Breakthrough Digital Success Requires Healthcare Marketers to Think Differently

// By Daniel Fell //

One of the most important things marketers and digital strategists can do is align their digital activities with marketing and organizational business goals. But often, in the urgency to adopt these new technologies and move projects forward, good strategic thinking can take a back seat to just getting things done. That’s unfortunate because it fails to set important benchmarks and performance measures from the start and undermines the real value that many new digital applications and channels can provide to businesses seeking more effective marketing and operational advances.

In short, digital initiatives implemented in haste and without important marketing and business perspective often lack accountability and become disconnected from the bigger picture. An organization can check them off as completed, but are they really generating a good return on investment?

One approach to mitigating this situation involves establishing stronger marketing principles for everything you do involving digital. Think of these as philosophical or “point of view” filters for evaluating, adopting, and maintaining your digital investments. And while it can be tempting to assume that because digital marketing and traditional marketing lines have blurred to the point where it’s not even necessary to think differently about digital, the reality is that most organizations—especially healthcare organizations—still struggle with making digital marketing a seamless component of the entire marketing program. Thinking differently, and using “outside the traditional box” brainstorming tools such as scenario planning, can lead to profound changes in the way your team views technology and the ways in which it’s used to enhance marketing and even improve the organization itself.

Below are a few examples of thought-provoking scenarios and questions designed to foster new thinking about digital technologies. These are not meant to be comprehensive or exhaustive. And they aren’t meant to necessarily change or even alter best practices you may have already established and feel confident about. They are meant to frame planning discussions in ways that may lead to more creative thinking, challenging the status quo and making investments in digital programs that deliver more consistently and powerfully.

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