Healthcare is an important industry both in the UK and around the world, but it’s also a highly sensitive and specific market with specific digital marketing needs.
To place that in some context, the Office of National Statistics found that total healthcare expenditure in the UK in 2024 was £317 billion, equating to around £4,578 per person. Statista states that revenue is expected to show an annual growth rate of 1o.10% from 2022 to 2029.
All in all, healthcare is a growing and increasingly competitive market, where getting your marketing right has important implications for businesses as well as the individual. So, what do you need to know?
The two major differences between healthcare marketing and marketing for other industries are the consumer mindset and how the subject matter is treated by Google and other search engines.
In a marketing context, we refer to healthcare as a ‘distress purchase’. Generally, you refer to marketing as B2B or B2C, but healthcare falls into this niche in the middle, which is when you’re selling to an individual who needs your service but isn’t particularly happy and doesn’t want to have to make it. Other distress purchases might be searching for a divorce lawyer, for example.
From a marketing perspective, this category has more in common with B2B businesses, where people are shopping for things they need rather than things they want. It’s important to focus on building trust, showing your authority in the space and being very clear in your messaging. Your information needs to be informative, but not overly complicated or overwhelming.
From a Google perspective, healthcare is classed as a Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) subject, which refers to anything that could impact an individual’s future happiness, health, financial stability, or safety. Other industries include areas like law and finance.
Google looks at these sites more closely than others, to ascertain what should and shouldn’t rank, in an effort to keep users safe. If it thinks a site is giving rogue medical advice then it will try to keep it out of the SERP. This makes it harder for healthcare businesses to rank organically as they have to do all the things that other sites need to do and more, in order to show their authenticity and authority.
For example, you need to show references for any advice given, have clear content structures and have authors with relevant knowledge behind articles. For example, you can’t just publish an article like ‘best things to do for high cholesterol’ – the author needs to be a doctor/expert and link to other, relevant articles for Google to understand that your site knows what it’s talking about.
In addition to the usual things you might consider for digital marketing – what we refer to as the ‘brilliant basics’ (such as your schema, E-E-A-T principles, platform diversity, format diversity, authenticity), there are some key areas to focus on in healthcare digital marketing.
The first thing to consider is the biggest challenge, and the one that most healthcare providers don’t have end-to-end tracking from enquiry to person becoming a patient. We call it a patient pathway, which is where you work out what your key patient journeys are and how you’re going to track them (we know a patient pathway once in a medical setting is very different) so you know what’s working and what isn’t with your digital marketing.
For example, we’ve helped clients to understand whether a prospect is a family member or the person who needs healthcare themselves, based on the information they look at. Knowing these pathways will help you understand whether the person will convert and enquire or go away and have a conversation.
The next step is to look at your website and think about the ways people are going to convert. In healthcare, people tend to want to speak to someone rather than fill in a form because they need to feel that they’re building a sense of trust. If they pick up the phone, it can make it difficult to track conversions, so you can put other measures in place, like a PDF download that captures an email address so you can match it to those who become patients.
One of the most effective ways to build trust in healthcare marketing is through social proof. This is not just about collecting a few quotes and sticking them on your website. It is about creating a system for capturing authentic feedback and using it to reassure potential patients.
For example, we have worked with clients to encourage real patient reviews after appointments. Making it easy for people to share their experiences while staying compliant with privacy regulations. These reviews then become a resource for prospective patients, showing them what the treatment journey is really like.
Case studies and treatment outcomes are another way to demonstrate expertise. We helped a clinic showcase anonymised treatment results alongside patient stories. This approach improved trust and helped prospective patients understand the impact of the service.
Video testimonials can be very persuasive, but need to be handled carefully. Patients must give clear consent, and all identifying details should be protected. When done correctly, short clips of patients talking about their experience or voiceovers combined with visuals can make a big difference in helping people feel confident in choosing your service.
Working out a process for how you’re going to create your content in healthcare marketing is really important. One of the biggest failures we see is when marketing teams have one executive who’s told to do all the writing but never gets any expert support. In healthcare, that expert input is more important than ever (as mentioned), so you need to work out how you’re going to engage consultants and specialists, and how they’re going to help you create content without taking up too much of their time.
As part of this, you need to consider the author. Understandably, consultants won’t let you publish under their name unless what’s written is really authoritative. However, most people don’t want to read an academic article because it’s complicated. So, you need to find a balance between what Google will see as expert advice, what your customers will read, and the practical process to getting there. For example, you can link to academic journals and use approved quotes from consultants.
