As we talk with our clients in the healthcare field now, we’re consistently hearing about the challenges their marketing teams face. They’re shorthanded (and they were understaffed to begin with). They’re being challenged by executives to keep up with digital marketing trends, shifts in Google policy and privacy — and now the looming AI. These new technologies are time-consuming to learn and implement. Healthcare marketers are also facing budget cuts and struggling with ever-changing priorities.  

Sound familiar? 

If you’re like most of our clients, you’re pressed to be doing more with less. So we’ll share a few strategies for tackling everything on your plate right now.

4 Ways to Do More with Less

Planning

Planning and preparation can feel like luxuries when you’re time-strapped, but they have huge payoffs. A well-designed marketing plan can make it easier to set budgets and agree on priorities. Start with a year-long plan that’s grounded in your brand strategy, then lay out quarterly implementation plans for ongoing communication and specific campaigns. Identify the frequency of messaging, channels, spending, and evaluation of performance metrics. A solid plan lets your team work efficiently — for example, if you schedule a photo shoot you can use the time to capture evergreen images for general use. It also helps you head off project requests that aren’t part of the plan. Know that you’ll need to be agile and flexible, but make sure you have the larger common goal in mind. 

Workflow efficiency

In spite of the time it takes to implement, technology is your friend when it comes to building a more efficient workflow. Automate as much as you can — blog posting and social media campaigns, Google ad buys, tracking your website’s performance. 

Formalize your project request, intake, and approval processes — these tools can be simple, like basic Word docs and checklists. We highly recommend using a creative brief to initiate every project, identify stakeholders and goals, and determine metrics. We also help our clients streamline work by developing design templates for common marketing elements, like brochures, web pages, and social media ads. 

Be smart about using technology, too; we’re hearing a lot from healthcare marketers about AI, and our take is that it’s a helpful tool for generating topic ideas, checking on conciseness and, perhaps,  a first draft of copy — but AI isn’t yet capable of creating refined content. In the healthcare field, well-crafted content is essential to building engagement and trust — and that’s too important to outsource to a chatbot. 

Budget

We keep hearing: budget, budget, budget. The healthcare provider industry as a whole has been struggling financially for some time now, especially rural ones.And marketing budgets are shrinking accordingly. Careful planning allows you to allocate limited funds to best advantage, and focusing on performance of your online activity lets you shift your spending to the channels and messaging that’s most effective.

Outsource

In a world of tight budgets, it might seem counterproductive to think about outsourcing some of your marketing work and you might question our objectivity. But a qualified marketing partner can tackle the heavier-lift projects like brand strategy, campaign development and implementation, and consultation on planning and workflow — freeing your team to execute all the multitude of other projects in your pipeline. 

A good marketing partner works with teams to establish and achieve marketing goals, develop effective messaging, target it to the right audiences through tailored communication plans, and optimize campaigns. Additionally, they assist marketing leaders in assessing, realigning, refreshing, and stewarding their brands. With deep expertise in healthcare, they can collaborate seamlessly with your team, providing the necessary counsel to reach your marketing objectives without a steep learning curve.

We get what you’re up against. Let’s start a conversation about how a partnership can help your team do much more with far less.