what makes a good health care marketing plan

What Makes a Good Health Care Marketing Plan?

What Is A Health Care Marketing Plan?


• 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?

• 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 – 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

Elements of a Marketing Plan

Elements of a Marketing Plan

• Target Marketing

• Competition Analysis

• SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats

• Smart Goals

• Strategies and Tactics

• Marketing Budgets

• Marketing System

Elements of a Marketing Plan Target Marketing


• Your marketing budget is going to be most effective when it reaches your selected target market – The benefit of target marketing is simple—

efficiency

– Solid target marketing is a method to more efficiently reach your patients

– Target marketing is a better use of your most valuable resources, i.e. time and money, to generate additional revenue


• Your goal is to get to know as much information as you can about your existing or prospective customers

– The more you know about your customers, the better you will be able to make decisions that will enhance your ability to communicate and connect with them


• Four Ways to Identify Target Markets – Geographics: The location, size of the area, density, and

climate zone of your customers

– Demographics: The age, gender, income, family composition and size, occupation, and education of your customers

– Psychographics: The general personality, behavior, life-style, rate of use, repetition of need, benefits sought, and loyalty characteristics of your customers

– Behaviors: The needs and wants your customers seek to fulfill, the level of knowledge, information sources, attitude, use or response to a product of your customers


• Focus on Benefits

– One of the marketing fundamentals is focusing on benefits

– This perspective is critical to target marketing

– Establishing an intimate understanding about the needs and wants of your desired target market is critical

– How will your customer benefit from using your services or products?


• Focus on Benefits

– What tangible or intangible benefits might customers realize, and is it possible to quantify these benefits?

– What is your customer really buying?

– This much is certain: No one wants to buy surgery! Or dentistry! Or physical therapy! Or invasive procedures!


• Focus on Benefits – People purchase services and products to realize one or

more of the following life-improvement benefits: • Pain relief

• Productivity

• Abilities

• Confidence

• Appearance

• Personal relationships

• Peace of mind

– Basically, you all sell the same product - a happier life, at least that is what your customer wants to buy


• The Target Market Profile – Geographics:

• Lives within the ZIP codes 97401, 97402 and 97405

– Demographics: • Married

• Between the ages of 21-35

• At least one child

• Condominium or home owner

• Education experiences beyond high school

• Earning a combined annual family income of $50,000 or greater


• The Target Market Profile – Psychographics:

• Values time and considers it their single most limited resource

• Excited about accepting and using innovative ideas and products

• Consistent Web users

• Prefer the Internet over magazines and newspapers for information they trust

• Increasing resources invested into safety and security issues

• Beginning to plan for their future


• The Target Market Profile – Behaviors: – They are leaders in product selection and respond to the

opinions of the "industry experts" when making purchase decisions

– This group will first look to the Internet to acquire this information

– They defend these decisions under most any circumstance and will adamantly "sell" those that ask why they use the product or service and why they made the choice they did

– This group can be a powerful, unpaid sales force resulting from the referral network they build and use


• Target marketing allows you to reach, create awareness in, and ultimately influence, that group of people most likely to select your products and services as a solution to their needs, while using fewer resources and generating greater returns

• The more detail you know about your "ideal" customers and clients, the better you will be able to make them aware of your products and services, and how to purchase them through you


• Who do you consider will benefit the most from your products and services? – Think of the people and their most common characteristics

and attributes – One of the best ways to identify your target market is to

look at your existing customer base – Who are your ideal clients? What do they have in

common? – If you do not have an existing customer base, or if you are

targeting a completely new audience, speculate on who they might be, based on their needs and the benefits they will receive

– Investigate competitors or similar businesses in other markets to gain insight

Elements of a Marketing Plan Competition Analysis


• 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 good research on your competition

• Following is a list the easiest and most effective processes


• Internet Competitive Research – In today's Internet society, access to information has

never been better or easier

– For the primary competitors you have already identified, you can conduct a simple Google search with the name of the practice or the name of the owner(s) and that will usually lead you to their website (if they have one)

