Background & Goals

The need to support MaineHealth’s 22,000 healthcare workers has never been more evident. After five years working with Northern New England’s largest and most comprehensive healthcare network, the pandemic increased the agility and stamina required day-to-day, the rolling impact on our frontline workers in healthcare continues to require critical attention. In 2023-2024 we began focusing a large portion of our effort on addressing and informing the need for healthcare personnel.

Our recruitment efforts stretched across all of New England with both targeted digital approaches that had surgical precision in its audience building tactics, paired with broad focus to expand awareness for one of America’s Best Large Employers according to Forbes. Our strategy was split between a focus on branding for the healthcare system, with a strong CTA to increase applications.

Strategy

In collaboration with MaineHealth’s marketing, HR, and web development teams, we refined the profiles of our target personas, crafting a recruitment journey that began the moment potential candidates encountered and interacted with our media. We meticulously planned the touchpoints for interested applicants, ensuring responsible tracking mechanisms. By analyzing our data, we segmented audience groups by professional background and geographic location, providing insights into the overall audience size across various platforms and their media consumption habits.

Planning

Our media plan was developed in synergy with creative partners, constructing a sequential strategy that resonated with the healthcare community. We tailored our approach based on different levels of exposure and interaction with our messaging. This strategy was designed to optimize engagement, focusing on the most interested healthcare professionals, thereby generating strong, qualified leads for the recruitment team. Additionally, we established a custom sponsorship with a local CBS affiliate, integrating a digital newsroom content series into our paid media strategy. This four-month initiative included on-air and online segments promoting healthcare as a career, supplemented by social posts and a mix of supportive channels from the affiliate.

+Programmatic Media (Multiscreen Display & Video) + Social Display + Streaming Audio + CTV with Custom Onscreen Overlays + Streaming Audio + Meta + LinkedIn + TikTok + Search Engine Marketing (Google SEM) + Public Broadcasting + Sponsorship

Our primary focus was on audiences in the qualified/interested stage. We optimized for highly relevant content, re-engaging with leads within 3-7 days while they were still within the consideration stage. Leveraging contextual targeting, we implemented a custom keyword list that helped ensure the delivery of impressions at the most impactful and relevant time. Ongoing site and exchange level reporting helped us eliminate any underperforming inventory, allowing us to allocate spending efficiently across top-performing geographies across New England, creatives, and channels, spanning programmatic, search, and social.

In the first half of the campaign alone, we directly linked over 703 applicants to our campaign through programmatic channels alone. Our efforts generated over 13.4 million impressions, with more than 37,000 qualified clicks to their website, continuously surpassing industry performance benchmarks across individual channels. In the end, from what we could directly attribute, there was a 53% increase in qualified leads and in total the organization experienced a 27% increase in new hires YoY - exceeding the organization’s goals.

Now, that is making a real-world impact.