How Mid and South Essex Integrated Care System improves health and wellbeing

Mid and South Essex Integrated Care System and the Granicus Experience Group (GXG)

As a recently formed integrated care system (ICS) consisting of all NHS organisations, local authorities and the voluntary sector responsible for the health and wellbeing of residents in Mid and South Essex, the Mid and South Essex Integrated Care System works to deliver support and advice across a wide range of health and wellbeing topics. To meet this goal, the communications team works to co-design relevant campaigns with local clinical leads that engage its residents to promote ways to look after their health, testing copy with end-users wherever possible.

Earlier this year, the ICS began working with the Granicus Experience Group (GXG). This is a unique insights service where a team of strategists, analysts and communicators examined current email campaign strategies to provide feedback and advice on improving open rates.

SOLUTION
Since the implementation of govDelivery, the ICS began three programmatic campaigns, aimed at informing residents of the educational resources and services available to support adult, child, and mental health in the local area.

They also launched two reengagement campaigns aimed at getting relevant information on their subscribers to allow for better segmentation of their emails. These grab the attention of the audience who previously hadn’t interacting with messages, by asking demographic questions to the user. This can help differentiate needs and segments emails to ensure all content sent to subscribers is relevant to what they are interested in.

As an existing customer of Granicus’ email communications platform govDelivery, the ICS had already built up a subscriber base that was interested in receiving information on a variety of health and wellbeing topics, but it was keen to capture the interest of all in a wider demographic.

For its new subscribers, profiling questions are automatically sent across in the sign-up process, making sure the correct information gets to the right inboxes. The ‘Welcome Campaign’ introduces the ICS to subscribers and what they can expect in terms of messages coming their way. Deploying custom sign-up tools, all the correct information is sought after – from local council area to full name, as well as other descriptors.

One of the campaigns Mid and South Essex ICS is delivering is ‘Children’s Health Matters’, intended for parents and caregivers, delivered on a weekly basis. With the correct demographic information, the ICS has been able to provide essential information on how to prevent accidents with children, how to deal with illnesses common in childhood, and tips on maintaining healthy lifestyles for children.

They have also offered further health and wellbeing advice with its My Health Matters campaign. Fronted by Dr Pete Scolding, the email series offers advice on lifestyle changes such as how to break unhealthy habits and where to go for more advice in the form of a weekly email campaign. While this campaign promotes self-care and preventive care, the emails are sent from a clinician to give recipients reassurance that the guidance they are receiving is thorough and trustworthy.

Mental health remains a key component in harnessing good wellbeing in communities across mid and south Essex. The ICS’s ‘Mental Health Matters’ campaign advises subscribers on how they can help their mental health, when to know when further support may be needed, such as therapies, and the mental health benefits of keeping active and eating healthily.

RESULTS
The General Subscribers Reengagement Campaign, aimed to reach subscribers who failed to interact with messages, and was very successful. In total, 5,359 subscribers received reengagement messages, with 67.3% of this group opening at least one message. 27.5% engaged with at least one link, and 25.3% responded to a question relating to their local council area.

Of those who clicked on at least one link, 95.8% licked on the main CTA “Tell Us About Yourself”, revealing the most effective language to drive engagement with resources.

Similarly, the reengagement campaign for Family Health and Wellbeing saw GXG assess the most appropriate language to catch the attention subscribers. In this campaign, they found that CTAs like “Tell Us About Yourself”, “Update Your Information”, and “Update Preferences” all increased clicks to over 85%.

James Sharp, Senior Communications Officer (Design and Digital) at NHS Mid and South Essex said, “Having the detailed insight into what engages our subscribers is valuable in shaping how we move forward. With the help of the Granicus Experience Group, we have been able to analyse the ways in which we can cater to the needs of all subscribers, old and new. This means we can refine our communications to ensure that we can deliver the right health and wellbeing information and support to those who need it most.”

With the three programmatic campaigns, GXG recommended subject lines that were purposely written to be effective in capturing attention among the subscriber inbox. It was found that all three recorded engagement above the open rate standard (65%) for account, vertical, and market. Breaking down each one, ‘Children’s Health Matters’ had an engagement rate of 79%, ‘Mental Health Matters’ at 78%, and ‘My Health Matters’ at 81%. It was also found that traffic driven by campaigns stays on the website for a longer period, bringing more page views per visit, and are less likely to leave the website on the page they entered – compared with all other email and website traffic.

NEXT STEPS
With a wealth of insight thanks to the help of GXG, Mid and South Essex Care Integrated Care System has reorganised its subscriber network to best utilise its email communications and elevate engagement. Moving forward, the team will explore the crossovers between topics and how best to collaborate between other departments within the ICS to deliver a well-rounded support system for residents.

Ian Roberts, Managing Director at Granicus UK said, “The sophisticated use of the Granicus platforms at Mid and South Essex is exemplary of how to drive engagement with residents, no matter their lifestyle or experiences. This is a shining example of the benefits of using our Granicus Experience Group (GXG) service alongside our govDelivery product.