In honor of Geonetric’s 25th anniversary, we’re sharing the stories and successes of just a few of our healthcare clients across the United States. Some have been with us for decades, others just a few years; some are major health systems, others just one standalone hospital. But one common thread ties them all together: Geonetric has helped them take their digital marketing programs to new heights.
Hartford, CT-based Hartford HealthCare (HHC) ranks as one of the largest health systems in Connecticut, seeing more than 23,000 patients daily in more than 185 cities across the state. HHC comprises more than 500 healthcare facilities, including four behavioral health centers, two physician organizations, senior care services, and seven acute care hospitals, several of which have been serving their communities for over a century.
Search strategies
HHC has partnered with Geonetric since early 2018, initially contracting with us to work on search engine optimization (SEO) across its more than 30 websites after a new website launch led to a natural dip in organic traffic and search rankings.
“Our websites weren’t ranking as well as we would like on Google, and we knew that having an agency dedicated to SEO would be important,” said Nicole Spagnoletti, Director of Digital Marketing at HHC. “It was a lot to manage on our own, with our in-house team dedicating time to maintaining and expanding them as our system grew over time.”
When our partnership first began, our long-term strategy for HHC was to integrate organic SEO with search engine marketing (SEM), and shift toward organic SEO over time. But rebuilding those rankings wasn’t something that could happen overnight — it requires a significant amount of effort, resources and time.
To bridge the gap between where HHC’s rankings were in 2018 with where we wanted them to reach, we recommended a short-term paid marketing and pay-per-click (PPC) ad strategy. With this initial strategy in place, HHC and our team had the time to take a step back and focus on building up core competencies.
Those strategies, like any successful marketing program, evolved over time to fit HHC’s needs. But the solid foundation of SEO success — technical SEO, on-page SEO, on search results page SEO, and off-page SEO — have always been at the center of the work we do together.
In the years since our partnership began, we’ve helped reimagine HHC’s entire approach to digital marketing with a new SEO strategy to help recoup their lost traffic and search rankings.
Our team has also implemented SEM campaign best practices to bring their PPC ads back on track after “cannibalization” — ads competing with other Hartford campaigns and reducing their impact — led to an inefficient use of the money invested in each campaign.
A significant part of these initial SEO and SEM projects was identifying and remedying “low-hanging fruit” — minor fixes we could make to achieve results quickly — and ensuring all pages were functioning and tagged correctly so Google and other search engines could find and scan them.
We also identified the campaigns that were causing and reassessed and optimized them for new keywords and audiences.
Partnership results
Within the first nine months of launching HHC’s revamped paid campaigns, we saw a 57.55% increase in conversions, a 98.39% increase in impressions, a 71.75% increase in conversion rate, and a 31.82% decrease in cost per conversion.
On the SEO side, year-over-year results from 2018 to 2019 show a 59% increase in conversion growth, a 67% increase in conversion rate, and a 30% decrease in cost per conversion.
In the time since launching those initial campaigns, our team has continued to fine-tune HHC’s SEO strategy and paid efforts through new keyword-optimized content, metadata and Google Tag Manager management.
“In all of the projects we work on with Geonetric, we get such wonderful feedback from our colleagues about how easy they are to work with, how clear their expectations are, and how sound their strategy is,” said Spagnoletti. “If we ever have questions about their strategy, it’s a great conversation and learning opportunity.”
Prioritizing privacy
We also worked with HHC to implement Geonetric Privacy Filter, which allows healthcare organizations to use Google Analytics and craft effective marketing strategies while maintaining HIPAA compliance.
Spagnoletti recalled that a highlight of implementing Geonetric Privacy Filter was consistently feeling like a priority to our team.
“This particular project had a lot of visibility, and we needed answers in a clear, concise and timely manner, and they delivered,” she said.
A true partnership
Another factor that has kept HHC’s partnership with Geonetric strong over the years is our meticulous attention to detail and commitment to staying up-to-date on the latest healthcare and marketing industry trends. When asked to sum up our relationship in one word, Spagnoletti chose “authentic.”
“They are proactive in communicating with us when there are changes in the industry and offer solid solutions without overselling,” said Spagnoletti. “The best thing about working with the team is that I trust they operate with their clients’ interests in mind. Geonetric is a true partner, beyond just the services they provide. We appreciate having them as an extension of our in-house team.”
Ready to experience the Geonetric difference?
Geonetric has 25 years of experience helping healthcare organizations of all sizes meet their marketing goals and stay on the cutting edge of healthcare and digital trends.
If your team is ready to take the first step to building a marketing partnership that delivers results, contact us today!