Brazzell Marketing Agency has cracked the code for estimating the census of every home health agency in the country with data that is current as six months old. Agencies can order market reports up to 10 counties for only $69 to $89. Consultancies and chains also have options for ordering state or national reports. With this data, BMA’s Early Market Intelligence report can estimate the size of each market in terms of Medicare home health patients, show whether competitors are growing or shrinking, and judge whether the market as a whole is growing or shrinking.
Why does this data matter? Home health agencies can use Early Market Intelligence to inform a number of strategy decisions. Success is relative, and a rising tide raises all ships. The only way to know if your marketing strategy is truly successful is to know the movement of your market. For instance, suppose an agency is growing by 0% per year. One may want to completely change the marketing strategy. However, market analysis might show you that doctors in that area are making fewer home health referrals and that most agencies in that market have lost referrals. If the market is shrinking but one agency is staying the same, that agency is actually gaining in market share. In this case, the marketing strategy may be working in important ways. Changing its strengths would have been a mistake. Evaluating your marketing success requires an understanding of market share. In addition, Early Market Intelligence informs these types of marketing decisions:
- When you know how many referrals your competitors are getting (in other words, how many referrals you are not getting), you can better predict the possible gains from different marketing strategies.
- Some marketing strategies don’t work, some get a lot of attention, and a few generate referrals. If you are planning to copy or counter the marketing strategy of a competitor, it is helpful to also evaluate if the competitor’s strategy is actually generating referrals or just generating a lot of attention.
- Leading agencies must be prepared to defend themselves against agencies that are rapidly grabbing market share. Without the actual data in hand, administrators often guess incorrectly about which competitors are growing and which ones are shrinking. Marketing directors must investigate the strengths of successful competitors, but first, they must know which agencies have strengths that are working as compared to which agencies are just making noise.
- Knowing your market can reveal important advertising opportunities. If your agency is the number one agency in the county, this can be worth advertising in some situations.