As Director of Marketing Strategy, I was responsible for developing an annualized approach to market 11 service lines and elevate the UVA Health brand. When I started in the role, the marketing team was largely taking orders from faculty and service line leaders as opposed to driving the work.
To solve this problem and build the team's credibility among the leadership team, I wrote an annualized strategic plan and developed best practices for my team of marketing/PR specialists. While each clinical program is unique, the framework I established aligns with the business and communications goals that they all share.
Ideally, the service line marketing strategy would stem from an organizational plan but I faced two challenges:
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UVA Health does not have an organizational strategic plan with defined clinical priorities and growth targets. In its absence, I work with the service line and faculty leads from each service line to determine priorities. This results in a long list of programs that may not be market-ready and challenge the department's limited resources.
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We do not have a CRM so I am unable to demonstrate true ROI of campaigns.
My Approach:
I developed a set of tools that allows leadership to see how tactics align with business objectives and ensures that each team member approaches the work strategically.
The Tools:
1. Marketing Readiness Assessment
The clinical landscape evolves rapidly. Competitors enter the market, new faculty bring new expertise and technology disrupts standard protocol. To assess marketing requests, I developed a marketing readiness tool. It ensure that the programs we promote align with our brand promise of accessible, safe and compassionate care. It leverages readily available data and information including:
Patient Satisfaction
Outcomes
Market Opportunity/ Competitive Analysis
Operational Considerations
Result: The tool has been instrumental in initiating data-driven, strategic discussions with faculty and service line leadership. It has allowed the team to prioritize work by putting the patient at the center of the decision-making process.
2. Annualized Strategic Approach and Tactical Grid
The Strategic Relations and Marketing department has a robust suite of owned and earned media channels and assets to meet the business needs of the organization. Recognizing that these are finite resources and the team needed a consistent strategic rationale for deploying each tactic, I develop an annualized strategic approach and tactical grid that serves as the foundation for service line work. Each tactic aligns to the goals:
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Maintain UVA as the Local Provider of Choice:
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Build Volumes for Tertiary Programs Statewide
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Build Volumes for Regional Programs
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Foundational Work that Impacts Consumer Choice
Result: The tool has streamlined our internal workflows and quarterly planning process. It has also helped educate organizational leadership and build consensus.
Click to enlarge the grid and see quarter one planning
3. Service Line Quarterly Team Dashboard
In addition to measuring the effectiveness of distinct campaigns to grow volumes for select programs, I wanted to develop a tool to demonstrate the team's impact on organizational measures and reinforce the prioritization of key tactics. The quarterly dashboard is a blend of quarterly productivity measures and outcome measures.
Result: The team collaborates to meet these goals and has a better understanding of how their efforts impact UVA Health's position in the market.
