Using integrated campaigns to drive urgent care patient volume
As the COVID-19 pandemic moved into an endemic state, urgent care providers —including PhysicianOne Urgent Care—that were once flooded with visitors for testing, needed to consider new approaches to convert those who may have come in once for a test into loyal, repeat patients. As media attention moved away from COVID-19-related topics, Inkhouse needed to adjust its strategic communications approach to support PhysicianOne Urgent Care’s goals of driving patient volume at its 27 centers across Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York.
Our initial approach, which focused on media awareness and educating patients about COVID-19—from identifying symptoms to testing and vaccines—had to shift as positive cases declined and consumers grew fatigued with pandemic messaging. Inkhouse implemented an integrated communications strategy, which relied more heavily on direct patient engagement through owned and paid channels to highlight PhysicianOne Urgent Care’s key differentiators: 24/7 locally staffed telehealth, and friendly, fast and professional service. Our content needed to consistently hit these key messages and reach our distinct core audiences so that when they need urgent care, they know where to go.
To build awareness and engagement, Inkhouse capitalized on trending cultural moments and seasonal topics that resonate most with our core audiences while accelerating video content. This resulted in an increased average engagement rate across our organic channels of 2.9%, compared to the industry average of 1.7%. The team also developed a robust paid social strategy to drive conversions—particularly in geographic locations that needed extra support to increase patient volume, resulting in more than doubling paid engagements year-over-year. Influencer engagement has proved to be an effective approach to expanding PhysicianOne Urgent Care’s reach, with campaigns in 2023 reaching 67K+ potential new patients. By remaining laser-focused on creating and amplifying content that matters to our core audience and aligning our approach to ensure we are elevating the locations that require extra support, PhysicianOne has cemented its leadership position as a top-rated urgent care in the communities it serves.
