Featured Services: Rebranding // Messaging // Website UX // Search Engine Optimization
Spruce Mountain Inn: Growing a Fresh Brand & Website
When your mom owns a residential treatment program…
You admire her all your life for the work she does, most of which you never hear about because it’s confidential. You urge her for years to let you rebrand her business and redesign her website, desperate to bring its visual identity out of the ‘80s and into the present day.
Then one day in 2020, she asks you if you can help her create a “digital logo file” because the logo she uses for her business was hand-drawn in 1980-something and she has been sending partner organizations a grainy photograph of it to host on their websites. You tell her this is the last straw and it’s time she hires you—along with a couple of your most brilliant friends—to guide her team through a digital transformation. Everyone agrees. 🎉
A Bit About Spruce Mountain Inn:
39 years ago, my mother took out a small business loan, bought an old house in Plainfield Vermont, and founded Spruce Mountain Inn. She was equipped with her MSW, countless hours of clinical experience, and a lot of grit. It was her dream to build a trusted community where young people could receive treatment and overcome a variety of mental health challenges. Today, Spruce Mountain Inn is a renowned program that has helped hundreds of young adults who travel from 46 of the 50 states and many other countries to work through life-threatening hardships and start anew.
First, we gave Spruce a new visual identity.
In partnership with a talented graphic designer who is a dear friend of mine, Kate Valind, we embarked on a rebrand. Our goal from the beginning was to preserve the heritage and rustic charm of Spruce while introducing a modern sensibility that will feel fresh and relevant for years to come.
For inspiration, we reviewed 40 years’ worth of photos, marketing materials, and hand-drawn illustrations my mom had stashed in her archives. We talked a lot about what makes Spruce Mountain Inn a unique and top-tier treatment experience. The key benefits that surfaced included: the facility’s natural surroundings; the small and supportive Vermont community; the small and intimate size of the program; the clinical team’s experience and holistic approach to treatment; and the program’s multi-level design—which guides young people as they work through individual and group therapy, take on new responsibilities, take a job, move into apartment-style housing, and graduate when they’re ready.
We knew that the image of spruce trees and the timeless “spruce green” color should stay central to the brand. By preserving these tributes to the past and modernizing the styling, we landed on a new brand the Spruce team can proudly display for years to come:
Then, we revamped the website.
There’s one guy I go to for most website jobs and he was certainly the right developer for this project. That guy is John Waterman of Waterman Web. I have partnered with John for many years on purpose-driven website projects. He’s a WordPress guru who knows how to strike the perfect balance between rich storytelling and a clean user experience.
This process started with SEO research, as every website redesign should. I conducted an SEO Starter Kit and advised on a new sitemap that capitalizes on important and attainable keywords while simplifying the user experience. Then, John and I advised on content strategy, led the web development and design process, and worked with the Spruce team to copyedit every single page of their website.
We created a handful of modular page templates, which allowed us to demonstrate Spruce’s credibility with a combination of success metrics, testimonials (of which they have hundreds), photos of the program and location, and helpful, search-engine-optimized copy. We consistently reminded the Spruce team that their primary website users are parents, not clinicians. And when a young person is in need of immediate help, there is no time or energy to wade through social work jargon.
Residential treatment is an extremely crowded industry and people have hundreds of options to choose from, which they often need to compare in a very rushed timeframe when an emergency happens. Due to the immense power of first impressions, selecting a hero image and writing the hero message for the Spruce homepage may have been my most impactful contribution. The new hero message reads,
“Helping young adults grow together since 1982.”
It’s a simple statement that achieves a lot. First, it establishes that this program is specifically for young adults. Then, it places those young adults—Spruce’s residents—front and center because they are the ones doing the deep, hard work to better their own lives. “Grow together” is a nod to the tight-knit community at Spruce and the new logo, which features two spruce trees that are fully grown, standing side by side, interconnected. And lastly, “since 1982” showcases the program’s longstanding credibility.
Congratulations to the Spruce team!
The new Spruce Mountain Inn website is stunning, inviting, and guides families to decide whether Spruce is right for them.
Huge congratulations to my impressive mother, Candace Beardsley, on her recent announcement that she will be passing the torch after 39 years as the director of Spruce Mountain Inn. And congratulations to the new members of the leadership team, Aaron Aldridge and Bogie Foden.
Over the years, my mom refused to sell out to any of the corporate hawks who offered to buy her program. They were all focused on profit over people—on scaling more than healing—and that simply isn’t what Spruce is about. She took her time to find the right people, with the right experience and intentions, to carry on her legacy.
Leading this project was extremely special for me, having spent my whole life around Spruce. I am grateful that I was able to contribute my own talents and collaborate with two talented friends to bring Spruce’s new brand and website to life. Now, the digital representation of Spruce Mountain Inn is as hopeful, inviting, and effective as the work that takes place on their property.
“Caroline took great care in understanding our business—what we do and who we serve. She did not take a cookie-cutter approach, as so many other companies seemed to offer. We have been in business for 40 years and needed a rebrand. This included a fresh logo and a new website. Throughout the process, Caroline kept us on track and moving forward. We now have a logo with a fresh new look and a website that is inviting and encourages readers to contact us. Caroline, we cannot thank you enough!”
— Aaron Aldridge, Director, Spruce Mountain Inn