Pediatric Hospital’s Enewsletter Program Grows Up

Akron Children’s Hospital has revamped its enewsletter program, with an eye towards better tracking responses from parents, donors and other constituents, and growing its email database.

The pediatric hospital, with locations in Akron and Boardman, OH, provides services in about 80 locations, including adult hospitals, outpatient clinics and a network of 17 pediatrician offices. About 600,000 patients are seen annually.

The hospital recently began working with Knotice to expand its enewsletter program. Previously, Akron had licensed a newsletter from KidsHealth, which it customized and sent to a list of parents.

“It was great, and we could customize content based on parents’ children’s ages, but the only data we could get back from it was subscribes and unsubscribes,” says Andrea Joliet, assistant director, interactive marketing. “We wanted to know who was opening the newsletter and what they were clicking on.”

Last month, Akron launched iGrow, a new newsletter for parents on kids’ health issues on the Knotice platform, as well as Developments, a newsletter geared to “key influencers” such as hospital donors, partners and community business leaders.

In the past, to sign up, all parents had to do was provide their email address and the ages of their children. “So we’re starting iGrow with a relatively small list,” says Joliet.

iGrow will mail on the second Tuesday of each month. Through giveaways—such as free bike helmets to encourage bicycling safety—the hospital hopes to gather more demographic information from its current subscriber base of about 400. New subscriptions will be generated through website promotion, as well as on Facebook and in some printed collateral. In the debut issue, Facebook “likes” were encouraged with the chance to win an iPod.

The newsletter is seen as a relationship building tool. “One of our big missions here at the hospital is to educate and be a resource for families, as well as build the brand,” notes Joliet, adding that open rates and clickthroughs will be watched to determine the success rate of the effort.

Newsletter content will be customizable to different segments of the hospital’s patients’ needs, highlighting issues such as asthma or behavioral development. Other content will include links to a newly launched series of 60-second videos on parenting.

“Video is becoming more of a way for us to promote the hospital, because it’s a popular way for so many people to consumer information,” says Joliet. “Our attention spans are becoming shorter, but what parent doesn’t have 60-seconds?”

In addition to its enews offerings, Akron also publishes “Inside Children,” a print newsletter that goes to about 25,000 households. QR codes are used to drive readers to online resources, like the parenting videos.