Spectrum Health’s blog builds brand awareness around the world

Spectrum Health’s Health Beat blog was created to tap into the content marketing trend, a channel into which Spectrum Health had not yet ventured. In addition to a first-place win in the Blog category, Health Beat has also won the top prize in the “Digital Publication” category of PR Daily’s Nonprofit PR Awards.

Among the ways Health Beat helps build brand awareness beyond the popularity of the blog and its related customizable e-newsletter is the fact that traditional communicators at Spectrum use Health Beat content to pitch stories to the media. International media—both traditional and nontraditional—use Health Beat assets, in part or whole, as content for their own channels, building awareness of Spectrum, a nonprofit health system based in west Michigan.

Health Beat Pro is the media-focused version of Health Beat, designed to be an easily accessible site for media professionals who can use plug-and-play content in print materials, websites, blogs, broadcasts or radio reports.

The Health Beat team established SMART objectives for the two sites, including social media channel KPIs and Google Analytics. Each story is tagged so the team can track the uptake of content associated with specific service line marketing campaigns. The mobile-friendly sites are updated every day with multiple stories, photos and videos.

The effort is clearly paying off, given that Health Beat generates ROI of 100:1—for every dollar spent on the content marketing effort, the leads generated result in $100 to Spectrum Health’s bottom line. Brand awareness built through the blogs has also correlated to recognition of Spectrum Health as one of the top health systems in the U.S.

Congratulations to Cheryl Welch, Jill Seidelman, Chris Clark, Sue Thoms and Taylor Ballek.