The V.E.T.S. Advantage
Named and built the newsletter, grew the list, led the Pardot → Beehiiv migration, created a public archive and helped turn email into a recognizable editorial product.
Visit the newsletter ↗Case study · Hill & Ponton · 2022–2025
Built the content engine behind a national law firm.
For 28 months, I ran digital content across email, SEO, web, courses, lead magnets, tools, print, and earned media, turning dense VA disability information into useful resources and measurable growth.
Digital Content ManagerLegal + regulatedStrategy → execution
50K+Email subscribers
50%Average open rate
7%Email CTR
300+Articles + pages worked on
70KWeekly sessions
+20%Lead conversions
A decision worth explaining: give email its own identity.
- The problem
- A complex legal topic needed an editorial experience readers could recognize and return to, not just isolated messages from a law firm.
- The choice
- I named and built The V.E.T.S. Advantage, supported the platform migration, and created a public archive alongside the newsletter.
- The evidence
- The newsletter and archive are tangible work samples. The historical email program served 50,000+ subscribers; that scale is context, not proof that naming alone caused growth.
- My takeaway
- Treat the newsletter as a useful publication, with a clear reader promise and a system for keeping that promise.
Retrospective interpretation of the work, not a claim of an isolated A/B test.
What I owned
Not one channel. The whole system.
I worked across creative, legal, design and web teams, but my remit was unusually hands-on: strategy, copy, production, publishing, earned-media outreach, optimization, and the operating systems that kept it all moving.
300+ articles
Wrote, optimized and edited high-intent legal content, built pillar/topic-cluster architecture, distributed briefs and enforced voice + SEO standards across the pipeline.
See selected bylines ↓Pitch to placement
For roughly 18 months, I identified and pitched third-party publications, developed story angles, and wrote the contributed articles that were placed across healthcare and other external outlets.
See selected placements ↓7 hours in 5 days
Scoped, scripted, coordinated, produced and published a comprehensive VA disability claims course in one workweek. It went on to reach 5,000+ users.
View the course ↗24+ downloadable assets
Created e-books, checklists, worksheets and graphics, contributed to an SEO-first site redesign, and built landing pages designed around real search intent.
See the VA book page ↗High-value calculators
Led development of the VA hearing disability calculator, creating a practical utility around a complicated benefits question.
Use the calculator ↗8K+ direct-mail subscribers
Launched and operated a monthly firm mailer that grew from zero to 8K+ subscribers, extending the firm’s educational content beyond digital channels.
Public work examples
Four projects toexplore.
These are good snapshots of the range: publishing, education, conversion-focused landing pages and interactive search tools.
The V.E.T.S. Advantage
I helped turn the firm’s email program into a standalone publication with its own identity, archive and growth loops.
50K+ subscribers50% open rate7% CTR
Open live newsletter ↗Master the VA Disability Claims Process
A major educational resource scoped and shipped in five working days, covering the claims timeline, filing, C&P exams, ratings, secondary conditions and more.
7 hours5 days5K+ users
View the course ↗The Road to VA Compensation
I made the landing page and helped edit the long-form guide behind it, translating an intimidating claims process into a resource veterans could actually use.
107-page guideLead generationEducational UX
Open the landing page ↗VA Hearing Disability Calculator
I led development of this calculator around the VA’s hearing-rating process, connecting a practical reader question with a useful interactive resource.
Interactive resourceUtility SEOConversion path
Open the calculator ↗Recent portfolio concept
Turn one asset into a coordinated journey.
I revisited the VA Examiner Digest and built the campaign I would wrap around it today: one offer, one message, and a path from first scroll through exam-day follow-up.
Context: This strategy exercise was created after my Hill & Ponton tenure using an existing resource. It shows my current campaign thinking and is not a claim that this exact funnel ran historically.
01
AttentionOne square creative system that can move between organic social, paid social and site promotion.
02
ConversionLanding-page directions built around the veteran's immediate question: what happens at the C&P exam?
03
NurtureFive short emails triggered by the download, progressing from delivery to prep to a same-day post-exam debrief.
50K → 70K
Weekly organic sessions
Long-form content, pillar architecture, internal linking and SEO-first information architecture helped lift sustained weekly traffic by roughly 20K sessions.
Clearer CTAs
More intentional content paths
Reworked page intent, calls to action, and content paths so that the next relevant resource was easier to find.
24+
Lead magnets + educational assets
E-books, checklists, worksheets and graphics were built around the next useful action, not just “download this PDF.”
SEO-first
Site architecture
I contributed to a full redesign organized around how veterans actually search: claim stage, condition, exposure, base, era and specific benefits questions.
Selected bylines
Writing that traveled beyond the firm.
For roughly 18 months, I handled contributed-media outreach myself: identifying outlets, pitching editors, developing angles, and writing the articles that were placed. These are representative examples, along with one H&P byline.
Depression and Anxiety Among Veterans
A clinically reviewed guide to symptoms, overlapping conditions and finding appropriate support.
Read on Charlie Health ↗Agent Orange and Pancreatic Cancer
A research-focused look at what the available evidence says about exposure and cancer risk.
Read the article ↗Top Reasons for Disability Denial Claims
Practical guidance on why VA claims are denied and what veterans can do next.
Read the article ↗The Hidden Inferno
Burn-pit exposure in the military and its potential links to cancer, published across two healthcare outlets.
Read on ImPACT ↗Supporting Veterans and Families in Conquering PTSD
A behavioral-health piece on PTSD education, family support, treatment and self-care.
Read the article ↗Understanding Secondary Conditions Linked to TBI
One example from the 300+ legal and educational articles I wrote and optimized for the firm.
Read on Hill & Ponton ↗Portfolio note: these metrics reflect my tenure at Hill & Ponton (Oct. 2022–Jan. 2025). The linked public pages may have been revised, redesigned or updated since I left.
The short version