How to bridge the gap between marketing and the C-suite
Marketing is now a member of most executive healthcare teams. Here’s how marketers can demonstrate the value of their work to C-suite executives.
There’s no doubt that marketing has earned its place in the boardroom. But if you’re a healthcare marketer, it’s still important to make sure that C-suite executives recognize the value of your work. After your marketing efforts are aligned with your organization’s goals, what are the best ways to demonstrate marketing’s long-term, strategic value? Here are some ideas for your next meeting with your CEO.
Connect marketing to revenue. Marketing used to be seen as an expense rather than a source of revenue. Thankfully, this is no longer true. However, it is still vital when meeting with your executive team to connect marketing efforts directly to revenue. Demonstrate clearly but simply how marketing and communications campaigns have created new sources of revenue for your healthcare organization.
Focus on what your executive team cares about. Your CFO and CEO probably aren’t interested in email open rates and ad impressions. Finance executives may be more concerned about budgets and the bottom line. CEOs might want to hear about how marketing supports patient acquisition or media outreach. Use the data you have to address these issues directly. Draw a line between your work and C-suite goals, whether that means patient retention, press coverage or revenue.
Tie marketing goals to metrics. This is not to say that metrics are unimportant. Before a new project, create goals and KPIs tied to marketing metrics—and make sure the executive team is on board. Remind them that not meeting a certain metric isn’t necessarily a failure. Why? Because all analytics are useful. “Failures” can point out areas for potential improvement. As always, when you bring data into a wrap-up meeting after a project, keep it simple.
Show how marketing supports other departments. It’s important that marketing is seen as a strategic partner across your organization. Seek out colleagues from a variety of areas—HR, patient admissions or billing, for example. Find out how marketing can help them. This can in turn inform your larger strategy. Then, when presenting to C-level executives, you will be able to demonstrate the marketing department’s value to colleagues across the organization.
Use data to look ahead. Marketing data can help you see where you can improve patient experience, create new sources of revenue or cut back on expenses you don’t need. Bring these ideas to your next boardroom meeting. By showing that marketing is a strategic asset, you’ll earn the trust of your senior executives and will be able to bring bigger ideas to the table in the future.
Whether you are a current Coffey client or not, our team can help you take on your day-to-day communications challenges. If you’d like to find out more about our print and digital content services or custom digital tools, call 888.805.9101 or email us. We’re here to help.
