Have your weekly website visits declined in recent months? If so, you’re not alone. The rapid expansion of AI search has changed the rules of online marketing.
I asked Nick Jaworski, founder and CEO of Circle Social, for his recommendations on a recent Delivering Recovery podcast. Here are my key take-aways:
Your website is no longer the primary source of information for many of your customers
AI bots are now searching across the internet for information about your center. Because they pay inordinate attention to what review sites, local news and social media say about you, you now need to own your narrative across the entire web.
While I realize it is difficult, it is more important than ever that third party sites tell the story you want to be told. If your website is positioning your center as providing compassionate addiction treatment but the majority of your Google or Yelp reviews are slamming your clinicians for not listening or being available, you’ve got a problem.
Ownership and authority have moved away from your website to third party sources. Your marketing team needs to be focused on trying to control what is said about you across the entire web. Push your message to Facebook, LinkedIn and TikTok, and do your best to back this up with positive testimonials, reviews and referrals in third-party datasets.
Focus on differentiating your center from local competitors
Local is king. If you’re offering outpatient treatment, identify all of the centers serving similar patients within 30 to 50 miles. For residential treatment centers, your competitive area may extend up to 150 miles. Ask your team to analyze what each competitor is claiming as their points of differentiation and how they’re supporting their claims. Within this frame, figure out where you have the best competitive advantage.
It’s not always necessary to be the only center talking about a specific attribute. If everyone else is claiming to be trauma-informed, you can still use this as a point of differentiation if this is truly what your center specializes in. However, you’ll need to prove why you’re better. Explain in great detail how your clinicians work with your patients to resolve their PTSD symptoms. Ask your Clinical Director to write an article for your website, using terminology a layperson will understand. Highlight any papers your clinicians have co-authored on the topic. And remember to remind your patients on a regular basis about your specialty so their reviews reflect it.
Not all of your differentiators need to be clinical. Perhaps you run a phenomenal family program (looking at you, The Blanchard Institute!) or you’re in network with an astounding number of insurance companies.
This is also where verified outcomes data matters most. Potential patients and their families desperately want to choose a treatment center with a good success rate, and they’re not going to take your word for it. If you have third-party outcomes research showing that your results are better than average, showcase this on your website. Vista offers clients a free Prospective Patient Report specifically for this purpose. Additionally, if your center qualifies for a 4- or 5-star rating on Conquer Addiction’s nonprofit website, take full advantage of it.
Include your pricing and detailed answers to common questions on your website
Prospective patients will ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity very detailed questions and expect AI to be able to immediately find the answers. One common question is how much your center costs to attend and what a patient can expect to pay out-of-pocket after insurance. While you may not have ever shared this information on your website before, transparency is now expected. If you don’t provide the information AI needs to answer the question, AI may make up an answer or simply exclude your center from the list of centers they’re recommending.
**********************
Sometime tonight, a mother will ask an AI search bot to recommend the best treatment center in your area for her son. The recommendation she receives will depend entirely on what AI has already learned about your center — and your competitors — across the internet.
Are you confident your center will make the short list? If not, you’ve got work to do. And if independent validation of your outcomes would help make the case, I’d love to talk.