If you don’t know where you’re going, you won’t know how to get there. Sounds simple enough, but all too often, I have seen healthcare organizations journey into marketing without their map: a well-thought-out strategic plan.
- What is your Desired Destination? Be sure you have a plan that’s designed to create awareness, project a positive image and increase usage of your services.
- Track Your Progress. Build in a system of tracking to measure your progress against your plan. Make sure you understand the reasons for any deviation.
- Take One Step at a Time. Of course, very few practices can implement everything they would like to do. When your budget is limited, determine the most important marketing project and implement it with appropriate resources. As your practice grows, map out when you can begin the next project. And keep moving your marketing projects forward so that at the end of a year, you can review how far you’ve come and what should be repeated or deleted from your plan.
Your marketing plan is not simply some document that sits in a notebook up on a shelf. Think of it as your GPS — an active tool to help guide your decisions along the way, monitor your progress, and keep you on the right track.