Effective healthcare content explains the complexities of a healthcare system, generates traffic, and makes conversions. Web copy can be difficult to structure and develop. But when done correctly, your website benefits from being user-focused, optimized for search and easy for site visitors to take the next step.

What does it take to be award-winning?

Writing effective web content is as much art as science, and our popular guide on Web Writing for Healthcare takes an excellent in-depth look at what it takes to create content your users want. At a high-level, great content:

• Adheres to best practices for readability and accessibility
• Cross-links strategically
• Focuses on the user, particularly your unique personas
• Follows search engine optimization best practices
• Follows the patient journey
• Leverages the right call to action
• Uses the right voice, tone and style

Check out these recent award-winning medical websites that put those best practices to work and received recognition for developing and delivering engaging content.

2021 award-winning healthcare web content

The 2021 content healthcare award winners have all invested in comprehensive web content strategies and development to strengthen their brand and top their competition. Read on for more details.

University Health

As an academic medical center, University Health, in San Antonio and Bexar County, Texas, used personas to guide personalization and content marketing efforts, earning them a Platinum MarCom award for Web Content.

With the redesign goal of making their website more system-centric and easier for site visitors to find the information they need quickly, University Health used:

• Crosslinking strategies to connect services, providers, and locations sitewide
• Strategic drop-down menus in the main navigation
• Sophisticated taxonomy to help users get helpful site search results
• Links in its expanded footer to address secondary audience needs

The new content used personas, created from consumer research and web analytics, to write compelling content for service lines, campaigns and content marketing hub articles. These comprehensive, patient-first pages showcase University Health as an understanding, expert academic health system. This approach aligns with the organizational goal to enhance its brand in the community and highlight its alignment with UT Health San Antonio.

To keep the content user-focus, University Health worked with Geonetric to:

• Create content for University Children’s Health pediatric transplant program and pediatric cancer services
• Develop 78 pages of content for four service lines
• Restructure and write new content to bring the Transplant microsite into the new University Health website

PIH Health

PIH Health’s new website uses web copy to differentiate their growing health system from their competition across Southern California, earning recognition as a finalist for Ragan’s PR Daily Awards, Patient-Focused Content.

Watch this video (8:33) on how PIH Health makes their content accessible.

 
 
PIH Health’s investment in content integrates content from two websites for new, search-optimized cancer and heart web copy that follows the patient journey, web writing best practices and PIH Health’s brand guidelines.

Each section has pages on prevention, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up care. This approach follows the patient journey so users can find information relevant to them.

The new content highlights the many reasons patients benefit when they choose PIH Health for care and makes it intuitive for users to take the next step with prominent, easy-to-understand calls to action.

Montage Health

Montage Health, in Monterey, California, developed user-centric copy for its new website, earning them an Honorable Mention MarCom award for Web Writing.

To boost traffic and engagement, Montage Health’s content:

• Adheres to proven web writing best practices
• Answers users’ top questions
• Follows the patient journey
• Uses cross-linking strategy

Montage Health has 420 pages of new content throughout their new site, including:

• 48 service line sections (217 pages total)
• 55 location profiles
• About us section
• Accessibility statement
• For healthcare and professionals section
• Montage Health Foundation section
• Patient and family resources section

In addition to new content, Montage Health took advantage of content governance training and recommendations related to their video and classes and events calendar categorization strategies.

Put the user first, and the accolades will follow

None of these healthcare organizations set out to win healthcare content awards. They approached their web content with the users in mind – enlisting user research, building on personas and following key web writing best practices to tell their story and differentiate themselves from the competition. They also all enlisted the help of an outside content expert – their digital experience agency Geonetric.

Whether you’re re-examining your web content as part of a redesign or as part of an iterative approach to improving your site, depending on the expertise of healthcare copywriters can make the process more effective. Contact us today for a free consult, to sign up for a writing workshop or to outsource your healthcare writing project to our copywriting professionals.

Demolish silos

Too often, content blueprints create silos on healthcare websites since they follow how an organization is structured internally rather than how a community views the healthcare system – as one entity.

When you break down silos, you tear down the walls that were limiting how you define your target audiences into separate categories like donors and patients. In reality, patients and donors are often the same people, just with a different task in mind.

