Nationally ranked children’s hospital undergoes digital transformation to create stronger connections
How Cincinnati Children’s and WriterGirl developed a content partnership that resulted in a 60% increase in provider bio engagement
Situation
In early 2019 Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center embarked on a digital transformation that would require overhauling much of its website content. The chief goal of the transformation is to foster stronger connections with patient families and providers, ultimately driving more conversions in appointments and referrals. And as a global leader in pediatric healthcare, Cincinnati Children’s needed to create a digital experience that matched the exceptional care it’s known for in its hospital and clinics.
Challenge
The digital transformation would require writing or editing content for thousands of physician bios and hundreds of webpages, all with a unified voice and style. The new website content also needed to meet the expectations of today’s mobile-first user experience.
Cincinnati Children’s knew it wouldn’t have the internal resources to tackle a project of this scope.
“Looking at the way we were staffed, we didn’t have the capacity to do all of this work,” says Missy Kataoka, director of digital strategy at Cincinnati Children’s. “The only way to bring this project to fruition was to go to an external writing partner.”
Additionally, Cincinnati Children’s was also looking for support with a variety of service line marketing assets. These projects included both patient- and physician-facing channels, which meant Cincinnati Children’s needed a writing partner with experience creating content for varied audiences.
“For our physician-facing content, we need writers who can talk with some of the top pediatric specialists and researchers and write about complex clinical and scientific information in a way that is interesting and engaging,” says Amy Okin, consultant, Cincinnati Children’s Marketing & Communications.
“With consumer content, writers need to be able to describe our multi-faceted programs in a way that is clear and easy to understand. They also need to showcase how our programs are unique,” Okin adds. “It’s an opportunity for us to connect families with care that may be life-changing or life-saving.”
Solution
Cincinnati Children’s partnered with WriterGirl in early 2019 to create a range of web and marketing content. Together, the teams would:
- Develop a digital writing style guide to clarify reading level, tone of voice and SEO best practices
- Overhaul physician bios so they were “warmer” and more appealing to patients and families
- Create researcher bios that would promote research interests and accomplishments to appeal to fellow scientists
- Revamp reputational content around U.S. News & World Report rankings
- Create searched-optimized service line webpages for conditions, treatments and programs
- Craft physician email newsletters
- Write annual accomplishments reports
The teams worked together to optimize content development procedures, such as creating a detailed project intake form. WriterGirl also streamlined the provider bio process by customizing surveys based on whether the clinician was a patient-facing physician, a researcher or both.
“…we need writers who can talk with some of the top pediatric specialists and researchers and write about complex clinical and scientific information in a way that’s interesting and engaging.”
— Amy Okin, consultant, Cincinnati Children’s Marketing & Communications
Results
Working with WriterGirl, Cincinnati Children’s has produced web assets for more than a dozen different service lines. They also overhauled U.S. News & World Report reputational content for six specialties and plan to work with WriterGirl to keep those pages updated.
As of February 2021, the team has also written or edited:
- 1,100+ physician and researcher bios (95% of bios scoped for the project)
- 3,000+ webpage meta descriptions
- 25+ health topics
- 10 service line-specific physician email newsletters
- Seven annual accomplishments reports
Through this work, Cincinnati Children’s has seen positive results with its digital transformation and marketing campaigns, including:
- A 60% increase in engagements with provider bios from Meet the Team pages
- A 33% increase in time spent on page for provider bios and Meet the Team pages
- A 20% increase in traffic to health topics with updated meta descriptions
About Cincinnati Children’s
Cincinnati Children’s, a non-profit, pediatric, academic medical center established in 1883, is internationally recognized for improving child health and transforming delivery of care through fully integrated, globally recognized research, education and innovation. Cincinnati Children’s ranks third in the nation in U.S. News and World Report’s 2020-2021 Best Children’s Hospitals Honor Roll.
