Urgent Care Marketing Strategy for 2023 – Part 4: Developing Your Strategic Plan

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After considering the building blocks of your strategy that we discussed in the first three parts of this series, you should be itching to put your plan together. In this article, we outline a discovery process you can use to gather the detailed information needed for your plan. Then, we outline what your actual plan should look like. Of course, there are many variables that will influence your unique plan, but you can use the process and structure below as a starting point.

Strategic Planning Discovery Process

A strategic plan requires data. You can use the questions below to gather and organize much of the information you will need. These questions are certainly not exhaustive, but they will get you going in the right direction.

Your overall goals and objectives
- What metrics (KPIs or OKRs) do you focus on
- What do your numbers currently look like?
- Where do you want them to be?
Your marketing budget
- How do you determine marketing spend?
- Do you have a target for the maximum you will pay to acquire a new patient?
Your marketing team
- What is done in-house vs. what is outsourced?
- How do you scale this team as you grow?
The values and vision that define your brand
- What are your core competencies and unique selling points within your market?
- How can the unique story and culture of your brand be leveraged?
Your target market
- Who are your ideal customers?
- How will you position your brand for each of these customer segments?
- What messaging will you use?
- What tactics will you use?
Your competition
- Who are the big players in your area?
- How do you compare to these big players?
- What is the local competition for each location, and how does that differ from the regional view?
Risks and contingency plans
- What are the risk factors that we face as an industry, and what additional factors are unique to your region or individual situation?
- What kind of feedback loops can we create to help mitigate the risk?
The unique needs and details about each of your locations
- For each of your locations, what is unique vs. the average location or the brand in general?
- How can each location address its unique competition and other needs?
- How can each location support the overall brand?
- In what ways might multiple locations compete against each other?
Your marketing tactics
- What is your mix of digital vs. local/traditional advertising and marketing?
- What is your mix of performance marketing vs. brand building?
- How can we optimize our marketing spend?

Assembling the Plan

Once you have collected all the necessary information, the next step is to synthesize it into a cohesive whole. What follows is an outline that covers the critical components of a strategic urgent care marketing plan.

Branding Guidelines and Positioning Statement – branding guidelines define the visual identity of your brand, such as your logo, typography, color palette, and other visual elements. The positioning statement is a clear statement that describes what your brand is, who it’s for, and what makes it different. As part of the positioning statement, the voice and tone for your brand should be defined. Taken together, these tools help us communicate your brand’s value proposition to potential patients.
Marketing Dashboards and Evaluation Plan – to show campaign status and results, allowing us to optimize campaigns. It can and should be customized to provide you with real-time insight into the metrics you care about most, including a process for reviewing, analyzing, and optimizing.
Competitive Analysis – a study of your brand’s competitors, at the regional level as well as for each location. It is important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors in order to develop a marketing strategy that will give your urgent care brand a competitive advantage.
Marketing Strategy – a high-level document that defines your brand and core message. Includes a situational and competitive analysis, an overview of our recommended mix of marketing tactics based on your budget, and an evaluation and measurement plan that leverages our marketing dashboards.
- Media Plan (online and traditional) – an annual plan for spend on advertising and other incremental marketing efforts, where we go into detail about your marketing mix.
- Local Marketing Plan – an annual plan for marketing activities in the communities where each clinic is located.
- Video Plan – recommendations for incorporating video into your content plan and eventually your media plan.

Conclusion

Once you have a plan in place, it becomes your guide for marketing your practice. That doesn’t mean it is a static document that never changes; in general, it is a good idea to check in on our strategic process on at least a quarterly basis and adjust as needed. Then, on an annual basis, you should take a deeper dive into your plan. That said, you will need to update some parts of your plan on at least an annual basis, but the underlying strategy should not significantly change.