Overview:

It is not uncommon to hear that medical professionals are not particularly business savvy, however that is not always the case. About six months ago Digital Surgeons was contacted by the Owner and the Director of Marketing at a medical office in Midtown Manhattan, NY. The complaint was that they had spent several thousand dollars on a website and hundreds of dollars on maintenance and hosting, reaping absolutely zero return on investment (ROI). They were intimidated by the idea and industry surrounding Search Engine Optimization, and they needed a credible and dependable Internet Marketing Agency.

Goals:

Park Avenue Spine needed a search engine optimization and marketing solution to build strong visibility for their website and chiropractic practice in the major search engine listings, with a focus on the Manhattan and New York City market. Their main goal was to generate a significant number of new patients via website marketing and reap a handsome return on investment (ROI) from their online venture.

The Problem: "Thousands of dollars…absolutely zero return on investment."

The Beginning Statistics:

• In April 2006, according to their online statistics, Park Avenue Spine was consistently receiving approximately 40 unique visitors per month, based on a three month average
• No new patients had yet been attributed to the new website.

Park Avenue Spine came to Digital Surgeons with open eyes and ears. Traditional Marketing in a competitive city like New York was showing very little ROI and often felt like a dog chasing its tail. 12 Months prior to April they had purchased a website for a few thousand dollars and spent large monthly fees on what they thought would improve their traffic through the use of regular newsletters and the power of search engines. In addition, countless dollars were spent on vertical specific directories that were either optimized for pertinent key phrases or they were highest bid in the Sponsored links. Their website was averaging about 40 unique visitors per month at this point. And most of this traffic was shown to be coming from more traditional marketing efforts.

Though it was believed that the hosting package they were utilizing provided a robust analytics package, this was not the case. Park Avenue Spine was receiving statistics on pages views, and hits only.

The Strategy: "Communication…accurate data…a team of industry experts"

Accurate Data: Their website statistics program lacked key data that is extremely helpful in determining website traffic such as visitor origins, navigation paths, exit and entry pages which help determine visitor activity and frequency which can be later used by our marketing strategists to help determine how to improve visitor conversion and retention. By integrating a more in depth statistic software Digital Surgeons was able to notice hot zones on the website, referring links.

Communications: From initial contact, Digital Surgeons understood that constant communications with this client were necessary to ensure that they were onboard with and understood what changes needed to be made to make them successful. Regular phone calls and emails were used to identify areas of concern with Park Avenue Spine s web site, and to map out the plan of attack.

Education: Education was an important part of this relationship, and Digital Surgeons took the time to inform them as to what they could expect from their online market and how, over time, business from this channel would improve dramatically. We were able to explain that changes not only needed to be made to their website, but also within their organization. Internet traffic is only one piece to the puzzle. It was imperative that Park Avenue learned to watch the traffic, convert the traffic, and analyze every conversion to explain what their online marketing budget returned, and how it did so.

Team & Direction: Digital Surgeons put together a powerful team of industry experts to partner with Park Avenue Spine on reaching their goals. We analyzed website, keyword and market data and developed a custom search engine strategy based upon improvements in website structure, content, and linking relationships. Professional programmers, SEO experts, marketing analysts, copy writers, and technicians all brought their talent and experience to bear on this campaign. The best tools today for keyword research and website analysis were also employed.

Technologies: Park Avenue Spine's website (www.Parkavenuespine.com) was developed using mostly PHP, a programming language that is easily indexed and understood by the major search engines. Due to the PHP site structure, all of the implementations made by our production team were quickly indexed and had an immediate impact on website visibility and keyword positioning.

The website content was nearly tripled during the initial months of the campaign. A careful balance of the best potential keyword phrases were woven into the copy while maintaining an educational and marketable feel. These nuances are important to appease the search engines need for keyword density, proximity, and proper link structure.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Digital Surgeons linking specialists were working to obtain popular and relevant inbound links while our online publicist developed significant off-page search engine optimization techniques such as press releases and public relations efforts. .

Conversion: The conversion power of the Park Avenue Spine website was in definite need of improvement and our marketing team went to work analyzing collected data, website elements, and competing sites to determine methods for increasing the number of visitors who would make actual contact with Park Avenue Spine via phone or email. Digital Surgeons also worked closely with Park Avenue Spine's office staff, providing education on how to consistently ask and record where new patients are finding out about the practice.

The Accomplishments: "Just four short months…15-30 new patients per month."

Four Month Statistics: - traffic, % increase, conversions/new patients.

These online marketing efforts have shown enormous return on investment (ROI) for Park Avenue Spine within just 4 short months, and their success has just kept on growing since that benchmark. Digital Surgeons has provided an increase in rankings across all 4 major search engines for the priority keyword phrases that drive unique interested visitors to their website.

As of January 2007, Park Avenue is averaging 1200 unique visitors per month, a 3000% increase over the 40 visitors they were averaging 8 months prior. They have also tracked between 15-30 new patient visits per month since August due to Digital Surgeons conversion enhancement efforts.

Digital Surgeons continues to aggressively market Park Avenue Spine online and monthly traffic and new patients continue to rise. Through continued search engine marketing, and various other online marketing tactics, Park Avenue Spine will continue to bear fruit from this very valuable partnership.