On the SWAAY healthcare marketing podcast, Colin Hung opened with a question that made me laugh… and nod a little too hard: If every healthcare organization cares about patient experience, why is marketing still treated like the “print shop down the hall”?
I joined the show as CMO of Overit’s healthcare marketing agency within an agency, Smith & Jones, powered by Overit. And yes, I showed up with a cappuccino and a newly cleaned living room (you’re welcome, Colin).
But the real reason I was there was to share a message we see playing out across hospitals, health systems, and healthcare brands every day.
Healthcare marketing teams need to be “in the room where it happens,” not only for comms decisions but for decisions that shape operations, HR, the digital journey, and ultimately the patient and employee experience.
I was also there to spotlight something we’re proud of: the new Overit/Smith & Jones Healthcare Marketing Trends 2026 Report. It’s a “chunky” one, on purpose.
Why healthcare marketers need a voice in 2026
When we pulled the trends report together, we kept seeing the same through-line: trust and transparency show up everywhere—price lists, job listings, emails, portals, CRM touchpoints… all of it.
And here’s the shift. Patient experience is now more digitized than it is “in real life.” So when healthcare organizations treat marketing like the in-house Kinko’s, they’re accidentally treating the experience itself like an afterthought.
That’s why I said (with “swagger, but humility”) that marketing is central. Not to clinical care (that belongs to caregivers), but to how the organization communicates, builds cohesion, and earns trust across the whole journey.
It’s also why, in 2026, Smith & Jones will continue evolving to become fully Overit Healthcare Marketing. We’re bringing our healthcare marketing agency practice under one Overit brand while staying laser-focused on hospitals, health systems, and health-related organizations.
Watch Sean Fitzpatrick on the SWAAY Health Podcast
Four things healthcare marketers should remember to get “in the room where it happens”
This is the practical stuff. If you want your marketing team treated like a strategic partner (internally or as a healthcare marketing agency), here are four tangible actions you can take to build your role within any healthcare organization (all shared on the podcast), translated into action.
1) Marketing is more than “support.” You’re the glue.
Marketing isn’t just ads and campaigns anymore. You’re often the team running the technology (email platforms, web, CRM systems), writing the messages, and shaping the content that creates a unified experience.
If your organization wants consistency, from the first click to the post-visit follow-up, marketing has to be brought in early, not after decisions are already final.
Try this: Make a simple “experience map” of every touchpoint marketing influences (patient + employee). Bring it to your next leadership conversation and ask: where are decisions happening without us?
2) “Red team” the moments where trust leaks.
Your marketing team should be in the position to review the work of other departments. But those departments are run by accomplished, busy people who may not feel they need input.
One way to build trust is to offer to review materials (to “red team” them), but promise that you’ll give the consulted department the final say. This can be scary because your colleagues may not make the same choices you make in each marketing touchpoint. But over time, your opportunity to “red team” communications and marketing materials from various departments will build consistency in the brand experience. You gotta have faith.
One of my favorite examples from the conversation of topics where Marketing should have review is price transparency documentation. Lots of organizations are doing the hard work of publishing price lists, but if the language isn’t understandable, trust still leaks. A gracious marketing expert can offer to review the price lists and share items that are hard to understand.
Same goes for HR: job listings and career portals are brand moments. But HR can be understandably autonomous, and collaboration sometimes takes work.
Try this: Volunteer a “red team” review. Say, “Thank you for doing this, can we give you notes to help make sure all kinds of patients/prospects will understand it?” (With respect. Always.)
3) Build cadence away from the crisis.
This one is the unlock.
If marketing only shows up when something is on fire, marketing will always be treated like the fire department. Instead, I recommended building cadences of communication away from need, away from the crisis, where you bring value and data.
That can look like:
A quarterly “marketing trends + best practices” brown bag
A quarterly internal e-news with learnings and quick wins
A bi-monthly standup with ops/HR/service line leads to review what’s working
Try this: Start with one recurring meeting. Keep it short. Keep it useful. Invite partners. Make it feel like “windshield time” that builds rapport before the next urgent deadline hits.
4) Don’t guess. Dashboard.
When marketing is integrated well, there’s a real sense of cohesion and trust, and the process becomes part of the outcome.
But trust grows faster when you can point to shared metrics.
That’s why I kept coming back to the idea: build the dashboard. Make KPIs visible. Review them together every couple of months as a shared representation of progress and agreements.
Try this: Pick 5–7 shared KPIs across departments (not just marketing KPIs). Then review them with partners regularly.
What a healthcare marketing agency should be in 2026
The takeaway from the podcast is simple: marketing shapes what people experience long before and long after the clinical moment.
That’s why the best healthcare marketing agency partners, and the strongest internal teams, earn their seat by showing up early, bringing data, and building rhythms of collaboration that outlast the crisis of the week.
If you want the full context, listen to the episode. And if you want the deeper research and practical trends behind it, download the Healthcare Marketing Trends 2026 Report from Smith & Jones, powered by Overit.
And if you’re navigating a specific challenge (patient experience, recruitment, brand trust, digital journey), I’m always happy to do a no-pressure strategy chat. Sometimes a half hour of “let’s troubleshoot this together” is the fastest path to getting marketing in the room where it happens.
