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Patient CRM Conversion Rates
While I wasn't able to find pharmaceutical-specific conversion rate figures, I found several studies that examine conversion rates on landing pages in the healthcare industry. The most recent study suggests that the median conversion rate for healthcare landing pages is 2.8%, which is among the lowest of any industry. I've included this and other figures below, as well as some best practices for conversion rate optimization in healthcare and elsewhere.
AVERAGE HEALTHCARE CONVERSIONS
A 2017 study by conversion rate optimization firm Unbounce found that healthcare lead generation had a median conversion rate of 2.8%. The highest conversion rate Unbounce found for the healthcare industry was 12.3%, lower than every industry they examined except real estate and higher education. Broken down further, healthcare landing page conversion rates look like this:
The 50th percentile has a conversion rate of 2.9%
The 75th percentile has a conversion rate of 5.8%
The 90th percentile has a conversion rate of 9.3%"
These conversion rates, again, are among the lowest of any industry Unbounce examined -- they found that "[m]arketers who can consistently achieve anything above 5% are deemed superstars" in healthcare CRM.
Unbounce also offers a landing page analysis tool for benchmarking -- this tool may not be free, however.
An older (2015) report from Formstack, a landing page and form creation company, found slightly higher rates. Formstack reported the healthcare industry's average landing page conversion rate at 9%, still the lowest of any industry in the study. When it comes to specific forms, lead generation pages had an 11% conversion rate across all industries in the study.
CONVERSION RATE OPTIMIZATION BEST PRACTICES
Healthcare as an industry has several challenges that can keep conversion rates low. Medical websites tend to "have too much medical jargon," turning away some potential customers either because they can't understand the language or because the terms scare them. Unbounce's study found that "[f]or every additional percent of copy that used language evoking feelings of fear," conversion rates dropped by 10%.
Healthcare websites also tend to have trouble with SEO, which is vital to improving conversion rates. Pages in the top search results on Google "garnered 34.36% and 31.35% of total clicks" on desktop and mobile, respectively.
When it comes to healthcare landing pages, companies can make some changes to draw in more patients. These include emphasizing location and contact information (since oftentimes patients are looking for healthcare companies near them), showing compassion for the patient's condition, and demonstrating staff and physician expertise. Patient testimonials can also boost conversion rates -- one A/B test on a clinic landing page found that including patient testimonials led to a 101% increase in conversion rate on mobile and a 116% increase on desktop.
In general, landing pages have a few best practices that can be followed to improve conversion rates. Instead of simple A/B testing, online marketing firm WordStream advises testing between 4 and 10 different landing pages to find the one that converts the most visitors. They also recommend focused changes like changing the traffic flow once a customer is on the landing page and making different calls to action available where possible. Varying the call to action can especially help in healthcare, as patients might need different CTAs at different points in their healthcare journey. According to WordStream, these focused changes can "[bring] 3-5x the conversions AND [improve] lead quality."
CONCLUSION
According to an Unbounce study, healthcare website landing pages have a median conversion rate of 2.8%, among the lowest of any industry in the study. Even the highest performers in healthcare, at a 12.3% conversion rate, were lower than most other industries. Healthcare companies can improve their conversion rates by including patient testimonies, emphasizing contact and address information, and offering varied calls to action. One marketing firm suggests testing up to 10 different landing page variations to see which of these best practices resonates the best with any given business's customer base.