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The Psychology of Patient Decision-Making & How To Apply It to Medical Marketing

Patient decision-making differs from typical consumer behavior in a fundamental way: patients often have to make choices while experiencing fear and stress.

In other words: the stakes are high, not only for patients but also for healthcare organizations. If your messaging misjudges the patient decision-making process, you risk ineffective medical advertising and marketing … and worse, damaged trust that could harm patients and your reputation.

Fortunately, extensive research exists on patients' health-related decisions, including choosing providers and treatments. In this guide, we apply that research to medical marketing and give you a glimpse at the importance of marketing in healthcare. We show you how to create medical marketing strategies that meet potential patients where they are — and avoid ethical pitfalls.

What Is Medical Marketing?

What is marketing in healthcare? Medical marketing — often used interchangeably with the healthcare marketing definition — is marketing to patients on behalf of medical practices, clinics, hospitals, and facilities.

The end goal of medical advertising or marketing is to attract and retain patients. This could be through…

Brand awareness - spreading the word about your organization and what you do best
Community engagement - building trust and relationships in your local area
Provider recruitment - attracting talented healthcare professionals through physician marketing

For the complete picture of direct-to-patient marketing, read our other guide on patient-centric marketing.

In some ways, marketing a medical practice is similar to marketing any business, but in many more ways, it’s unique. There are regulations and ethics to consider that may not arise in other fields, insurance versus private pay considerations, and specialized business models.

Most importantly, the way people interact with and make decisions around their health is often distinct from the way they choose how to spend their money and time with other services. That’s why we recommend healthcare organizations deliberately seek out marketing and messaging support from experts who specialize in marketing for medical professionals.

While AI can be a tool to support and guide, experts adjust and recommend for nuances that exist in medical marketing and to best promote a company’s competitive value in the context of providing care.

How Patient Decision-Making Influences Medical Marketing

Numerous high-quality studies have been published over the past few decades exploring how patients make decisions regarding their health. This research has been incredibly helpful for shaping patient experience, and even teaching providers how to guide patients through scary decisions.

But as healthcare consultants, we think this research can be extended beyond patient care and into the realm of medical marketing strategy.

Here are some key ways the psychology of patient decision-making could influence your traditional and digital medical marketing:

Hindsight bias: Patients may think a past health event was more predictable than it actually was, leading them to blame themselves or feel overly confident in their own experiential knowledge now (possibly dismissing medical advice that goes against experience)
Omission bias: Patients may prefer to take no action when it comes to their health, even when it’s clear that taking action would have a better health outcome (this is likely why patients put off necessary appointments!)
Framing effects: Patients may react differently to the same health information depending on how it's presented. For example, they might be more likely to choose a treatment if told it has an 80% success rate rather than a 20% failure rate.
Added alternatives effect: Patients might change their treatment preference when presented with additional options. For instance, they might prefer treatment A over B, but when treatment C is introduced, they switch to preferring B over A.
Risk preferences for single vs. repeated decisions: Patients might make different choices when facing a one-time health decision (like surgery) versus ongoing decisions (like daily medication). They may be more risk-averse when making a one-time decision.
Time preferences and health behaviors: Patients who strongly prefer immediate gratification over future benefits may struggle more with addictive behaviors or maintaining long-term health routines.
Difficulty predicting future health preferences: Patients may struggle to accurately imagine how they'll feel about future health states, potentially leading to decisions they later regret or find difficult to live with.

Patients’ emotional experiences may change decision-making

Beyond the above well-documented biases and preferences, there’s also research that shows how deeply our feelings influence our health decisions. And in medical contexts, feelings tend to be stronger than ever.

Different emotions can make risks seem higher or lower. For example, fear tends to make risks seem higher, while anger makes them seem lower.
Emotions can affect how much we value things or seek rewards. For instance, sadness can increase the desire for immediate results.
Emotions influence how we perceive and interact with others. For example, shame and anger lead to decreased trust in healthcare providers, while gratitude increases trust and adherence.
Some emotions (like fear and sadness) lead to more careful, systematic thinking, while others (like anger or happiness) promote quicker, more intuitive decision-making.

Applying Patient Psychology in Medical Marketing

Let’s take what we now know about patient psychology and what is healthcare marketing … and explore how it can be applied to medical marketing strategy!

Before we dive in, remember that incorporating patient psychology into your marketing is about so much more than hitting marketing benchmarks; effective, ethical marketing helps you reach the people who need you most.

In short, what’s at stake is access to care.

Positive framing of health information

Use the framing effect to present health information in ways that encourage positive action. For example, emphasize success rates rather than failure rates when discussing treatments or preventive measures. This could be particularly effective in promoting preventative care like screenings, vaccinations, or lifestyle changes.

