Website and content

Our role in the website migration included: inputting into technical and functional specs; ensuring no loss in site visibility during the migration, and making sure the new site was set up to deliver more from organic traffic in the long term. A key part of this was around reviewing and optimising the content on the site, so that users would find what they were looking for easily, and improving search visibility.

Content went on to form part of our on-going remit. We freed up time for the LLOC team by creating content, informed by search term analysis.

On-going website optimisation and user experience

We continued to support the new site (for example making tweaks following key Google algorithm updates (to ensure LLOC stayed ahead of the competition where visibility might be temporarily impacted)), conducting search term analysis for new treatment pages, and making recommendations around the navigation, page layout and other website development recommendations that would contribute to improved user experience and ultimately result in more leads. We worked with LLOC’s developers to feed the approved recommendations in to their workflow, and liaised directly with them throughout, keeping LLOC informed.

Paid media

A key challenge was the increased competition in the paid space for companies offering lingual braces. Average CPCs (cost per click) increased by 36% during December 2018 to February 2019 versus a year ago, meaning it cost more to get the same number of clicks and maintain LLOC’s position in the SERPS (search engine results page).

To combat this, our paid media experts applied continuous optimisations to the account through a combination of testing and learning, and applying Google (and our agency) best practice (particularly where we can see what’s worked well for other, similar client accounts), to bring minimise negative impact on enquiry numbers. For example, we tested different bidding strategies and new Google developments such as Smart Bidding and Responsive Search Ads to make the same marketing spend go further, and refining ad copy and the keywords/ targeting behind the ads to increase relevancy and click through rate once the ads were in front of potential patients.  We also explored opportunities in Bing, which although smaller, has not been exploited to the same degree as Google generally so allows for some competitive advantage in this area.

To drive brand awareness we launched Custom Intent Display, which is more targeted than traditional display activity as the ads reach people who are actively researching braces treatments. We also used the paid social channel strategically to reach a targeted audience at cheaper CPCs than Google, using features such as lookalike audiences to get LLOC’s key messages in front of more potential customers, including testimonial videos.  Remarketing via social was great way to reach people who’d already been on the site, and again more cost effective than Google.

We maintained a flexible approach to media budgets, moving spend from one paid channel to another based on what would generate the best results.

Organic (unpaid) social and email

Our aim by posting on LLOC’s social channels was to free up time for the LLOC team, and also by using our expertise to increase the reach and engagement of LLOC content. Using a regular schedule of posting, we applied both industry best practices and insights from the LLOC account, such as using distinct content for each social channel to speak to each audience differently, (Facebook content targeted to women / influencers, Twitter geared more to professionals / people interested in technology, etc.) We also produced a set of guidelines that could be used as a resource by the clinic in future, for example on how to re-share other users’ content, correct use of images, hashtags and so on.

Email

We audited the existing set up, and as a first step recommended we move the campaigns over to a more flexible email platform that would allow for more in-depth reporting and insights, as well as enhanced testing and segmentation capabilities.  Then we created a new, optimised email template for the monthly newsletters that was optimised for mobile for example, so likely to yield better results.

We moved into on-going management which involved building, testing and scheduling all campaigns as well as developing the email list further to improve performance. A key development we implemented was more sophisticated segmentation so that campaigns would be more targeted, and drive more return bookings.