As a rehab marketer, you’re looking for optimized ways to reach your target audience—potential admits. But how does your drug rehab stack up against competitors? With comparison pages. That’s how!
Framing Your Drug Rehab vs. Competitors with Comparison Pages
Sometimes, it can be hard to tell…especially for potential admits. However, comparison pages are a useful tool in determining which rehab is better suited towards a future client’s needs. This is especially helpful when prospects are given a list of in-network rehabs by an insurer. It’s basically a visual comparison of a few important factors in a grid style.
In this post, we’ll cover:
- the benefits of having a rehab comparison page,
- how that page helps your rehab get more admits,
- what to include in a rehab comparison page, and
- to this newly created comparison page as a sales resource.
Let’s dive in.
Why Does a Comparison Page Help Your Rehab Get More Admits?
Struggling with addiction is hard. Seeking help for addiction shouldn’t have to be. To help your potential admissions, make it as easy as possible for them to compare you to the competition by spelling it out in a dedicated page or blog post on your website. Comparison pages for rehabs are a great mid-funnel tool to feed your admissions team with qualified leads and attract online visitors. But remember that is one (small) part of a rehab marketing plan that you can often do in-house and don’t need an agency.
Comparison Pages are Educational
Comparison pages help your rehab get more admits by empowering potential admits to trust your rehab over others. With side-by-side comparison metrics and charts, admits are able to see the real benefits your rehab has over the competition.
These pages can generate amazing results. In one case, we saw a lead-to-admit rate of 29 percent! This means that everyone who visited the comparison page and contacted the rehab ultimately converted 29 percent of the time.
Are Comparison Pages Worthwhile?
You have to shift this traditional mindset and think about them within the broader context of marketing. A comparison page provides the perfect space for you to define your value proposition to your key customers in black-and-white. This is also how many people search for resources on the Internet, so a rehab v. competitors comparison page should give your visitors a birds-eye view of what makes you better. They’re a bit further in the funnel.
For example, think of the larger companies creating comparison pages. These established brands are able to effectively convey their value propositions to their target audiences through comparison pages—and benefit from it.
Do I Have To Use Competitors’ Names?
Maybe you’re comfortable with the idea of setting up a comparison page, but you’re still afraid of naming competitors on this page.
Even though you’ve seen successful ways that other brands have managed to name competitors in their comparisons, you just don’t want to name yours, due to whatever reasons…and that’s okay.
But, you have to realize that your rehab is oftentimes one in an endless stretch of almost indistinguishable local rehabs. How can you stand out from the pack?
A Rehab Above the Rest
To place yourself at the top, think about the bigger picture. In a sea of rehabs—especially local drug rehabs—your prospective client is in a world of pain.
This potential admit is put in a very precarious position, because they have to figure out which rehab is the best choice for them. In the midst of this uncertainty, what makes your center stand out?
Examine your center critically and look at what your competitors are up to. Dig in to your customer surveys to find the good and bad. Clearly shape what’s best (and bad) about your rehab, and why a prospective admit would want to visit it.
Future clients with cash-in-hand, and those who know their health insurance benefits cover the cost of rehabs, may have already decided that they’ve got to check into one. They just have to make the decision on who they should go with and why.
Make It Simple
As marketers living in a world of revenue optimization and cost per admits, it’s our job to make the lives of potential admits easier and simpler.
The less we ask of these admits in terms of decision-making, the more likely it is for our businesses to succeed. Successful drug rehabs, in turn, can help admits get the care they need—so they can heal and return to a healthier, happier life.
By providing prospective clients with a reference point via a comparison page, rehabs are doing both themselves and clients a big favor.
Flip the Sales Pitch: How to Create a Comparison Page on Your Rehab’s Website in 10 Steps
When creating a comparison page on your rehab’s site, you’ll want to follow these important steps.
1. Be Honest
The most important part of a great comparison page? Honesty. If your page honestly and faithfully creates a real comparison between your brand and others, you’ll be bringing your admits to a resource they can truly trust.
2. Do Your Research
Actively researching your competitors might feel strange, but it isn’t any different than what big brands do to differentiate themselves from the competition.
Yes, I know you may have hesitations about researching your competitors, but you don’t have to. As long as the information you find is publicly available, and you block out competitors’ names when referencing them, you’re not doing anything wrong.
So, research away, and be sure to note what weaknesses competing rehabs have that your strengths may be able to fill.
3. Build a Checklist
The easiest way for someone to see how you stack up against your competitors? A side-by-side checklist. So, go ahead and build that checklist. When you do, it’s okay to lump your competitors under the title of “Others.” Just make sure that what you’re saying about the others is accurate.
