NursingCE is a subsidiary of AscendLearning, LLC and is
backed by the Blackstone Group. As a start-up, they sell continuing education requirements
to nurses who, depending on which state they are registered and working in, must be re-certified
every 2-3 years. Though not a unique business, NursingCE has an edge with its personalized dashboard,
easy access courses, and easy online user interface.
(I would like to note that the content I
made for NursingCE was not necessarily content that I wanted to create, but it worked most effectively
when it came to connecting with consumers. This is, after all, what marketing is all about.)
One of my projects was creating advertisements that would be printed
in state magazines. I made a total of 60 designs for the states of Alabama, Mississippi, Idaho,
Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky. To draw in more potential customers, I highlighted NursingCE’s
unique features: their only-online platform, personalized dashboard, automatically reported hours,
and more.
For Alabama and Mississippi, there were two different dates during which our
advertisements would be sent out, so I made two batches of differentiated designs. Whichever
advertisements pulled in more customers would be the ones printed for the states in which our
content would go out later, such as West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, and Idaho. I included different
information, colors, stock images, and illustrations on certain sets of images to, in a way, beta-test
and see which ads would perform best. I have included the most enticing designs below. Click on them if
you would like to look at them more closely!
Lastly, throughout my internship, I designed the assets for all 16 of NursingCE’s sales from May to December. The company held a lot of sales because website building and additional educational courses were really the only product cost that they had. Creating an education course essentially came with only a one time cost, so sometimes, they opted for lower prices to drive up volume and revenue.
The team and I brainstormed ideas for sales and correlated them mostly with national holidays and trendy nurse topics. I was in charge of doing copy for emails and website overlays and also designing a graphic to accompany them. A lot of the content is rather cheesy or punny, but their demographic, which was made up of middle-aged nurses, really enjoyed this kind of stuff. Below, you can see some of the assets, graphics, and promotional content that I made. (I also wrote an accompanying blogpost for each of the sales.)
Near the end of the summer, another intern and I were tasked with rebranding NursingCE. For colors, we took samples from different parts of NursingCE’s iconic illustration and increased the lightness or darkness. We came up with 10 shades of blue and orange. After a couple of meetings, the team decided to settle on a lighter orange and a deep periwinkle as we thought that these colors were trendier and prettier — perfect for the audience we were trying to attract and maintain. These new colors were applied everywhere from the website to the new logo.
For the mascot, we chose the bee because it is cute, helpful, and community-oriented, reflecting the values of our product and company. She was named “Cece” after NursingCE and drawn using Illustrator.
At the end of my internship, I was tasked with creating a webpage explaining NursingCE’s commitment to environmental friendliness. This was both good for the world and popular among younger demographics. I included details regarding the importance of eco-friendliness and what NursingCE was doing to support it, such as having employees work from home on Fridays, turning off energy when it’s not needed, and planting a certain number of trees for each CE bundle purchased.
In terms of social media, I helped maintain their Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter pages, with the two most important channels being Instagram and Facebook. I grew Instagram followers by 22%, Facebook likes by 22%, and Twitter followers by 62%. Overall engagement was boosted by 25%.
On Instagram, I mainly posted graphic images that promoted new education courses and blogposts, as well as sale and giveaway announcements. This kept our followers updated and in tune with our products and website. I also shared quotes and memes as these would generate more likes, comments, shares, followers, and overall engagement. More followers and activity allowed us to have more potential customers, essentially creating a positive feedback loop.
At NursingCE, social media was used to introduce potential customers to our brand, funnel them towards our website, and eventually, have them make a purchase. All graphics were designed by me and another intern, and our social media content was driven largely by analytics. We had to know what time of day garnered the most engagements, which posts were the best for likes, and what kind of content influenced consumers to buy products.
On Facebook, I shared similar content: company updates, sale and giveaway information, funny “memes,” inspirational quotes, and shareable facts. I also posted controversial nursing news; some articles included discussions regarding new healthcare policies passed by Trump and a nurse who killed a patient while on the job. Lastly, I posted content that was interactive, asking nurses questions about how long they’ve been working or what shifts they take. These latter two post-types garnered a lot of reactions and traction.
