Kirstie Porter Creative

Role: Senior Copywriter

Team: Senior Copywriter (me), Senior Graphic Designer, Graphic Designer, Creative Director, Marketing Strategist, Marketing Director

Business problem: New providers are joining our Marshfield Children’s team regularly. How do we connect to parents using effective creative and efficient workflows?

Copywriting solution: In Summer 2021, the Creative & Marketing teams worked through A/B tests announcing new providers and attempted a combination retirement + new provider mailer. The A/B test was an especially fun challenge because 1) It strayed from our norm, and 2) It showed us actual results, almost immediately: The copy/creative focusing on the family, empathizing with the parents, performed better than the copy/creative focusing on the provider.

Summer 2021

Listen to the “Specialty Care” radio ad here.

Role: Senior Copywriter

Team: Copywriter (me), Senior Graphic Designer, Graphic Designer, Videographer, Creative Director, Marketing Strategist, Brand Manager, Marketing Director

Business problem: PATIENTS - Patients believe small local centers are primary care only, that they have to drive to Marshfield (a distance) to receive specialty care. PROVIDERS - A significant percentage of referrals are leaving the Health System resulting in a breathtaking loss of revenue.

Copywriting solution: Create attention-grabbing headlines that can apply to multiple audiences: patients, internal providers, external providers. Body copy must support the overarching idea that specialty care is close to home, regardless of where you live. Strategically (and for efficiency purposes), the creative must be plug-and-play, transferable across all 80 some specialties should this campaign grow.

Early 2021

Listen to the “Access to Care” radio ads here.

Role: Copywriter

Team: Copywriter (me), Senior Graphic Designer, Graphic Designer, Videographer, Creative Director, Brand Manager, Marketing Director

Business problem: Most of April 2020, the Health System communicated location closures, restricted hours and limited services. Problem: How do we spin this positively, to ensure patients do get the care they need at the locations that are open?

Copywriting solution: Position the Health System as the experts we are: We’ve always been here for you; that doesn’t change, even during a pandemic. Additionally, concisely communicate the best way for a patient to receive care, depending on their need (for example, some patients could opt to use our expanded telehealth service, seeing their care team by phone or video). To effectively communicate care options, we also chose to spin the message differently depending on which audience we were trying to reach - primary care patients, chronic condition patients, pregnant patients, etc.

Personal note- I found this campaign particularly challenging because it required thorough communication and copy. Writing extensive content isn’t a task I get to dip my hands in (pun intended) very often. Though during a troubling time, I enjoyed the challenge this campaign presented. -Kirstie

Late Spring 2020

Role: Copywriter

Team: Copywriter (me), Senior Graphic Designer, Graphic Designer, Creative Director, Brand Manager

Business problem: Coronavirus (COVID-19) arrived in the United States and Wisconsin’s governor was hours away from “shutting down” the state. Marshfield Clinic Health System would release visitor restrictions and location closures shortly. Everything was happening so fast. As the expert healthcare provider in Wisconsin, the Health System had to quickly implement a way to answer COVID-19 questions, especially questions around symptoms, urgent care and testing. That solution was a “chatbot” (online screening tool) that lived on our website.

Additional hurdle: The chatbot was going to be implemented within hours. Our team had to rapidly buy and create media to inform our patients of this online screening tool. An effective ad campaign would prompt patients to use the online screening tool and take pressure off our nurse line and urgent care staff.

Copywriting solution: Call out what’s important to this audience: Get the answers you need without leaving home. Stressing that people should stay home was especially important to use our healthcare resources wisely and stop the spread of COVID-19.

March 2020

Listen to a sample of new provider promotion radio ads here.

Role: Copywriter

Team: Copywriter (me), Senior Graphic Designer, Graphic Designer, Videographer, Creative Director, Brand Manager, Marketing Director, Marketing Coordinator

Business problem: The certified children’s hospital in Marshfield, Wis., has existed for years, under different names. This branding, Marshfield Children’s, is relatively new (in its first year). We face numerous challenges as providers come on board. Two of those being - 1) Referring providers aren’t aware of Marshfield Children’s and thus often refer parents and children to a children’s hospital hours away, and 2) Referring providers aren’t aware of the very rare specialties we offer right here in Central Wisconsin.

