Takeaways from SHSMD 2025: Why Healthcare Marketing Is Moving From Message to Proof

Last week I was in Dallas for SHSMD Connections 2025, and like most things in Texas, the ideas were big. Between the sessions, coffee conversations and dinners with healthcare leaders, one truth stood out: Healthcare marketing is shifting from message to proof.

The strongest systems aren’t just telling their stories – they’re engineering them. They’re aligning branding, communications, operations and patient experience so the story they tell externally matches the experience people feel internally. 

That evolution comes at a complicated time for CMOs. Budgets are shrinking. Government regulations and reimbursement shifts are tightening margins. Data privacy rules are evolving. Consumers are more discerning – and more demanding than ever.

Yet amid those challenges, brand strategy and marketing still have the power to be the connective tissue that keeps organizations aligned, human and moving forward.

Experience Before Campaigns (and Diagnosis)

In their thought-provoking session, Shelly Hoff and Michael Joyce, formerly of Kaiser Permanente, explored what it really means to design experiences through a patient lens. As they shared how to better define a patient journey, they explained how, “for cancer patients, the journey doesn’t start at diagnosis – it starts at the slightest hint of worry.”

That statement reframed the room. Most health systems treat the moment of diagnosis as the “start” of the journey, but patients begin processing fear, searching for information and seeking reassurance far earlier. This early-stage empathy gap is where marketing can shine. By shaping content, education and outreach around those “pre-diagnosis” moments, we can help people feel seen before they even enter the system.

Hoff and Joyce also made the case for more and more qualitative research – empathy interviews, one-on-ones with both heavy users and non-users – to ensure brand and service experiences align with how patients actually want to engage. For marketers, that’s not a research exercise – it’s a design principle.

“Strategy Is a Contact Sport”

That line from SHSMD’s president became the unofficial mantra of the week.

Strategy only works when we stay in contact – with patients, peers and partners across the organization. In one session, a speaker asked how many marketers had significant influence on patient experience. Out of a hundred people, only three raised their hands. That silence said a lot.

The opportunity ahead isn’t about marketing “owning” experience. It’s about connecting it and working hand in hand with operations, access, HR and clinical teams to make sure the brand promise matches the brand reality.

In fact, Kristin Baird, president/CEO of the Baird Group, advocated for no marketing support unless there’s a guaranteed positive patient experience. That’s not an ultimatum – it’s a call for alignment. If the infrastructure isn’t ready (appointments available, call centers responsive, information accurate), then marketing’s job is to help fix it before we amplify it.

This is where marketing strategy earns its seat at the table – by helping define the connective moments that turn operations into brand behavior.

Turning Data into Meaning

The president of the Morehouse School of Medicine, Valerie Montgomery Rice, also offered a timely reminder: “Numbers don’t move people until they know what’s at stake.”

In an era where CMOs live knee-deep in dashboards, it’s easy to mistake analytics for insight. But the real power comes from interpreting the data in human terms and understanding what it reveals about behavior, motivation and need. When we use data to create empathy – not just evidence – we bridge marketing and mission.

For marketing teams, that means moving beyond KPIs to uncover the human stories the data reveals, and building campaigns that make those insights tangible.

Baptist Health: When Brand Architecture Becomes Experience

A standout case study came from Baptist Health South Florida, which merged dozens of subdomains into one unified digital ecosystem. The outcome: an 85% jump in search rankings, 54% growth in organic traffic and a 32% increase in engagement. 

But the real lesson wasn’t technical. It was organizational. Baptist used digital unification as a catalyst for cultural unification, proving that design, content and operations can work together to make care simpler and more human.

That’s the essence of brand architecture: when structure, content and culture align to make the brand easier to live – and believe.

Access as the New Growth Strategy

In another standout session, Baylor Scott & White Health and Clearstep revealed that 73% of patient booking intents were clinically inappropriate, but AI triage redirected 34% of those to the right setting. 

That’s not just technology at work. That’s brand trust in action. When patients can navigate care confidently, it strengthens both experience and efficiency. It’s a vivid example of marketing’s new frontier: helping make the system itself more accessible, understandable and empathetic.

When marketing leaders help design access pathways, they’re not just driving volume – they’re building loyalty and brand differentiation.

Brand, Emotion and the Human Connection

I saw this Maya Angelou quote several times across sessions: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

That sentiment underscored everything. 

At Major Health Partners in Indiana, a rural system used verified patient reviews and authentic storytelling to become the top local choice for care. It wasn’t flashy creative or new tech – it was consistency, transparency and follow-through.

As AI changes how patients search and compare providers, emotion and trust have become even more valuable currencies. Marketing’s job is to help the organization earn both.

The Takeaway for Health System Leaders

If SHSMD 2025 had a central message, it’s that marketing and operations aren’t parallel tracks anymore. Instead, they’re one continuous loop.

CMOs and marketing leaders have to help build that bridge and use storytelling, insight and experience design to make the system itself more coherent, more connected and more compassionate.

Because at the end of the day, patients don’t experience your brand in campaigns. They experience it in scheduling, signage, digital navigation, waiting rooms and follow-ups. And that’s exactly where marketing and communications can matter most.

After three days in Dallas, I left with this conviction: The most successful systems in the years ahead will not only advertise their excellence, but also operationalize it.

If you’re thinking about how to better connect your brand, operations and patient experience strategy – and turn your brand promise into proof – I’d love to continue the conversation.