Cochlear
Case Study
Social Media Strategy Increases Leads by 2,500% for Global Medical Device Brand
Cochlear Americas, the global leader in implantable hearing solutions, has empowered more than 600,000 people of all ages to achieve better hearing outcomes. Prior to engaging Communications Strategy Group (CSG®), Cochlear had an active social media presence, but lacked a cohesive strategy.
increase in social
media traffic to
Cochlear’s website
increase in Facebook-
and Twitter-driven leads
engaged social
media users
average monthly website
visits from social
Solving for Cochlear’s Why
Recognizing an internal need for a healthcare communications agency that could figure out why the global brand’s robust social media presence wasn’t translating into more leads and conversions, Cochlear tapped us to develop a HealthTech-focused social media strategy that could extend the brand’s reach on Facebook and Twitter, increase engagement, educate people about advanced hearing solutions and connect with candidates who could benefit from its products.
Before we could devise and execute an integrated social strategy for Cochlear, we first had to identify their target audience— current and prospective hearing implant candidates as well as their families and loved ones. We also had to gain a better understanding of their customers’ journey and pinpoint critical junctures along the way where we could meet Cochlear’s targets with inspiring, entertaining and relevant content.
As a result, social engagement skyrocketed, website visits surged and Cochlear garnered thousands of new leads.
Social Media Matters. Social Media Strategy Matters Even More.
If you build a social media platform, fans and followers will come. But if you build it strategically around a content value exchange, they will go where you lead them. For our social media consultants, that means utilizing engaging social content to drive current and prospective customers deeper into the sales funnel. In order to achieve this movement for Cochlear, our healthcare team took a multifaceted approach that included:
Solidifying the social presence.
Our initial steps meant refining Cochlear’s social media presence. We began by auditing and optimizing Cochlear’s company pages on YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter to ensure consistency on all social media platforms while strategically focusing on Facebook and Twitter. This included performing a thorough review of each platform and making necessary changes to ensure consistency among design elements, messaging, calls to action and other integrations. We also ensured that the brand “liked” and engaged with appropriate industry and hearing loss pages on Facebook and unfollowed irrelevant and ghost profiles on Twitter. Additionally, we utilized Facebook and Twitter advertising platforms to increase Cochlear’s fans and followers and drive engagement.
Identifying the target audiences.
Our social strategy and accompanying content honed in on two audiences: people who could benefit from an advanced hearing solution and people who had chosen the implantable hearing solutions leader to be a partner in their hearing journey and already had a Cochlear product.
Creating a strategic framework.
Our social media consultants determined that given its natural, built-in audience, Facebook would primarily be used to connect more deeply with recipients and their families. Twitter would be used to initiate conversations and connections with candidates who could benefit from Cochlear products.
Curating a monthly social content calendar.
We conducted strategic content meetings with Cochlear that drove the creation of monthly content calendars for Twitter and Facebook. Social content focused on demonstrating Cochlear’s main differentiator — the sense of community among its recipients and their success after receiving a hearing implant. We also incorporated topical and branded hashtags into Twitter and Facebook posts to reach people who had yet to engage with the brand.
Integrating traditional public relations with a social media strategy.
We extracted the stories of people who had benefited from Cochlear products and distributed them through earned and shared channels. By strategically implementing medical device public relations primarily in local markets while continuing to look for relevant opportunities to break into national media and repurposing the content across Twitter and Facebook, our healthcare team made it easier for people to see themselves in the stories of Cochlear recipients, view the brand positively and take action to treat hearing loss.
Engaging with audiences effectively.
We monitored Cochlear’s Twitter presence and relevant hashtags to engage with posts that the brand’s followers would find helpful, informative and entertaining. And our social media consultants directly engaged with Facebook groups and comments on Cochlear’s behalf — a strategic move that increased reach, meaningful engagements as well as the number of engagements per post.
Providing ROI receipts on social Performance.
We provided Cochlear with weekly dashboards that depicted social impressions and identified top performing posts. This ongoing monitoring of content performance allowed our social media consultants to be flexible and nimble with content development and management efforts. We also delivered highly customized monthly dashboards to guide the next month’s social media approach, provide recommendations for improving engagements among recipients and candidates, and determine ways to drive website traffic and leads from social media.
Collaborating with the right influencers.
We helped Cochlear identify implant recipients who would make ideal brand champions and whose stories could be amplified and shared across the brand’s website and social media channels. We also searched Cochlear’s social channels for content opportunities. As an example, if a number of people in a hearing loss-related Facebook group were asking the same questions, our social media team flagged these topics for future content development. And we identified potential candidates on the cusp of deciding to get a hearing implant and connected with them through a group of Cochlear volunteers who could directly talk about their experiences with the brand.
Outperforming Expectations and Driving Social Media Conversion Rates
CSG’s initial goals for the engagement included:
And by the end of our first year with Cochlear, we exceeded every metric:
Our strategic social media expertise helped Cochlear boost its social engagement metrics above and beyond expectations to drive website traffic and convert its followers into hearing implant recipients and recipients into brand champions with meaningful spheres of influence — and that was just at the outset of our engagement.
As our relationship with Cochlear evolved, the scope of our work expanded to include more audiences, social platforms and media types. We helped Cochlear target hearing health professionals, such as audiologists, on LinkedIn. And we strategically leveraged YouTube as a search engine to bring SEO into Cochlear’s broader video content strategy.
The right healthcare communications agency can take your social media strategy from nonexistent to highly effective.
Get in touch today to put CSG’s team of social media consultants, writers and designers to work for you.
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