The only way to get real results out of your marketing efforts is to support them with strategy designed to boost short-term and long-term profitability, brand durability, and competitive advantage. Conducting the necessary internal and external analyses to ensure that a marketing plan is truly strategic is challenging but essential to maximizing marketing results. Strategic marketing plans must be built on a data-based understanding of which of the hospital’s or health system’s service lines offer the greatest potential for growth based on capacity, service differentiation, physician loyalty, and future market opportunity. Marketing leaders should adopt a Six Sigma approach called DMAIC — define, measure, analyze, improve and control.