Use your checklist to provide aggregative benefits of your rehab versus other rehabs. By giving visitors to the page a checklist of real questions they can ask competing rehabs, you’re already helping to demonstrate your value. You can offer this checklist as gated content, via a downloadable checklist or table. Or, you can post it publicly on your blog for all to see.
4. Refine Your Services
When adding information and resources to your comparison page, write with your potential admits in mind. Think about what services your competitors are missing that you can reasonably fill for a prospective client. Additionally, think about what an admit’s needs are, and how you can make their experience at your rehab more tailored and helpful.
5. Show Success Stats
Are the rates of success for admits coming out of your drug rehab favorable? If they are, include that information on the site.
People love to see a success story. It gives potential admits hope of their own success through your rehab, and it gives you the opportunity to help even more admits on their recovery journeys. Sprinkle in a testimonial or two on the same page that speaks to some of the points shown in the comparisons. Quotes and stats would be ideal proof points to give your comparison some extra heat.
6. Make A Map
If your rehab is located in an area that’s more accessible than other rehabs, that’s another way your rehab can stand out from the competition. Show this on an interactive map—just take care to block out the names of competing rehabs when you list them on this map.
Use no-name red pins on your map, in place of red pins with competitor names. Place these pins in an approximate location on the map, so that they aren’t too specific.
When potential admits see you amidst a sea of red location pins, they may be inspired to look further into your own rehab’s benefits and success rate (versus the nameless others).
7. Chart It Out
Maps and checklists are important, visually appealing and helpful parts of your comparison page. But charts can also add a little something that puts your comparison page over the top.
So, take that data you found earlier and synthesize it. Use the honest numbers to tell a story. Whether those numbers are your reviews vs. a competitor’s reviews, your success stats vs. a competitor’s or your years of experience vs. theirs, use that information to your advantage.
Create bar graphs, pie charts, line graphs or a table of key comparison points. Use your creativity and your analytical prowess to show why your drug rehab is more helpful than others.
8. Test It Out
As marketers—sometimes we get so inside our own heads that we’re creating content in a bubble for each other, instead of content that could actually help our target audiences.
If you aren’t sure how authentically and helpfully your comparison pages reads, test it out. See if you’re able to send an in-progress comparison page to current admits of your rehab, and ask them if they find it helpful. Additionally, ask them what features they like best/worst, and what they’d want to change.
If you can’t test your comparison page with the admits themselves, try testing it with employees of your drug rehab outside the marketing department. Ask them what they think of this page, what they’d like to see more of, and what they could do without. Pro tip: Show it to the admissions team for a day of heated discussion but valuable outcomes.
Ultimately, testing your content will give you a helpful outside perspective on what’s going right and what needs a bit of work.
9. Provide Real Value
The overarching goals of your comparison page are to: (1) Drive business back to your rehab, and (2) Provide real value to your potential admits.
If you create your page with these two principles in mind, your content is sure to succeed. So, once you’ve finished your first draft of the comparison page and gotten outside feedback on it, step away from it. Come back with fresh eyes. Put on the hat of your target audience members. Then see if this page provides them with easy-to-use information that can benefit them in an actionable way.
10. Show How You’re The Best
Ultimately, all the components of your comparison page should ladder up to demonstrating why you’re the best drug rehab for your prospective client with how you get real results for your patients.
Once you’ve created and displayed your checklist, success stats, map and charts, a potential admit should be able to clearly see why you’re better than your competition. So, as you create all of these components, think critically about the story you’re telling.
If you don’t like what you see, try to include data that shows your drug rehab in the best light—while remaining truthful and honest.
Comparison Pages For Rehabs Can Be Used As A Sales Resource!
Now that you’ve launched your comparison page, use it as a sales resource. When your business development outreach team pitches to referral partners, they can cite statistics from the comparison page and include a link to it.
Your stakeholders will be impressed at how your rehab measures up in comparison to other rehabs. And your prospective clients will appreciate you helping them do their homework.
Framing Your Drug Rehab vs. Competitors with Comparison Pages: Final Thoughts
We hope you feel more confident in building your comparison pages after reading this blog post. Remember, the 10 steps to building a successful comparison page are:
- Being honest
- Doing your research
- Providing a checklist
- Refining your services
- Showing success stats
- Displaying a map
- Including tables and charts
- Testing the page content internally
- Providing real value
- Showing why you’re the best
Now that you know how to make your drug rehab stand out from competitors through a comparison page, there’s nothing stopping you from building a solid comparison page for your rehab’s site.
