Deborah Heart and Lung Center developed a blog content strategy that focuses on health observance days to build an online following. In just over a year, the blog added one million web page views and doubled online patient appointments.
For many health organizations, Baldwin Publishing’s popular Celebrate Today: Health Observance Calendar is a useful social media planning tool. For Deborah Heart and Lung Center, the national health days outlined in the calendar are an invaluable guide to plan and create heart health content for the hospital’s trending blog. The “Health Days” content strategy not only keeps the blog robust and seasonal, it has also increased web page views and helped them acquire nearly 2,000 new heart patients in just two years.
The health observances are the foundation that we build our marketing plan from,” said Lewis Clark, Jr., Vice President of Marketing, Media and Public Relations at Deborah Heart and Lung Center. “When we track our audience engagement, we see that’s the information that our patients really want.”
In January, Clark sat down with Baldwin Publishing to describe how the hospital developed a health awareness day marketing strategy that resulted in an uptick in web traffic, newsletter signups and new patients. The webinar, “How a Heart Hospital Uses Health Observance Content to Acquire Cardiac Patients,” was hosted by the Society of Healthcare Strategy and Market Development (SHSMD), the marketing arm of the American Hospital AssociationTM (AHA). This informational video is free to watch for member and nonmembers of SHSMD.
One Million More Hospital Website Visitors
When Clark joined Deborah Heart and Lung Center five years ago, he inherited a print community newsletter. Even though this community was an aging population in a rural area, he decided it was time to modernize and move to a digital platform.
Clark’s first challenge was to find content for his new blog and website. With his team already working with Baldwin Publishing for health content, he reached out to see how Baldwin could help him successfully transition his print audience to digital.
“We were looking for content to engage our audience by giving them the information they want to know,” said Clark, adding that Baldwin Publishing has always been a trusted resource for providing the hospital with health content that’s medically reviewed.
Baldwin Publishing created a cardiac content strategy to provide Deborah with blog articles and heart healthy recipes each month tied into national health days and health awareness months.
The content is timely and relevant, with articles that can be customized to feature Deborah’s physicians and health experts. American Heart Month, Stress Awareness Month, American Stroke Month, Lung Cancer Awareness Month and COPD Awareness Month are just a few of the monthly health observances that Deborah features in its wellness blog that now boasts almost 300 pieces of informational health content for its community.
Online visitors to Deborah’s website have grown dramatically since the blog launched, jumping from 575,000 visits in 2021 to 1.5 million visits just one year later.
Heart Healthy Recipes Boost Hospital Blog Traffic
The health awareness content Baldwin delivers to Deborah each month engages the community by offering heart and lung health tips and seasonal and trending heart healthy recipes from Baldwin’s Health eCooks® Test Kitchen.
“We asked consumers what content they’re most interested in, and it always seems like the recipes are something that they latch onto,” said Clark.
The hospital also uses Baldwin’s digital cookbook as a subscriber incentive on their website. As a result, Deborah’s digital newsletter recipient list has tripled, growing to more than 30,000 quality subscribers.
Starting out with one monthly digital newsletter that linked to articles in their blog, Deborah added two additional monthly newsletters, each one with its own focus.
“Consumers are looking for a trusted resource for health information,” said Clark, adding that he’s learned that his community prefers receiving these monthly health tips from Deborah rather than searching the internet for answers.
Want more information about Baldwin’s medically-reviewed health content that aligns with the national health days found in the SHSMD calendar? Contact us.
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Check out heart healthy recipes to share on social media for national food days.
