How an Integrated Strategy Drove Big Growth Against Big Healthcare Players

Challenge: Breaking through in the monolithic national healthcare scene

The healthcare industry has become an exceptionally competitive environment for marketing. High-scale mergers and acquisitions have reshaped the field, with larger national health systems emerging as power players. From a digital marketing standpoint, these healthcare industry titans have a built-in advantage based on their footprints, domain authority and sophistication around SEO. 

Our client was a respected institution with a very strong local foothold. But in this environment, they now faced steeper competition to rank for search terms vital to their strategy – such as those relating to birth centers, preventative care, urgent care, and specialties like oncology and cardiology. 

The client sought to gain great visibility for priority terms against these healthcare giants across the health lifecycle, leading to patient acquisition.

Insight: The power of an authentic local reputation

TopRank Marketing applied its rigorous SEO research process for the client, conducting keyword research and competitive analysis that focused on digital differentiation. We aimed to help the client discover where they might compete most effectively against these major national healthcare conglomerates. 

One key finding in our research was that our client’s brand was being dominated in local listings by these big national healthcare players, who had a very methodical and uniform approach to claiming and optimizing them. Our client had thousands of listings that had been acquired over time, but due to lack of centralized authority and consistency, they were now being outranked by competition.

At the same time, we found that – compared to many of these national systems – our client had a unique advantage: its rich history and experience as a local hospital, along with a widely recognized brand name. We partnered on a strategy to help them capitalize on the strength of their reputation, and elevate their domain’s impact in listings and search.

Strategy: An integrated and balanced approach

Recognizing that a blend of organic and paid media tends to be most effective for driving targeted visibility, our collaboration leveraged an integrated approach. Using SEO, PPC and paid social ads, the campaign featured human-centric creative designed to highlight the client’s connection to community, as well as their track record for personalized service and excellent outcomes. We helped the client develop a balanced content mix speaking to patients at each stage of their journeys, from preemptive education to urgent care needs and recovery challenges. 

Results: More traffic, more appointments, lower costs

The integrated campaign produced outstanding results for the client across both upper-funnel and lower-funnel metrics. Tailored and targeted content helped drive a 57% year-over-year increase in overall website traffic. In turn, the client saw a direct impact on conversions and KPIs, with a 62% increase in appointment requests. This all came with significant improvements in cost efficiency, as illustrated by a 30% reduction in cost per conversion via paid media.

Our partnership helped the client fortify their local presence while expanding the reach of their specialized services and going toe-to-toe with the titans in healthcare.