– In many cases, their website will feature how they are attempting to position and differentiate themselves, as well as listing the scope of programs, services and/or products they offer


• Internet Competitive Research

• In addition to a competitor's website, you may also find other interesting information about the provider(s) or the practice

– This information might include articles they have authored, media interviews, legal actions that are public information, etc


• Internet Competitive Research • For a more comprehensive list of your competitors, you can

do an Internet search by your profession or specialty and your area, just like a prospective patient might do – For example, if you type "plastic surgeons Los Angeles" you will

draw up a search result that includes: • sites that list plastic surgeons throughout the Los Angeles area • "find a doctor" sites • Yellow Pages online directory sites • individual sites of some of your more sophisticated and aggressive

Internet competitors who have managed to get a high search engine ranking for their website through effective search optimization

– In many cases, the compilation list sites include links to the individual practice websites (if they have one)


• 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 has 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


• Ear-to-the-ground Competitive Research

• 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

Elements of a Marketing Plan SWOT Analysis


• SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats

– A periodic evaluation of your internal and external environment is an important part of the strategic planning process

– Because SWOTS are inherently subjective, it is always good to get an external SWOT analysis from a well-informed but objective third party that can be compared to your own SWOT


• Strengths and Weaknesses are the internal evaluation components of the SWOT – Opportunities and Threats comprise the external

evaluation

• One of the more interesting definitions of marketing is that "Marketing is the process by which resources are brought to bear against opportunities and threats" – In order to determine which resources you can bring

to bear against opportunities and threats, you have to understand your strengths and weaknesses


• Strengths are your capabilities and resources that can be used as the basis for developing a competitive advantage Strengths could include: – your special expertise and/or experience – a new, innovative product or service – location of your business – quality processes and procedures – any other aspect of your business that adds value to your

product or service – Weaknesses include areas you need to improve and/or avoid – Weaknesses can sometimes be considered as the absence of

certain strengths – In some cases, a weakness may actually be the flip side of one

of your strengths


• Weaknesses could include: - – lack of marketing expertise, plan or system (or all

three) –

– undifferentiated products or services (i.e. in relation to your competitors) –

– location of your business –

– poor quality goods or services –

– damaged reputation

– In addition to new or significant trends or other opportunities you may already know, additional opportunities can spring up based on your external environment analysis


• Opportunities could include: – a developing market (such as the Internet) – a new technology, service or procedure you can offer – mergers, joint ventures or strategic alliances – moving into new market segments that offer improved

profits – a market vacated by an ineffective competitor – changes in population profile, social patterns, lifestyle

changes, etc

• A threat could be anything that stands in the way of your success – No practice is immune to threats, but too many practice

owners miss or ignore these threats, often at great cost


• Threats could include: – a new competitor in your home market

– price wars with competitors

– a competitor has a new, innovative product or service

– competitors have superior access to channels of distribution

– economic slowdown

– change in governmental policies and/or regulations

– changing insurance plans and/or contracts for major area employers Simple rules for successful SWOT analysis


• SWOT Conclusion: – Be realistic about the strengths and weaknesses of your

practice – Analysis should distinguish between where your

organization is today, and where it could be in the future – Be specific – Avoid gray areas – Always analyze in relation to your competition i.e. better

than or worse than your competition – Keep your SWOT short and simple

• Avoid complexity and over analysis Once key issues have been identified, they feed into marketing goal

• You can also apply SWOT analysis to your competitors • This may produce some interesting insights!

