A SWOT analysis is a deceptively simple tool that can have a large impact on any marketing strategy. Your healthcare marketing strategy can reap the benefits of such an analysis by giving you insights into its strengths and weaknesses. Without knowing how your healthcare marketing strategy is performing, or why it’s performing well, it can be difficult to replicate its performance or even improve upon it.

Introduction

A SWOT (Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats) analysis is a ubiquitous tool that is today found everywhere from boardrooms to school classes. The technique is one that is used for strategic planning and strategic management to evaluate the strategic position of a plan, product, business, etc. 

For healthcare businesses, that are so often occupied with the little details of everything, SWOT analysis allows them to have a top-level view of their processes. 

Since the advent of institutionalized and consolidated healthcare, SWOT has been increasingly used in the healthcare industry to understand the strategic situation of various healthcare businesses. Its effectiveness has been noted and the technique continues to remain an essential part of medical strategic planning.

However, many executives don’t realize that SWOT analysis can be used for other processes to identify the situation as well. This is particularly true for healthcare marketing strategies. 

Healthcare marketing strategies often suffer from the fact that they are treated in a “launch and forget” manner. It is hard for a healthcare organization to understand why its healthcare marketing strategy is either successful or ineffective. SWOT allows them to understand what may be the reason behind the apparent success or failure of their marketing systems, thus giving them the information they need to improve their healthcare marketing strategy.

What is SWOT analysis?

A SWOT analysis is an analytical tool used by organizations to understand the strategic positioning of factors within their organization and those that are external to the organization. 

It has been defined as, “a study undertaken by an organization to identify its internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as its external opportunities and threats,” by the Oxford Dictionary. Though the following quote highlights what it means best.

Developed almost concurrently by Harvard and Standard researchers over half a century ago, it is now an important tool in fields like marketing management, strategic planning, corporate planning, and more.

The SWOT analysis lays down four broad categories that it examines; strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Strengths are the characteristics of the business, project, plan, etc, that give it an advantage over others of the same category competing against it.

Similarly, weaknesses are the characteristics that place the business, project, plan, etc, at a disadvantage relative to others.
Both strengths and weaknesses are factors that are internal to an organization that it can to a relatively large extent exert control over.
Opportunities are those factors in the environment that the business, project, plan, etc, could exploit to its advantage to get a leg up over its competitors.

On the other hand, threats are those factors that in the environment that could cause trouble for the business, project, plan, etc, which could then allow competitors to get an advantage over them.

Opportunities and threats are external factors that an organization has to deal with but has very little control over. Oftentimes the strengths and weaknesses that are analyzed are classified into those categories based on the opportunities and threats that exist in the external environment.

Benefits to healthcare marketing

A healthcare SWOT analysis is an essential tool for healthcare organizations to under not only the strategic situation of their marketing strategy but also their business as a whole. 

Focusing on the marketing aspect of SWOT analysis, healthcare businesses are able to identify key issues in their marketing strategies. This includes the areas that are working well but also the areas that need improvement in the strengths and weaknesses categories. Since these categories are internal factors, it is easier for healthcare businesses to identify what can be easily changed in such situations to better the results. 

Through the analysis of threats and opportunities, businesses are also able to identify key developments and factors that are present in the business environment like the healthcare industry as a whole and wider national or regional factors. 
This allows them to mold their marketing strategies accordingly and thus improve upon existing marketing strategies, or completely overhaul them as needed. Conducting a SWOT analysis for your business’ healthcare marketing strategies should be done at least once every 6 months, if not more often. 

Healthcare and healthcare marketing are always shifting and transforming, and knowing where one’s strengths and weaknesses lie are important tools to becoming better. 

Conclusion

SWOT analysis is a simple but monumental tool whose importance cannot be overstated in any kind of planning, especially for marketing strategies. But properly conducting the analysis and implementing its findings can be difficult for many healthcare organizations. 

Partnering with BraveLabs will give healthcare organizations the expertise they need to implement winning marketing strategies and improve on them through techniques like healthcare SWOT analysis and more. 

Contact BraveLabs today for more information.