Health Essentials boasts some impressive vital signs. The content brand, owned by the Cleveland Clinic, earns more than 12 million visits each month. That’s 60 times the traffic it earned a decade ago.
Not surprisingly, the content team’s mission expanded over time to include the organization’s website and health library, too.
Mergers of content marketing and content strategy like that happen more often these days (as Robert Rose has pointed out). So it can’t hurt to study up on the care plan (aka strategy) and practices behind this content marketing success story.
Amanda Todorovich, the Cleveland Clinic’s executive director for content marketing, shared the story (which ends with a bit of a cliffhanger) in her Content Marketing World 2021 presentation, Winning Resources: How To Get Leadership Support To Grow Your Content Marketing Team.
I’ve charted some lessons from that presentation. (Amanda will share the rest of the story at Content Marketing World 2022 in September.)
Work on your bedside manner
Yes, the Cleveland Clinic is a massive global health system with 21 hospitals and operating revenue totaling over $12 billion.
But don’t think the program’s resources came easy. When she landed at Cleveland Clinic as a digital engagement manager 10 years ago, Amanda joined a team of three. Today, she leads a group of 80 (50 of whom she hired in 2021).
To get there, Amanda had to figure out how best to communicate with leaders – including two CEOs with different perspectives – in terms they understand.
For example, content and marketing are two powerful words to content marketers. But to the CEO and other executives? Not so much.
“They like that second word (marketing). They don’t really know what ‘content’ means, and they don’t really understand how it matters … the actual impact a blog post has on an organization is something they don’t comprehend,” Amanda says.
Semantics play a role in successful communication, she says, but making the most of opportunities to get in front of executives and share successes matters, too.
Become the content prescriber, not the content pharmacist
But the first and most important change Amanda made has lasted and served the organization well: implementing a strategy.
A team of three handled the Clinic’s digital marketing in 2012 – a writer, a social media person, and a project manager who tracked all the content demands from people across the organization on spreadsheets.
One of the first things Amanda did was throw out the spreadsheet: “That’s not what content marketing is about. We’re not going to run around and ask everybody internally what they want us to put on this blog,” she says.
Instead, the small content team switched their perspective from filling content orders to creating content that would be good for the audience, Amanda explains.
Blog traffic grew from 200,000 to 1 million monthly visits in just half a year, relying on a simple strategy of three to five audience-focused articles a day. (It hit that 12 million monthly visit number in September 2021 using the same content formula.)
But the new focus on serving the audience wasn’t an easy transition. “From day one, we had to have lots of crucial conversations with leadership and key stakeholders about why we were changing the strategy,” Amanda explains.
Fortunately, data is a content marketer’s friend. Amanda used the audience numbers to help leaders gain confidence in the team’s shift. Any resistance to moving away from filling the doctors’ orders to creating content prescriptions for the audience dissolved in the face of the healthy, evidence-based outcome.
Amanda developed the habit of sending brief emails weekly to her boss about the team’s activities, describing a win, a cool idea they’re trying, or a new content relationship they’d formed. “I was making sure people knew what we were doing,” Amanda says.
The prescription
Don’t let subject matter experts place content orders (i.e., demands) or direct the content strategy. Let your audience’s needs drive content creation and strategy.
Use your data to prove the content strategy’s success to secure continued leadership support.
Share wins, experiments, and news via informal outreach in addition to formal reporting.
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Balance audience strategy with leadership priorities
When the content team achieved 1 million blog visits a month, they celebrated with a cake and party.
But the CEO at the time didn’t share the enthusiasm. He believed the organization’s future depended on social media success.
During a presentation on paid search, for example, he interrupted to ask about what the team was doing on TikTok. With the emphasis on social media, more people joined the team to focus on social channels.
“It was a bit tough because while we were doing things and innovating, it was Health Essentials (the blog) plus social media,” Amanda explains.
At one point, Facebook accounted for 60% of the traffic. But as the team built an arsenal of helpful content on Health Essentials (and social media algorithms and behavior changed), the numbers shifted. Organic search drives most traffic now.
The prescription
Don’t expect to change the CEO’s content priorities, but still keep your focus on the big picture behind your content strategy.
Use the strategy’s success to help educate the CEO and evolve organizational priorities to deliver what the audience needs and wants.
