It’s a story familiar to many marketers.
Some with the brand published a print magazine. Others sent newsletters with syndicated content that used medical sources unaffiliated with the largest health system in New Jersey. They had different names and aesthetics. No brand voice existed.
And they wanted to develop an online content hub — that’s what I was charged with when I started in this role in 2018.
Since then, Hackensack Meridian Health has united its content into the HealthU brand, which includes a digital content hub, a quarterly print magazine and newsletter, social media, and a podcast introduced a few years ago. The program won Best Content Marketing Program in Health Care in the 2023 Content Marketing Awards.
Recently, I shared the behind-the-scenes story in the CMI webinar Grow Up! How to Increase Your Content Maturity Level and Prove ROI (registration required). Michelle Jackson, vice president of content strategy at GLC, our agency partner, joined me.
Here’s a look at the factors that helped the content team establish the voice and content strategy for Hackensack Meridian Health.
4 elements of a successful content marketing program
In transforming Hackensack Meridian Health from a content creation program to fully realized strategic content marketing, we incorporated four critical elements:
- A documented content strategy gave the guideposts that enabled us to deliver a successful program.
- A content brand ensured a cohesive voice and look throughout Hackensack Meridian Health’s communication.
- Collaboration among departments ensured everybody understood the strategy, mission, vision, and process.
- Reporting results allowed key stakeholders to see the progress.
These elements enabled us to go from order takers (i.e., put this in the newsletter) to strategic operators who ensure the published content connects strongly to the brand’s marketing priorities, helping get people to our facilities.
Plan content first, then choose channel and format
Our content strategy involves a content-first, channel-second approach. We stopped doing magazine planning, blog planning, etc. We now do content planning.
Here’s how it works. The content team:
- Identifies a search trend, such as interest in marathons.
- Plans the content — in this case, a piece on tips for marathon beginners.
- Identifies the appropriate channels.
- Interviews a subject matter expert (a doctor in our system).
- Crafts an article for the content hub and produces a podcast episode from that information.
- Repurposes the content into other assets (i.e., a graphic for social media).
Sometimes, we think a topic would work well just for social media or only on the content hub. Frequently, we use the audience’s response to the digital content as a thermometer for the print magazine.
Let’s say an article about how much weight someone needs to lose for weight loss surgery receives a significant response online. We’ll plug it into the print magazine and include a QR code for a weight-loss health risk assessment that returns the reader to our digital content.
But HealthU content goes beyond those channels. Other marketing teams in the organization can use it in their campaigns, whether a sponsored content opportunity in a local digital publication or an airplane-pulled banner with a CTA for HealthU sun safety tips over a crowded beach in New Jersey (yes, that happened.)…Read More