More than ever, marketing executives and brand leaders

are being held to a higher standard of accountability for

driving growth, innovation, customer loyalty and better

business performance. Building a results oriented marketing

operation that delivers on revenue and profit goals is job

one for healthcare CMOs.

Where to start? By instilling a rigorous discipline to set

quantifiable marketing goals and demonstrate return on

investment. All too often, marketing goals are either miss-

ing in action or stated in terms too soft to earn the chief

financial officer’s endorsement. Performance measure-

ments are often more heavily weighted towards activity

or process metrics, which are important for measuring

efficiency, but don’t always draw a clear line between

marketing expenditures and business outcomes.

The bottom line is that, in the C-suite, only two sets of

metrics count – those related to financial performance and

those related to strategic performance. In other words,

revenue, volume growth, market share, profitability, brand

equity, market leverage and competitive sustainability.

Marketers should assure that strategic marketing plans spe-

cifically state a health system’s overall growth and profitability

goals for its service area and major lines of business, includ-

ing volume goals, payor mix objectives, desired financial

outcomes and projected return on marketing investments.

Goals and objectives should be carefully quantified,

especially in terms of achievable outcomes such as vol-

ume, revenue, market share and customer satisfaction

or loyalty. Objectives should be informed by the business

development and market opportunity assessments, and

analysis of the organization’s capacity and ability to add

additional volume, and the strategic and financial goals of

the health system’s strategic plan.

Growth and marketing management goals are usually

addressed in three categories:

Strategic goals – strategic objectives and perfor-

mance metrics often have a longer horizon point (3 years,

for example) and are aimed at measures of competitiveness.

Examples of strategic goals/metrics include:

• Market position (‘to be the leading provider of car-

diovascular care in the greater metropolitan market’),

which can be measured by market share growth

• Brand position (‘to be the preferred brand of sports

medicine by female athletes’), measured by consumer

preference and loyalty

• Service line reputation (‘to be recognized as a Top 100

hospital for neurology’), measured by third party rec-

ognitions and market share growth

Financial goals – financial objectives address

revenue and profitability targets, as well as expectations

for return on investments. Examples of financial goals/

metrics include:

• Net revenues (‘produce net revenues of $x million over

x period of time’)

• Margin (‘achieve a x% margin on operating revenues’);

EBIDA

• Payor mix (‘grow commercial volumes by x%’)

• Cost reduction (‘reduce supply cost of orthopedic im-

plants by x%’)

Linking Marketing Investments to Business Outcomes Starts with Goal SettingBy Karen Corrigan

www.corriganpartners.com

Marketing goals – marketing goals are quantita-

tive translations of the strategic and financial objectives,

expressed in marketing terms. Marketing goals can have

both short term (one year) and longer term (three years)

targets. Examples include:

• Overall volume growth

• Growth in specific service line DRGs

• Rate of growth vis a vis rate of market growth

• Market share index

• Changes in market share and payor mix

• Increases in volume or share by target market segment

• Increases in consumer awareness and preference

Gaining agreement on strategic, financial and marketing

goals – and the performance metrics for those goals – is a

critical up-front objective in marketing planning. Market-

ing strategy and investments must be tailored to achieve

those goals, and measurement systems established to

inform all involved as to the business success of major

marketing activities and investments.

What Kind of Marketing Organization is Your Health System?

©2011 Corrigan Partners

About the AuthorKaren Corrigan is a leading proponent for market-driving strategies that create value, transform organi-

zations and build economic prosperity. Over the course of her career, she has worked as a health system

executive, chief strategy officer, chief marketing executive and entrepreneur. Today, her clients include a

diverse group of health systems, start-up companies, technology partners and other businesses in private

and public sectors. Karen is the publisher of Chief Marketing Officer, a blog for healthcare marketing

executives and growth strategists.

Contact

Email: karen@corriganpartners.com

LinkedIn/Twitter/Facebook @karencorrigan

Telephone: 757.288.2480

Business, Brand and Marketing Strategies that Drive Growth.Corrigan Partners™ provides integrated business, brand and marketing solutions to improve competitive

performance. We partner with healthcare executives to position marketing as a strategy-critical discipline

driving growth, innovation and better financial performance; to create high-performing, future-ready

marketing organizations with the capabilities, systems and talent to address changing competitive

dynamics in the health industry; and provide expertise and support to help marketers ramp up and

accelerate the adoption of social, mobile and cross-channel marketing strategies.