Simmons Inc. - PHOS Creative

The Challenge

Simmons Inc. has dominated the veterinary practice sales industry with their stellar reputation and over 45 years of experience. However, in an increasingly competitive digital marketplace with more organizations for potential clients to sift through, Simmons knew they needed to not only elevate their brand and its elements but actually define who they were as a company.

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Our Vision

Before we could build a new website and deliver the desired results from inbound marketing, PHOS had to come alongside Simmons to strategically determine the what, how, and why of an organization that’s been around for nearly half a century. We also needed to help identify the things holding Simmons back from winning online.

Experience

Clients choose to work with Simmons because of their proven experience. With nearly five decades of industry experience, we knew we had to communicate the legitimacy of Simmons and their expert team of advisors.

Brand Clarity

Simmons required clarity on who they were before we could build a new brand system and inbound marketing. This would be our guide for everything.

Education

Simmons serves as a guide for their clients. This meant the website and our marketing strategy needed to highlight educational resources for potential clients.

The Solution

With PHOS, Simmons was able to finally articulate why they exist and how they differentiate themselves from their competitors—new and existing. Building upon that brand identity, we were able to craft a functional, yet visually appealing website to be used as a destination for successful digital marketing strategies.

Over the course of our 3+ year partnership with Simmons, we have leveraged their website to guide prospective clients to learn more about Simmons, engage with thought-leadership pieces, and take the next steps in their veterinary practice sale or purchase journey. We have been able to bring more traffic to the Simmons website through consistently high-ranking content, proven pay-per-click campaigns, and intentional email marketing.

Strategic Consulting

One of the first steps in our partnership with Simmons was identifying their “Why.” For decades, Simmons had been leveraging their national brand recognition paired with years of experience. However, they had lost sight of the core reason for their organization. Partnering with our team, we were able to ask the right questions to help the Simmons leadership team plainly express their reason for existing.

Mission and Values

Through multiple meetings with the Simmons team, we worked with them to first understand the heart behind their organization. We could clearly communicate what they did (veterinary practice sales and appraisals), but how could they stand out among the other organizations that stated they did the same?

After many discussions, we were able to define Simmons’ mission statement as:

Simmons’ mission is to successfully guide our clients through the appraisal and ownership transition process with industry-leading standards, ethics, and education, enabling veterinarians to find their freedom.

Once their mission statement was finalized, we set to work identifying their core values. These are the core beliefs that Simmons now hold themselves accountable to in pursuit of their mission.

Website Design & Development

Intentional exploration of an organization’s core beliefs and “why” are essential before beginning to build the right brand system to communicate those things. In part of a new website, there was an opportunity to refresh Simmons’ brand through an updated logo, new secondary colors, and fonts. This set the foundation for the website redesign project.

Combining visually appealing elements and strong calls to action, we were able to transform Simmons’ website into a sales enablement tool. A clearer user journey, better UX, and clarified connection points allow Simmons to convert more online leads.

National Listing Management

One of Simmons’ main offerings is connecting potential veterinary practice buyers to practices across the nation. That means users are able to view all listings or select a state or region they are most interested in before finding out more information. This sets a user on a path to learn more about a particular listing, submit a confidentiality agreement to get more details on the practice, and easily connect them to the right regional advisor.

Inbound Marketing

The new website allowed PHOS to capitalize on an already established brand. We wanted to take Simmons from just surviving at the top to actually thriving in their industry. Our core focuses of their marketing strategy include:

Capture Inbound Leads
Increase and Maintain Brand Authority
Generate Demand for Brokerage Services

These goals have remained at the forefront of our digital marketing strategy, allowing us to set and exceed goals that propel Simmons into a new phase of growth for their organization.

Through ongoing inbound marketing services, we deliver a holistic digital strategy for Simmons. Our best-performing strategies are outlined below.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Simmons had already been utilizing Google Ads campaigns for years before syncing up with our marketing team. However, they lacked a strategic direction when it came to how they were leveraging their ad spend budget and measuring ROI. We decided to focus on their different service offerings which target different groups of clients. Additionally, we created aggressive campaigns to beat out competitors that were trying to capitalize on Simmons’ brand name.

Search Engine Optimization

Expert perspectives and educational resources drive Simmons’ content strategy. We have no shortage of content pieces to leverage on the Simmons website, but production is half the equation. Working alongside Simmons’ expert team of advisors, we’re able to share thought-leadership pieces that consistently rank well online.

Email Marketing

Veterinary practice sales and appraisals can be a long process to nurture leads. Not only do these transactions represent a large financial investment between parties, but there is an emotional investment that has to be considered. As part of their multi-channel marketing strategy, we partner with the Simmons team to craft the right marketing messages via email for prospective and current clients. We also have set up targeted automations to create efficiency internally and capture interest easily externally.

The Impact

Partnering with Simmons Inc. has been an amazing experience. We have helped elevate an already-established brand to find more success online. Their website is better positioned to capture leads, meeting veterinarians at all stages of their practice ownership journey.

They now have a beautiful, trustworthy website—one that is supported by strong marketing. In the first two years of our engagement compared to the previous two years, Simmons saw a 20% increase in overall users and 20,000+ more sessions.

Additionally, we’ve experienced the following paid advertising success:

190% improvement in CTR for Google Ads
44% increase in Google Ads conversions within the second year of partnership
20% decrease in the amount of money spent on each conversion

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"Our small company with national and international reach has worked with PHOS for 3 years. We've been through management changes, a branding refresh, and a new website in this short time and they have remained patient with us throughout every turn. They continue to hold my hand as I have little experience with marketing, especially digital marketing. Conor and Bailey have been my main points of contact, but all the others working in the background do a great job keeping our multifaceted marketing efforts flowing."

—Carly Watson Tobler, VP, Southeast Sales