Measuring your Content Strategy

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Measuring your Content Strategy

Margo WhislerManager, Digital Content StrategySeattle Children’s

Hospital

Ahava LeibtagPresident

Aha Media Group

@ahavaL #HCMPS14

Seattle Children’sSeattle Children’s Hospital (Seattle Children’s) specializes in treating children from infancy through young adulthood. For more than 100 years, they have been providing top-quality care to children. Through the collaboration of physicians in nearly 60 pediatric subspecialties, they provide inpatient, outpatient, diagnostic, surgical, rehabilitative, behavioral, emergency and outreach services. Seattle Children’s is consistently ranked among the nation’s best children’s hospitals by U.S. News & World Report magazine.

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Focus Programs• Cancer and Blood Disorders Center• Craniofacial Center• Gastroenterology and Hepatology• Heart Center• Neonatology• Neurosurgery• Orthopedics and Sports Medicine• Pediatric Surgery (includes Reconstructive Pelvic Medicine)• Psychiatry & Behavioral Medicine and Autism Center• Transplant Center

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The Goal

The goal was to create a content strategy that would work for all the

focus programs.  

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Today• Background• Challenges• Research• Process• Findings

BACKGROUND

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Content is a conversation.

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Content Strategy: Two Parts

External Messaging • To whom are you talking? • Who are you? • What are you trying to say? • How do you say it? • When and where do you

say it?

Internal Workflow

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Content Strategy Answers

External Messaging Questions

• To whom are you speaking?

• Who are you? • What are you trying to

say? • How do you say it? • When and where do you

say it?

Content Strategy Tools• Personas

• Identity Pillars

• Messaging Architecture

• Voice/Tone

• Editorial Calendar

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CHALLENGES

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Challenge #1How to communicate the concept

and value of multidisciplinary?The multidisciplinary nature of our

work and why its beneficial to patients and families sometimes gets lost

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Challenge #2What does pediatric really mean

and why does it matter?How can we emphasize the importance

of a pediatric hospital and research institute?

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Challenge #3

Too wordy and not patient-focusedKey messages are getting lost in too much text that were not speaking to

the end-user

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Challenge #4Lack of Clear Direction

Current content lacks clarity around how you get an appointment(do you need a referral, can you just come?)

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Challenge #5

Swimming in DataHow do we use all this data to create a coherent, relevant content strategy?

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Lycra® Content Strategy: Goals

How do we:1. Design and create a content strategy for 10 different

specialties (focus programs)focused on the end-user?2. Create a consistent information architecture so we

don’t have to keep designing templates?3. Make sure we are consistent in overall messaging?4. Plan for and measure KPIs (Key Performance

Indicators) to evaluate and tune content strategy implementation?

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RESEARCH

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Our Approach

Establish Content

Governance

Content Analysis

Content Creation

Establishing workflows

Content Planning

• Persona Development

• Messaging Architecture

• Identity Pillar Identification

Build business

case

Content AuditingDiscovery

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Discovery1. Content Auditing2. Stakeholder Interviews3. Analysis

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Content Audits

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Stakeholder Interviews• Interviewed 12 key stakeholders over

the course of 11 days• 5 marketing & communications staff

members participated in some interviews

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Discovery Included• Reviewed and analyzed:

– Surveys of Parents and Referring Physicians– Marketing dashboards– Current Metrics– Content Creation Process– Personas– Strategic Documentation – Voice and Tone Guidelines– Core Strategy Statements for Clinics and Programs

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Data

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Data• Audience research before an

appointment• Facebook surveys• Feedback on current focus programs• Focus Program Trackers• Strategic Planning Dashboards• Prospective Patient Reports

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Data will tell you a story.

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You have to be patient. And listen.

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Choosing a specialist?Primary ConcernsFACTORS [Choosing a specialist] SCORE

Insurance 91%

Seriousness 89%

Reputation 87%

Referral from PCP/Pediatrician 85%

Access 79%

Possible out of pocket expenses 74%

Actual Situation (IBD)FACTORS [Primed for a certain situation] SCORE

Special training or expertise in disease

90%

Outcomes (Success of the specialist)

86%

Research 61%

Number of patients treated 61%

Recommendations from other patients/families

57%

Recommendations from family/friends

48%

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WHAT WE LEARNED FROM DISCOVERY

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Finding #1Providers are a Main Focus

For every focus program, at least a quarter of the traffic goes straight to

content about program team members/providers. This means who is treating is my child is top of mind for

every focus program.

