By The Numbers: Marketing and Communications Benchmarking

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By The Numbers 2023
 

Benchmarking with SHSMD and ENDEAVOR ANALYTICS

NEW · Panel 4: AI Improve Your Marketing Strategy with Data-driven Insights

The only tool on the market designed by health care MarCom professionals, for health care MarCom professionals, By The Numbers: MarCom is a benchmarking program dedicated to helping health care teams measure budgets, staffing, and strategic priorities – including this year’s deep dive into AI adoption. The program is offered by SHSMD, a professional membership group of the American Hospital Association, in collaboration with Endeavor Analytics, a subsidiary of Endeavor Management.

  • See How Your Spend Stacks Up
  • Benchmark FTEs by Function
  • Understand AI Adoption
  • Generate Custom Reports for Leadership
 

Key Highlights for 2025–2026

  • New Panel! AI Attitudes & Usage Content: Track AI attitudes and adoption, including budgets, FTEs, tools, and readiness.
  • Expanded Eligibility: Now open to Behavioral Health and Medical Group practices in addition to hospitals and health systems.
 

 

“No matter what field you are in, if you don’t set a baseline, you are setting yourself up for defeat. Using this benchmark survey allows us to establish a baseline that is more specific to our medical field than most other benchmarking surveys.”

Brian Sterchele

Business Manager of Marketing and Communications, The University of Chicago Medicine 

 

Two Participation Options

 
Four-Panel Survey Guide

Four Participation Panels

The survey content is organized into four easy-to-answer sections, or “panels." To help manage your time, we recommend completing the survey in stages using the four panels. However, if you prefer, you can finish the entire survey in one sitting. After completing the first panel, you’ll receive an email from the Alchemer platform with unique links to access the second, third, and fourth panels. Please check your spam or junk folder if you don’t receive an email with Panels 2–4 after completing Panel 1 of the survey.

Panel 1: MarCom Budget KPIs

Content: Respondent details, system profiling, and key MarCom budget metrics.

Value: Understand how you stack up against organizations with similar characteristics on marketing spend and team size.

Panel 2: MarCom Budget Deep Dive

Content: Budget momentum, categories, subcategories, and priorities.

Value: Understand how you stack up against other organizations on marketing budget allocations to refine how you prioritize your budget.

Panel 3: MarCom Organizational Structure

Content: Reporting hierarchy, team composition, and final profiling details.

Value: Understand how you stack up against other organizations when it comes to staffing and organizational structure.

NEW

Panel 4: AI Attitudes & Adoption

Content: AI attitudes and adoption, including budgets, FTEs, use cases, and tools.

Value: See how peers are planning and resourcing AI, including what’s funded, who’s doing the work, and where AI is being applied, so you can inform strategy, staffing, and investment decisions.

 

Compare the Benefits of Contributors and Subscribers

Metrics

Contributor

Paid Subscriber

Compare MarCom expenditures to industry-wide benchmarks. check-icon check-icon
Aggregated MarCom expenditure, geographic & staffing data. Evaluate marketing & communications performance as compared to industry-wide benchmarks.        check-icon check-icon
Organizational data is protected under our privacy policy. check-icon check-icon
Benchmark with groups of 5 organizations of your choice at a time in practically unlimited ways, e.g., on specific budget elements, organization groups and over time.   check-icon
Interactive dashboard with custom comparisons.   check-icon
Create customizable reports with downloadable graphs ready for use in presentations to stakeholders and colleagues.   check-icon
Opportunity to talk to an expert about your data.   check-icon

Exclusive invitation to subscriber-only events such as user webinars and VIP receptions.

  check-icon
Private, exclusive online community to interact with subscriber peers and share best practices.   check-icon
Continued support. Receive an aggregate report of all completed surveys on an annual basis in the form of a webinar and PowerPoint slide deck.   check-icon

View Sample Reports

The actual dashboard is interactive and customized to your organization.


Gain a Competitive Edge by Benchmarking Your Marketing Spend

Unlock Benchmarking & AI Insights 

Subscriber Pricing

Based on the size of your health care system

Small <100 beds
$2,500
Large 100+ beds
$7,500

Hear From Health Care MarCom Leaders

Providence

SHSMD member Alan Shoebridge, Associate Vice President of National Communications at Providence, shares how he uses By the Numbers: Marcom to make more informed, data-driven marketing decisions that align with business goals.

Cleveland Clinic

Hear from Peter Miller, Former Administrator of Marketing and Communications at the Cleveland Clinic.

How much should we be budgeting for marketing & communications? What is the right marketing mix?

Hendrick Health System

Hear from Jesiree Driskell, Director of Marketing and Communications at Hendrick Health System as she discusses how the MarCom benchmarking tool shows her where the health care field is going and how she stays in tune with patients' demands.

Mary Washington Healthcare

Lisa Henry, Former Associate Vice President of Communications and Marketing at Mary Washington Healthcare says "it's critical to have a true understanding so that you're not competing or trying to compete against an industry that just doesn't measure up to the same type of skill and support that you need."

Put an End to the Guessing Game – Get Started Today

Complete Panel 1 

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