The Role of Marketing in Building Trust Between Providers and Patients

While recent challenges facing the healthcare industry have eroded patient trust and increased patient dissatisfaction, effective marketing and communications strategies can rebuild trust in the healthcare system and combat misinformation. 

As a health care marketing executive for nearly 20 years, I have been guided by one key principle: recognizing that we are all healthcare consumers. Whether for ourselves or for our loved ones, we will all face a time when we will need to communicate with a health care provider or receive important healthcare information. Building trust in our healthcare institutions and providers is not just important, it can often be a matter of life and death.

Today’s healthcare environment faces many challenges including the erosion of trust in providers and healthcare systems due to limited accessibility, poor cultural competence, misinformation and a general lack of trust in institutions. Trust is critical between patients and the health care industry in order to achieve the best patient outcomes.  

Many trusted sources of consumer sentiment have reported on this decrease in trust in recent years. In the Edelman 2024 Special Report: Trust and Health, a decrease in trust in health care institutions was highlighted between April 2023 and April 2024. A recent Gallup poll also showed that less than half of Americans have confidence in the health care system. 

The spread of misinformation also has damaged the patient-provider relationship. Social media has amplified false claims about vaccines and health care policies, leaving patients unsure, uncertain and untrusting.

Marketing can be a strategic tool in building trust between healthcare systems, providers and patients.  Marketing strategies can help bridge the divide and stop the erosion of trust by enabling clear and consistent communication.

Three critical pillars in trust building are transparency, consistency and empathy.   

Transparent communications from providers and health systems build trust. Patients would like to have easy to understand explanations of their treatment options of the costs and of the organization’s values. 

Consistent communications also enable trust. Patients should expect the same type and level of information on all communication platforms: website, social media, apps from the call center or with their healthcare professionals. 

Empathy in communications is another strategy for building trust. Communications should address patients’ concerns, fears as well as their hopes. If a healthcare organization focuses on truly understanding a patient’s needs, they can more readily build trust.

Key elements of an effective healthcare communications plan include combating misinformation, personalized communication, authenticity, as well as leveraging digital tools for engagement.   

To combat misinformation health care organizations should highlight evidence-based resources and partner with trusted community organizations to promote reliable information sources. Social media community management can also be leveraged to debunk myths and misinformation real time.  

Personalized communication tactics like reminders and follow up messages, and relevant health care tips are expected by today’s well-informed patients.  Accessibility and inclusivity are essential in all communications regarding health care. Ensuring that communications are culturally sensitive and available in many languages as well as accessible to those with different disabilities is imperative to ensuring all who need to receive critical healthcare information can receive it. 

Authentic communications like patient testimonials or conversion healthcare providers allow an institution to humanize itself. Offering clear information about procedures, costs, and outcomes is necessary for patients to build trust in their providers. Demonstrating a commitment to listening, offering online feedback forms or patient satisfaction surveys also show a willingness to improve based on patients’ own input.

Meeting patients where they are by leveraging modern digital tools improves engagement and builds trust. Patient portals, healthcare apps and social media listening offer direct communication with healthcare institutions and providers. Direct to patient emails are another way to keep patients informed if there is the ability to have two-way communication via e-mail.

In today’s environment when trust in the healthcare systems is low, marketing can offer a pathway to rebuild relationships and trust. By focusing on transparency, consistency and empathy, healthcare institutions can position themselves as trustworthy organizations.

This is not a one-time effort, however. Rebuilding trust requires an ongoing commitment to listening and communicating. Investing in strategic healthcare communications is not just good marketing, it is essential for organizations that want to restore trust and improve patient outcomes. Marketing can not only bridge the trust gap but also rebuild a healthcare system that patients and all of us healthcare consumers can rely on with confidence.  

Photo: zhaojiankang, Getty Images

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