Montage Health in Monterey, California, strengthens the health of their community with an easy-to-find Support Montage Health section on their website. This page talks directly to people living in their community and invites them to make an impact through a monetary gift, the gift of time, or blood donation.

Montage Health puts the user first by taking a user-focused approach to their site organization. This translates into foundation content living in numerous places, such as on the About Us page as a panel. This proven best practice elevates the system brand and increases site engagement.

Take a page from Montage Health and help members of your community easily navigate your website by cross-linking philanthropic content in sections like:

• About Us
• Auxiliary
• Content hub such as donor stories and patient stories
• Ways to Give including Foundation and Volunteering

When you implement a successful cross-linking strategy, you help quickly find the information that interests them any time they visit your website.

Write simple content to boost SEO

Quality content will help users find your website and keep them on it. When you simplify your content for search engine optimization, you’ll improve the user experience and increase your rankings

ProHealth Care, a community-based healthcare system with locations throughout southeastern Wisconsin, knows that simple content is still informative. The ProHealth Care Foundation content strategically answers common user questions in their area to optimize for search. More than just a page on the site, this section encourages visitors to sign up for a newsletter, donate, host a fundraiser, volunteer, or attend an event.

Follow ProHealth Care’s lead, and share answers to the questions people in your community likely want to know:

• What’s the mission of your hospital foundation?
• What’s the impact of my gift?
• What ways can I make a gift?
• Is my donation tax-deductible?

ProHealth Care celebrates their community’s generosity by highlighting the mission of their foundation, the impact of gifts and ways to give.

Be straightforward with your needs

Invite your community to explore ways they can make a difference in the healthcare they receive by listing your physical, monetary, and volunteer needs.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought many communities together. People began looking locally to offer their support. Continue your community’s momentum of giving like Ridgeview Foundation, in Minnesota, serving the southwest metro region of the Twin Cities.

Ridgeview Foundation lists causes to support, including:

• COVID-19 Emergency Fund – Explains the need for supplies, equipment, and training to continue caring for patients, families, and staff while showing appreciation to donors who have made a donation
• Support a Health Care Hero – Invites former patients to recognize a Health Care Hero that went above and beyond by contributing funds to purchase materials that ensure the safety of the staff and patients
• Ongoing and future support – Lists initiatives throughout Ridgeview that help patients throughout their community receive high-quality medical care because of donor’s generosity
• Pay It Forward – Helps breast cancer patients cover the cost of living so they can focus on taking an active role in their health
• Events – Promotes upcoming events that support a good cause

When you’re direct and clear about how your healthcare system depends on monetary gifts to support your community, you’ll reach the hearts of people with different abilities to give.

Make it easy to give with prominent CTAs

Once your community knows how they can give, it’s vital to drive online conversions with prominent calls to action (CTAs) like Holzer Health System in southeastern Ohio.

Holzer Health System’s design follows a minimalistic approach to highlight the essential elements on a page. This approach uses space strategically to help users navigate their site more easily, like finding the CTA.

Keeping users focused on the task of donating at hand, Holzer’s CTA panels uses a custom, brand-driven design that incites emotion to take action and strengthens brand identity.

Drive donations and site engagement with a CTA that’s:

• Clear and concise
• Prominently displayed
• Relevant to the page and audience

Once you establish a CTA track your results to measure the effectiveness of your page. Make adjustments as needed to improve your site’s performance.

Make a lasting impact

Having a content management system (CMS) that makes it easy to cross-link and build user-friendly forms helps. All the above sites are built on Geonetric’s VitalSite CMS, with our popular Formulate form builder. Sign up for a demo and see how VitalSite helps hospitals with fundraising in addition to patient acquisition.

And, of course, your content makes all the difference. If you are looking to grow the philanthropy in your community, get an expert’s advice — contact us today! Our content specialists are excited to help you get additional support for your healthcare system.

If so, use these helpful tips to communicate expectations, benefits, and next steps internally while managing your organization’s reputation.

