: Conversion rate


Step 1 – Collect 5 other website stats

1. Unique visitors per month

2. New visitors per month

3. Key words

4. Internal search terms

5. Top entry and exit pages


Step 2 – Draw traffic

1. Search engine optimization (SEO)• On-page – ¼ of ranking – Use your keywords

• Include keywords in page title, meta description, header tags, content blocks and image titles

• Consider using keywords in your navigation menus• Do not include the same keyword on multiple pages • Link on keywords

• Off-page –¾ of – getting linked to• Monitor your site and your competitors’ sites• Open accounts with LinkedIN, Facebook and Twitter• Monitor social media accounts - comment, post, link often• Use Google Adwords for difficult to rank terms


Step 2 – Draw traffic

2. Content• Create compelling content• Add more pages – it’s a numbers game• Publish in various media

– How? Use you keywords and internal search terms.• Create cornerstone content pages out of the top 5-10 keywords• Identify other ways to categorize content and create new pages• Repurpose content in a various forms


Cornerstone content strategy


Multiple formats

http://blog.mgma.com/

http://www.youtube.com/mgmatv

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mgmaflickr/


Drawing traffic group activity

IACB case study

• You’ve been hired as the membership director of the newly founded International Association of Coffee Baristas (IACB). Attached is a snapshot of IACB’s homepage with current news and events as well as the drop-down menus for the top navigation bar.

• What strategies and tactics would you recommend to draw more traffic to your Website?


Step 3 – Drive traffic with promotion

• Include URL to unique landing pages on all efforts– Advertising – Outbound marketing– Inbound marketing

• Social media• Blogs• Content sharing

• Consider using a data form for lead generation


Step 4 – Convert visitors to members

Three types of visitors:

1. Traffic directed to a landing page• Responded to a promotion

2. Organic traffic that finds an entry page within your site• Interested in a keyword that drew them to your page

3. Traffic that finds your homepage• More diverse group that you know very little about



Traffic directed to a landing page:• Keep it short, simple and clear

• Align the content of the page with the message directing to the page

• Use a call to action that starts with a verb and is positive, clear and direct

• Make a relevant offer


Converting directed traffic from a direct mail piece


Converting directed traffic from a Web ad

http://blog.mgma.com/tr-reid-world-healthcare-podcast/



Organic traffic that finds your homepage or other entry page• Identify top entry and exit pages

• Include call to action and link on top entry pages (maybe exit pages too)

• Make an offer – download a whitepaper, tool, etc. – not “contact us”


Converting organic traffic



http://www.mgma.com/join/trialEntry.aspx?dest=http://www.mgma.com/join/trialmem.aspx?id=20628



http://www.mgma.com/Layouts/MGMAPageBuilder.aspx?pageid=39662


Step 5 – Measure results

• Track your KPI

• Monitor Web trends

• Monitor retention rates


Action steps

• What strategies or tactics do you plan to test when you return from the conference?


Summary

1. Choose 1 KPI and track 5 other Website stats

2. Draw traffic with search and content

3. Drive traffic with promotion

4. Convert visitors to members or leads for sales

5. Measure results


Questions?

mgma.com

converting website visitors to members

Documents

group activity

website visitors

pages copyright

terms copyright

website statsunique

conversion program copyright

monthnew visitors

promotionconvert visitors