Healthcare Marketing FAQs We Get From Clients
Healthcare marketing just keeps on evolving, and our clients are asking smarter, more specific questions than ever before. From patient privacy and targeting changes to proving ROI and driving real appointment volume, the challenges are complex, and the stakes are high. In this edition of Vital Signs, we pulled together some of the most common healthcare marketing questions we hear as a full-service agency and asked each of our department leaders to share their perspective.
ANSWERS BY DEPARTMENT
Account services
Answered by: Jonathan Bone, Co-President, Account Services, and Narina Kasabova, Senior Account Manager
If our brand issues are coming from internal burnout or staffing shortages, what can we realistically do on the marketing side?
Eh, if burnout and staffing shortages have reached the point of doing brand damage, that sounds like systemic issues that can’t be fixed with a marketing campaign, but it doesn’t mean that marketing doesn’t have an important seat at the table in helping to fix the issues.
Diagnose
First is accurately diagnosing the issue, and marketing can certainly help with that part. Before assuming where negative perceptions are coming from, marketing can help validate and contextualize them through primary research with patients, referral partners, or other key external audiences. This would really help not just understand the perceptions, but we could help detail where the common intersection points are with these audiences that most commonly create the negative perceptions. This can be expensive or too time-consuming for some clients, but an inexpensive way to get some sentiment insights can be from using social media listening tools. It will do much less to help identify the intersection points where these interactions occur, but we would at least get a clearer picture of brand sentiment.
Improve operations
The next step is actually improving operations, starting with the people who have the most impact on it, but also are sometimes the least empowered to speak up about resources that are lacking: frontline staff. Simply educating frontline staff on the friction points will lead to decreased morale, but if we educate them on them and then arm them with resources that make their job easier, that’s where we can win. Talking points and FAQ docs can be easy sources of wins. Larger-scale internal infrastructure projects could also be pursued, including developing an intranet site or resource hub.
Launch a campaign
Once meaningful changes have been implemented, a campaign could be launched to communicate the operational improvements (or to only hit on operational excellence if admitting shortcomings isn’t agreeable for the given brand). This would need to be done in a “show me, don’t tell me” manner as much as possible (customer testimonials, etc.).
If conducted with a sizably relevant panel, the same research that was conducted up front to inform the issues/proposed path forward could be repeated in order to show improvement over time in sentiment.
— Jonathan
Marketing can’t fix burnout, but it can stop contributing to it. The most helpful thing you can do is simplify. Fewer channels, clearer direction, targeted messages. Reusing what already exists, maybe adding some guardrails so teams aren’t starting from scratch every time — especially when capacity is limited.
– Narina
How do we keep marketing from becoming a game of whack-a-mole across channels?
There’s a plethora of familiar tools that can be put in place for this, including general guidance, firm parameters, detailed processes, and tools using AI. I think this question can also be interpreted as being about operational efficiency/cost savings or about consistency of experience for the audiences receiving the messages.
If it’s about operational efficiency, I think that one is easier, but it does require prioritizing activities, which will vary by organization.
If it’s about maintaining a consistent experience for external audiences, I feel like where the typical solutions break down is when they only account for what’s traditionally considered “marketing.” Where we have to get clients to focus their attention is on the end output to their audiences, rather than the activities they themselves are carrying out as a means to that end. At the end of the day, the goal isn’t to totally control every communication. It’s instead to align communication expectations/standards in a manner across all touchpoints (marketing or not), so that the external audience’s experience doesn’t feel disjointed.
– Jonathan
I think this happens when everything is a priority. My advice is to set a clear priority. Align on a set of goals and messages (audiences) for the quarter and let that drive channel decisions. If it doesn’t tie back to the priority, it can wait. Then you just have to deal with the random requests from your executive leadership that are always urgent.
– Narina
If we can only do a few things in any given quarter, what’s the smartest order to tackle them in?
That’s so hard to say because it varies by client. I have clients for whom I know the only answer would be to sit down and talk through it with them. I have clients that I also know we will never get anything out of unless we pull together a recommendation and make them react to it. If all else is consistent and the client has no priority of order, then I would want our team to tie recommendations to specific criteria, such as maybe we come up with a list of activities and then we try to grade each one on price to the client, time/difficulty to implement, perceived reward from implementing, and perceived risk from not implementing. Decision logic of that nature would help back any recommendation we make.
– Jonathan
Clarity first, then systems, then campaigns. Get the message right and then fix what slows teams down operationally, like website issues, unclear ownership, messy workflows/approvals, etc. The efficiency will go a long way and help prevent burnout.
