As a chiropractor, you are dependent on incoming patients and new clientele to keep your business afloat. Without a steady stream of incoming clients, it can be difficult to maintain growth rates and your revenue is likely to drop. Getting discovered is important not just for your overall business success, but also to make sure that patients in your area are getting the best care available for their chiropractic needs.
In order to get discovered online and help build your business, you need to have a strong digital marketing strategy. A large part of that strategy should center around your online presence and the ways in which leads come across your chiropractic clinic. One of the best ways to increase online visibility and funnel new leads into your office is with directory listings.
But what is an online directory listing, and what makes it different from a traditional listing in a phone directory? And how can you go about improving your online presence through directory listings? In this article, we’ll answer those questions and more so you can get started with directory listings management for chiropractors and chiropractic staff.
What are Directory Listings?
A directory listing is a type of business listing that includes pertinent information about your business and tells people what they need to know in order to make a decision about visiting you or exploring your brand further. Online directories are available to people who search online, and include information like reviews or ratings to help other searchers learn more about your business and your online reputation.
The most common place for an online directory listing is with a Google Business Profile, formerly known as Google My Business. But there are other types of online directories. Other search engines like Bing and Yahoo have directories, as well as places like review sites, retail sites like Amazon, and even within your industry or your local community. Claiming as many listings as possible helps you capture all available audiences.
There can be a lot of variation among directories as far as what they list and what information is displayed first. However, some common elements of a directory listing:
- Name
- Address
- Phone Number
- Website URL
- Photos
- Videos
- Insurances Accepted
- Details About the Business
Benefits of Directory Listings
Having a directory listing online makes it easy for patients to find you and learn more about your business without even knowing your chiropractic clinic by name. But there are other benefits that you can also receive from using online directory listings, including:
Increased Visibility
When someone searches for chiropractic offices near them, the first thing to appear on the search results page is the map listings and business profiles of local chiropractic clinics. Even with a less specific search, your directory listing is often the first thing to appear if someone has searched for anything relevant or related to your business industry. Many patients rely on directory listings to make a decision about where they first reach out when they need an adjustment.
Local Search
Directories are based on location. That means that when someone searches for a chiropractor near them or in their city, your directory listing will pop up if it has been correctly filled out for your areas of operation. Think of it this way: when someone searches for a pizza shop, they want the one down the road, not one three states over. Using local search best practices in your directory listings will help you be discovered by relevant potential customers.
Improved Credibility
Another major benefit of having a directory listing is that it helps you improve your credibility and appear more authentic and reputable to people searching for chiropractic help. When a directory listing isn’t filled out, or lacks images and reviews, it looks inauthentic and unprofessional to searchers. But the more detailed and active your listing is, the more patients will trust you.
Direct Contact
The final major benefit you can get from claiming and filling out your online directory pages is that it provides direct contact to your business. People can call you right from the search page, get access to your website and contact form, or even directly message you through the platform or an attached service. This helps you get to talk to patients right away before they change their minds or go to a competitor.
How Directory Listings Help You Attract More Patients
Now that you know more about why directories are valuable and what they look like online, let’s take some time to dive into directory listings management for chiropractors and explore how you can use a directory to attract more patients to your clinic.
Improves Your Online Presence
The first way to use directories to attract more patients is to help improve your online presence. When someone comes across your business directory, it isn’t by accident. They were actively searching and looking for a chiropractor. Whether they need an immediate adjustment or if they just want to see if someone is nearby, it still gets your business name in front of them for when they do need your services.
Rather than passively waiting for customers to come, you can boost your online presence by claiming as many online directories as possible and building up robust profiles on each platform. That helps you get discovered more by the people who are looking for your services online on any platform or search engine. It also helps them get in contact with you quickly.
Strengthen Your Reputation
Another way that directory listings help you get new patients is by strengthening your reputation. A directory is a trusted source of information. Customers believe what you have there, so the more complete the listing is, the stronger your reputation appears online. Think about it, would you trust a company more if they have no photos and no reviews or a company with recent photos, five stars, and active review responses?
However, this can also backfire if you aren’t careful. If you manage your business directories poorly, let reviews or questions lapse, don’t update contact information, or leave information like your hours or accepted insurances blank, it can hurt your reputation online. Just as customers trust a complete directory listing, they don’t trust an incomplete one. Make sure you are doing what you need in order to get the most out of your listing.
Increase Brand Awareness
The next way you can use your directories to improve your lead generation is by increasing your brand awareness. The higher you appear in the search results box with business listings, the better your chances are of getting leads coming in. The top three results often get the majority of clicks in a search, so you want to do all you can to get to the top.
Increasing brand awareness also gives you an edge over your competitors. If some of your competitors don’t have strong directory profiles or don’t put effort into improving their listings, you can take advantage of that fact and get a boost over other chiropractors in the area with your improved listing. This also helps you get business that could have potentially gone to someone else back through your door.
Grow Your Local Visibility
Getting found locally is essential to chiropractors. After all, you don’t want to waste time marketing to people who live hours away and won’t have any reason to come over to your clinic. You want to spend your marketing time and dollars on patients who realistically would come to your office. If they live in your location, then your directory listing should target them.
When you have a local directory listing, you are more likely to be found on Google and other search engines for local searches. That helps boost our profile to the top of search results pages and helps you grow your local visibility in searches outside of looking for a clinic, such as general chiropractic information or news.
Get Discovered More Easily
The rising way of looking for information isn’t with typing questions anymore but with voice search. Voice search utilizes digital assistants and microphone technology to ask questions and find local businesses. For example, someone in their car might use Bluetooth to ask for a chiropractor near them. Because they want to be hands-free, they trust the first result that is read back. If you can be that result, you can get many new leads with the power of voice search.
Attend a Surefire Local Marketing Platform Demo
At Surefire Local, we know how important it is for chiropractors like yourself to get new business and keep track of directories across multiple platforms. That’s why we offer business intelligence marketing software at a fraction of the cost of other marketing tools and agencies. To learn more about Surefire Local, get a demo today and discover all that Surefire Local can support you with today.