A healthcare marketing strategy names the patients and referring clinicians a provider most wants to reach, the service lines it will promote, and where the budget goes to turn demand into booked care. It is owned by the chief marketing officer and agreed with the chief executive, service line leaders, patient access, finance and the privacy office.
This is the Healthcare version of the marketing strategy template.
A complete marketing strategy for a fictional organization: nonprofit regional health system with two hospitals, 41 clinics and an employed medical group.
| Organization | Nonprofit regional health system with two hospitals, 41 clinics and an employed medical group (5,000 staff) |
|---|---|
| Ambition | Be the first choice for joint, heart and maternity care across our nine counties, and spend marketing money only where a patient can be seen within two weeks. |
| Horizon | 1 year |
We serve 780,000 people across nine counties with two hospitals, 41 clinics and 310 employed clinicians. Net patient revenue is $940 million and the marketing budget is $5.6 million. Last year 46% of it went to brand advertising and a primary care campaign, yet a new primary care patient waits 44 days. Orthopedics, heart and vascular, and maternity have room: an orthopedic new patient is seen in 6 days and labor and delivery runs at 64% occupancy. We can name the source of only 18% of new-patient appointments, 23% of campaign calls are abandoned, and 34% of specialty referrals from our own primary care clinicians leave the system.
Challenges| Segment | Who they are | What they need | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adults 50 to 75 with joint pain | About 96,000 people in the nine counties, most of whom try primary care or physical therapy first | A specialist visit within two weeks, an honest recovery timeline, surgery close to home | Primary |
| Expectant and planning parents | Women aged 24 to 40; the service area has about 7,400 births a year, 3,150 of them with us | To meet a clinician early, tour the birth center and get clear answers on options and cost | Primary |
| Adults with heart risk or a new diagnosis | Adults 45 and over with high blood pressure, chest symptoms or family history, usually sent by primary care | Testing within days, one cardiologist coordinating care, rehabilitation nearby | Primary |
| Referring clinicians | 310 employed clinicians, about 420 independent primary care clinicians and their referral coordinators | Appointments within a week, a consult note back in 48 hours, one phone number that works | Primary, as referrers |
| People seeking a primary care clinician | Adults who have moved, changed insurance or lost their doctor | A first visit within weeks instead of months | Not promoted until the wait is under 21 days |
| Positioning statement | For people in our nine counties who need joint, heart or maternity care, we are the health system where a specialist sees you within a week, close to home, and where the results are published for anyone to check. |
|---|---|
| Key messages | Seen within a week: orthopedic and cardiology new-patient visits inside 7 days. Care that stays local: surgery, rehabilitation and follow-up at the same two campuses. Results in the open: we publish our outcomes by service line every year. For referrers: your patient is seen fast and comes back to you with a note. |
| Proof points | Median new-patient wait is 6 days in orthopedics and 5 in cardiology. 91% of our joint replacement patients go home the same or the next day. 3,150 babies were born at our two birth centers last year, and every low-risk mother is offered midwife-led care. All claims are approved by the service line medical director before use. |
| Channel | Role | Budget share | Main metric |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paid search | Reach people searching for a procedure, a symptom or a specialist near them | 20% | Booked new-patient appointments by service line |
| Provider directory, online scheduling and local listings | Let a patient who has chosen us find a clinician and book without calling | 18% | New-patient appointments booked online |
| Paid social, radio and outdoor near each campus | Fill joint pain seminars, birth center tours and heart screening events | 16% | Event registrations that become appointments |
| Brand and community sponsorship | Keep the system known and trusted in all nine counties | 14% | Unaided preference in the annual community survey |
| Physician liaison outreach | Win referrals from independent practices and keep employed referrals in the system | 12% | Referrals to priority service lines |
| Patient email and reminders | Bring existing patients back for screenings, follow-up and prenatal classes | 11% | Overdue screenings completed |
| Content, clinical review and measurement | Produce reviewed service line content and trace appointments to their source | 9% | New-patient appointments with a known source |
| Category | Amount | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Service line campaigns (search, social, radio, outdoor, events) | $2,016,000 | 36% |
| Website, provider directory, online scheduling and listings | $1,008,000 | 18% |
| Brand and community sponsorship | $784,000 | 14% |
| Physician relations and referrer outreach | $672,000 | 12% |
| Patient relationship management platform and email | $616,000 | 11% |
| Call tracking, attribution and research | $280,000 | 5% |
| Content production and clinical review | $224,000 | 4% |
Priorities and measures
These three service lines can see a new patient within days and carry the strongest contribution margin, yet they received 31% of last year's spend. Marketing a service with a 44-day wait buys frustration.
| Outcome | Baseline | Target | Due |
|---|---|---|---|
| New-patient appointments per month in the three priority service lines | 2,900 appointments | 3,600 appointments | Q4 2027 |
| Joint replacement cases per year | 1,480 cases | 1,700 cases | Q4 2027 |
| Births per year at our two birth centers | 3,150 births | 3,400 births | Q4 2027 |
Nearly a quarter of the calls our campaigns generate are never answered, and most clinicians cannot be booked online. Fixing access is cheaper than buying more demand.
| Outcome | Baseline | Target | Due |
|---|---|---|---|
| New-patient appointments booked online | 9% | 25% | Q4 2027 |
| Campaign calls abandoned before they are answered | 23% | 8% | Q2 2027 |
| Employed clinicians with online scheduling open to new patients | 96 clinicians | 220 clinicians | Q3 2027 |
A third of specialty referrals from our own primary care clinicians go elsewhere, mostly out of habit and slow feedback. Independent practices send us patients only when the experience is easy for their staff.