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Expand the strategy when new content responsibilities arise
While the blog was delivering growth and engagement, the website wasn’t. The team behind it was stuck in the order-taking strategy thrown out at the blog. “We had this great strategy and cohesive thing happening with (the blog and social), and the rest was kind of a mess,” Amanda says.
Given the success of the blog and social, Amanda’s role expanded once again as she took on responsibility for health content across the brand’s website, pulling together teams that once operated as separate entities. “We started talking about how the pieces fit together,” she explains.
With an audience-focused strategy, the website grew exponentially. In 2012, the website had 50 million visits. In 2020, it had 256 million visits (including the blog), with 81% of the traffic coming from organic search.
By 2021, the number grew to 427 million as Amanda secured more resources.
The site’s health content success revealed another disconnect. While the audience was coming to the site for the health content, only 1% visited the clinic’s product and services pages.
“Those are the pages that everybody else in the organization is doing whatever they want to do … They don’t know what their patients actually want and are engaging with,” Amanda explains.
That disparity has prompted conversations about how to connect the dots: “How do we bring the same level of sophistication that we’re bringing on the health content side to the rest of the site?”
The answer came as it did earlier – let the audience-focused people oversee those pages, too. Amanda now leads the entire Cleveland Clinic website with her bigger team. “Connecting the dots for leadership has been a critical step,” she says. “It’s not like I went and asked to take over (the website). It was just pointing out opportunities along the way.”
Now, “nothing’s off the table. We’ve made major organizational changes. We’ve asked for lots of resources. You cannot be afraid to do that,” Amanda says.
The content marketing team also isn’t just an expense to the organization. About six years ago, the strategy expanded to include bringing in revenue through their content from digital advertising on their health content pages.
“Executives understand money. So, this has powered a lot of our ability to grow and change the conversation,” Amanda says.
The prescription
Expect success to lead to more work, as others in the organization want their content to deliver similar growth, too.
Leverage your success to ask for more resources – expand or merge teams to bring content under the same umbrella.
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Grow a new structure
At the Cleveland Clinic today, the growing content marketing team is divided into three buckets of core functionality:
Editorial (including many, many writers – Amanda says she can barely hire enough)
Content growth (SEO, analytics, social, video, email, voice, and podcasts)
Project management (all the tools, capabilities, and functionalities needed to create and maintain exciting, interesting, and engaging content.
But it wasn’t always so. At one point, the social media team way outnumbered the SEO team (which consisted of a single person). But as priorities shifted and data showed the relative importance of each, the team evolved. In September 2021, the SEO team numbered more than 15, while the social media team was less than half that size.
This organization chart shows the makeup and number of positions within the three core functions.
A director of content product and operations leads two groups:
The content architecture group consists of two digital marketing managers, a coordinator, three digital marketing associates, a podcast coordinator, and five additional associates who are contractors.
A product and project management team consists of a digital marketing manager, three project managers, and three coordinators who are contractors.
A director of editorial leads groups for each content product:
The Health Essentials team consists of a digital marketing manager, six content roles, one contractor, and three managing editors.
The Health Library team consists of a digital marketing manager and 15 content roles.
The Care Pages team consists of a digital marketing manager and two content writers/practitioners.
A director of content growth leads groups focused on four areas:
The SEO team consists of a digital marketing manager, two additional managers, seven analysts, and six associates (who are contractors).
The social media team consists of two digital marketing managers, a program manager, and three coordinators
The email team includes one digital marketing manager supported by a contractor.
The video team includes one digital marketing manager, an associate, and a lead data analyst.
The prescription
Revisit your team’s organizational structure as you scale your content marketing. Create distinct divisions to address core responsibilities.
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Plan to meet changing expectations
Five years ago, a new CEO brought a new set of priorities. This CEO interrupted a presentation to ask why the Cleveland Clinic didn’t appear when he searched for himself or a particular procedure. He gave the challenge to Amanda to fix, adding members of the patient education team to the content marketing umbrella.
More recently, the CEO asked Amanda how the Cleveland Clinic could become the indisputable leader in health care online. He wanted to know how they could beat their competitors by 10 times.
She and her team went to work creating a five-year strategy to explain how that could happen. The CEO loved it but didn’t want to wait five years. The CEO wanted to know what it would take to do it in two years. He gave her 10 days to figure it out.