Managing the Mandate

Every state and health system are going to have people that oppose a COVID-19 vaccine mandate. When you prepare for the mandate, you’ll position yourself to have constructive and consistent conversations that help reduce protest in your area and raise vaccination rates. During a vaccine mandate, you need to:

• Use internal communications effectively so everyone knows what to expect
• Appreciate current efforts and safety measures already in place
• Manage morale by creating cohesion and avoiding shame
• Put local faces and stories to the statistics
• Make vaccines convenient and accessible
• Anticipate questions and create a safe place for them

Keep the Momentum

You’ve likely been communicating to your internal health care team about COVID-19 vaccinations and know what to address internally during a crisis. Continue making the most of your internal communication platforms to reduce vaccine hesitancy.

Getting internal buy-in is not always an easy task. Your team looks to you for guidance and information that applies to them. During a mandate, your team will want to hear directly from you on:

• Reasons for the mandate — Educate your team on why the mandate is happening. Emphasize the importance of the vaccine and how it is vital to ending the pandemic and protecting both staff and patients.
• Employee expectations — Address who is required to have the vaccine and why. Mention dates individuals need to be vaccinated by and what happens if they don’t meet the deadline.
• Who are the exceptions? — Be transparent about who doesn’t have to get the vaccine and why. Present the process that staff and employees will need to follow to apply for an exception waiver.
• What is the cost of non-compliance? — What are the implications if an employee does not get the vaccine? Can they continue to work for the organization? Explain what procedures nonvaccinated employees will need to follow.
• The facts — Ask your managers what common questions or concerns they’re hearing from their team and address them head-on by email or on the intranet.
• Community messaging — Manage your reputation as a local employer and health system by shaping the message you want to be heard. Share this message with your staff so that they know what to say if someone asks them about the mandate.
• Next steps — Share what your plan is during the mandate and beyond to help people process the complete picture of your organization’s plan.

Address Current Safety Measures

While a vaccine mandate might be the crucial next step, it’s essential to acknowledge that everyone is doing their best to keep the staff and community safe.

Celebrate the ways they’re helping prevent the spread of the coronavirus, such as:

• Adjusting visitor guidelines
• Cleaning and disinfecting objects and surfaces
• Getting the vaccine
• Offering virtual appointments when possible
• Practicing social distancing
• Washing hands
• Wearing masks

In your message about your organization’s current shield against COVID-19, inform people how requiring the vaccination will further your efforts.

Use Stories Instead of Statistics

When factual data isn’t driving change, try sharing your employees’ stories. Conveying emotion through storytelling is often a successful tactic to encourage someone to take action. When people hear how their coworkers have been affected, it hits close to home and humanizes the numbers.

Find employees who are willing to share their stories and help them be heard through your intranet, newsletter, social media, and content marketing hub.

Be the Example

Who are the people within your organization who hold a high level of trust? Who are highly visible or highly respected faces? Identify and use these influencers to help echo the importance of getting your health system’s vaccination rates up.

Train your influencers to be a person of trust and inspiration during the mandate. Take their picture and have them share their reason they chose to get vaccinated.

Create Cohesion

Consider offering an incentive to your team by setting a goal with a deadline. Display a pie chart in a common area or an easily accessible resource, like the intranet, that shows the total number of employees with vaccinations. Let people know if they hit your organizational goal by a specific date, they’ll earn a delicious treat or a small gift.

Like you do during the flu season, set clear expectations around who needs to be vaccinated and who is exempt. This will allow space for empathy and support rather than create peer pressure and division.

Avoid Shame

Retain your staff by providing a safe and convenient place to get vaccinated. Now that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine for 16 years of age and older, you may find more people are willing to step up and get vaccinated.

Spread awareness of the FDA approval and encourage people who haven’t yet to get their vaccination. Provide insight on where they can receive the vaccination and who they need to notify once they have it.

Allow Questions

Encourage people to go to their managers or human resource team if they have questions about how the mandate impacts them. When you invite employees to come to you, you’ll help ensure that your staff gets timely and accurate information.

Advantages of Virtual Birth Care Education

When you provide your birth care classes and tours online, your health system and community will benefit from the convenience and flexibility of this format. Find success with online courses that let your patients learn from you where and when they want. Learn how to create virtual classes that are timeless and impactful.

1. Become Adaptable

In a public health crisis, being adaptable is critical. The COVID-19 outbreak makes in-person maternity classes impractical, or even impossible, for an unknown period of time. The ability to change to meet the demands of your environment keeps you relevant and enables you to make a positive impact in your community during a difficult time.

