Building Trust With Healthcare Professionals:
A Guide For Healthcare Marketeers

In any environment, establishing trust is vital to building relationships and helping you achieve success. In this blog post, we highlight a number of ways you can build trust with your healthcare customers, from the theoretical foundations of trust, to practical tools and tips.

The Trust Equation: A Foundation for Relationships

Understanding trust begins with the Trust Equation, a concept explored by Trusted Advisor Associates. The equation comprises four components:

• Credibility - The words we speak, our credentials, and the clarity of our messaging.
• Reliability - Consistency in delivering on promises and meeting expectations.
• Intimacy - The sense of security we provide our customers, through confidentiality and empathy.
• Self-Orientation - The degree to which we prioritise the client's needs over our own.

In healthcare marketing, credibility can be gained through evidence-based content, while reliability is showcased by consistently delivering valuable insights. Intimacy involves understanding the unique challenges of healthcare professionals, and low self-orientation means prioritising patient outcomes and the positive impact on customers over sales.

How can these fundamental components be applied in your marketing activities? Below we outline 4 ways in which this can be achieved.

Trusted Sources: The Key to HCPs' Information Choices

Healthcare professionals (HCPs) are motivated by how reliable content is, with editorial-led sources being their primary information preference.

In a recent global survey by Wiley, HCPs rated the credibility of a source's reputation as the most crucial factor when seeking information online, with an average score of 4.31 out of 5. Additionally, content presented by experts was rated among the top three factors, with a global score of 4.1.

When choosing how to stay informed about new clinical advancements, HCPs prefer:

• Online Medical Journals: Rated 4.3 out of 5
• Medical Reference Portals: Rated 4.1 out of 5

Credibility also influences HCPs' interactions with advertisements. Many HCPs reported clicking on ads because they originated from credible sources (34%) or provided access to reputable reference content (33%). Despite the emphasis on reliable information, 41% of HCPs globally find it challenging to assess the credibility of information sources, particularly with open access content.

By prioritising authoritative and expert-led content, we can better meet the needs of HCPs, ensuring they have access to trustworthy and reliable information.

E-E-A-T: Elevating Trust in Digital Marketing

Google’s emphasis on E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) signals is crucial for improving your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) trust credentials. Aligning your content with E-E-A-T principles can enhance your online visibility and credibility:

• Experience: Highlight real-world experience and success stories.
• Expertise: Showcase the qualifications and knowledge of your team members and use key opinion leaders as messengers to provide accurate and reliable information to your customers.
• Authoritativeness: Gain endorsements and backlinks from reputable partners.
• Trustworthiness: Ensure your website is secure, user-friendly, and transparent about data usage, alongside providing credible and reliable information.

By optimising your content for E-E-A-T, you not only improve your search engine rankings but also build a foundation of trust with your audience. In addition, your website should be accessible to all customers, easy to navigate. It shouldn't contain any unnecessary redirects or redirects to broken links, providing an experience which feels credible and professional.

LinkedIn: A Platform for Building Trust

With over 3 million medical doctors, nurses, and medical assistants on LinkedIn, it is a powerful tool for cultivating trust among healthcare customers. Here are some strategies to improve your LinkedIn content to build trust with your audience:

• Company Page: Maintain an up-to-date and professional company page to enhance credibility.
• Consistent Posting: Share valuable content regularly to demonstrate reliability.
• Engaging Content: Create posts that resonate with your audience’s needs and challenges.
• Thought Leadership: Publish articles and insights from Key Opinion Leaders to add credibility.
• Interaction: Engage with comments and messages to build intimacy.
• Networking: Build and nurture professional relationships to enhance authoritativeness.
• Case Studies: Share detailed case studies highlighting your company's experience and expertise.

Implementing these strategies can significantly enhance your trust quotient on LinkedIn, fostering deeper connections with potential and existing customers.

Google Search Ads Optimisation: Staying Ahead in 2024

With over 80% of HCPs seeking information online at least weekly, according to a recent report by Wiley, Google Search Ads are a perfect way to be where your audience is.

When running Google Search Ads, it's important to optimise your activity to ensure you appear credible and trustworthy. Your ad copy and landing page copy should be aligned, and your content should be developed according to users' search terms. This creates a personalised and relevant experience and can improve click-through rates, reduce bounce rates, and increase conversions. It also helps build trust and credibility with your target audience, as they're more likely to engage with content that speaks directly to their needs and interests.

When your ad copy and landing page are highly relevant to what site visitors are searching for, it will improve your Quality Score. Your Quality Score measures how well your ad, keyword, and landing page will satisfy the user's search query. A higher Quality Score can lead to lower costs and better ad placement, and therefore higher return on investment.

Conclusion

Understanding and applying the Trust Equation, delivering credible, expert-led content, optimizing for E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness), leveraging LinkedIn effectively, and optimising your paid advertising activities, such as Google Ads, are essential for building trust in healthcare marketing. These strategies will enhance your credibility and reliability, build deeper relationships, and drive business success with your target audience.

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