Sample Integrated Marketing Campaign for Clinic’s Patient Portal

Late in 2023, I led an integrated marketing campaign to increase patient usage of T.H.E. Health and Wellness Centers’ Patient Portal. My goal was to educate patients about the portal’s benefits and to promote the Healow app as a convenient tool for managing healthcare which would also improve allocation of staff resources for the clinic.

By creating bilingual materials, multi-channel messaging and emphasizing key placement of print and digital assets throughout multiple clinics, I ensured this campaign was delivered to an optimal percentage of T.H.E.’s patients. The result was a 25% increase in sign-ups for Patient Portal usage within the first three months of the campaign rollout—exceeding expectations and improving patient engagement. The campaign’s success demonstrates the impact of inclusive and strategic marketing.

Campaign Elements

After conducting a survey of other promotions by clinics, I settled on a campaign that:

1. led with the benefits to the consumer (time-saving convenience)
2. centered the patient as the one making empowered choices with the slogan “your health in your hands” (strength-based messaging)
3. culturally and visually reflected the diversity of the community being served
4. was placed at the most opportune places where messages would be seen in print and on digital media

1. Website Banner and Dedicated Page

• Website Banner: I created a web banner prominently featured on the T.H.E. homepage that auto translates into Spanish if that is the preferred language of the user, linking to a dedicated web page with more information to the consumer about the benefits of using Patient Portal which included a link to sign up and the code necessary to be linked to the T.H.E. platform.
• Patient Portal Page (View Page):
  • Content: an image of a woman holding her smartphone directly to the viewer with a QR code that leads to the Healow app, followed by one simple paragraph: “Patient Portal is where you can go online and order prescription refills, check lab results, make appointments, check on referrals, and send questions to your provider — all from the convenience of your phone or personal computer. Download the Healow app and sign up today.” with links to the app and the English and Spanish flyers as supporting graphics, reinforcing signage in clinics.

2. Flyers and Posters

• Bilingual Content: Using Canva again, I designed flyers and posters in English and Spanish and ensured they were placed in high-traffic clinic areas (at check-in and all exam rooms)..
• QR Codes: Each flyer and poster included QR codes that linked directly to the app.

3. Videos for Clinic TVs

• Bilingual Production:
  • Using Canva again, I created English and Spanish versions of the videos to cater to our patients’ language preferences.
  • The videos were 1 minute each in on smartphones in waiting rooms, this aspect of the campaign provided at least one opportunity per visit to notice the screen, the benefit message of saving time, the empowerment message of “Your Health in Your Hands?, followed by the QR code prominently placed with clear call to action and the key to connect all in one video which was cross-posted to socialmedia.
• Placement: These videos played on TVs at all clinic locations during patient wait times. The videos were 1 minute each in length and looped back to back during 15-minutes blocks of programming controlled by T.H.E. and orchestrated by me. With the majority of patients on smartphones in waiting rooms, this aspect of the campaign provided at least one opportunity per visit to notice the screen, the message of saving time, the empowerment slogan of “Your Health in Your Hands?, followed by the QR code prominently placed with ts clear call to action and the key to connect all in one video which was cross-posted to social media.

4. Social Media Campaign

• Platforms: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, YouTube, and TikTok.
• Bilingual Posts: I developed graphics and captions in both English and Spanish.

5. Staff Newsletters Messaging

• Staff Education: To encourage staff to actively promote patients to sign up for Patient Portal, inconsecutive staff newsletters I created copy and bullet points on how patients using the Patient Portal also benefits both staff and T.H.E.

6. Community Newsletter Messaging

• Reaching out beyond the clinics and social media: I included news promoting use of Patient Portal to our web-based email subscribers through Constant Contact which routinely garnered above average open rates.

7. Direct Email to Patients

• Bilingual Emails: I sent personalized email messages in both English and Spanish to active T.H.E. patients (seen in the last two years) through T.H.E.’s eClinicalWorks EHR system.

Campaign Outcomes

Quantifiable Results

• Benchmark Goal: I aimed for a 15%-20% increase in Patient Portal registrations (1,800-2,400 new users from T.H.E.’s 12,000-patient base).
• Actual Results: The campaign achieved a 25% increase, adding 3,000 new users, with strong engagement from Spanish-speaking patients.

Engagement Metrics

• Website Traffic: The bilingual website banner drove a significant increase in page views for the Patient Portal page.
• Social Media: Bilingual posts saw high engagement, with shares and comments from both language groups.
• Patient Feedback: Patients appreciated the clear bilingual materials and the ease of using the portal.