– Narina
Data & Analytics
Answered by: Joshua Jones, Director of Digital Strategy
What’s the cleanest way to track appointments from marketing without creeping patients out?
Compliance comes before perception. If you’re meeting HIPAA requirements, patient trust largely takes care of itself. The challenge is that standard web analytics tools weren’t built for healthcare, and the major platforms won’t sign Business Associate Agreements.
The core compliance issue is when identifiable information (IP address, device ID, email) gets combined with health-related information a user actively provides. A form submission for an oncology appointment captures both. That’s PHI, and you need the right infrastructure to handle it.
Phone calls have become the preferred conversion action, not because they’re inherently safer, but because HIPAA-compliant call tracking vendors exist and will sign BAAs. They can tell you who scheduled an appointment while handling PHI appropriately. That’s harder to accomplish with web forms unless you’re using a compliant intermediary and stripping identifiers before data reaches your analytics platform.
Forms aren’t impossible; they just require more work. You need either a vendor willing to sign a BAA or a technical architecture that prevents PHI from reaching non-compliant platforms. And you need to re-evaluate every time the site or forms change.
What are the biggest analytics mistakes healthcare teams make when privacy rules tighten?
The biggest mistake is not recognizing when you’ve crossed the line into protected health information. Any time a user actively provides information that combines their identity with health-related data, such as filling out a condition-specific form, completing a chat intake, or downloading gated content about a diagnosis, you may have created PHI. Once that happens, HIPAA’s Privacy and Security Rules apply, and most standard marketing tools can’t help you.
An unwatched site quickly becomes a compliance problem. Healthcare websites change over time, and staff members unfamiliar with these risks will add forms, chat widgets, or gated content that would be perfectly fine in other industries but create real exposure here. Typically, no one is watching for these issues as the site evolves.
Which actions should count as real intent for healthcare: form fills, calls, directions, portal logins?
It depends on what you’re trying to measure. If you’re trying to prove that marketing drove actual appointments, HIPAA-compliant call tracking tools are your best option. Even basic call tracking is a step up from where many health systems start. These vendors will sign Business Associate Agreements and have built systems designed to handle PHI appropriately. They can provide real data on who scheduled without the compliance complications you’d face trying to do the same with web forms and standard analytics platforms.
If you want to measure how a website is performing more broadly, engagement actions like directions clicks or doctor profile views can serve as useful indicators of interest. These don’t typically involve users providing health-related information, so they carry less risk.
For longer-term patient engagement metrics, portal logins might be relevant, but portals contain substantial PHI. Your ability to track and analyze that activity will be extremely limited by design.
Creative
Answered by: Richard Johnson, Sr. VP and Chief Creative Officer
How do we create a strong look and feel when legal/compliance has to be involved?
This comes down to your agency fully understanding the legal and compliance guidelines. Once these are understood, legal and compliance approval should be part of the timeline, as compared to a hurdle with each project.
How do we keep brand consistency when we have multiple hospitals, clinics, and service lines?
The brand standards and visual identity standards need to be fully developed in order to handle the variety of hospitals, clinics, service lines, media, and messaging. Many times, there isn’t enough guidance, nor enough templates, as to how to handle the messaging from a visual and copy standpoint. Having a deep asset library of custom/ownable photography, illustrations, and graphics further helps with brand consistency.
When should we use real photography vs. illustration vs. icon-style design?
Photography can be very helpful when you want imagery that is custom to your organization: Clinicians, employees, facilities; they all help a patient better understand who you are and what they’ll experience.
Illustrations can be useful for understanding procedures that are difficult to explain with photography. It can also be helpful when creating a style that could be part of a children’s hospital in order to create a more approachable look and feel.
Icons can help someone understand basic topics or components of a program or service. They can provide topic recognition faster than just with copy, as well as provide visual interest to print and web documents.
Public Relations & Social Media
Answered by: Tamara Davis, Sr. Vice President – Public Relations and Social Media
PUBLIC RELATIONS
How do we protect trust if we get negative press, a safety issue, or social backlash?
Trust isn’t something that can be manufactured in a crisis. It is built long before one happens and tested when things go wrong. Health systems protect trust by responding quickly and clearly, even if all the details aren’t available yet. A timely acknowledgment paired with a human, empathetic tone matters more than perfect wording. Audiences expect transparency, not defensiveness, and they want to know what’s being done to understand the issue and prevent it from happening again. Consistent messaging across media, social media, internal teams and frontline staff is critical, as is visible follow-through. Organizations that come out stronger don’t try to control the narrative; they demonstrate accountability through actions.
