Building analytics into marketing campaigns

Defining benchmarks, goals and indicators

Before the marketing team builds a campaign for a hospital brand or service line, they first need to know the end goal. Having a measurable goal and identified metrics will help to keep the campaign on track and manage expectations. There are a number of components to consider, including benchmarks, goals, and indicators.

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Benchmarking

Benchmarking is a way to compare campaign results and performance metrics to current conditions, historical data, competitive data, or industry standards. A benchmark study is when current trends are recorded to compare tactical goals before and after a campaign. This determines whether a campaign is successful in achieving its goals. Historical data are older metrics recorded about the specific hospital or physician practice to view trends over time. The results of both can inform future planning, especially campaigns that aim to accomplish similar goals or reach a similar audience.

Competitive data benchmarking compares business performance or marketshare to a hospital’s or practice’s direct competitors. This type of benchmark study is helpful because it allows hospitals to see how they measure up to others in their market and puts its individual results into perspective; however, competitive data collected by governments and other regulating bodies is often old. It can take six months or more from the date of collection before it becomes available, so while it can be used for long-term planning, it’s not very useful for monthly or quarterly planning.

Industry standards are national standards for hospitals or practices of similar sizes or in markets of similar demographics. This type of benchmarking does not always draw a direct line to a specific hospital or practice, but similar to competitive data, it helps to put individual results into perspective and helps a hospital understand how they performed in comparison to similar organizations.

Big Picture v. Tactical Goals

Big picture goals are the overall objective to all marketing efforts. For a hospital, this could be gaining market share, increasing inpatient volume, being the preferred hospital brand in its market, or improving the overall attitude and awareness towards a hospital in the community. These goals are affixed to the business side of healthcare.

Tactical goals are related to the marketing side of healthcare. These are the smaller objectives, or stepping stones, related to each individual campaign. This could be increasing traffic on the hospital website, getting prospective patients to attend an open house at a new facility, increasing video views, or improving attendance of web chats held by physicians. Both big picture and tactical goals need to be kept in mind when forming a new campaign. Marketing efforts should address both sets of goals.

Leading v. Lagging Indicators

Leading indicators are activities or incidences that suggest trend. While they are not guarantees, basic assumptions can be made based on performance. Leading indicators also provide an early warning system to anticipate results and adjust tactics as needed to improve the trend. Just like accomplishing tactical goals brings a hospital closer to achieving its big picture goals, positive leading indicators suggest positive lagging indicators. Lagging indicators are when the task or goal has been reached.

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“Healthcare Marketing Analytics”