PR Case Study - Cedars-Sinai

Los Angeles based healthcare provider, Cedars-Sinai is one of the largest non-profit academic medical providers in the USA, serving an estimated 1 million people every year. The specialist media team at Cedars-Sinai wanted to transform its online newsroom to reach a wider audience. Using Presspage, they achieved a 1000% increase in their news reach.

Presspage has brought our comms team together. Rather than working as lone PR representatives, our team has bonded to form a unified, collective team of journalists. We no longer write press releases, we tell stories in a unique and engaging way, no longer relying on third parties to spread the news of Cedars-Sinai.

Communications Team

Cedars-Sinai

The problem

Before partnering with Presspage, the previous Cedars-Sinai news page saw very little traffic. The page averaged 800 unique visits per month, meaning that very few journalists, patients and other healthcare consumers were engaging with the story that Cedars-Sinai had to tell. Plus, the comms team had grown accustomed to churning out press releases, not stories.

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The solution

Utilizing Presspage’s healthcare PR software, the specialist media team at Cedars-Sinai created and launched a visually compelling destination website. The new look site gives journalists and healthcare beneficiaries access to the Cedars-Sinai stories making the headlines.

Within the new communications platform, Cedars-Sinai was able to create a dedicated, compelling, Presspage-inpsired newsroom that serves as a resource for journalists covering the healthcare industry.

Plus, the new look newsoom enables Cedars-Sinai to reach a wider audience including patients, community members, donors and public officials to drive interaction and engagement with official communications.

With Presspage’s healthcare public relations software, Cedars-Sinai can access a database of relevant media contacts, manage media enquiries, grow relationships with press and patients and analyze the performance of their communications, all in one place.

The results

The new Cedars-Sinai online newsroom has seen huge success since its launch on April 16, 2018. A 1000% surge in its news reach represents a massive increase in audience engagement compared with its old website.

Utilizing Presspage’s powerful public relations software, in just the first two weeks of the new Cedars-Sinai newsroom operation, the website experienced 5,174 unique visits – as many as the total for the previous six months on their old site.

With the addition of Presspage PR newsroom tools, the Cedars-Sinai newsroom has gone from strength to strength. It is now driving more than 11,000 unique visits per month, and since the launch in April 2018, the Cedars-Sinai website has seen more than 65,000 unique visitors – 25% of which are return visits.

The value of healthcare PR software to Cedars-Sinai

Partnering with Presspage not only massively increased Cedars-Sinai’s news reach, it transformed the culture of the PR team. In the chaos of its busy but disjointed communications department, Presspage’s public relations software helped to streamline, organize and execute Cedars-Sinai’s PR program to give them maximum news coverage.

No longer is the Cedars-Sinai comms team churning out press releases for the sake of it, they are working collaboratively, using Presspage, to tell meaningful and engaging stories that they can be proud of.

The value of Cedars-Sinai’s investment in Presspage’s public relations software is a cohesive and coordinated communications strategy. This means that in a competitive industry like healthcare, Cedars-Sinai can release new content ahead of their competitors.

By giving journalists and healthcare consumers somewhere to go for the latest news on medical breakthroughs, insightful healthcare research, and positive patient experiences, it helped Cedars-Sinai to change the narrative and tell their own story on their own terms.

Presspage’s healthcare PR software has empowered Cedars-Sinai to push more positive coverage into the headlines by enabling the comms team to:

Create compelling online newsrooms
Access relevant media contacts
Execute targeted email campaigns
Grow relationships with press and patients
Manage media enquiries
Build trust on social media
Analyze all interactions and engagements with their PR coverage

Collectively, the Cedars-Sinai team has taken ownership and regained control of the narrative, building credibility and trust with patients and mainstream media outlets alike.

The proof? Cedars-Sinai now counts reporters and producers from CNN, The New York Times, Forbes, Vice and NBC, among its news subscribers.

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Lessons learned

Cedars-Sinai recognized that the story they had to tell wasn’t getting through. They learned that in a digital age, public relations software was the right solution for getting their stories in front of the right audience and has proven to be vital to their reputation as a healthcare provider.

Given that the US healthcare system is widely considered broken among many medical professionals, Cedars-Sinai realized that to standout, they needed to rethink their PR strategy.

The fact is, they acknowledged that if they didn’t tell their own story more effectively, someone else will tell it for them… badly.

What the future holds for Cedars-Sinai

By adopting a new approach to its PR strategy, Cedars-Sinai is building stronger relationships, credibility and trust among those that look to them for healthcare news. This has helped the institution to bridge many gaps in its communications.

Taking a more strategic approach means that journalists, patients, donors, stakeholders and more can access stories that truly reflect the identity of Cedars-Sinai, the values they stand for and the positive contribution they are making to the healthcare industry.

Cedars-Sinai now has a brand that is stronger than ever because their PR coverage reaches further and faster. In a digital world, this is hugely important and serves to future proof their entire comms strategy.

As more companies realize the importance of including communications teams in their business decisions, teams like the Cedars-Sinai one are taking on that responsibility and embracing the important role that communications plays in overall marketing and brand building efforts.

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Katie Chapell

Web and Social Media Specialist,
CSUSM

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Cedars-Sinai achieves 1,000% news reach increase with Presspage

The problem

The solution

The results

The value of healthcare
PR software

Lessons learned

The future

Communications Team

The problem

The solution

The results

The value of healthcare PR software to Cedars-Sinai

Lessons learned

What the future holds for Cedars-Sinai