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Finding #2Certain Content is IgnoredPress releases and media are

completely ignored and clutter the pages.

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Finding #3Customer Journey Challenge

Patients are going to conditions pages, which means they are bypassing our services. From

your user surveys, this means their questions are not being answered because the conditions aren’t always funneling them

directly to the treatments.

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Putting it all TogetherStakeholders shared concerns about

messaging and information we provide to patients and families

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Lycra Content StrategyThe outliers are important because when we are striving for a Lycra content strategy, we want to ensure we are capturing the needs of all of the focus programs and their patients/families—not just the central needs.

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Internal Workflow Concerns

• Strategic Thinking: It’s a challenge for internal stakeholders to think about the content creation and management process strategically

• Direction: Process is well-managed but how do the internal stakeholders direct and drive that process?

• Texture: They want more texture—the content should reveal something visually and emotionally about the process

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PROCESS: WORKSHOPS

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Objectives• Focus on needs of prospective patient families

• Illustrate “why choose us”

• Standardization + “Lycra”– Respond to realities of visitor flow / organic search– Focus and refine our messaging– Plan for nimble maintenance– Plan to measure – KPIs– Plan to stre-e-e-e-e-tch to meet the differing needs of various

focus programs

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4-Step Methodology• Personas• Identity Pillars• Messaging Architecture• Voice/Tone

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Personas• Build a real person• Discover their questions• Understand how they come to the

content

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Questions?• About the Doctors: “How long has the specialist been practicing this specialty?”, “That

the specialist would be too narrow in his/her scope of practice and not be able to see my child as a whole”, “Pediatric vs. general specialist?”

• Condition/Diagnosis: “I would want proof in my face stating that my child is sick.”• Testing: “Should my child have food or drink restrictions before the appointment to

ensure accuracy of test results?”, “What tests will be performed and how best do I prepare my child for what might take place?”

• Cost: “And last, but certainly not least…I would be concerned about the cost of the specialist.”

• Preparation: “What will I need to bring with me or for my child?”• Appointment: “How long will the appointment take?”, “Whether I will be able to be with

my child the entire time?”, “Are siblings welcome, feeding, changing options?”• Emotional: “How do we need to prepare the child emotionally for the appointment?”

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Identity Pillars• Who are we as a brand?• What do people think of us currently?• How do we want to shift that

perception?

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Identity PillarsCurrent Identity Pillars Future Identity Pillars

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Messaging Architecture• How do our identity pillars map from

a business and patient/family perspective?

• How are we representing those ideas?

• What are our messages that reinforce the identity pillars?

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Messaging ArchitectureCurrent Content Pillars Future Content Pillars % Articulation Statement Messaging

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Creating the Information Architecture

• Is every question getting answered?• What do the outliers want that we

don’t have represented in this current IA?

• How much can the template flex?

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Gap Analysis to Doublecheck

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GI/Hepatology : Before

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http://www.seattlechildrens.org/clinics-programs/gastroenterology-hepatology/

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GI/Hepatology: New

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Side by Side

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Outcomes

– Tableau format = real time updates and reduces errors

– Brand consistency

vs.

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Revised “Condition” pages

• Elevate information on how Seattle Children’s treats condition

• 4th tab: Meet Our Team

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FINDINGS

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Overall Findings• Use data as your true north• Work closely with the stakeholders• Confirm your findings outside of your

group• Use an iterative approach

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Use data as your true north

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Work closely with stakeholders

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Confirm your findings outside of your group

• Show to front line people you did not interview

• Consider usability testing• Watch your analytics

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Use an iterative approach

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Positive Externalities• Efficiency gains in editorial training

and management• Reduced future web development

costs• Replacing banners with identity pillars

allows for timely updates, when needed

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More Positive Externalities

• KPI measurement becoming part of department culture

• Identity pillars being applied to other channels such as social media, print and internal communications

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Questions?Ahava Leibtag

Aha Media Group, LLC

ahava@ahamediagroup.comTwitter: ahavaL301-452-5331

Margo Whisler

Seattle Children’sMargo.whisler@seattlechildrens.org206-987-4984

THANK YOU!