Most smaller companies shy away from marketing strategy. Some abandon marketing completely. But, marketing is the bridge between sales and products. Spending time developing a healthcare IT marketing strategy can yield big benefits.
Marketing strategy development lets you ask questions and gather information that informs your marketing. Your company’s marketing strategy doesn’t have to be dozens of pages long. It also doesn’t need to look like a business plan. It can be simple bullet points outlining key questions and answers.
Spending a little bit of time developing a marketing strategy generates three primary benefits:
- Ensures your tactics have clear and well understood goals
- Accounts for competitive and market factors
- Creates a framework that should impact the language used in the tactics
Clear and Well Understood Goals
Without a clear goal, it’s impossible to measure your success. Are you looking to generate leads? Create or enhance brand awareness? Educate potential end users about topics they care about?
Different goals require different tactics. You need to clarify who you’re targeting with your tactics. Are they for end users, potential partners, dealers, or consumers? In today’s noisy marketing environment, being crystal clear about your goals and laser-focused on your audience increases the likelihood your message will resonate with your buyers and influencers.
Competitive and Market Factors
You cannot develop your marketing strategy in a vacuum. Careful strategy development will take stock of competitive and market factors that may affect sales and brand awareness. With that knowledge, you can ensure that your marketing tactics convey the benefits and capabilities of your brand. At the same time, don’t get bogged down trying to address every possible factor raised by the market. Address the important issues, not all the issues!
Use of Language
It’s always important to speak to the right people with your marketing messages. Not only that, but you need to speak their language. What do they need? Do you know their pain points? How do they arrive at their decisions?
Developing a cohesive healthcare IT marketing strategy will create an underlying structure. It will give you an overarching purpose for the language you use in specific tactics. Ensure your marketing strategy acknowledges the various buyer personas. A solid marketing strategy will also ensure that all material works together. This is particularly important when developing marketing tactics that must support those of a business partner.
The benefits of developing even a simple marketing strategy are clear. We also recommend asking these three important questions during your marketing strategy session. If you would like more personalized help developing your marketing strategy, please reach out to us.
