HealthReach
Scope
Content Strategy
Role
Content Strategist
Duration
Fall 2024
Overview
HealthReach Community Health Centers, a nonprofit network of 12 clinics serving underserved areas in Central and Western Maine, needed a refreshed website and content strategy. The existing site, though functional, lacked intuitive navigation, had accessibility issues, and failed to convey the organization’s warmth and community-driven values in its digital voice.
Improve usability and intuitive navigation
Align tone and content with HealthReach’s supportive mission
Optimize content for accessibility and search visibility
Strengthen community engagement and patient trust
Objective
This project was completed as part of ICM 513: Content Strategy, a graduate ICM course at Quinnipiac University.
Getting Started
To build a stronger, more accessible digital experience for HealthReach Community Health Centers, I began with an analysis of their existing website and competitive landscape. This work focused on uncovering usability gaps, content clarity issues, and missed opportunities to better connect with patients.
Content Audit
Evaluated metadata, alt text usage, header structures, and overall accessibility compliance.
Site Architecture and UX Review
Assessed the navigation hierarchy, mobile responsiveness, search functionality, and page organization.
Voice and Tone Evaluation
Measured how well the site's content aligned with HealthReach’s community-centered mission.
Competitive Analysis
Benchmarked HealthReach against organizations like Fair Haven Community Health Care and Mount Desert Island Hospital to identify best practices.
Project Methods
Screaming Frog SEO audit
Accessibility review with WAVE tool
Competitor benchmarking
Content modeling and site architecture redesign
Messaging and content style guidelines
content lifecycle and ownership roles
Key Findings
Content Audit
100% of pages lacked meta descriptions
38% of images missing alt text
Inconsistent headers and navigation hierarchy
Site Architecture
Mobile-friendly but confusing dropdown structure
No breadcrumbs for user orientation
Search function only indexed blog posts, not service pages
Voice and Tone
Overall tone was friendly and educational
News content was repetitive and lacked personality
Competitive Analysis
A nonprofit community health center based in Connecticut, Fair Haven emphasizes accessible, patient-centered healthcare and integrates digital tools to streamline the care journey.
Fair Haven Community Health Care
Implement an accessibility widget to ensure content is usable by all users.
Provide clear, patient-friendly service breakdowns to guide different user types effectively.
Seamlessly integrate third-party tools like MyChart to simplify online appointments, billing, and care management.
Best Practices Identified
Competitive Analysis
Mount Desert Island Hospital
A regional hospital in Maine focused on promoting community wellness, personalized patient care, and fostering emotional connections through storytelling.
Use story-driven content (e.g., community success stories, staff highlights) to build emotional trust with users.
Highlight community engagement through blog posts, local partnerships, and visual storytelling.
Support fast online transactions, such as bill pay or appointment requests, to reduce friction in the user experience.
Best Practices Identified
Core Strategy Statement
A core strategy statement will help direct and guide content efforts across the website. According to Meghan Casey in her book, The Content Strategy Toolkit, a core strategy statement "answers the fundamental questions for providing the right content, to the right people, at the right time, for the right reasons." (Casey, 2023)
HealthReach Core Strategy Statement
To support the local community by offering access to high-quality affordable healthcare, we will provide accessible, informative, clear, and relevant content that empowers the patients we serve to make informed decisions about their healthcare.
Key Performance Indicators are integral to tracking an organization's success and progress toward its goals. We have outlined 3 KPIs we believe will help grow HealthReach as a whole.
Patient Engagement: Track new portal sign-ups and survey how patients find services.
Key Performance Indicators(KPI’s)
Appointment Bookings: Monitor online vs. phone booking trends.
Page Clicks: Measure content effectiveness through page clicks and session duration.
Prioritization tables act as a way to clearly define to all stakeholders what the content priorities should be. Laid out below is a table that breaks down potential user scenarios and identifies what content HealthReach should focus on, what content they need to guide their users to, and what content they want to drive users to.
Prioritization Table
Content Organization
Organization of content is essential to help users find the things they need. Additionally, intuitive wayfinding also makes it easier for search engines to crawl a site; thus, aligning your organization's content goals early will help search engine optimization in the long run. The sitemap below is laid out like an organizational chart to show how users can move throughout the site. The goal is to make it as easy as possible for users to understand where they are at any given moment.
Content Model
The content model lays out the types of content on your website and breaks each down into detail, giving a road map for your content. Below are 4 goals of HealthReach laid out along with their core content.
Wire Frames
Wireframes help provide a visual of how a site will organize it's content. We've created wireframes for 3 key pages of HealthReach: Home, Patients, and Locations.
Style Guide
A style guide should be a reference document for the organization to align its voice and tone. It creates guidelines for standards to be followed on all content created. It also ensures that content and brand identity remain consistent no matter who creates content for the organization.
Be Clear and Direct: Use simple, accessible language; minimize technical jargon and explain complex terms when necessary.
Show Empathy: Acknowledge the real challenges patients face, like affordability and navigating care, by using a warm, supportive tone.
Be Informative: Provide detailed, actionable information about services, financial support options, and why certain care offerings matter.
Writing Goals
Focus on Community: Highlight community events, initiatives, and local impact stories to build trust and deepen patient relationships.
Be Consistent: Maintain a unified voice and tone across all platforms and content types to create a seamless user experience.
Translate Information: Clearly explain insurance, coverage, and care processes using patient-friendly language to educate and guide users.
A uniform voice and tone help a brand build trust and meaningful relationships with its users.
A brand's voice is the personality it portrays to its users, while its users, while itstone is the choice of words, writing style, and emotions a brand conveys to its users.
Voice and Tone
We recommend using a compassionate, informative, supportive, and community-centered voice. HealthReach's tone should make users feel informed, reassured, and cared for.
Below, we have provided an outline of how to write with these voices in mind.
Color Palette
Next Steps
Assign content ownership roles (Designers, Copywriters, Physicians)
Implement a content lifecycle: Strategize, Define, Create, Measure, Evolve
Redesign news content to better align with HealthReach’s voice and mission
Conduct monthly KPI tracking and adapt strategy based on insights