“We had been running pilots … and studying this for so long. We know what it’s going to take. It’s small changes. We’re not changing our strategy to do this; we just need to do more of it,” she says.
Amanda presented the business plan detailing what it means to be a leader – to have the most traffic, rank the highest, and drive more revenue to the organization. She asked for 90 full-time-equivalent employees and a big budget. The executive team unanimously said yes, with the CEO declaring this content business plan an investment, not an expense.
(Whether her plan worked or not is the cliffhanger. We’ll find out the answer in September.)
The prescription
Listen to what leadership wants and prepare a plan to achieve it.
Ask for the specific number of people and other resources you need to implement the content business plan.
Explain how the plan needs to adjust if they can’t commit the necessary resources.
Keep your content eyes on the audience prize
Though Amanda has seen a lot of change over her decade working in content, their content mission hasn’t changed: “We engage users in daily conversations using health, wellness, and clinical information unique to Cleveland Clinic.”
She explains: “You have to have a strategy, and you have to define it. You have to stick to it, which is the harder part.”
Her bosses love the mission and the effect of the audience-focused content. “It’s unique to us. It’s different. It’s better than our competitors. It’s our experts. It features our doctors. That’s the stuff they want to hear,” Amanda says.
It’s also what hundreds of millions want to hear (or read), too. And that’s why that strategy born long ago still resonates and delivers results leaders love to see.
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Register to attend Content Marketing World in Cleveland, Ohio. Use the code BLOG100 to save $100.
Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute
Other brands can copy your style, tone and strategy — but they can’t copy your data.
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Cynthia Ramsaran is director of custom content at Third Door Media, publishers of Search Engine Land and MarTech. A multi-channel storyteller with over two decades of editorial/content marketing experience, Cynthia’s expertise spans the marketing, technology, finance, manufacturing and gaming industries. She was a writer/producer for CNBC.com and produced thought leadership for KPMG. Cynthia hails from Queens, NY and earned her Bachelor’s and MBA from St. John’s University.
In a groundbreaking alliance, Amazon and Hyundai have joined forces to reshape the automotive landscape, promising a revolutionary shift in how we buy, drive, and experience cars.
Imagine browsing for your dream car on Amazon, with the option to seamlessly purchase, pick up, or have it delivered—all within the familiar confines of the world’s largest online marketplace. Buckle up as we explore the potential impact of this monumental partnership and the transformation it heralds for the future of auto retail.
Driving Change Through Amazon’s Auto Revolution
Consider “Josh”, a tech-savvy professional with an affinity for efficiency. Faced with the tedious process of purchasing a new car, he stumbled upon Amazon’s automotive section. Intrigued by the prospect of a one-stop shopping experience, Josh decided to explore the Amazon-Hyundai collaboration.
The result?
A hassle-free online car purchase, personalized to his preferences, and delivered to his doorstep. Josh’s story is just a glimpse into the real-world impact of this game-changing partnership.
Bridging the Gap Between Convenience and Complexity
Traditional car buying is often marred by complexities, from navigating dealership lots to negotiating prices. The disconnect between the convenience consumers seek and the cumbersome process they endure has long been a pain point in the automotive industry. The need for a streamlined, customer-centric solution has never been more pressing.
Ecommerce Partnership Reshaping Auto Retail Dynamics
Enter Amazon and Hyundai’s new strategic partnership coming in 2024—an innovative solution poised to redefine the car-buying experience. The trio of key developments—Amazon becoming a virtual showroom, Hyundai embracing AWS for a digital makeover, and the integration of Alexa into next-gen vehicles—addresses the pain points with a holistic approach.
In 2024, auto dealers for the first time will be able to sell vehicles in Amazon’s U.S. store, and Hyundai will be the first brand available for customers to purchase.
This collaboration promises not just a transaction but a transformation in the way customers interact with, purchase, and engage with their vehicles.
Pedal to the Metal
Seamless Online Purchase:
Complete the entire transaction within the trusted Amazon platform.
Utilize familiar payment and financing options.
Opt for convenient pick-up or doorstep delivery.
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Alexa Integration in Next-Gen Vehicles:
Enjoy a hands-free, voice-controlled experience in Hyundai vehicles.
Access music, podcasts, reminders, and smart home controls effortlessly.
