A great place to start research for marketing is in your own mind, and in the minds of your colleagues. The key is to scrutinize your organization through a filter of what's important to those outside it — patients and families, referral sources, prospective employees, potential financial donors, and other audiences you want to influence.

In fact, it can be helpful to collaborate with a small but relevant group of your peers who are able to see your organization through the eyes of your key audiences. Include your CEO/executive director, admissions director, medical director, a physician liaison, director of nursing, director of development, and community outreach director (or equivalents of these positions in your organization). You may feel compelled to invite others to participate, but try to keep your group to no larger than eight people.

Another important aspect is to review your organization in the context of your marketplace. How do you perform compared to your competitors? If you don't have significant competition, how do your services mesh with the broader scope of healthcare within your community?

A variety of tools exist to help structure your thinking. One is called a SWOT analysis — a process whereby you examine your organization's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Again, it's helpful to assess these areas in comparison to your competition or in light of your community's needs. And in the Opportunities category, it's beneficial to set measurable goals, such as increasing your ALOS by X percent or your raising your ADC to a desired level by a specified date.

Another tool is a proprietary process called Find Your Voice®, developed by Transcend's parent company, R/P Marketing Public Relations. The process consists of two main parts, beginning with internal research through Compression Planning.

Compression Planning is an interactive, fun, fast-paced activity that results in the compression of big concepts, thoughts, dreams and fears into a single session. In addition, Compression Planning is geared toward gaining consensus among your team on key brand objectives and positioning, as well as to establish specific priorities, desired outcomes and measures. The results become the foundation for developing a strategic plan that will help achieve your stated goals.

Compression Planning started at Disney in the 1960s when Mike Vance, the Dean of Disney University, came up with the notion of using the process of storyboarding (scene by scene snapshots of what's happening visually) and using it to think through business challenges.

At Transcend, we have refined the process to assist our hospice clients in defining who they are, what they want to be and where they should best use their resources to grow their business, increase market share and meet their goals.

The second component of Find Your Voice is to conduct research within your service area on the perceptions of your organization's performance and reputation. (See next article for more details.)

Now, things get really interesting. By comparing how your view of your organization aligns with the perceptions of your external audiences, you'll have a clearer picture of where to begin or how to prioritize your messaging. If your audiences don't know about the services or benefits you consider most important, educate them through marketing. If your community has misperceptions about the truth, get the real facts out there.

To determine the messages you want external audiences to see, begin by first looking inward. If you're interested in learning more about the Find Your Voice process and how it can help your specific organization, contact Stan Massey at smassey@transcendhospicemarketing.com.