Communicating During COVID-19 & Beyond – Evergreen Campaigns

How Gaston County Launched an Effective Evergreen Public Information Campaign During a Pandemic Using HubSpot Marketing Hub

Campaign Challenge

In the midst of the global pandemic, Gaston County Public Information Department had limited resources but needed to extend its reach to provide critical COVID-19 resources and information to high-risk populations in the county. Using available CARES funding, they turned to us at HAVEN Creative for additional marketing and communications support. We developed a strategic communications campaign called, Gaston SAVES (Safety, Awareness, Vital Emergency Support) to tackle this challenge. While it was initiated to address the COVID-19 crisis, the campaign was eventually designed to be “evergreen” so that it could be used to provide resources and information in an emergency situation. Gaston County also needed a system in place to collect resident contact information and send out important information via email to residents like COVID-19 updates.

 

Campaign Solution

Layered into this campaign were several key messages. The first of which was Mask Together, an educational push to promote mask-wearing. Once flu season started in the Fall of 2020, the marketing narratives shifted to include COVID-19 vs. flu education. In January 2021, additional messaging and visuals, COVID Stops with Me, were layered into the campaign to educate the community on the COVID-19 vaccination. The initial launch of Gaston SAVES included the development of a dedicated website that was integrated with HubSpot Marketing.  HAVEN Creative also designed supporting creative marketing assets and managed the advertising buys to extend the reach. 

The purpose of paid advertising was to attract Gaston County residents to visit the gastonsaves.com website and sign up for important updates via Hubspot forms. The contacts received regular COVID-19 update emails and pertinent information regarding testing and vaccines, building trust and credibility with residents. We were later able to use Hubspot to send out post-vaccine surveys for contacts to share their experience and determine our promoters in the community.

Tools and Tactics: Gaston SAVES Marketing Assets PDF

    • Website with HubSpot forms to collect resident information 
    • Print ADs 
    • Social Media – advertisements and weekly postings
    • Billboards
    • C-Store Signage and Video Boards 
    • Video Production

 

 

Campaign Results

The Gaston SAVES initiative has reached more than 25% of the county’s population through the website, gastonsaves.com, to date. By delivering over 6 million impressions, there have been 137,191 sessions on the website and more than 28,000 contacts entered into the database to receive email updates from gastonsaves.com.

With email open rates averaging 60+%, Gaston County has been able to feed vital COVID-19 information to county residents.

Since the website was built using HubSpot, contact lists can now be easily segmented by location, age, group, etc. This will allow the county officials to quickly and efficiently disseminate critical information to the appropriate target audiences. The flexibility of the campaign platform has proved to be a valuable resource. Communicating information during the pandemic and beyond has been ever-changing, and this segmenting has streamlined the process for the county.

 

Gaston SAVES - COVID Stops With Me - Public Information Campaign

 

Campaign Impact

Since launching Gaston SAVES, lives have been saved. Important COVID-19 messages and vaccination announcements have reached residents in a timely manner. Several partnering organizations have become clients as well. They see the long-term value of HubSpot and the impact Gaston SAVES is having on the community. Gaston County’s Communication Manager and PIO Adam Gaub said, “The work on Gaston SAVES has transformed expectations for what county communications can look like, and the metrics have pointed to just how successful this has been in connecting residents with potentially life-saving information.” Gaston SAVES will live on past the pandemic. This will be the way new campaigns are launched and guided with Hubspot strategy.

Is your organization in need of a campaign strategy that will stand the test of time? An evergreen public health campaign will allow you to provide messaging that reaches your audience quickly and effectively. Let HAVEN Creative help with this! Reach out to Maven Jeni today to discuss your campaign needs.