What stories are journalists interested in from a health system right now?
Journalists today are far less interested in institutional announcements and far more focused on stories that feel human, relevant and timely. The most effective healthcare stories are told through real people — patients, clinicians and employees — because personal experiences are what audiences remember and what media are drawn to. Patient-centered outcomes, clinician perspectives from the front lines, and stories that show how care is changing in real time resonate far more than abstract achievements or self-congratulatory milestones.
Coverage consistently centers on access to care, workforce challenges, behavioral and maternal health, health equity, and practical guidance that helps people make informed health decisions. While innovation and awards can earn a brief mention, they rarely stand out on their own. When those achievements are brought to life through a visual, human story — showing how a breakthrough, program or policy impacts a real person — a quick news snippet often becomes a much bigger, more memorable story.
People help tell the story in a way institutions can’t. Real stories stick with patients, and real stories stick with the media, because they answer not just what happened, but why it matters.
How can we position our clinicians as credible experts without putting extra strain on already-busy staff?
Positioning clinicians as trusted experts requires reducing friction, not adding to their workload. The most effective approach is for communications teams to handle preparation, pitching, scheduling and follow-up so clinicians can focus solely on sharing their expertise. Just as important is being strategic with the limited time you have. When a clinician is already participating in an internal marketing project or education initiative, that moment should be maximized, capturing insights that can be repurposed for social media, internal content, media pitches, thought leadership or future storytelling.
Providing concise talking points, background materials and flexible response options such as email quotes or brief calls helps make participation manageable, while advance planning ensures each interaction is intentional and efficient. Building a small, willing bench of experts rather than relying on the entire staff prevents burnout, and setting clear expectations around time commitments builds trust internally. When every moment with clinicians is thoughtfully planned and leveraged, media engagement becomes a natural extension of patient education and not a recurring interruption to their day.
SOCIAL MEDIA
What should healthcare social be focused on in 2026: awareness, education, reputation, or driving appointments?
In 2026, healthcare social should be focused first on education and reputation, with awareness and appointment-driving playing supporting roles. On social platforms, audiences aren’t in a “conversion mindset.” They’re deciding whether a health system feels credible, human, and trustworthy enough to consider when care is needed.
Social media functions as a daily touchpoint and trust-builder, not a digital billboard. Educational content, clinician insights, and transparent storytelling build familiarity and confidence over time, while reputation-driven content reinforces values and reliability. Awareness is best amplified through thoughtful paid media that extends the reach of high-performing, trust-building content rather than replacing it with overt promotion. Appointment-driving is most effective when it’s occasional, relevant and tied to moments of need; not when it dominates the feed. Health systems that succeed on social understand that consistent trust-building, supported by strategic paid amplification, is what ultimately leads to action.
How do we respond to misinformation or hostile comments without escalating the situation?
Responses aren’t just for the commenter — they’re for everyone watching. The goal is to maintain credibility, not to win an argument. Questioning, skepticism or even criticism shouldn’t automatically be removed; in many cases, thoughtful concerns deserve a calm, factual response. The most effective social responses correct misinformation once with clear language and credible sources, while acknowledging frustration or concern without validating false claims.
That said, transparency doesn’t mean tolerating bad-faith behavior. When individuals are clearly trolling, spreading repeated falsehoods or refusing to engage in any productive conversation, actions such as hiding comments or blocking accounts may be necessary to protect the community. Knowing when to respond, when to move a conversation to private messages and when to disengage altogether is just as important as the response itself. A health system’s public tone and how it balances openness with moderation signals professionalism and trustworthiness far beyond any single comment thread.
What kind of content performs best when patients are skeptical and want proof, not hype?
Skeptical audiences respond best to content that feels real, specific and grounded, not polished or promotional. Clinician-led videos, plain-language explanations and short, informative posts that answer common questions perform far better than branded claims.
Behind-the-scenes content that shows how care works and what patients can expect helps remove uncertainty and fear. In practice, offering a behind-the-scenes perspective, such as documenting procedures internally to raise awareness, often answers questions patients didn’t even know how to ask and reduces anxiety before they ever step into a care setting. Seeing the environment, the people involved and the process itself builds familiarity and trust in a way traditional messaging can’t.
