David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
The “Shoestring” Award
Bronze
Using internal resources only, the digital marketing team for the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA created a series of SEO articles to spotlight the various careers medical students (or prospective medical students) might pursue in the field of sports medicine. Published on July 23, 2024—just before the opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics—this content was crafted to showcase a unique and dynamic field of medicine at a time when athletes of all kinds were competing on the world’s biggest stage and athletic health (both physical and mental) was top of mind across the globe.
Notably, there was no independent budget allocated for this SEO content campaign—the entire project was coordinated, developed, and implemented by full-time members of the DGSOM digital marketing team—but the results were remarkable: at the time of this submission (October 11, 2024) the articles are ranking for over 2000 keywords and receiving more than 7000 visits a month. That same traffic would cost nearly $19,000 in cost-per-click advertising per month.
What was the most impactful part of your entry?
No other medical school has published such a comprehensive and SEO optimized overview of the different career paths individuals can pursue in the field of sports medicine. And the reach of these articles has been exceptional. Since publishing the sports medicine career guide, the DGSOM website is now ranking for over 2000 sports medicine related keywords in Google, which is driving over 7000 visits a month to this series of articles. That same amount of targeted web traffic would cost nearly $19,000 a month in cost-per-click advertising. Given that this project was completed in house at no extra cost to the organization, that’s generating an ROI of approximately $225,000 a year.
What challenge did you overcome?
An important lesson learned: there are seemingly endless opportunities to spotlight the accomplishments and diversity of various staff, faculty, and students when we effectively utilize our connections to the different departments in the UCLA ecosystem.
Contact:
Regina Ip
rip@mednet.ucla.edu