Bridging legacy and innovation: The London Clinic’s digital evolution for the modern patient
Brought premier private hospital's expertise and history to life through digital patient acquisition initiatives.
Patient acquisition/recruitment
Compliant performance marketing
Compliant content production
Standing out in a competitive space
Unpicking ROI
About
The London Clinic
The London Clinic is a prestigious independent private hospital situated at the corner of Devonshire Place, with consulting rooms spread across Harley Street. Founded in 1932 and steeped in a rich heritage, The London Clinic has long been committed to delivering premium, personalised care across a broad spectrum of surgical and medical expertise.
As one of the largest and most well-known independent healthcare providers in the UK, the clinic combines its reputation for excellence with a commitment to cutting-edge technology. However, despite its stellar offline reputation and momentous physical presence, The London Clinic sought a cohesive digital strategy to align its online presence with its distinguished physical legacy.
The London Clinic / Medico Digital
Challenges
-
While The London Clinic has always been well renowned, there were a few factors preventing them from translating their reputation for the modern patient:
Key treatment pages lacked sufficient content to rank for relevant patient queries or provide value to visitors.
-
Medico Digital began by conducting keyword research to identify high search volume keywords relating to self-pay package treatments and conditions, whilst ensuring that these keywords reflected a likely intent on the part of the searcher to enquire with The London Clinic. Our in-house team of medical copywriters, which includes ex-doctors and healthcare specialists, rewrote web page copy for high priority self-pay treatments, adding both SEO value and patient-friendly readability.
Working as an extension of The London Clinic’s internal marketing team, Medico Digital used collaborative digital tools such as Slack to educate on SEO best practices and give ongoing advice. We developed bespoke dashboards to make website metrics easily digestible for the marketing team, as well as the hospital’s wider stakeholders.
-
The marketing team were unable to accurately measure SEO success, limiting insights and progress.
Web pages for treatments were ineffective at converting traffic due to poor user experience and inflexible design, while a lack of conversion tracking made it difficult to assess digital performance.
Without a steady flow of organic traffic, we were tasked with creating and executing an SEO and paid strategy for The London Clinic that could raise awareness and boost bookings to their newly created self-pay packages.
-
Unsurprisingly, COVID-19 presented a unique set of challenges for the clinic. Patients were understandably cautious, especially those with low immunity such as cancer patients. The London Clinic needed to reassure patients about safety measures while adapting to rapidly evolving patient concerns and behaviors.
The clinic’s existing digital infrastructure and marketing strategies were not adequately equipped to address such a ubiquitous issue, with rapidly changing patient concerns and behaviours.
The clinic had experienced frequent changes in their internal marketing teams, which made it tricky to maintain a consistent strategy when it came to their digital presence. This lack of continuity and institutional knowledge within the marketing teams hindered the clinic’s ability to build and learn from past successes and failures, potentially stifling long-term growth.
Leveraging brand reputation for a better digital experience
To address the clinic’s challenges, we focused on aligning its offline credibility with an impactful online presence. By highlighting the clinic’s authority in its field, aligning it more closely with their established real-world excellence, we could enhance its digital reputation and differentiate it from competitors to attract high-value patients seeking exceptional care. Here’s how we did it…
- SEO
Medico Digital conducted keyword research to identify high-volume, intent-driven terms for self-pay treatments, ensuring alignment with patient enquiries for The London Clinic.
Our team of medical copywriters - including former doctors and healthcare specialists - produced a substantial volume of high-quality, informative and optimised web content. This content focused on high-priority self-pay treatments, strategically positioning The London Clinic as a trusted authority in their specialised fields. This enhanced their search visibility and built trust with potential patients.
Working as an integrated part of The London Clinic’s marketing team, we used collaborative tools like Slack to share SEO best practices, provide ongoing guidance, and create bespoke dashboards to simplify website metrics for stakeholders, empowering data-driven decision-making.
- PPC
We developed patient-friendly, CRO-focused landing pages tailored to each self-pay package treatment, combining intuitive design with strategic content to enhance user engagement.
Leveraging our expertise in patient pathways, we launched targeted Google Ad campaigns aimed at high-intent search phrases around oncology, ensuring The London Clinic appeared in front of motivated patients seeking care.
Through ongoing testing and refinement, we continuously improved the performance of both the landing pages and ad campaigns, maximising their efficiency within the allocated budget.
Robust end-to-end conversion tracking using Google Analytics, Data Studio, and call tracking provided The London Clinic with its first accurate view of marketing ROI.
- Reassuring patients during COVID-19
The London Clinic’s previous experiences with agencies were characterised by a lack of agility and responsiveness, particularly when it came to adapting to changing market conditions. As such, the clinic struggled to implement necessary changes in a timely manner.
At the height of the pandemic, Medico Digital acted quickly to create dedicated landing pages that addressed patient concerns and reassured them about safety protocols. We launched targeted campaigns emphasising patient safety and ensured The London Clinic’s digital presence adapted to the evolving situation, serving as a reliable source of information and reassurance.
- Maintaining a long-term partnership
Over several years, Medico Digital has worked closely with The London Clinic, providing continuity and preserving institutional knowledge on website iterations and relevant analytics through periods of team transition.
More recently, we’ve conducted a UX audit of the clinic’s website and are redesigning the front end to further optimise patient acquisition and enhance user experience, collaborating once again with the clinic’s marketing team to make this happen.
The results
Through a tailored digital strategy, Medico Digital successfully transformed The London Clinic’s online presence, bridging the gap between their prestigious offline reputation and their digital identity. By addressing the clinic’s unique challenges, from SEO optimisation to patient-focused content creation and conversion tracking, we enhanced their ability to attract, engage and convert high-value patients.
This has resulted in remarkable growth, from virtually no organic digital traffic to a peak of 93,000 visitors in 2024, reflecting not only their enhanced online presence, but their ability to now attribute revenue directly to marketing activities.
Our agile approach allowed The London Clinic to navigate complex challenges and emerge with a stronger, more cohesive digital presence. Today, they stand equipped with the tools, insights, and strategies to continue thriving in a competitive healthcare landscape, while maintaining their legacy of excellence.
The London Clinic / Medico Digital