Real patient stories, outcome-focused examples and third-party validation, such as research findings or accreditations, further build credibility when presented simply and visually.
SEO & AEO
Answered by: Courtney Henderson, Director of SEO
With people now getting answers from AI instead of Google links, does SEO still matter?
Optimizing for search absolutely still matters — we’re just optimizing for a different search behavior and a different type of search engine, that’s all. It still plays a powerful role in how patients form understanding and make decisions; they just don’t need to visit your website to do so. Brands that fail to recognize this will lose control over their own narrative. If you give up on how your information gets interpreted and presented to searchers, you’re creating space for competitors or secondary sources to define it for you.
How do we build trust in search results and AI answers for sensitive topics (symptoms, treatment, mental health) without sounding promotional?
By making sure your content is written or reviewed by someone with experience, expertise, authority, and trust in whatever field the topic is covering. Remember, it’s Google’s job to keep its users safe by surfacing the best, most accurate answers to their queries. Its E-E-A-T guidelines are how it determines whether the information you’re putting out is accurate or not. Set up author bios for your experts and link them to articles. To avoid coming off promotional, write like you’re helping someone understand their options. Keep it informative and skip the marketing-style promises. Use the Author schema markup on your content pages as well. These steps don’t guarantee visibility in search results, but they do make your content more eligible to be trusted and selected.
What does “local SEO” look like for a multi-location system with specialties, urgent care, and hospital services?
In a sense, the “think globally, act locally” principle can be put into practice here. Be truly helpful to the specific communities and audiences you serve under the umbrella of one strong brand. A system can be widespread, but each area and patient it serves has its own unique challenges and concerns. Tap into these with location-specific pages and Google Business Profiles posts, specialty and city service pages, consistent NAP, LocalBusiness schema markup, a location-level reviews strategy, and local backlinks and citations (i.e., links to your website pages from trustworthy sources).
Media Planning
Answered by: Mary Kate Reed, Co-President, Media Director
If we have a limited budget, where would you put the money first?
No two plans are created equal, but generally speaking, if you have a limited budget, focus on high-intent search and conversion tracking. Paid search can get you in front of the right people who have an urgent need or are in a decision moment. With a limited budget, the best place to start is with people looking for care without your specialty or category. Meeting them in search with a high-quality landing page will not only drive meaningful action, but ensuring that call tracking, online form tracking and online scheduling are all connected will also help inform the future.
How do we avoid paying for impressions from people who will never become patients?
While you can’t ever eliminate waste completely, you can ensure that strategic decisions guide your investments. Demographics are historically weak predictors of patient behavior, but with healthcare advertising and privacy restrictions, we can’t leverage some of the rich datasets we are able to for other industries. Instead, we have to rely on context and proxy signals.
- Intent-based queries are fair game — Search targets queries, where no inference is required.
- Geography and timing still matter — Location, device type, time of day/day of week, proximity to the area, visitors vs. residents can all weed out irrelevant “never gonna become a patient” targets.
- First-party signals are critical — Current patient data can offer powerful signals to inform targeting. Website visitors, callers, appointment starters, etc. If first-party data is collected appropriately and ethically, it can be used to inform the future.
- Creative does the targeting/weeding — Since platforms can’t target as precisely, the creative has to do the heavy lifting. Messaging about sports injuries, or late-night X-rays, or same-day pediatric sick visits will all reach and target different segments, without actually targeting them.
What’s the best way to plan around seasonal stuff — flu season, back-to-school, sports injuries, all that?
Seasonality is fairly predictable, depending on the healthcare specialty you are working in. The key is to go after the moments where you know your consumer will need your product. There’s no need to manufacture moments when it comes to healthcare — we know the flu season is September–February, with a spike during October –January, we know when back-to-school physicals are due, and that sports injuries are more common in the fall and spring. By building out a specific seasonal demand calendar for your specialty, you’ll have a great start, but you can also leverage Google Trends and your appointment logs to reverse engineer.
Once you know your key moments, make a plan to get out there 2–4 weeks ahead of peak seasons. Swap out messaging and increase the budget when capacity can handle it.
Growth & Lead Generation
Answered by: Mark Holt, Chief Marketing Officer
How do we compete when other systems feel louder, bigger, or more “everywhere” than we are?