Be an adaptable healthcare system by being resourceful. Use your website to deliver the knowledge of your maternity experts to your patients — instead of asking them to come to you.

2. Think Long-Term

Make videos that will outlast the COVID-19 pandemic. To produce effective and timeless videos:

• Avoid time stamps – Do not reference current events, dates, or fads. Stick to the core purpose of each video to preserve your videos.
• Avoid trends – Encourage your instructor to dress in a classic style that looks professional now and will still look professional 3 years from now. Avoid patterns, logos that can become outdated, and fashion statements.
• Focus on your messaging – Follow the topics you typically address and answer questions that come up the most in an in-person class.
• Break it up – Grab and keep your viewers’ attention by putting the most important information first. Then cover one topic at a time. Keep each point short and simple.
• Accommodate your viewer’s pace – Use titles in your videos to allow people to easily pause and rewind as needed.
• Keep it simple – Speak using an active voice. Use words your audience understands and explain any technical terms.
• Use visuals – Help your audience understand and remember by demonstrating best practices. Encourage your viewers at home to give each exercise a try.
• Make it accessible – Include closed captions to accommodate all audiences.
• Include a call to action – Invite your viewers to continue engaging with your healthcare system by giving them a relevant next step after they finish a course.

3. Build an Engaging Online Library

You do not have to create online options for all of your classes at once. Prioritize the classes that fill up first. Progressively build your online library to allow people to explore topics that are relevant to them. Assemble a collection of courses to cover:

• Advice for grandparents
• Breastfeeding benefits and tips for success
• Cesarean birth
• Comfort measures, including breathing and relaxation techniques
• First aid for newborns and infants
• Newborn care
• Navigating the first year of parenthood
• Postpartum care for mother and baby
• Tips for expectant parents
• What to expect during labor and birth

Virtual Maternity Tours

Offer a virtual tour of your birthing center to build trust and awareness online. Make your video memorable by showcasing why families should choose you for their delivery. Create warmth by using happy families holding their babies with supportive and compassionate nurses nearby. Use images that help people envision themselves or a loved one having a positive experience at your center. Include a step-by-step look at everything families may experience, including:

• What to bring to the hospital
• Where to go when you’re in labor
• Your care team
• Birth center amenities
• Maternity rooms
• Neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and team
• Breastfeeding services
• How long families can expect to stay
• Going home with your baby

In your video, include testimonials from families that can serve as ambassadors for your hospital. Include clips from your care team on why they love what they do.

4. Promote Your Online Library

People are continually searching for a source of information they can trust. Get the word out about your online library and encourage people to visit it by:

• Featuring your classes in your blog
• Playing clips of classes in the offices of your OB-GYNs
• Promoting online courses on your social media platforms
• Running a digital ad campaign
• Sharing it with your internal team
• Using email marketing

Continue building awareness by including ways to promote your videos each time you revisit your marketing plans.

5. Connect With Your Viewers

Create a place for people to submit questions and comments. You will gather valuable insight from your viewers by reaching out to them directly. You may learn:

• Common questions your videos are not addressing
• Concerns families have
• Parenting trends
• Resources people are looking for
• Topics that interest expecting parents
• What sets you apart

Use this feedback to iterate your existing materials or to create more videos and resources.

Make an Impact

Stand out as a resource people can turn to anytime they need information. Focus on what people need to know and how you can best provide that information to them through your virtual classes.

Communicating Internally During a Crisis

Healthcare marketing and communication professionals are working diligently to reduce confusion and worry, as well as stop inadvertent spread of misinformation by implementing a solid internal crisis communication plan. As we’re learning with COVID-19 right now, creating and following a plan becomes even harder when information changes day-by-day, and even hour-by-hour. Flexibility is key.

As you implement your crisis communication plans, knowing the answers to these five questions will help reduce chaos and provide your organization with accurate and timely information.

#1: Who Needs Information?

Ideally, you have time to assess the layers of communication you will need before you need them. Even if the crisis has begun to unfold, understanding the groups of individuals needing information can save you crucial time. Your internal audiences may consist of:

• Individuals working on campus during the crisis
• Individuals working off site during the crisis
• Staff who are expecting to come into work
• Team members who will not report to work
• Physicians with privileges at your health system
• Board members
• Vendors
• Volunteers

#2: What Do They Need to Know?

