Flagler Hospital Bariatric Case Study

Jan. 12, 2011 - PRLog -- Challenge :
Flagler wanted to increase attendance at their informational seminars throughout Florida to drive new patient surgeries up.  The primary challenge was to cut their marketing and advertising costs substantially by using social media strategies in place of TV and billboard ads.

Objectives Of Campaign:
•   Increase online participation to grow brand awareness
•   Increase the number of attendees to their free seminars.
•   Increase new patient surgeries to increase revenues.
•   Increase referral rate to both seminars and Flagler Bariatric Center.
•   Increase customer loyalty and customer service.
•   Increasing fan counts/participation on Facebook.

Solution :
XE Corporation formulated a comprehensive social media campaign that utilized offline and online tactics to create buzz around their brand, establish an on-going conversation around their services and engage members of their community to refer their friends to attend Bariatric seminars and then become new patients of Flagler.

Tactic #1: Online Surveys
We created a 10 question online survey.  Then emailed it to past patients to learn more about their experience and what they would like to see Flagler Bariatric do to increase the propensity that they would stay engaged in the Flagler brand and refer others to become patients.  We then used this data to help us further develop our strategic plan.  Without this tactic we would not have been as successful.  The participants told us what they truly expected and wanted from us to increase their chances to help us succeed with this campaign.

Tactic #2: Launch a Referral-Based Giveaway
Created a referral-based Wii Fit Giveaway requiring entrants to “like” the Facebook page and refer a friend to attend one of the Free Seminars held by Flagler Bariatric.  This was our main “Call To Action.”  We built a database of people who referred their friends and the names of the people they referred to give us a valuable list of contacts we considered highly engaged and potential advocates for the Flagler brand in the future.  We also leveraged this “Giveaway” on Twitter and other social networks on a daily basis to build traffic to the Flagler website and the Facebook page.

Tactic #3: Customize Facebook Landing Page and Contest Page
Re-branding of the Facebook page via landing pages and other customization to better control the experience for users.

Tactic #4: Create Online Invitations for Events
Promotion of Flagler Bariatric Events using social networks to gain more attendance and reach them where they were online and not force them to go back to the main website to learn more about Flagler events.

Tactic #5: Fan-Favorite Recipe Module on Website
Creation of Fan-Generated “Menus”, where current and past bariatric patients shared their favorite recipes/meals with others.

Tactic #6: “Spotlight Fan” Facebook Contest
Patient submitted Before & After pictures as part of “Spotlight Fan” Facebook Contest to increase support and conversation among fan community.

Results:
•   Cut their marketing costs by 93% by switching from traditional media to social media.
•   Increased Facebook Fan Page conversation by 5 times
•   Increased visits to the Facebook Fan Page by 400%
•   30% participation rate with online survey after 5 weeks
•   Using “crowdsourcing” from survey – it helped Flagler decide on the next Facebook patient appreciation campaign – Giveaway a year’s supply of custom vitamins and supplements
•   Recruited dozens of volunteer advocates to be community leaders online to help promote Flagler with others online to gain online market share of the conversations around Bariatrics.
•   Produced dozens of new qualified leads to attend the free seminars
•   Leads estimated at a 75% conversion rate to new patients