When it comes to driving revenue growth for hospitals and health systems, marketing leaders face some unique challenges: How to identify and target consumers who are most likely to use the organization’s services; how to determine what tactics will work best, and what budget allocations will provide the greatest return on investment (ROI); and how to effectively measure and communicate marketing performance. In today’s health care landscape, it’s critical for marketing departments to be able to demonstrate they are not merely “a cost of doing business” but rather an asset that can contribute to the organizational bottom line. But how? John Berg, vice president of system marketing at SCL Health, and Jim Ochu, general manager at HLK, offer these tips to more effectively implement measurable marketing campaigns:
- Think Differently. Health care marketing has long been perceived as a short-term expenditure with little future value that doesn’t produce tangible assets. The new way of thinking is that marketing is a profit center—an area to invest in for future returns. This requires developing business goals and action plans for marketing campaigns that use common definitions; establishing consistent metrics for measuring results and revenue generation; and setting reporting milestones.
- Set the Course. A critical first step to measuring ROI for an initiative starts with understanding the business objectives. Before developing a campaign brief or brainstorming creative concepts, marketing should interview internal customers to identify the driver (and the driver is almost always growing volume or market share).
- Build a Relationship With Finance. After identifying marketing priorities, the next step is to sit down with the finance team and ask, “What’s possible? If marketing gives you a list of direct mail or email recipients, can you tell us if we’ve converted any to patients?”
- Hire the Right Staff. While selecting the best tools and technology is important—and there are many customer relationship management vendors to choose from—make sure you have the right staff in place to transition to an ROI mindset.
Position Marketing as an InvestmentIn a recent issue of SHSMD's Spectrum, Berg and Ochu share additional insights for measuring marketing performance.
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