Additional hurdle: Marketing materials must support the new Marshfield Children’s campaign, be general enough to use as more new providers join the team but also specific enough to highlight the expertise of each specialist.

Copywriting solution: Call out what’s important to this audience: We are the pediatric experts in the area (your patient gets expert care) and we do not “steal” your patient (you’re involved every step of the way).

Throughout 2019

See our first round of CoolSculpting creative here.

We learned after our first CoolSculpting campaign that the older portion of our target audience and those who already used plastic surgery services responded best to our marketing materials.

These results prompted us to target women familiar with plastic surgery and/or dermatology and those between 35 and 64.

Here’s a sample of what we did.

Mid 2019

Role: Copywriter

Team: Copywriter (me), Senior Graphic Designer, Graphic Designer, Creative Director, Brand Manager, Marketing Analyst, Marketing Coordinator

Business problem: Upcoming event and positioning ourselves as the area’s neurology/Parkinson’s experts

Additional hurdles: Limited budget with multiple audiences: 1) Caregivers of people with Parkinson’s, 2) Current patients with Parkinson’s or related symptoms, 3) Potential patients (who have not been diagnosed with Parkinson’s). And, dual-branding.

Early 2019

Role: Copywriter

Team: Copywriter (me), Senior Graphic Designer, Graphic Designer, Videographer, Creative Director, Brand Manager, Marketing Analyst, Marketing Director, Content Specialist

Business problem: Joint replacements are declining across the Health System. (Our competitors are experiencing similar declines.)

Additional hurdle: It may take up to 18 months before a patient and their care team decide joint replacement is the best solution. In other words, a call-to-action like “Get a joint replacement today.” isn’t necessarily accurate because many patients will try other options first (especially when most insurance providers require trying other options first).

Copywriting solution: Call out what’s important to this audience, what they need to believe, what drives them – more time.

Key insight: Time in life is limited.

Creative approach: Inspire the target audience.

Early 2019

Role: Copywriter

Team: Copywriter (me), Senior Graphic Designer, Graphic Designer, Videographer, Creative Director, Marketing Coordinator, Marketing Analyst, Marketing Director, Content Specialist 

Business problem: One region of our Health System has a new midwife and she is the only midwife at this location. Another region has a well-established midwifery program with six midwives. However, they’re expanding their services from one location to two. How do we introduce midwifery in the one region while increasing awareness of additional locations in the other?

Additional hurdle: In the region we are introducing one midwife, it’s important to the OB/GYN team that we do not leave out physicians as an option. In the region where we have an established midwifery program, it is not as important that OB/GYNs are included in the messaging.

Copywriting solution: Lean heavy on “brand promise” messaging, that by providing midwives as an option for your care, we’re helping you get health care how you want it. In an early brainstorming session, our group determined:

Key insight: The target demographic may choose a midwife because they value the relationship, support and advice of their healthcare provider. They are already curious or knowledgeable about midwives.

Creative approach: Creative should make the target demographic feel like they will be our most important patient and the midwife program is for them. 

Additionally, our team coordinated communications with content specialists who wrote a blog post, recorded a podcast and developed a three-part video series. You can see those midwifery stories here.

Early 2019

Role: Copywriter

Team: Copywriter (me), Senior Graphic Designer, Graphic Designer, Brand Manager, Creative Director, Marketing Director 

Business problem: The newcomers (a.k.a. new movers) materials developed in 2017 are out-of-date as new locations join our Health System. And, we believe we have an opportunity to strengthen awareness of our primary care package: primary care + access to services like Care My Way®, telehealth, urgent care, walk-in care, emergency departments, etc.