Elements of a Marketing Plan SMART Goals


• So many businesses fail to thrive because they have never really established SMART goals

• SMART is used as an acronym in goal-setting discussions S=specific, significant, systematic, synergistic

M=measurable, meaningful, motivational A=achievable, agreed-upon, action-based, accountable R=relevant, realistic, responsible, results-oriented, rewarding T=tangible, time-based, thoughtful


• Long-term vs. Short-term goals • Most businesses that consider goals seriously establish

both short-term and long-term goals – Marketing plans are generally real-time exercises in goal-

achievement, so most marketing plans emphasize short-term goals (achievable within one year or less)

– Remember that marketing plans are organic, dynamic and constantly evolving, so they are well-suited to short-term goals

• If you are just establishing or reinventing your marketing system, you may also establish long-term goals in your initial marketing plan because you will need to include long-term system infrastructure in your initial marketing plan – However, with ongoing, year-to-year marketing plans, short-

term goals will typically be the primary focus

Elements of a Marketing Plan Marketing Strategies and Tactics


• After you have identified your goals, you need to evaluate, prioritize and organize the combination of specific marketing strategies and tactics that will be best suited for you to use in pursuing your goals

• A well constructed marketing plan is a perfect illustration of a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts – The selected strategies and tactics work synergistically

to complement one another for exponential positive results


• Goals vs. Strategies vs. Tactics

– Goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and tangible business objectives

– Strategies are the ideas and approaches that are developed to achieve the goals

– Tactics are the specific actions, details and activities that must occur in order for the strategy to succeed

– Here's one good example of the relationship between goals, strategies and tactics, and represents only a few of the possible strategies and tactics for the sample goal


• Goal: Increase new patient volume by 20% in the next year

• Strategy: Improve patient experience to inspire more word-of-mouth referrals

• Tactics: – Institute quarterly customer service training sessions for

staff and owners – Create incentive program for staff based on increased

referral volume – Devote one staff meeting per month to new ideas for

improving patient care

• Experience - Create and display a framed poster in reception area defining our practice's unwavering patient satisfaction commitment


• Strategy: Leverage relationships with established patients and improved patient experience for more word-of-mouth referrals

• Tactics: – Develop and institute new patient satisfaction survey

Leave space on survey for happy patients to refer others

– Practice owner(s) asks patients for referrals at opportune times

– Staff supports owner(s) with additional encouragement to patients to refer when the opportunity presents itself

– Post "Thank You For Referring" bulletin board in reception area with names of patients who have referred others


• Strategy: Develop and test targeted external advertising campaign

• Tactics: – Test new print ad series in local newspaper – Test direct mail program to new residents using

oversized postcard

– In an optimally implemented marketing plan, all strategies and tactics are implemented comprehensively – At the very least, each strategy in your plan should be

implemented in the same comprehensive and synergistic manner that it was conceived

Elements of a Marketing Plan Marketing Budgets


• Practices typically establish budgets for various categories of operational expenses but rarely for marketing

• Even practices who frequently engage in marketing activities and expenditures will often have no pre-established budget for marketing

• Unless they develop and take advantage of the many benefits of an annual marketing plan, most practices determine their marketing expenditures on a case-by-case basis, a process consistent with random marketing activities


• Unfortunately, random financial decisions made out of context of a real strategic plan frequently yield disappointing results

• In a marketing plan, a pre-established and committed budget is essential to assuring the plan's viability – Remember, in establishing SMART goals, the "A"

stands for "achievable" and the "R" stands for "realistic" (among other attributes)

– How can you know that you are developing an achievable and realistic plan if you don't know what budget resources you can or will commit?


• Cost Centers vs. Revenue Centers

– Most practice owners and administrators put most of their focus on budgeting for operational cost centers

• A cost center is an accounting term used to refer to a department in a business that incurs expenses but does not generate revenue directly



– Your cost centers cover the expenses that are required to service and operate your business

– A revenue center, on the other hand, refers to departments and/or activities engaged in by the business that generate revenues directly into the business



– Money in your business flows out of your cost centers and money flows in to your revenue centers

• Another way of understanding the relationship is that without sufficient revenue coming into the business, you will not be able to afford to fund your cost centers without operating in the red, which eventually leads you into bankruptcy



– Revenue centers also incur expenses for the specific purpose of stimulating and generating revenue into the business - unlike cost centers, which are required to operate the business but do not generate revenue directly


• Revenue Center Profit Influences vs. Cost Center Profit Influences

– Because cost centers service the revenue generated by the business but don't contribute directly to that revenue, the key to increased profitability in cost center management is based on efficiency

• The more efficiently the business functions to keep operating costs as low as possible without compromising quality, the more profit that is left at the end of the process



– Since most of the focus of owners, administrators and management of the practice is on cost centers, it is common for owners and managers of the practice to assume that keeping costs under control is the key to all profitability for the business



– To operate the practice with this mentality is often a critical mistake because the cost center profitability model does not work for revenue centers

– In fact, the exact opposite model applies to revenue center profitability



– Revenue centers require "fuel" in the form of investment capital in order to stimulate and generate the desired revenue

– If you don't put enough fuel in your engine, you're going to run out of gas!