Qualitative Feedback

• Patients: They valued the inclusive language options and relatable imagery.
• Staff: They reported positive interactions with patients due to accessible and helpful materials.

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Writing Sample

The Tough Love of Justice Kennard

Published in Pasadena City College “Spotlight” Magazine, 2008
By Linda Birch

A judge’s judge and apolitical champion of the law, PCC alumna Justice Joyce Kennard has been called “the bulldog of the high-court bench” for exercising a tenacious intellect that won’t let go of a lawyer arguing a point until she has shaken out the bit of Truth she was seeking. If she’s tough in court, keep in mind she’s doing it all for love—of the law—and beneath her cool, almost stern demeanor is a kind, supportive mentor who has been nurturing students that now number a small army, a living legacy in itself.

“You must always be mindful that neutrality is important, even when a case is notorious—or dreadful—and we do get dreadful cases—but that is when it is more important than ever to remain impartial in applying the law,” says Justice Joyce L. Kennard, the longest-serving member of California’s Supreme Court. “Sometimes it’s difficult for the public to understand, but your hands are tied. You have to be neutral.”

One former intern, Tim Perry said, “she has a certain persona on the bench. She’s very challenging in court, but in her chambers she’s a gentle, caring, funny, empathetic mentor. She is genuinely thinking about you.”

Perry now serves as an attorney practicing appellate and bankruptcy law. “You know, among her interns, we’ve talked and it’s been said that if Justice Kennard weren’t a judge, she’d be a movie star — she is just that charismatic.”

Perry isn’t exaggerating.  When I meet Kennard in her chambers in San Francisco, she is perfectly dressed, elegantly coiffed and, it’s true, so charming she already had me at “Hello” –­ long before she concluded our interview with a personal tour of the courtroom where California’s high court holds its regular sessions.

“You see this painting,” Kennard says, indicating a vast California landscape by artist Walter Dixon which rises behind the justices to the domed ceiling, reaching across all seven seats of the high court. “It gives attorneys something to look at if they get bored during the proceedings,” she jokes modestly, although only sorry lawyers would let art lull them into any state of being other than on their tiptoes if Kennard is in the house.

Intellectually tenacious, she has a demeanor that is almost stern as she asks intricate questions in a firm, clear voice with a refined accent that demands logical explanations supported by legal precedents.

A smaller painting by Dixon hangs in the lobby outside her office where she takes a moment to show a photo of the person with whom she’ll be dining at Le Charm, a favorite restaurant, because Kennard loves good food with good company.

In fact, she adores a lot of things: the opera, symphony concerts, the arts, the entire city of San Francisco, a certain black-and-white cat, and her many friends.

Perhaps these passions are what makes it possible to bear the workload of being one of only seven people whose shoulders carry the weight of legal issues that impact 34 million Californians.

There is a warmth to her face as she leafs through pages of notes – hundreds of them — protected in separate plastic sleeves in a white, 4-inch binder, all neatly maintained by her uber-assistant of the past 18 years, Beverly Gong. There are more of these binders, five in all.

In essence, Kennard is sharing treasured family albums of her protegees whose paths have come through the revolving door of her chambers and since departed in various legal directions.

Yet they all remain connected to each other by the steel bonds of a strong network forged by a woman ever mindful of the encouragement she received when she was a young student embarking on a journey that would take her to the top.

Kennard finds the page she is looking for and points out the photograph, lightly tracing the face of the woman in the photo who immigrated here and, like Kennard, attended. law school without the emotional and financial support of family. Surrounding the woman are a half dozen people, and Kennard easily identifies who’s who by name as former interns and a federal judge. Her benevolent regard for all is apparent.

“Fantastic,” was how Shabnam Chattuck described her internship with Kennard, “It was a good learning experience. More than just how to research, analyze and write–although that’s a good part of being an attorney–she taught me how to argue before a judge, what to say, how to dress for court–just a well-rounded approach. And she takes care of her interns.”

Others concur.

“More so than other judges, she really takes time with her interns,” said Alex Grab, now in-house counsel for a tech company. “Presenting to her and her staff of career attorneys could be an incredibly intimidating experience for a young law student, but it would force you to do the preparation you need to do to succeed as a lawyer.”

So goes Kennard’s tough love for the law. Independent and still going strong, serving up disciplined, intellectually rigorous decisions, long after Kennard retires her gavel, her living legacy of counseled counselors will be arguing/judging legal nuances, carrying on her torch for law and order in courtrooms of tomorrow.