As a senior promotions and marketing healthcare specialist in South Florida for over 25 years, I have personally experienced the changes and evolution that have taken place in our business. Both as an observer as well as a participant, my career has gravitated to converting into a consultant. As such, I can contract freely with various organizations and private entities and apply my experience and contacts to provide them with economical and successful marketing strategies and support.

Listed below are some of the truths and proven issues that will keep your roof safely anchored over your organization or practice even when it looks like the sky is falling.

Marketing is a fundamental business tool

Virtually all healthcare practices and businesses need to think about growth. Most have made dramatic changes to reduce costs and increase efficiencies, and for them, the “fat” is gone. And having a solid marketing plan is not an after-though, a ‘nice to have,’ a rainy-day option, or a second priority.

You can have the most ideal healthcare enterprise on the planet, but without marketing, no one will know about it…and you really don’t have a business at all. And you will not go far without a plan…if you don’t know where you’re going; any road will take you there.

Solid Plan – not “spaghetti” marketing

A solid plan for healthcare marketing is a fundamental business tool for coping and succeeding in the face of healthcare reform and other changes. Competition has increased …the roll-up trend created more group practices…and economic pressures push down on reimbursement and elective care. The sky might be falling, but your solid plan will keep you solidly anchored.

A marketing plan is not a list of marketing ideas from which you randomly select different concepts to test or combine for trial-and-error experimentation. That is just random, episodic, spaghetti-on-the-wall marketing activity – which is almost always a high-risk prescription for disappointment, frustration and failure.

A marketing plan is a strategic document that is designed to facilitate the achievement of specific business goals and objectives over a specific time period.

Would you consider hiring contractors to build out your new office or clinic without first developing and approving the architectural blueprints? Well, that’s essentially what you are doing when you engage in random, reactionary marketing activities without first developing a well thought out marketing plan.

Most marketing plans are conceived to extend no longer than one year before the plan is reassessed for modifications, additions, subtractions or entire reinvention depending on constantly evolving business goals and circumstances. In fact, a properly implemented marketing plan is constantly being assessed by accurate and consistent tracking systems to evaluate the plan’s performance against expectations. This continual evaluation is performed so that ongoing adjustments can be made to improve the plan’s yield.

A good marketing plan allows you to anticipate, assess, prepare, build a road map to follow, cover-your-bases, construct necessary support systems, protect yourself and dramatically improve your chances for marketing success.

Competition

Success is not achieved by ignoring your competitors but rather by anticipating competitive issues and influences so you can always have a proactive plan and strategy for staying ahead of your competition. There are many ways to compile competitive data. One that is often overlooked is “media competitive research”.

There are many ways you can study your local media to get additional competitive information. For example, even though Yellow Pages advertising have been impacted somewhat by increasing Internet marketing, you will still find the most aggressive marketing competitors through their large space display ads in your local Yellow Pages directories.

As with your competitive website research, you will learn from these Yellow Pages ads how your more ambitious competitors try to position and differentiate themselves, as well as the programs, services and products that they offer, their hours of operation, special features and benefits, emergency access, etc.

You can also scan and collect competitive advertising from local newspaper ads, direct mail, TV commercials, radio commercials, billboards or other media. When you pay more attention, you will also begin to notice any articles, publicity or other public relations exposure that your competitors may achieve in the media.

If you don’t live in the area where you practice, you can enlist the help of others who do live in the area of your practice. This group may include employees, friends, relatives or even your patients (assuming they are unquestionably loyal to you).

Ear-to-the-ground Competitive Research

Often, this type of “in the field” sleuthing is the most effective way to gain competitive intelligence, especially from those competitors whose marketing is not advertising-based or visible in the media. You can – and should enlist a virtually army of “special agents” who are conditioned to have their ears to the ground for anything they hear or learn about your competitors.

This group includes pharmaceutical detail reps, vendors, loyal patients, hospital staff, your employees, friends and relatives. You may be surprised at how much information is available to you if you know how to uncover it.

Analyzing Your Data

When you ferret out valuable competitive research, you need to take advantage of what you learn. Success in business is about anticipation, planning and action. Business is not designed to be fair and 80% of the business will go to 20% of the players (The 80-20 Rule). The winners in that 20% group are able to anticipate, plan and take decisive action before their competitors even know what hit them.

Analyze your competitive research and put together your own decisive plan of action that is designed to put you (or keep you) at the top of the food chain.

Happy Marketing!