Meet Heather Williams
Position/Practice: Marketing and Communications Manager at Charleston ENT & Allergy
Heather, thanks so much for taking some time to talk with me today. Your ENT practice is one of the largest in the country. Can you give me an overview of key things to know about Charleston ENT & Allergy?
Sure! We have 17 locations throughout central and southern South Carolina. Our 27 physicians cover a wide array of specialties including ENT, allergy, facial plastics, sleep, hearing and balance. This year we are celebrating our 25th anniversary. In those 25 years we’ve grown significantly, expanding our specialties and locations and increasing from only a few employees when we opened to more than 300 today.
You’re a bit unique among ENTs in that you have a mascot. Tell me about Stuffy.
Stuffy is a nose, and he’s been a big part of our branding for more than a decade. He’s really well known in the community. Every time I tell someone where I work, they say, “Oh yeah! The place with the nose.” I didn’t realize until I started working here just how beloved Stuffy is internally. We have all kinds of Stuffy items, including a Stuffy suit that one of our employees loves to wear. There’s also an older male ear, a young stuffy for pediatrics, and a “Stuffette,” who’s female.
What a fun branding element! I know your brand has gone through lots of change in the last year. How does your partnership with Fuel fit in?
I have been amazed at the scope of things that Fuel does. I’ve never come across another organization that can do so much for the practice. As you mentioned, Fuel recently helped us with a complicated rebrand. We had just acquired four locations in central South Carolina, and we needed to create a cohesive brand that made room for regional differences and variations. Fuel manages several websites for us, as well as social and digital advertising, so once we settled on our rebrand, Fuel’s design, content and digital teams were able to translate that across all our digital properties.
I started working at Charleston ENT & Allergy late in the rebrand process, and Jess and Steve, our regional team, were helpful right off the bat. Especially because I was new to the ENT space, they were great at providing the information I needed and offering options for how to move forward.
What’s next for Charleston ENT & Allergy?
Even though I’m afraid to say it, we’re probably going to continue to expand in many ways, which will bring new challenges. OASIS, the clinically integrated network we founded in 2016 alongside Augusta ENT and Fuel, is continuing to grow. From a marketing perspective, I know one of Jess’s goals is to turn our attention to customizing our marketing strategies for our distinct regions. There is always something changing! Which means there’s always something to keep me and our Fuel team busy.