Another thing that we have observed is that a lot of the time, if a procedure is perceived to be elective or optional, then healthcare companies will try to avoid including any negative information on the web page. However, side effects and risks are amongst the most common searches for medical treatments and procedures because people know they always exist.
Giving prospective clients all the information without frightening them is essential because excluding it gives the impression you’re hiding something. Some of the biggest healthcare marketing successes that we’ve had have included those risks on web pages because when people feel fully informed, they also feel as though they’re in safe hands.
When it comes to digital marketing for healthcare, a few channels consistently work best. These are the ones we’ve already mentioned above, so your budget should reflect their importance. The trick is balancing efforts between bringing in new patients and keeping the ones you already have happy and engaged.
SEO is still the backbone. People search for treatments or advice, and your site needs to show up. Make sure your content is written or checked by experts, easy to read, and backed by credible sources. Slow pages or clunky mobile experiences will turn people away fast. You can also create helpful guides or resources that attract backlinks and show patients you know your stuff.
Paid search is perfect for targeting people actively looking for your services. Focus on specific treatments and locations rather than broad terms. Keep testing and tweaking your ads. And don’t forget, paid search can also remind existing patients about follow-ups or new treatments.
Paid social works well for engaging patients and keeping them connected. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok respond best to short, helpful, and relatable content. Avoid copying the same post across channels – tailor it for each audience. Video, stories, or tips not only engage users but can also earn you backlinks if shared on other sites.
Email marketing helps you stay in touch with both new leads and existing patients. Send updates, helpful guides, or appointment reminders, but keep it relevant and personal. Every email interaction helps you gather first-party data, which you can use to make your other marketing smarter.
Content marketing is where you show off your expertise. Blogs, videos, infographics, first-party data, success stories, or patient guides can educate people and build trust. Patients appreciate honesty so don’t shy away from sensitive topics like risks or side effects. And if you make really useful content, other sites may link to it, giving your SEO a boost.
Generative AI optimisation is becoming increasingly important for healthcare marketing because people are getting answers from AI tools before they even click through to a website. This means your content needs to be structured and authoritative enough to be picked up by AI engines like Google’s AI overviews or other AI-powered health assistants.
To do this, focus on creating clear, well-organised content that answers specific patient questions. Use headings, bullet points, and concise language to make it easy for AI to extract key points. Linking to reputable sources, citing experts, and including structured data all help AI understand that your content is trustworthy.
Once you’ve got those core elements of your digital marketing established, it’s important to continuously review and improve upon key areas of your strategy. Broadly speaking, we recommend adopting a customer-centric mindset and making sure you’re always feeding back into the process.
Being customer-centric is generally a key tenet of digital marketing, but in healthcare, we are referring back to those patient pathways. Focus on the people you’re talking to, splitting the site to speak to the different users: the patient themselves, their family, and even employers, so you have the right information for them.
It’s essential to make sure you’re feeding your learnings about the type of enquiries and people who are getting in touch, back into the marketing process, especially in private healthcare. For example, you may find you generate enquiries from people who think they can access your services on the NHS. Understanding who you’re attracting and how will help you to scale the activities and actions that drive the right leads to your site, rather than simply focusing on volume.
When it comes to healthcare marketing, understanding the rules is just as important as knowing your audience. Getting it wrong can not only harm your reputation but also land you in serious legal trouble (and nobody wants that).
One of the key areas is managing patient data online. Any information you collect from patients, whether through forms, downloads, or email sign-ups, needs to be stored securely and handled in line with GDPR. This means making sure people know how their data will be used, giving them clear options to consent, and keeping records safe from unauthorised access.
Compliance is also crucial when using testimonials or case studies. Patients must give informed consent before their experiences are shared, and any identifying details need to be anonymised if necessary. Even with positive reviews, you need to ensure nothing could be misinterpreted or used to mislead future patients.
Finally, be aware of advertising restrictions in healthcare. You cannot make claims or guarantees about outcomes that cannot be proven. Marketing content should be accurate, evidence-based, and focused on informing rather than overpromising. For example, phrases like “this treatment will definitely cure” should be avoided in favour of wording that is truthful and transparent.
We do quite a lot of work in the healthcare sector, with clients who have been very successful in translating their expert skills into their digital marketing, building trust with new and existing customers, as well as navigating regulations when it comes to data protection.
For example, The Schoen Clinic, which specialises in mental health, orthopaedic, and spinal care for children and young people, experienced a 174% increase in year-on-year organic traffic by improving their content and optimising their website. The Birmingham Prostate Clinic also focused on increasing the authority and visibility of their website, resulting in a 74% increase in customer conversion rates.
If you have a healthcare business and you want to make sure you’re reaching the right target market, we’d love to help.