The toughest part of being a consultant isn't the work. It's the conversation where someone asks me to skip straight to the tactics.
“Can you just run some ads?” “Can you fix our Instagram?” “We need a new website by March.” I get it — tactics feel like progress. You can see them, count them, and post them. Strategy feels like homework.
But here's the thing: tactics without strategy are just expensive guesses. And in healthcare, where budgets are tight and patients are cautious, you can't afford to guess.
Strategy is your headline
Think of your strategy like the headline on a news article. Good journalists will tell you to spend a huge share of your effort on the headline, because nobody reads your brilliant writing if the headline doesn't earn the click. David Ogilvy made the same point decades ago: far more people read the headline than ever read the body copy.
The most successful YouTubers know it too. They'll obsess over a title and thumbnail before they ever hit record, because that's what decides whether anyone watches.
Your brand strategy does the same job. It decides whether your ads, posts, and website get noticed by the right people — or scrolled past by everyone.
The four areas I work in
Because strategy has to come first, my work as a healthcare marketing consultant at Fixate Brand Strategy usually falls into one of four areas. They build on each other, roughly in this order.
Strategic brand management. Who you are, what you look like, and how you compare to everyone else in your category. The goal is simple: stand out. If a patient can't tell you apart from the clinic down the street, price and proximity will make the decision for them.
Customer insight research. What do your patients actually want — and how does that compare to what you offer? Most clinics assume they know. The gap between that assumption and reality is usually where the growth is hiding.
Patient journey planning. How do patients find you, and what happens once they land in your funnel? Does your booking page work on a phone? Does anyone call back within a day? Is your front desk making people feel welcome — or making them regret calling? Every step either builds trust or leaks patients.
Customer acquisition strategy. This is where the tactics finally live: the channels, frameworks, and tools that bring in more patients. It works far better once the first three are sorted, because now you know who you're talking to, what to say, and where they'll go next.
Do the legwork first
None of this means tactics don't matter. They do — a great strategy with lousy execution goes nowhere. And sometimes you need a quick win to keep the lights on while the bigger work happens, which I'm happy to help with.
But if you want your marketing dollars to work harder, start with the headline. Figure out who you are, who you're for, and what their experience with you actually looks like. Then pick the tactics.
Want help with your clinic's brand strategy? Book a 30-minute call and let's talk it through.