CASE STUDY
Launching Inspire Sleep Apnea Solution at St. John's Health
Full-stack digital marketing strategy for a new FDA-approved surgical service — built from the ground up in partnership with the Inspire company and the Saint John's sleep medicine team.
The Challenge
St. John's Health was introducing Inspire — an FDA-approved surgical treatment for obstructive sleep apnea — as a new medical service with no existing digital presence or patient audience. The program required comprehensive marketing and communications support built entirely from scratch, with strict HIPAA compliance requirements throughout.
The goal: generate qualified patient leads for a specialized surgical team while building lasting brand awareness in a competitive health market.
Scope of Work
Delivered full-stack digital strategy and execution across every channel and asset:
SEO & Organic Search
Keyword strategy, content development, and on-page optimization
Video Marketing & YouTube
SEO-optimized channel setup, webinar recording production and publishing
Live Virtual Health Talks
Co-produced with Inspire; custom slide deck design for physician presenters
CRM Audience Build
List segmentation and ongoing audience management
Pay-Per-Click & Display Advertising
Google Ads campaign build and ongoing management
Social Media
Physician-forward display ads featuring Dr. Trott, and event promotion
Email Marketing
Segmented drip campaigns for live attendees and non-attending registrants
HIPAA-Compliant Web Form
Lead generation form for patient intake and pre-screening by clinical staff
Strategy
The approach centered on hyper-local, hyper-personal digital marketing — reaching prospective patients where they were already searching. Search engine marketing (organic and paid), video content, and physician-forward social media worked in concert to build awareness and capture intent-driven leads. Live virtual health talks, co-produced with the Inspire company and the St. John's sleep medicine team, created high-trust educational touchpoints with the community.
The patient journey was engineered end-to-end: webinar registrants entered a segmented email nurture sequence with separate tracks for live attendees and those who registered but did not attend. Webinar recordings were posted to YouTube with full SEO optimization, extending their reach as evergreen organic assets. A HIPAA-compliant web form closed the loop, routing pre-screened patient inquiries directly to the nursing team for follow-up within 48 hours.
Lead Funnel at a Glance
AWARENESS
Organic SEO content
PPC & display ads
Social media (paid + earned)
Physician-forward video ads
CONVERSION
HIPAA-compliant web form
Nursing staff pre-screening
48-hour clinical follow-up
ENGAGEMENT
Live virtual health talks
YouTube webinar recordings
Email drip (attendees)
Email drip (non-attending registrants)
Results
700+
Leads captured through live webinar registrations
~10K
YouTube views from targeted sleep apnea audiences
48 hrs
Clinical team patient lead response window
Adopted as a national model: The Inspire company used this campaign's digital strategy as a template for other health systems launching the Inspire program across the country.
Center of Excellence designation: Patient volume generated through the campaign enabled the surgical team to achieve high procedure volume, earning St. John's Health designation as a nationally recognized Inspire Center of Excellence and surgeon training center.