Stay connected with up-to-date traffic and weather information.
Driving into the Future
The Amazon-Hyundai collaboration is not just a partnership; it’s a revolution in motion. As we witness the fusion of e-commerce giant Amazon with automotive prowess of Hyundai, the potential impact on customer behavior is staggering.
The age-old challenges of car buying are met with a forward-thinking, customer-centric solution, paving the way for a new era in auto retail. From the comfort of your home to the driver’s seat, this partnership is set to redefine every step of the journey, promising a future where buying a car is as easy as ordering a package online.
Embrace the change, and witness the evolution of auto retail unfold before your eyes.
It’s no wonder that responsive search ads have steadily grown in popularity in recent years. Through Google’s machine learning capabilities, RSAs provide a powerful way to automate the testing of multiple headlines and descriptions to ensure a closer match to user intent. The benefits are clear: RSAs mean broader reach, better engagement, and improved performance metrics.
However, all these benefits come at a significant (but reasonable) cost – they can be extremely difficult to manage, especially when it comes to updating ad copy to promote limited time offers.
I know this firsthand – I work with several ecommerce clients with promotions that constantly change. Not too long ago, I found myself going through the consistently tedious process of updating a client’s RSA headlines and copy. As I was making the changes, I thought to myself: “There must be a better way to update this ad copy. I shouldn’t have to use find and replace so many times while pausing and enabling my ad campaigns.”
After expressing this to my colleague, Jordan Stambaugh, the two of us agreed there must be a better way. But we’d have to make it happen. A few weeks later, we put that idea into action and created a more efficient process for updating RSA ad copy on a scheduled basis. If you want to try this process for yourself, just keep reading.
Responsive Search Ad Customizers 101: Basic Options & Execution
Before diving into the process of scheduling automatic updates for your RSA customizers, it’s essential to understand some key Responsive Search Ad fundamentals.
First, you can customize three main options within RSAs: the Attribute Name, the Data Type, and the Account Value. Each of these plays a vital role in personalizing your ads:
Attribute Name: This is essentially the identifier for the customizer. It is how you’ll reference the specific piece of information you’re customizing within the ad. For instance, if you’re running a promotion, you might name an attribute “Promotion.”
Data Type: This indicates the kind of data the attribute represents and it determines how the information can be formatted and used within the ad. Common data types include Text (for plain, non-numeric text), Percent (to represent percentage discounts), Price (to denote monetary values), and Number (for any numerical value).
Account Value: This is the default value for the attribute that you set at the account level. It acts as a fallback if more specific values aren’t provided at the campaign or ad group level.
For example, if you wanted to promote a 10% off discount using RSAs, you’d use the “Discount” attribute, a data type of “Percent,” and an account value of “10% off.” Then, when someone is searching for products, Google would test automatically inserting a copy regarding a 10% off promotion into your ad.
Once you’ve set up the right customization options, you can start to format your RSAs with customizers.
Here’s how:
Start by typing in {
Click on Ad Customizer then select your attribute
Google will populate your attributes that are already uploaded
For a simple offer, use the “Default text” attribute as a catch-all. This will ensure your ads run smoothly if Google can’t pull the right messaging from your RSA feed
How to Schedule Your Ad Customizers with a Feed
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s cover how to schedule your ad customizers.
Just follow this three step process:
1. Create the feed
Start by creating two sheets: The Parent sheet, and the Child sheet. The “Parent” sheet will act as the primary data source, while the child sheet will pull data from the parent sheet.
We’ll start by building the parent sheet. After opening the sheet, start by renaming the active tab to “Promotions.” Don’t skip this step, it’s crucial for referencing this range in formulas later on.
In your “Promotions” tab, head to the top row and label columns A, B, and C with the headers of your ad customizer attributes. For example, you might have “BrandSaleHeadline” as your attribute in column A, “text” as the Data Type in column B, and “Shop the Collection” as the Account Value in column C.
Once your headers are in place, move to cell C2. Here, you’ll input the expression =lookup(today(),F:G,E:E). This formula will play a key role in dynamically updating your RSA customizer based on the current date.
Next, go to columns E, F, and G, which will be used to manage your scheduling. In these columns, you’ll list out the different values your chosen attribute might take, alongside their corresponding start and end dates. For example, under the “BrandSaleHeadline” attribute, you might schedule various promotional headlines to appear during different sale periods throughout the year.
