Sharon Hospital
Marketing Hospitals
The Target
Profile
Sharon Hospital (now part of Nuvance Health) is a non-profit hospital based in Sharon, CT. The hospital has 78 beds and averages $121 + million per year in revenues. We served as the outsourced marketing department, reporting to the CEO and the CFO of Sharon Hospital.
Challenges
The hospital had switched back to non-profit from a relatively short stint as a for-profit hospital. The reputation of the hospital dropped precipitously during the time it was for-profit and locals had started avoiding the hospital in droves. The NYers who weekend in the area learned not to use the hospital either. A change back to non-profit status was accompanied by a change in leadership.
PLAN / STRATEGY
Strategy for Repositioning
1. Research
We studied non-profit hospitals like crazy. We looked at how they presented themselves, the messaging, the call to action, the colors, and the words they chose. We looked at competitors and at great examples of hospitals, nation-wide. We did in-depth interviews with doctors, patients and influencers and brought all of this thinking to our clients.
2. The Why
We wanted our clients to be differentiated from the very beginning. Most hospitals know well what they do and how they do it, but not all of them know their WHY. Sharon does. And now so does the community Sharon Hospital serves.
3. Re-design website pages
Next, we designed the website pages based on our SEO research findings and experience in the industry. We built pages for everything Sharon’s customers were looking for on Google. We replaced all of the B2B language, or “industry speak”, with consumer-facing, B2C language, since the language they used previously was much more professionally focused. We added wait times in real-time and made it much easier to find the department the patient was looking for, so they could contact them directly.
4. Reputation Management
Reviews on Google My Business are one of the most critical ways your business can gain credibility and visibility online. We reviewed all of the sites where Sharon had been reviewed or was missing reviews. We added new reviews, updated information and addressed negative reviews going back in time, and set up a system so that any reviews were addressed in a time-sensitive way. We also crafted a program to request reviews from patients that greatly increased their positive reviews and engaged their community.
5. Advertising
Finally, to support all of the organic work we had completed, we needed to advertise not only the hospital but all of the service lines we rebranded. The hospital had a robust print advertising budget which we took full advantage of, along with digital advertising. We were given a great deal of creative freedom and crafted some of the most fun and engaging ads we have done.
Want to have a chat?
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