When marketing and commercial strategies work together, they can open doors and create real momentum.  When they don’t, you risk spending time and energy on work that simply doesn’t land.

By Chloe Watson, Head of Communications, Engagement and Marketing at Ethical Healthcare

Commercial and marketing strategies need to grow up together – Especially if you’re trying to grow in the NHS.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve had some great conversations with suppliers working hard to grow their presence in the NHS.

Some are just getting started. Others are scaling up.

All of them are navigating the same reality: a complex system, limited budgets, and leaders who are time-poor and under pressure.

When we talk about growth, we often end up in the same place — the importance of aligning your commercial and marketing strategies. Not as two separate workstreams, but as two sides of the same coin.

Your commercial strategy sets out what you’re trying to achieve — revenue, market share, long-term partnerships.

Your marketing strategy is how you get there — building visibility, creating demand, and engaging NHS decision-makers.

When these two functions work together, it’s powerful. When they don’t, things quickly stall.

1. Start with alignment

This is where it needs to begin: shared clarity between your commercial and marketing teams — and a shared understanding of the NHS environment you’re working in.

That means:

  • Messaging that’s clear and grounded.What does your solution actually mean for a nurse, a CCIO, a transformation lead? Make it specific, relevant, and useful.
  • A brand that reflects your position.If you’re aiming to work with providers, ICB, or national programmes, your brand should show that you understand the system and can deliver value within it.
  • Market intelligence that informs your decisions.Whether it’s understanding ICB priorities, trust-level investment plans, or how usability is being assessed post-EPR go-live — insight should be driving both strategy and tactics.

2. Create demand with real value

NHS stakeholders are inundated with offers, pilots, and platforms.  If you’re going to cut through, your marketing needs to offer more than visibility — it needs to offer relevance.

That could look like:

  • Campaigns that reflect current pressures — think workforce wellbeing, digital maturity, or productivity recovery.
  • Content that adds value, not noise — case studies, explainers, FAQs, and insights that help NHS teams solve problems or build internal confidence.
  • Showing up in spaces where NHS leaders are already engaged — whether that’s local events, networks, or collaborative platforms.

3. Be visible where it counts

Marketing isn’t about flashy metrics. It’s about reaching the right people at the right time, with something they care about.

That might include:

  • Paid campaigns with purpose.Targeted, thoughtful messaging — not just a blanket approach.
  • Email marketing that builds relationships.Timely, well-crafted content that helps people learn and make decisions, not just move through a funnel.

4. Support the full journey

Marketing doesn’t stop when someone clicks a link or opens a brochure. In the NHS, the decision-making process is often long, complex, and multi-staged.

Supporting it means:

  • Providing tools that help internal conversations.Sales materials that answer questions from clinicians, finance, IG, and programme boards — not just product overviews.
  • Mapping the buyer journey together.Understanding who’s involved, what matters to them, and where your marketing can make a difference.
  • Using CRM and data to learn as you go.Not just tracking activity — but using it to understand where interest is growing and where support is needed.

And when we talk about leads, it’s not about quantity. It’s about quality. A lead in this space isn’t someone who clicked an ad — it’s someone who’s shown real engagement: downloaded a paper on reducing outpatient DNAs, registered for a transformation webinar, or engaged with content that reflects a real need.

5. Relationships still matter most

This is still a system built on trust, collaboration, and reputation.  Marketing plays a huge role in how you build those relationships at scale.

That means:

  • PR and comms that add credibility— sharing insight, not spin.
  • Social content that sparks genuine interest— sharing your learning, elevating your customers, and contributing to the wider conversation.
  • Advocacy that feels natural— when a customer genuinely believes in what you do, make it easy for them to share that.

Wrapping up

If you’re aiming to grow in the NHS, your marketing strategy should support your commercial strategy by:

  • Creating demand— aligned with NHS need, not just product features
  • Driving conversion— by supporting multi-stakeholder decision-making
  • Supporting sales and scaling— with the right insight, content, and tools
  • Building trust— with the people you want to work with

When marketing and commercial strategies work together, they can open doors and create real momentum.  When they don’t, you risk spending time and energy on work that simply doesn’t land.

It’s not about chasing leads. It’s about building partnerships that last.

Want to Talk About It? Get in Touch.

I’m Chloe, Head of Communications, Engagement and Marketing at Ethical Healthcare and I help NHS digital programmes and suppliers to drive adoption, build trust, and deliver real-world impact. If this article resonates with you, let’s have a chat at chloe@ethicalhealthcare.org.uk