Here’s how a robust social media strategy — and a little cookbook—increased readership for the UVA Health blog
UVA Health looked to Baldwin Publishing for marketing tools to increase email subscribers to the Healthy Balance Blog. The hospital marketing team wanted to get more eyes on the hospital blog’s patient stories, medical research initiatives, and healthy lifestyle tips.
UVA had already seen success with Baldwin’s recipe content. So, health marketing strategists from Baldwin and UVA agreed rewarding every new blog subscriber with a free digital cookbook could quickly and effectively grow subscribers. These subscribers would likely remain engaged long after the promotion ended.
The 2-month campaign consisted of Facebook ads that drove new subscribers to UVA’s landing page. Every new subscriber who submitted an email address was immediately rewarded with a UVA branded downloadable cookbook.
The Facebook campaign reached these 250,000 consumers:
UVA Health developed a robust lookalike retargeting strategy by engaging consumers who were most likely to be interested in subscribing to the Healthy Balance Blog.
- People who had engaged with UVA Health’s Instagram account in the last year
- Facebook followers who were not already blog subscribers
- A lookalike audience of people who had followed the Club Red Facebook page (Club Red was a UVA women’s heart health program)
- A lookalike audience of current blog subscribers
A huge reach plus a limited budget = 25% more subscribers
UVA’s blog subscriber page received 8,743-page clicks. The Healthy Balance blog added nearly 2,000 new subscribers. This means nearly 25% of people subscribed after clicking the ad, resulting in a 25% overall increase in the Healthy Balance blog email list.
For UVA Health the hospital email subscription campaign exceeded expectations for a very reasonable budget. The campaign provided an overall CPC of $.47 and an acquisition cost of roughly $3.35.
If you need a giveaway to build blog subscribers and find new patients – and keep your brand in front of people for years to come – give away a digital cookbook.
Baldwin publishing offers 15 healthy cookbooks for digital marketing campaigns. Every digital cookbook can be fully customized with your brand and messaging. Click here to learn more about our digital cookbooks.