| Outcome | Baseline | Target | Due |
|---|---|---|---|
| Specialty referrals from employed primary care that stay in the system | 66% | 78% | Q4 2027 |
| Referrals per month from independent practices to priority service lines | 410 referrals | 560 referrals | Q4 2027 |
| Median time from referral received to appointment scheduled | 11 days | 5 days | Q3 2027 |
Without a source on most appointments, the budget is defended with impressions and web visits. Appointment-level reporting, built within our privacy rules, is what allows money to follow results.
| Outcome | Baseline | Target | Due |
|---|---|---|---|
| New-patient appointments with a known source | 18% | 70% | Q4 2027 |
| Paid campaign cost per booked new-patient appointment | $290 | $210 | Q4 2027 |
The same structure with a prompt in every field. Copy it, or download it as a Word or Excel file.
| Organization | [Describe your organization in a few words, with its size] |
|---|---|
| Ambition | [One sentence on where you want to be at the end of the plan] |
| Horizon | [How long the plan runs, for example 12 months] |
[Where things stand today: the facts that make this strategy necessary]
Challenges| Segment | Who they are | What they need | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| [Segment] | [Who they are] | [What they need] | [Priority] |
| [Segment] | [Who they are] | [What they need] | [Priority] |
| [Segment] | [Who they are] | [What they need] | [Priority] |
| Positioning statement | [Your positioning statement] |
|---|---|
| Key messages | [Your key messages] |
| Proof points | [Your proof points] |
| Channel | Role | Budget share | Main metric |
|---|---|---|---|
| [Channel] | [Role] | [Budget share] | [Main metric] |
| [Channel] | [Role] | [Budget share] | [Main metric] |
| [Channel] | [Role] | [Budget share] | [Main metric] |
| Category | Amount | Share |
|---|---|---|
| [Category] | [Amount] | [Share] |
| [Category] | [Amount] | [Share] |
| [Category] | [Amount] | [Share] |
Priorities and measures
[Why this priority matters now, in one or two sentences]
| Outcome | Baseline | Target | Due |
|---|---|---|---|
| [Metric you will track] | [Where it is today] | [Where it should be] | [When] |
| [Metric you will track] | [Where it is today] | [Where it should be] | [When] |
| [Metric you will track] | [Where it is today] | [Where it should be] | [When] |
[Why this priority matters now, in one or two sentences]
| Outcome | Baseline | Target | Due |
|---|---|---|---|
| [Metric you will track] | [Where it is today] | [Where it should be] | [When] |
| [Metric you will track] | [Where it is today] | [Where it should be] | [When] |
| [Metric you will track] | [Where it is today] | [Where it should be] | [When] |
[Why this priority matters now, in one or two sentences]
| Outcome | Baseline | Target | Due |
|---|---|---|---|
| [Metric you will track] | [Where it is today] | [Where it should be] | [When] |
| [Metric you will track] | [Where it is today] | [Where it should be] | [When] |
| [Metric you will track] | [Where it is today] | [Where it should be] | [When] |
[Why this priority matters now, in one or two sentences]
| Outcome | Baseline | Target | Due |
|---|---|---|---|
| [Metric you will track] | [Where it is today] | [Where it should be] | [When] |
| [Metric you will track] | [Where it is today] | [Where it should be] | [When] |
Start with capacity, not demand. List the new-patient wait and unused capacity for each service line, and rule out any line where a new patient waits more than three weeks.
Ask finance for contribution margin and payer mix by service line. Choose two or three lines where capacity and margin overlap, and name them in the ambition.
Give referring clinicians their own row in the audience table, their own budget line and an owner. For most specialties they send more patients than any advertisement.
Agree with your privacy officer what data may be used for targeting and measurement before choosing channels. The answer changes which channels are worth funding.
Budget time for clinical review of every claim, and name the medical director who approves each service line's messages.
Count the calls and clicks that never become an appointment. If a quarter of calls are abandoned, put access work into the plan before adding media.
A plan only works if it is reviewed on a rhythm. This is the cadence the example assumes.
| Check-in | Outcome owners update progress and confidence weekly. |
|---|---|
| Review | Priority owners review outcomes and unblock initiatives monthly. |
| Reset | Leadership revisits priorities and targets quarterly. |
Tability keeps this cadence for you. Each priority becomes an objective, each outcome a key result with its baseline and target, and each initiative a tracked task. Owners get a check-in reminder and the plan shows what is on track.
Track this plan in TabilityStill comparing tools? See the 10 best strategy software tools.
It should include the service lines being promoted, the patient and referrer segments for each, positioning backed by clinical proof, the channel mix and the budget. Add outcomes tied to booked appointments and procedures, and state the capacity and privacy limits the plan works within.
Market the service lines where open capacity and contribution margin overlap. A line with a long wait for new patients should be fixed before it is promoted, however popular it is. In this example that rule selects orthopedics, heart and vascular, and maternity, and sets primary care aside until the wait falls below 21 days.
Measure at the campaign level, not the person level. Give each campaign its own phone number and booking link, match appointments to those sources inside the scheduling system, and report counts in aggregate. Keep advertising trackers off portal and scheduling pages, and have the privacy office approve the method before launch.
There is no single correct figure; it depends on competition, growth plans and how much capacity is open. The system in this example spends $5.6 million, about 0.6% of net patient revenue. How the money is divided matters more than the total: here 36% goes to campaigns for three service lines and 14% to brand.
Yes, because for most specialties referring clinicians direct more patients than advertising does. Treat them as a named audience with a budget, an owner and outcomes such as referrals kept inside the system and time from referral to appointment. In this example physician relations receives 12% of the budget.
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Marketing strategy example
Horizon: 1 year
4 priorities · 11 outcomes
Targets are illustrative. Adapt them to your baseline before you start.