Emotion-aware messaging

Adjust marketing messages to account for emotional states commonly experienced in healthcare contexts. For instance, create calming, trust-building content to be used during fear-inducing situations to promote more systematic thinking. Conversely, use more direct, action-oriented messaging when patients are likely to be in positive emotional states.

Combat omission bias

Develop campaigns that specifically address and counter the tendency for inaction. Emphasize the positive outcomes of taking action (like attending checkups or starting treatment early) and the potential negative consequences of delay. Use testimonials or case studies to make these outcomes more tangible and relatable.

Simplify healthcare choices

Address the added alternatives effect by carefully curating how choices are presented to patients. Instead of overwhelming patients with options, consider presenting a streamlined set of choices or using a step-by-step decision-making process. Provide clear, comparative information about each option to facilitate more logical decision-making.

Focus on trust-building between patient & provider

Develop marketing strategies that focus on building and maintaining trust between patients and healthcare providers. This addresses the emotional influence on interpersonal perceptions and the challenges of surrogate decision-making. For example, you could create educational content that evokes gratitude and positive emotions to increase trust and adherence.

Ethical Considerations in Medical Marketing

Ethical marketing is well-worn territory for anyone who’s been paying attention for the past several years. However, when it comes to healthcare, “ethical marketing” takes on a renewed importance and urgency because the person being marketed to (a patient or potential patient) is inherently vulnerable:

Patients don’t understand the complexities of the service enough to judge information as accurate or inaccurate.
Patients are putting their health, and at times, their life, in the hands of the provider, so the stakes are high.

Because of this, regulations have been put into place to dictate broadly what healthcare organizations can or cannot talk about in their marketing to protect patients from less-than-accurate claims, and help support decision-making, rather than complicate it. This can be especially heightened in mental and behavioral health marketing.

Regulations in Healthcare Marketing

The exact regulations vary based on the state and your provider license, and you should familiarize yourself with the regulations that apply to your organization to avoid penalties.

However, some rules should be broadly followed by virtually all types of healthcare organizations in all your traditional and online medical marketing:

Do not disclose any Protected Health Information (PHI) of patients, unless authorized by the patient. This goes for public disclosure (such as including patient names in marketing materials) or private disclosure to anyone outside the care team (such as sharing patient information with marketing agencies).

Do not make any claims that have not been proven. For most of our healthcare clients, this includes any claims that you can “cure,” “heal,” or “100% prevent,” any condition. The FTC requires that all health claims can be substantiated.
Your marketing must be “truthful” — including not leaving out essential information. Be vigilant about checking your marketing against the possibility of accidentally misleading someone. If you say you offer a service, you must be offering it. If you say you are a specialist, you must possess that certification or license. And so on.

Balancing Marketing Goals With Patient Welfare

In healthcare marketing, there's an inherent tension between promoting services and prioritizing patient welfare. The key is to find a balance that serves both the organization's needs and the patient's best interests. Here’s what we recommend:

Focus more on education rather than persuasion. Empower your patients to make informed decisions about their health with clear, accurate information.
Highlight the benefits of services, but don’t downplay potential risks or side effects. Provide an honest representation of success rates and outcomes, as well as all the information about alternative options.

Promote preventative care and healthy lifestyles, even when these messages don't directly lead to immediate business gains. This way, you show your commitment to overall patient welfare, which, over the long term, will boost your organization's reputation and support long-term patient relationships.

Transparency and Trust-building

Being open and honest in all communications is vital in medical marketing. With your patients often feeling their most vulnerable and lacking in specialized knowledge, those layers of transparency and trust can have a huge impact. Here are the key areas where transparency should be at the forefront:

Prioritize financial transparency. Clearly disclose costs, potential additional fees, and expenses related to follow-up care. This helps patients make informed decisions and avoids unpleasant surprises that could damage trust.
Provide honest representation of healthcare providers' qualifications and experience. Always make it easy for patients to access providers’ credentials and qualifications, as well as be open about the limitations of treatments.
Respect patient privacy. All marketing efforts, including those on social media, should strictly adhere to privacy regulations and ethical standards.

The Impact: Beyond Growth Goals

The power of applying the psychology of patient decision-making to your medical marketing efforts lies in how transformative it can be for patients — before they even step foot in your practice.

When you deeply understand biases, preferences, and the emotional influences on patients, you create marketing that could …

Nudge someone out of fear and into hope or gratitude (which could lead to greater adherence)
Encourage someone to seek treatment sooner (and potentially save their life!)
Help someone feel confident making a healthcare decision (rather than languishing in inaction)
And so much more

In short: the impact of ethical and compassionate medical marketing goes so far beyond your organization’s growth goals.
If you need help figuring out which patient-centric messages to focus on in your marketing, start with a value-mapping session with EnticEdge, your healthcare marketing strategy specialists.

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