• Marketing is a Revenue Center - NOT a Cost Center – Because marketing is primarily concerned with

generating and protecting sources of revenue, a marketing budget belongs in a revenue center, not a cost center • Marketing budgets should be evaluated in the context of

supporting your SMART goals

– If you don't have the financial resources or the willingness to commit them to this category of investment in the growth and/or protection of you, you may need to rethink your goals and possibly establish less ambitious objectives


• Marketing Budgets Based on Month-to-Month Cash Flow are NOT Budgets – Effective marketing is a consistent, ongoing

process based on solid systems, good planning and excellent implementation

– If you attempt to fund your marketing budget based on a month-to-month assessment of positive cash flow, you will find that you cannot maintain consistency in your marketing plan and your results will be seriously compromised - sometimes disastrously


• Marketing Budgets Based on Month-to-Month Cash Flow are NOT Budgets

– A marketing budget must be taken seriously as a financial commitment to your business success or your efforts will almost certainly be doomed to disappointment and failure



– Does this mean that you have to have your entire annual marketing budget secured in some separate account before you begin your implementation program?

– Not necessarily



– You may not have all of your necessary budget funding set aside when you start, but you have to know with confidence that you will have access to those funds as you need to utilize them without having to rely on the hope that your cash flow will be continuously positive enough to support your budget without compromise or interruption


• Budget Models

– There are many different budgetary models you can consider

– Here is a list the most common, in order from the most highly recommended for practice owners who are serious about their goals to those models that are not recommended but do exist


• Budget Models

• Objective and Task Budgets

• This method is probably the "purest" budgeting method for a marketing plan

– The budgeter must specify exactly what goals and outcomes are expected

– Budgets are then based on this expected outcome

• For example, the primary objective could be to increase overall revenues by 20% over a 12-month period


• Budget Models • Objective and Task Budgets • The following steps are followed in developing an

Objective and Task Budget: – a. Specify the marketing objective(s) to be achieved – Ideally, these goals must be quantifiable and

measurable – b. Specify the marketing strategies and tactics

necessary to achieve the stated objectives (i.e., brand development or enhancement, advertising, public relations, networking, internal marketing, training, etc.) including quantity and frequency of activity and associated costs


• Budget Models

• Objective and Task Budgets

• The following steps are followed in developing an Objective and Task Budget: – c. Evaluate profitability of marketing plan if goals are

achieved at the expected costs

– d. Assuming profitability level is acceptable, assign budget based on anticipated costs associated with strategies and tactics necessary to achieve the goal

– e. Launch plan, monitoring and tracking closely to adjust strategies and tactics as necessary to achieve, maintain or exceed anticipated profit levels


• Budget Models

• ROI-based Budgets

– In this model, the marketing budget is established based on a ratio of anticipated return-on-investment for the budget and its associated marketing activities

– The challenge in ROI-based budgets comes in identifying a reasonable expectation for return


• Budget Models

• ROI-based Budgets – Most ROI-based budgets work from a source of

quantified data on performance of similar marketing plans or activities in similar situations and circumstances to those of the budgeter

– The difficulties in this model are • a) limitations on availability of statistically meaningful

comparative data; and

• b) there is no guarantee that the performance of the new budgeter's marketing plan will mirror those whose data was used for the ROI modeling


• Budget Models


– There are many variables that affect the performance of a marketing plan which are difficult or impossible to measure and compare

– These include personal initiative, attitude, sales skills, focus, etc


• Budget Models


– Still, ROI-based budgets are employed in certain situations - assuming the data is available - where a marketer wants some level of reassurance, however unscientific, that the odds of success are in their favor


• Budget Models

• Percentage Method

– In using this method, the budgeter simply allots a predetermined percentage amount for marketing

– That percentage might be a percentage of profits, a percentage of revenues, a percentage of sales, etc

– Although this method is easy to administer, there are some problems associated with it


• Budget Models


• For example, how do you determine what percentage to assign for marketing? – Is 5% too much?