Not all of your internal audiences need the same information. You’ll need a plan for both essential and nonessential staff.  Determine what to tell your team and how to balance privacy and disclosure. Ask your managers what questions or concerns they’ve heard from staff. Address those questions on a large scale. Anticipating the information your teams need to know allows you to communicate proactively — so you can prevent problems or miscommunication.

Activate your incident command center to coordinate communications during an emergency. Rely on your command center to organize communications coming in from your local emergency response teams, government, and your staff. Use your command center’s strengths to build a hierarchy of responses about operations, logistics, planning, and support in a logical and efficient way.

Initial Communication

Your internal team will need to know about:

• Benefits – Notify your teams about what they can expect regarding pay, previously planned time off, and related information.
• Community resources – Share information that can help your internal teams’ well-being to keep them safely at home or safely report to and from work
• Working expectations – Clearly state who you expect to work on site, who should work remotely, and who should not work. Explain why these policies are in place and how long you anticipate they will last.
• Staff protocols – Communicate your process for individuals who get sick. Do you expect them to stay home or work? What steps or processes do staff need to follow before returning to work?
• Patient care protocols – Ensure everyone on your team knows your health system’s protocols regarding patient care. Eliminate confusion since each state and facility may have different rules for testing or patient care.
• Public messaging – Be transparent about what you’re communicating to the public through your website and other digital platforms as well as what you’re communicating to the media. This helps your internal team share correct information with the public. Your internal teams will value hearing from you first, not from news stations or social media.

Ongoing Communications

As your messaging continues to evolve, be sure to communicate:

• Action plan – List what your organization is doing to ensure the safety of your internal team, patients, visitors, and community.
• Building changes – Keep your internal team up to date by communicating facility changes, such as temporary testing sites or rezoning of departments
• Census updates – Share your patient volume and capacity with individuals who can use this information to improve patient care and make the appropriate staffing accommodations.
• Staffing updates – Inform your team on what they can expect during the crisis. How long with their shifts be? What can they expect when they arrive to work? Define roles and how your team members can make the most significant impact while protecting their own health.
• Supply status – Communicate your current resources, so people know what is available. Clarify items you need to improve patient care and how to best allocate supplies that are low in stock. Tell your team if and how you’re working with neighboring hospitals to improve patient care in your community.
• Your success – Remind your team of your mission and purpose as a health care system. During a crisis, it is important to celebrate your progress to continue the positive momentum and cohesion amongst your team.

#3: How Will They Receive Communication?

Evaluate your platforms for communication. What technology is in place that you can use during a crisis? If your technology becomes unavailable, what is your backup plan? Successful ways to communicate with your internal teams include:

• Overhead announcements – Use your facility’s public address (PA) system to make quick statements that everyone needs to hear.
• In-person updates – Work with managers or designated communication teams to provide verbal updates to front-line staff.
• Group text – Use for short, concise messages that need to go out quickly.
• Phone tree – Create and use a phone tree to efficiently relay brief messages to a group of people. Create a script to help people pass on accurate information.
• Email – Securely communicate updates that are important but do not require immediate action.
• Intranet – Dedicate a page or section of your intranet to crisis communication. Many people do not have time to sift through emails, especially when emails can quickly become out of date. Your intranet is an effective, searchable channel to communicate changes to a procedure, visiting hours, or staffing to all internal teams.
• Website – Share public updates on your website, check out these resources for crisis communications on your site.
• Social media – Shape the message you want to communicate through social media and set clear policies and procedures for your internal teams to follow. Make sure your social media team knows where to send inquiries and how to best address the questions coming in from your community.

#4: When Will They Get Updates?

Prioritizing what information you need to share and how frequently to share it helps establish a process for when a course of action is necessary. Depending on the length of your crisis, consider communicating:

• As needed – Relay urgent information immediately
• Hourly – Communicate critical information that impacts patient care and staff
• Daily – Send a daily recap to all internal teams by email. Consider having separate distribution lists for your different internal audiences. This can help you craft and communicate information relevant to each group. Update your intranet each day to include information for all internal audiences.
• Weekly – Summarize the week, concerns, and need-to-know information for the upcoming days and weeks.
• End of the crisis – Inform your team of the impact of the crisis, acknowledge their sacrifices and teamwork, and share your recovery plan.

