Marketing a complex skill-building platform to association members

Creative strategy, marketing plan, brochure, direct mail, website copywriting, video copywriting, news copywriting, presentation copywriting

Client: SOCIETY FOR HEALTH CARE STRATEGY & MARKET DEVELOPMENT (SHSMD)

The Challenge

Clearly define and market SHSMD’s new and free member offering, SHSMD ADVANCE™.

The Outcome

SHSMD ADVANCE™ is promoted with confidence as an easy step-by-step skill-building framework with more than 1,000 participants since its launch.

Rapid transformation in health care brings new responsibilities for those working in the industry. That’s why SHSMD, a professional membership association with more than 4,000 health care strategy professionals, aimed high to support the evolving roles of its members.

For SHSMD, it all started with its comprehensive report Bridging Worlds: The Future Role of the Health Care Strategist. Several SHSMD members conducted research to examine the evolving health care landscape, its key implications, and the top skills needed for strategists to thrive. The report encouraged SHSMD to create a new offering to help its members and their teams obtain the critical skills identified in Bridging Worlds - enter SHSMD ADVANCE™, a professional development platform designed for health care strategists. SHSMD ADVANCE™ includes a series of skill-building tools and resources to help health care strategists, marketers, planners and other SHSMD members keep pace with the changing tide of health care.

The association asked Clarke Creative for help with defining the complex program and crafting clear marketing messages. To start, Clarke Creative interviewed SHSMD members responsible for the creation of Bridging Worlds and SHSMD ADVANCE™. For them, it was important that the program not be defined as a tool, but instead as a comprehensive framework or platform helping health care strategy teams leverage new skills to help drive personal and professional development, and as a byproduct, propel their organizations forward. Clarke Creative continued to conduct further research and compiled a creative brief and marketing plan that helped set the strategy for the new member offering.

To explain the SHSMD ADVANCE™ framework to members in a simple way, Clarke Creative created a visual process map illustrating the steps involved with participation. The visual process map helped SHSMD explain the program confidently, and this type of messaging became integrated across several marketing channels, including the association’s website, video, online workbook, direct mail and presentations.

Today, SHSMD ADVANCE™ is a key (and free) member benefit for SHSMD members and continues to gain recognition in the marketplace as a cutting-edge way to build the skill level of an entire health care strategy team.

“Clarke Creative team members are rockstar strategists and marketers. They think outside the box and ask the right questions, thus delivering us the best campaign possible. When I’m stressed about a project, Clarke Creative helps me take a step back and come up with a solid plan. They are the extra pair of hands that I need when it comes to strategy, design and getting a project done on time and on budget!
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— Mollie Staniewicz, Manager, Membership & Marketing