Rosecrance, a nonprofit behavioral health network with a strong reputation in Illinois but limited recognition beyond state borders, faced significant market challenges when two competitors entered their territory—one a privately-backed national company with substantial marketing resources, and another well-known competitor expanding operations. With Rosecrance's nonprofit status constraining their marketing budget during this critical juncture in their century-long history, they engaged the Diplomat for strategic support.

Diplomat’s approach, employing competitive intelligence, direct consumer insights, and targeted content development. The first step was to generate a brand architecture that better illustrated the breadth of the Rosecrance Behavioral Health network, both for consumers and employees. The marketing strategy following the newly launch brand architecture focused on leveraging Rosecrance's two most fruitful assets: their extensive referral network and their longstanding reputation as a trusted provider. By utilizing their referral network, we were able to spotlight the vast array of “boots on the ground” experts through a series of podcasts that provided a forum to speak about the different challenges and trends within the mental health and addiction treatment industries. Rosecrance was the first mental health and addiction treatment provider to launch a public podcast, as most of the industry focussed on webinars that provided college credit to referrers, therefore generating limited referral outreach opportunities and poor ROI. The “On Your Radar” podcast grew Rosecrance’s referral network and achieved 500,000+ downloads over a two-year span.

Additionally, we created a series of cross-platform testimonial social content emphasizing the trust and commitment Rosecrance is known for. By featuring employees across the network and their passion for helping, as well as actual alumni willing to tell their stories of how they changed their lives with the help of Rosecrance we leaned into the passion and staff dedication as a point of differentiation.

The results were remarkable, especially during the pandemic when the mental health and substance use rehabilitation industry experienced 25-50% nationwide declines in admissions. Rosecrance achieved a 22% increase in admissions, quadrupled their qualified leads through forms and phone calls, and secured ten added-value live radio and television interviews featuring their innovative programming, significantly expanding their brand awareness throughout the region and into surrounding states.