Copywriting solution: Create a “menu” of care options; we meet you where you are: Do you want to choose one provider? We have that. Are you ill right now and just need to talk to someone immediately? We have that, too. Share with new community members each part of our care delivery model – inpatient (primary care), outpatient (hospitals) and virtual, or extensions of primary care – Care My Way®, telehealth, urgent or walk-in care, etc.

Our new movers materials consisted of multiple parts: 1) New movers mailer, 2) Two follow-up mailers – one for those who had not yet selected a primary care provider and one for all new movers about those “extra” services, like walk-in care and 3) One follow-up mailer specifically to Care My Way® – again, driving the audience back to selecting a primary care provider.

Early 2019

Role: Copywriter

Team: Copywriter (me), Senior Graphic Designer, Brand Manager, Creative Director

Business problem: Care My Way® is a virtual visit tool that allows patients to receive treatment for certain minor health issues. Maybe less than a problem, but more of an opportunity, we believe we can use Care My Way® to promote our primary care services – i.e. You’ve used Care My Way®, now find a primary care provider.

Copywriting and creative solutions: Social proof. We know people like Care My Way® and know they talk about it. That information is directly available to us in app reviews and allows them to tell the story for us.

One of my favorite tactics of this campaign is the email series. Because Care My Way® treats such a significant range of conditions, I had a lot of fun writing subject lines and email content for more than 20 emails sent periodically from December through April. I’ve selected a few of my favorites to share with you here.

You can also listen to the radio ad here (another fun one!).

Late 2018, Early 2019

Role: Copywriter

Team: Copywriter (me), Senior Graphic Designer, Graphic Designer, Marketing Coordinator, Brand Manager, Creative Director, Marketing Director

Business problem: Often times, primary care providers don’t have a great understanding of sexual and emotional intimacy. This can come across as not listening to patients or acknowledging their sexual health concerns. Similarly, some Catholic hospitals don’t even want to touch these discussions. Our new Women’s Intimacy Clinic solves this problem for patients and providers. However, it’s just that - new. Problem: Patients and providers are not aware we are opening this clinic or that we have an OB/GYN who specializes in women’s emotional and sexual intimacy.

Research: In order to understand the sensitivity of this topic and prepare, I did a lot of reading and listening. There are a number of articles and podcasts out there sharing the stories of women who have felt ignored by their providers when it comes to sexual and intimate health. The podcast “Bodies” was one of my favorites. There was also a fantastic episode on “Stuff Your Mom Never Told You” and another on “Unladylike” about gaslighting doctors.

Copywriting and creative solutions: It took a team of us to nail down our main message - It’s worth talking about. - and an image that truly focused on the woman, who, in reality, may not have a partner, may have a female or male partner, or may be in the process of transitioning. We wanted to ensure all our female audiences felt assured we could help them. The copy choice allowed us to be discreet in case women would carry around our resources and the image allowed us to meet our entire patient audience.

Late 2018, Early 2019

Role: Copywriter

Team: Copywriter (me), Graphic Designer, Marketing Coordinator, Creative Director, Videographer, Content Specialist

Business problem: Department stores offer flu shots - in, out, easy peasy, lemon squeezy (my words, not the business’s). How do we compete? How do we get our patients and prospective patients to get their flu shot here where they can continue or establish a relationship with their primary care provider?

Copywriting solution: We decided on a balance of fear (Somebody already has it) and humor - cute kids and quirky copy. AND, for practicality, we hit home the fact that you do not need to schedule an appointment with us to get your flu shot.

Listen to the radio ad here!

Late 2018

Role: Copywriter

Team: Copywriter (me), Graphic Designer, Marketing Coordinator, Creative Director

Business problem: The Health System was employing three new CoolSculpting technicians and needed to increase referrals to CoolSculpting and other plastic surgery services.

Copywriting solution: Appeal to the emotions of our target audience - groups of women who just want to feel good about themselves when they look in the mirror, often women who eat well and exercise but need that little extra help. Basically, appeal to their confidence.

Additional notes: This campaign targeted two audiences: 1) Women 45-60 who have had other plastics procedures done and 2) Women 25-60 with a specific income.