Don’t try to outspend them. Instead, focus on being more personal and more specific. Big systems often struggle to feel truly local or individualized, so the opportunity is to double down on the places where you already have trust and visibility. That means leaning into the hyper-local markets where you already have strong trust and focusing on the service lines you can truly own. It also means speaking directly to what patients care about most, like how quickly they can be seen, who they’ll be treated by, and what the overall experience will feel like. The systems that win in these moments are the ones that feel truly connected to their community through real relationships and authentic patient stories that come across as personal instead of cold and corporate.
How do we prove marketing is driving real patient volume?
You have to connect what people see and click with what actually turns into appointments or procedures. The most effective way to do that is by closing the loop through tools like call tracking with campaign-specific phone numbers and clean digital tracking, such as UTMs, that carry through into your scheduling system or CRM.
We’re getting clicks, but not enough appointments. Where do leads usually drop off?
The drop-off usually happens after the initial interest, once people hit friction in the experience. Often, the website makes scheduling harder than it needs to be, or key details like insurance, location, and hours aren’t immediately clear. Just as often, the phone experience becomes the bottleneck, with long hold times or staff who aren’t set up to convert inquiries into booked visits. Speed matters too. If someone fills out a form and doesn’t hear back quickly, they move on fast. In healthcare, even an hour can feel too late. And sometimes it comes down to practical barriers like insurance uncertainty or limited appointment availability, where patients are ready to act but the next opening is weeks away.
Paid Media
Answered by: Kyle Rogers, Media Director
What channels are worth spending our budget on now that targeting is harder (cookies, privacy laws, platform changes)?
With targeting getting harder, the channels that still make sense are the ones that don’t rely heavily on third-party data. First-party, consent-based audiences have become incredibly important because they let brands keep a direct connection with people even as cookies fade away.
Paid search continues to be a smart investment since it reaches users who are actively looking for answers or services, without depending on third-party tracking. Paid social can still support awareness and engagement, especially at the top of the funnel, but in healthcare, the targeting options are often limited due to privacy considerations.
Video, particularly through YouTube and connected TV, is also valuable for building awareness and trust at scale using broader, privacy-friendly targeting, and contextual display and video help round things out by placing ads in relevant environments without relying on cookies at all.
How do we make sure our ads show up in the right places and don’t end up next to sketchy content?
By combining upfront controls with ongoing oversight. Brand safety and verification tools help screen inventory before ads ever run, reducing the risk of placements next to content that doesn’t align with the brand. You can also use placement controls and whitelists to prioritize trusted sites and channels that have a strong track record, then continuously monitor performance and flag or exclude anything that feels off. Contextual targeting also helps by placing ads next to relevant content, like healthcare education, without using personal data, and all placements still go through strict healthcare compliance and creative reviews to meet legal and platform requirements.
What’s the right split between brand awareness ads and “book-now” ads for our service lines?
There’s no one “right” split because it really depends on the service line and patient mindset, which can vary widely in healthcare from ongoing condition management to urgent or elective care. However, awareness should always be working in support of conversion rather than replacing it. The strongest performance tends to come when brand and book-now campaigns are intentionally connected, not run in silos, and designed to work together across the full patient journey. As platforms lean more heavily into AI, it’s helpful for optimizing delivery, but it shouldn’t be allowed to redefine messaging, targeting, or care priorities. Also, its recommendations still need to be reviewed to make sure they align with the brand and media strategy.
Website Design & Development
Answered by: Tyrus Christiana, Senior Digital Director
Our website feels outdated. What are the best updates we can implement since patients expect a retail-like experience (fast, intuitive, mobile-first) now?
Maybe an interactive quiz for intake routing. Something to engage the visitor, like a help desk would. It doesn’t need to collect data, just help provide guidance. An AI chatbot that opens the conversation front and center might also work in the same way.
What do you recommend we prioritize first: design refresh, performance improvements, content overhaul, or conversion optimization?
That depends on where the weakness lies. If the website was built on a no-code builder platform, that should be the first order of business to remove/refactor.
How do we ensure accessibility and compliance without sacrificing design quality?
Good programming can do this without issues, but an overlay widget helps with colors and other accessibility features.
Get Expert Answers to Your Healthcare Marketing Questions
The truth is, healthcare marketing works best when strategy, creative, media, technology, and measurement are aligned around the patient experience. These are just some of the questions that health systems are navigating right now, and demonstrate why an integrated approach matters. Whether the need is stronger visibility, better lead conversion, clearer reporting, or long-term growth, PriceWeber is built to support healthcare organizations across every discipline. If any of these questions sound familiar, we would love to talk about what it could look like to solve them together. You can get in touch with our team here or by calling 502-499-4209.
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