– Is 2% too little?

• The assignment of a percentage is typically subjective or even arbitrary, based on advice of financial advisors, experience, "gut feel" or other factors


• Budget Models • Percentage Method • Also, with this method, the marketing budget

increases as profits, revenues or sales go up or are expected to go up – What happens to a new product with few sales? – Also if there is a recessionary period, sales generally

go down – If sales go down, advertising dollars also decline – In this situation, it may be wiser to increase marketing

budget to generate additional market share and sales rather than letting the marketing budget have less financial support


• Budget Models


– The percentage method of budgeting does not necessarily correspond to goal achievement, even if it worked successfully during a previous period


• Budget Models

• Zero-based Budgets

– A zero-based budget is one where you start with no predetermined or authorized funds

– In a zero-based budget, each activity to be funded must be justified - or re-justified - each time a new budget is evaluated


• Budget Models


– The problem with zero-based marketing budgets is that the basic concept of the model compromises consistency, which is essential for long-term success in marketing

– For most small business owners, zero-based budgeting means that each marketing expenditure, even though previously assigned to the plan and marketing budget, is constantly being re-evaluated and re-justified as the money needs to be committed


• Budget Models


• Most small business owners find it difficult or impossible to avoid second-guessing their previous commitments due to fear or financial strain of the moment or uncertain circumstances or any combination of these factors, most of which are constantly present in a small business environment


• Budget Models


– Often, therefore, previously committed marketing activities and associated funding is withdrawn or reallocated

– This interrupts or even destroys the consistency of the marketing effort and the chances for success of the plan as originally conceived


• Budget Models • SWAG Budgets

– SWAG is defined variously as everything from "super wild ass guess" to "sophisticated wild ass guess" to "scientific wild ass guess" to "silly wild ass guess“

– Regardless of your preferred definition, please note the common words in all the variations

– SWAG budgets are anything BUT scientific – Usually, these budgets are based more of emotional

beliefs, perceptions, misperceptions and comfort levels

– Rarely and only accidentally do SWAG budgets have any relationship to success in achieving one's goals


• Budget Models

• All-you-can-afford Budgets

– In this method, the budgeter looks at the funds that remain after all other budgets have been developed

• Whatever is left over is spent on marketing

– This is usually a model for disappointment and failure of the marketing plan because marketing has already been determined to be of relatively low importance and priority to the business


• Budget Models

• On-the-fly Budgets

– This is the most common method for assigning marketing costs in most small businesses - particularly in private practice healthcare

• It is also the most consistently unsuccessful


• Budget Models

• On-the-fly Budgets

– On-the-fly budgets are not really budgets at all

• Marketing expenditures are determined on a case-by-case basis as a marketing opportunity is identified

• There is no real plan, no strategy - just reactive, spontaneous behavior

• It is not difficult to understand why the margin for error is so high and the odds of success so low with this method

Elements of a Marketing Plan Marketing System


• The quality of implementation of a marketing plan is certainly as critical as the quality of the plan itself to the chances for a successful outcome


• While the success formula here may not exactly correspond to the Thomas Edison quote that "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration," it is clear that effective implementation of a well conceived marketing plan is at least half the battle

– Dramatic differences in the outcome of similar or identical marketing strategies and plans, executed in similar or identical situations, reinforces this reality

Elements of a Marketing Plan Conclusion

• Like so many other business processes, marketing implementation is far more successful when a practice executes a solid marketing plan with the support of a structured system

Additional Information

• Fred J. Tyson

• 239-201-9587

• [email protected]

what makes a good health care marketing plan

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