#5: Where Can They Go to Get Answers to Their Questions?

Questions will arise even with the most informative communications in place. Use your intranet as a tool to help people submit questions and get answers promptly. Save time by creating a page on your intranet that provides correct messaging to questions your front-line teams hear frequently.

Evaluate & Evolve Your Communication Plan

Once the crisis is over, take time to review your process. Identify areas you would iterate on in a future event. Continue updating your plans as your health system changes and evolves.

Your website is the place where you can showcase all the types of care you offer and strategically guide people to the option that’s best for their symptoms or condition. Choosing the right care setting—whether that’s a primary care clinic, an urgent care center, a virtual visit, or the emergency department—can save patients money and time, and improve their satisfaction with your organization.

1. Use Your Homepage Effectively

If guiding patients to appropriate care settings is a high priority, build a homepage that helps you meet that goal.

Your homepage is probably the most visited page of your site. Focus its valuable “above-the-fold” space on connecting users with the type of care that’s right for them. Use design, functionality, and content to showcase the options your patients have to choose from, and then give them an easy way to learn more.

An Example: ProHealth

ProHealth Care’s homepage focuses on helping users learn about same-day and next-day care options. Whether users are on desktop or mobile, choices for quick care are front and center. Once they’re ready to learn more, they can click on the name of the service to see how to take the next step.

Another Example: Adventist HealthCare

Adventist HealthCare’s home page uses buttons to represent a continuum of care and funnel patients to content about the type of care they need. Depending on where they are in their health care journey, users might opt to learn about living a healthy life, or they may choose to focus on primary, specialty, or urgent or emergency care.

2. Make It Easy to Compare Care Options

Patients don’t always know where to go for care—and they’re looking to you for guidance. It’s essential to present information on your care options in a way that’s easy to understand.

Create a great user experience by using content and design to make it easy for patients to compare their options for quick care when they’re sick.

Show pertinent information about each quick care option – primary care, urgent care, retail clinics, virtual visits, etc. – in one place so users don’t have to hunt for information across your site.

An Example: Rush Copley Medical Center

Rush Copley Medical Center in Aurora, Illinois, found success by creating a “Where to Go for Care” page in their health services section.

Rush Copley uses subheadings to identify and guide readers through their care options. Each care option lists services available and conditions treated to help readers determine the best place for care. The page also features a short video and a PDF users can download and print.

To help readers understand the importance of choosing the right type of care, Rush Copley explains the benefits of how going to the right place of time can save time and money.

3. Optimize Service Line Content

When you follow web writing best practices, you’ll build service line content that’s appreciated by both users and search engines.

Dive into keyword research to see how consumers in your area talk about each service and what questions they’re asking. Then, develop content that answers these questions and naturally incorporates priority keywords.

Keyword research related to walk-in care often reveals phrases such as “when to go to urgent care”“urgent care near me,” and “paying for urgent care.” Symptoms also are frequently searched.

Help users engage with your service line content by

• Focusing on your user
• Keeping content simple and easy to scan
• Cross-linking to related content, such as location profiles and related service lines
• Including a strong call to action

An Example: Olmsted Medical Center

Improve user experience by creating actionable content that cross-links to relevant information like Olmstead Medical Center’s convenient care page does. This helps readers easy move through your site and understand the next steps they need to take to receive care.

Grow your monthly pageviews when you follow our web writing tips to develop content for service lines like telemedicine and urgent care.

Olmsted Medical Center made similar updates to their content and are enjoying an impressive year-over-year increase in pageviews, including a 25% increase to their convenient care page.

4. Prioritize the Mobile Experience

Cone Health partnered with Geonetric to focus their homepage on the idea of “right care, right place, right time.” It was important to the organization to make sure both desktop and mobile users could easily learn about and connect with a wide range of services. User research helped the team develop a dynamic homepage that’s well-received—and well-used—by patients.

What’s Your Approach?

Need help determining the best approach to helping consumers understand their options for care at your organization? Contact us. Geonetric’s content strategists and writers understand the complexity of health care and know how to write content that users and search engines love.