Listen to the radio ad here!

Mid 2018

Check out my first try at a campaign of radio ads! If you listen closely, you’ll hear my voice, too.

Role: Copywriter

Team: Copywriter (me), Graphic Designer, Marketing Coordinator, Creative Director

Business problem: Two local pediatric locations were increasing their access to pediatricians through walk-in services. However, awareness of this service was low. And, awareness of the additional services these pediatricians could provide was minimal. These services included primary care, sports physicals, or connection to a children’s hospital just an hour away.

Copywriting solution: The clinic was partnering up with a local baseball team. We played off the summer sport with “It’s a grand slam” and emphasized all the pediatric services we could provide with “Great care for kids.” Our designs use bright colors, cute kids and spunky, clean copy.

Additional notes: This campaign started late spring/early summer and extended through late summer/early fall. It included three phases: 1) An introduction, awareness portion, 2) Announcement of a new provider, and 3) Back-to-school messaging.

Mid 2018

Mid 2018

Role: Copywriter

Team: Copywriter (me), Senior Design Specialist, Creative Director

Business problem: Marshfield Clinic is opening a new hospital, one which will provide high-quality heart care. How do we reach our target audience while remaining true to our emotion-priming, bright-colored and fun campaign?

Copywriting solution: It didn’t feel like we could write copy as “exciting” as some of our other campaign materials. That said, we still wanted to keep the tone light-hearted. We landed on another emotionally-priming message easily matched to a grandparent + grandchild image.

Early 2018

Role: Copywriter

Team: Copywriter (me), Senior Design Specialist, Creative Director

Business problem: Marshfield Clinic is opening a new hospital, one which will provide an incredible OB/GYN (obstetrics and gynecology) team, including midwives. How do we create awareness of our new hospital and OB/GYN services, as well as the new providers available to see patients?

Copywriting solution: In this campaign series, our team continued to match our “opening” look and feel with concise yet fun copy that emotionally primed the audience. The email is a great example of a piece in the campaign.

Early 2018

Role: Copywriter

Team: Copywriter (me), Senior Design Specialist, Creative Director

Business problem: Marshfield Clinic is opening a new hospital, one which will provide high-quality bone and joint services for people of all ages. How do we create awareness of our new hospital and orthopedics services?

Copywriting solution: In this campaign series, our team continued to match our “opening” look and feel with catchy copy, bold colors and lifestyle images. In print ads, I wrote copy that told stories - one in which an older audience could relate to and one in which a young- to middle-aged audience could relate to.

Early 2018

Role: Copywriter

Team: Copywriter (me), Senior Design Specialist, Creative Director

Business problem: Marshfield Clinic is opening a new hospital, one which will provide expert cancer care for the Chippewa Valley area. How do we create awareness of our new hospital and oncology services?

Copywriting solution: In this campaign series, our team continued to match our “opening” look and feel with snappy copy that emotionally primed the audience and bold colors. Each of the print ads tells a story that aligns with the billboard tagline.

Early 2018

Role: Copywriter and Script Supervisor

Team: Copywriter (me), Senior Design Specialist, Creative Director, Video Communication Specialists

Business problem: Marshfield Clinic is opening a new hospital. This is the organization’s first hospital in this part of Wisconsin, one which pays some of the highest health care costs in the state. How do we create awareness and excitement?

Copywriting solution: In this campaign series, our team found images of excited toddlers. We hit the ground “writing” from there. To support the imagery, I wrote simple, fun copy that could resonate with a wide audience.

Early 2018

Role: Copywriter

Team: Copywriter (me), Graphic Designer, Creative Director

Business problem: Marshfield Clinic is opening a new cancer center. How do we create awareness of the new center as well as positivity and encouragement around a difficult subject, cancer?

Copywriting solution: Write a tagline of sorts that creates feelings of reassurance, confidence and encouragement: “Cancer is a chapter, not your story.” Use the services and expertise of Marshfield Clinic to support the tagline and provide context for readers.

Late 2017