Consumer healthcare marketers know millennials – generally defined as people born between 1980 and the early 2000s – are one of the most challenging segments to win over. There are countless blogs and articles about how millennials think, how to reach them and how to motivate them to act. So let’s turn the conversation around and take a moment to look at how the millennial generation has made us work harder and smarter – and in doing so, helped us become more effective healthcare marketers.

Here are some of the top characteristics of millennials we should all truly appreciate:

1. Millennials are entitled.

This is an opinion you will find on any online search for information about millennials. It doesn’t sound like a positive attribute, but their sense of entitlement is building higher expectations in healthcare and contributing to the industry’s need to be more patient-centric. Millennials want to make informed decisions about health—and they want it to be easily accessible on their desktops and mobile devices. They want virtual care models, text message notifications and online appointment setting. They demand convenience and often refuse to wait, which is contributing to the rise of more urgent care outlets, forcing traditional physician practices and hospitals to rethink their patient experiences.

2. Millennials have natural truth detectors.

Millennials are very perceptive and quick to identify when advertisers are giving it to them straight – and when they are not. As a healthcare marketer, you must avoid corporate speak and be authentic with your messaging. Otherwise, you put your brand at risk of poor social media reviews. After all, millennials feel it is their right and moral obligation to protect the social good by sharing experiences and observations online.

3. Millennials take a stand against campaign messages that conflict with their values.

Millennials support creative messages and brands that align with their values. Remember GoDaddy’s controversial puppy commercial planned for the 2015 Super Bowl? After a preview of the spot aired on a popular talk show, social media exploded with outrage over the ad. The company pulled the spot the very same day. If the creative aspect of an ad isn’t relevant, timely, tasteful, concise and compelling, it will fail quickly in the eyes of millennials.

4. Millennials lead technology adoption.

Marketing has always been on the leading edge of technology that facilitates connections between people and companies. Today we are learning a great deal from millennials. They are self-assigned researchers and testers of new digital technology, especially social media and mobile apps. Engaging target audiences on mobile devices has never been more crucial because more than 85% of millennials now use smartphones. That’s why, as a healthcare marketer, you must always consider mobile strategies with ease of access, simple messages and fresh content.

5. Millennials do their research.

Millennials like to learn the facts. In a matter a minutes, they will determine if an organization, physician or product is worth their consideration. Providers who are very transparent with price, quality and outcomes data will have an advantage over competitors who are less forthcoming with information. The assumption is if organizations aren’t sharing this data, they must not be proud of it.

There is much to be said for the qualities of millennials. Although some may be perceived as challenging, I find they stand up for what they believe, want and need. Most of all, they are raising the standards for healthcare marketers and providers. As healthcare marketing professionals, it is up to us to step to the plate and deliver the information millennials need to make informed decisions about health. If we don’t, I’m sure we’ll hear about it.

Leverage the power of market data to drive marketing and positioning strategies

Is your strategic marketing plan used by everyone as a blueprint for organization-wide growth, or is it perceived as a tool for the marketing department to execute?

When you present your marketing objectives to your Board of Directors and C-suite, you can’t just talk about creative campaigns and tracking metrics. Your plan must encompass the bigger picture of how and where your organization can grow market share given your current competitive landscape (e.g. what your competitors are doing and saying, how you rank in terms of consumer preference, awareness and satisfaction, and so on). When you have this type of insight at your fingertips (and in your presentation), it becomes much easier for board members to grasp the objectives of your creative campaigns, for CFOs to allocate resources to developing authentic brand and positioning differentiators, and for CEOs to address operational barriers to ensure that your strategic marketing plan can be successfully executed.

In a perfect world, the visions of executive and board leadership and marketing professionals would always align. But in the real world, that’s not always the case. If you sense a gap between what you are trying to accomplish and how much is truly understood by your leadership, treat it not as a road block– instead, seize the opportunity to elevate the conversation and go to market with confidence.

Good news: help is available in the form of an innovative product called maps+ (which stands for marketing and positioning strategies+). maps+ rolls the comprehensive suite of strategic marketing services that Dobies Health Marketing has provided for decades into one very robust and insightful product. Expertly designed to help you navigate the nuances of an ever-changing market, maps+ helps your organization make better decisions to increase market share and brand equity.

As a healthcare marketing leader myself, I could have put maps+ to good use time and time again throughout my career. Over the years, I have personally faced the challenge of garnering buy-in from the C-suite for my marketing plans and tactics. CEOs and service line managers have asked me to “work magic” without actually being able or willing to engage in the process of defining “magic.” Consultants have been all too eager to offer help, but many, to my dismay, ultimately offered nothing more than a templated creative approach based on what has worked in other markets.

Through the years, I’ve come to appreciate the power of:

• A brand built on the organization’s ACTIONS, not just a slogan or campaign
• A positioning strategy based on a thorough understanding of local market dynamics AND industry evolution
• Organizational differentiators that are authentic, not just marquee statements on a website
• A comprehensive STRATEGIC marketing plan that is based on detailed analytics and aligned with organizational priorities
• A marketing plan that incorporates measurable goals for selected individual service lines and the organization as a whole

It is only when all of the above has been presented, debated, refined and agreed upon with executive leadership that actionable plans for tactical execution can and should be developed. maps+ is your key to reaching a one to three-year marketing and positioning plan based on a market share analysis, competitive review, market forces study, preference analysis, market insights and more. I encourage my fellow healthcare marketing leaders to explore what maps+ can do for you today.