Here’s how your sheet might look:
Now look back at the first 3 columns on your sheet. They should look like this:
Now create a second sheet. We’ll call this sheet the Child sheet. It’s going to automatically pull in data from the parent sheet you just created, and will be the one you link to Google Ads later on.
Columns A, B and C will be almost identical to the child sheet, but we will be using a special formula later so we can automatically populate this. So, start by labeling Row 1 Column A “Attribute,” then the next column as “Data type,” then column C as “Account value.”
Then go to C2 and use this expression to populate the right account value from the parent document: =importrange(“[PARENT DOCUMENT URL HERE]”,”Promotions!C2″)
Your sheet should now look like this:
We recommend adding a date range with default text for any days you’re not running a promotion. In the example above, we have “Shop Our Collection” appearing as default text.
2. Input attributes
Once you have your feed created, the next step involves inputting your attributes into the Google Ads platform. This can be done either manually or through a bulk upload.
For the manual approach, navigate to “Tools & Settings” in your Google Ads interface, then go to ‘Setup’ followed by “Business Data.” Here, you’ll find an option for “Ad Customizer Attributes.” Click the plus sign to add your attributes. It’s crucial to use the same attribute names that you’ve established in your Parent Google Sheet template to ensure consistency and proper data synchronization.
Alternatively, if you prefer the bulk upload method, again head to “Tools & Settings.” This time, select “Bulk Actions” and then “Uploads.” For this process, you only need to upload columns A to C from your template.
Be aware that it might take some time for your uploaded attributes to be reflected in the business data section of Google Ads.
3. Set up an automatic schedule
At this point, you’ve almost finished scheduling your ad customizers. Navigate to Tools & Settings, then Bulk Actions, then Uploads, then click the Schedules tab at the top. Select your Child Google Sheet as the data source, and share your Google Sheet with the appropriate email.
And there you have it – Google will automatically pull in the data you populated in the sheets into your RSAs.
Common Challenges When Scheduling RSA Ad Customizers
When we test these sheets with our clients in the wild, we’ve uncovered five common challenges. Be on the lookout for these issues – solving them before they happen can save you a lot of trouble down the line.
Not scheduling your upload when the site changes
The first and most significant hurdle is the mismatch between the scheduled data upload and website content updates. For instance, if the Google Sheet is set to upload at 11 am, but the website changes occur at 3 pm, there’s going to be a discrepancy where the wrong message could be displayed for several hours, or new messaging could appear prematurely. Conversely, if the website updates happen before the scheduled sheet upload, outdated promotions might linger until the new data is imported. Synchronizing these schedules is crucial; it’s best to align them so updates occur simultaneously.
Skipping QA during a message change
Another pitfall is neglecting quality assurance (QA) during message updates. It’s vital to regularly check the business data section to verify that the correct values are in place post-update.
Issues with the IMPORTRANGE function
Then there’s the technical aspect of setting up the IMPORTRANGE function correctly in the Google Sheets template. The ‘child’ template must reliably pull data from the ‘parent’ sheet. If this function isn’t configured correctly, data won’t be imported as needed.
Not sharing access of the Google template for automatic uploads
Pay attention to your access permissions for the Google Sheets template. Google will prompt you with the email address that needs permission to access the ‘child’ sheet for automatic uploads. Overlooking the sharing of your sheet with this address will prevent the system from working.
Having date range gaps in your parent sheet
Lastly, a common oversight is leaving date range gaps in the ‘parent’ sheet. Every single date must be accounted for without overlaps. A practical tip is to have an ‘evergreen’ backup message ready, scheduled to run continuously, ideally through the end of the year, to cover any potential gaps.
Conclusion
Leveraging Google Sheets in conjunction with Google Ads to schedule RSA ad customizers is a game-changer for managing dynamic promotional content. This process not only streamlines your workflows but also ensures that your ads remain relevant and up-to-date, reflecting current promotions without the need for constant manual intervention.
By adopting this method, you’ll save significant time and effort, allowing you to focus more on strategy and less on the minutiae of ad copy updates. Give it a try and experience a more efficient way to manage your RSAs, keeping your campaigns fresh and engaging with minimal hassle.
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