When it comes to customer relationship management (CRM), some healthcare systems are just getting started, while others are well into their journey. No matter where you start, one key factor consistently sets successful CRM programs apart: planning.
In a world of shifting priorities, siloed data, and ever-evolving technology, strong preparation is what separates success from setback. Before you choose a partner or build your roadmap, consider these ten smart moves to set your CRM strategy up for long-term impact.
1. Align CRM with Organizational Goals
What are you trying to achieve? Maybe it’s capturing market share, increasing service line volume, improving retention — or all of the above. Define your strategic priorities upfront and they’ll serve as the foundation for every CRM decision that follows.
2. Identify Internal Champions
CRM success isn’t just Marketing’s job. It requires buy-in across departments. Engage IT, finance, legal, and compliance early. These internal champions can help navigate approvals, secure resources, and maintain momentum long after launch.
3. Understand the Implementation Timeline
No two implementations look the same. Ask potential partners to walk you through their onboarding process, including timing, milestones, and common hurdles. A realistic timeline builds internal alignment and sets everyone up for success.
4. Prioritize Scalability
Healthcare is changing fast, and your CRM should keep pace. Look for a flexible, future-ready platform that can grow with your team and adapt as your needs evolve. Scalability ensures today’s solution still works tomorrow.
5. Ensure a Unified, Compliant View of Your Data
CRM should give you a single, integrated view of your consumers across email, direct mail, health risk assessments, and more. Just as important, it must handle suppression management and preference tracking in a way that keeps you compliant with state and federal privacy laws. Look for a CRM that can centralize this view, integrate with other platforms, and keep your organization legally sound.
6. Be Realistic About Internal Resources
CRM success takes more than pulling a list and hitting “send.” It demands time, strategy, and expertise in data management, automation, segmentation, and analytics. Many teams find they don’t have the internal bandwidth to maintain momentum alone. Start by evaluating your capacity, then consider where a strategic partner can fill the gaps with smart guidance and day-to-day lift.
7. Choose a Partner with Healthcare (and Marketing) Expertise
CRM isn’t one-size-fits-all, especially in healthcare. A strong track record in the industry matters, particularly when it comes to understanding how CRM fits within your broader tech ecosystem. From call center databases to foundation donor systems to EMR-based tools for clinical reminders, many departments operate their own version of “CRM.”
Each plays a valuable role. But a marketing CRM serves a distinct purpose: reaching beyond your existing patient base, integrating data from multiple sources, and guiding personalized outreach to both prospects and patients. It doesn’t compete with your existing systems — it complements them. The right partner will know how to align with what’s already in place, while filling the gaps those systems weren’t built to address. That takes real experience navigating healthcare data—and a deep understanding of marketing strategy.
8. Measure What Matters
Impressions, opens, and clicks can show early engagement, but leadership needs more. To secure long-term support, you’ll need to connect marketing activity to meaningful outcomes like patient volume, retention, and revenue. A strong CRM platform should help you track those results directly. Even more importantly, it should give you visibility into ROI across all marketing channels, not just those deployed within the CRM. That means integrating with other tools and data sources, so you can understand how each effort contributes to growth. When CRM is tied to strategic goals and broader performance metrics, it becomes a tool for true organizational impact.
9. Think Beyond Marketing
CRM may live in Marketing, but its value stretches far beyond. A strong platform can uncover insights that drive decisions across the organization, such as trends in readmissions, value vs. volume analysis, or how digital engagement correlates to in-person care. With the right data strategy, CRM becomes an engine for smarter decision-making across the board.
10. Start Smart, Then Scale
CRM doesn’t have to start big to make a big impact. Begin with targeted campaigns that align to high-value goals and deliver measurable wins. Once your leadership team sees proven ROI, it becomes easier to expand your investment over time. Smart CRM programs can be built in phases, scaling thoughtfully as data, results, and confidence build.
Set the Stage for CRM Success
Every CRM journey is different, but success always starts with strategy. A thoughtful plan on the front end sets the stage for smoother execution, faster wins, and long-term impact. The right CRM partner won’t just implement a system, they’ll work alongside you, offering strategic insight, anticipating needs, and helping your team achieve meaningful results every step of the way.
At LionShare, we’ve spent 30 years helping healthcare marketers plan, grow, and optimize CRM strategies that deliver real results.
Let’s talk about what’s next.
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