Should You Focus on Building Trust or Driving Conversions?

In healthcare marketing, trust isn't just a buzzword—it's the foundation of every patient decision. When patients choose a provider, they aren’t simply selecting a name from a list, they're choosing someone they believe will care for them in their most vulnerable moments. That decision-making process is rarely impulsive. In fact, studies show that patients need an average of 6 to 8 touchpoints before they feel ready to engage with a healthcare provider. These touchpoints aren’t about pushing appointments or service lines—they’re about building confidence, credibility, and connection.

Healthcare Content Marketing

So, where does content marketing fit into all of this? Too often, healthcare organizations focus solely on bottom-of-the-funnel tactics such as hard-hitting conversion ads, direct appointment CTAs, and service-line promotions. While these tactics have their place, they can fall flat if patients haven’t yet built a relationship with your brand.

That’s where top-of-funnel (ToFu) and middle-of-funnel (MoFu) marketing come in. Educational content, community engagement, and storytelling provide patients with meaningful interactions long before they need to make a healthcare decision. When done right, these efforts create a seamless path from awareness to conversion, making that final CTA feel natural rather than forced.

Proving Healthcare Marketing ROI

But let’s address the elephant in the room: ROI. Healthcare marketers are under immense pressure to prove that every dollar spent leads to tangible results. The challenge? Content marketing’s value isn’t always immediate. Unlike a direct-response ad campaign that can track conversions within weeks, content-driven strategies take time to nurture patients through the decision-making process. However, that doesn’t mean they lack measurable impact. Consider these key benefits:

1. Increased Organic Reach & SEO Visibility: A strong content strategy drives long-term traffic to your website, keeping your brand top-of-mind when patients are searching for relevant health information.

2. Higher Patient Retention & Loyalty: Trust-driven marketing fosters deeper connections, making it more likely that a patient will return to your system for future care needs.

3. Improved Conversion Rates Over Time: By establishing trust early, your conversion-focused campaigns become more effective when the patient is ready to take action.

4. Stronger Reputation & Community Advocacy: When patients feel connected to a healthcare brand, they become organic brand ambassadors, sharing their positive experiences and influencing others.

Playing the Long Game with Omni-Channel Marketing Strategies

The bottom line? You can’t rush ROI. The most successful healthcare brands recognize that trust-building efforts pay off in long-term patient volume, better online engagement, and an enhanced reputation that money alone can’t buy.

At Ten Adams, we help health systems strike the right balance between brand-building and conversion-driven marketing. By crafting multi-touchpoint, omni-channel strategies that nurture trust first, we ensure that when patients are ready to make a decision, your brand is the obvious choice.

Watch our Hot Take from Account Director Sloane Dedmond and Account Strategist Kaydi Rainey to see how it's done and contact our team if you're ready to optimize your trust-building approach.

Video Transcript

00:00 - Intro - Kaydi Rainey and Sloane Dedmond

Hi, I'm Sloane Dedmond I'm an Account Director here at Ten Adams. and I'm Kaydi Rainey and I'm an Account Strategist here at Ten Adams. Are you ready for a Hot Take? It's time we have the "What are we" talk. What do you do when your consumers and your patients are wanting a deeper connection but your C-Suite is so focused on those quick conversions?

00:20 - Trust is the most important decision-making factor for patients
This is such an important topic because we're seeing on average that consumers are wanting around 6 to 8 touch points before they feel ready or comfortable to make a decision about their healthcare. And, when it comes to making that decision, the most important factor is trust. Who do they trust most to care for them when they're in their time of need? And, I don't know about you, Sloane, but I do not like when my healthcare providers or the healthcare systems that they work with come off spammy. It's, it's not attractive. I want to have a relationship with them. I want to know what they're doing in the community, I want to know what value they can provide me as a patient.


01:00 - Content marketing is all about building trust
And that's what content marketing is all about. It's not that quick ROI. You're not probably going to see them foot traffic immediately a month after you do a content marketing campaign, but you're providing trust and brand awareness so that whenever they do have those 6 to 8 touchpoints, they're ready to convert and you are the first person, the first brand that comes to mind whenever they are ready to make an appointment. 


01:20 - Why we feel pressured to prove quick ROI in marketing
We're so trained to do the opposite, too. So, you mentioned ROI— everyone is so focused on proving that quick ROI because that's what they are pressured to do internally within the health system. Also, resources are a real thing. Time, and honestly, the people dedicated enough to to create that type of content— when it's limited— you want to focus on those things that can prove that immediate ROI. So, everybody focuses on bottom of the funnel, bottom of the funnel, bottom of the funnel. But, we're here to flip the script and start focusing a little bit more on that top of funnel content.

01:58 - Top of funnel content is essential for building trust
ToFu. Fake meat? No! Top of funnel content! Either/or, ToFu is top of funnel, and there's MoFu— not to be confused with mofo— middle of funnel marketing, and, they're both so important whenever you are building trust with a patient. Yep. And what's the cost if you do this wrong? Like you said, you come off as spammy, you start to alienate certain audiences, and also, most important, when that consumer is converted to a patient and they have an amazing experience that is built on that foundation of trust, they become such an organic advocate for your brand in the community. So, if you aren't doing that, if you aren't building that element of trust, you are going to lose patients because you don't have a brand advocate online. If someone's looking at a Google review, you don't have a brand advocate in the community— if someone's asking their friend— therefore, you are losing out on patients.

02:47 - Marketing with only conversion-based ads is a waste of money
I actually have a Hot Take within the Hot Take. Oh?! Again, if you are spending money for conversion-based ads and it's the first time a patient is seeing you and they're not ready to convert, what are you doing? Wasting—you're wasting your money.


02:57 - How to utilize an omni-channel marketing strategy
So, how do we execute this? We like to utilize a multichannel or omni-channel— whichever term you use—strategy. So, you can use your own channels, your social media, your website, your blog. You can use your paid strategies— but take note of her Hot Take within the Hot Take— so, you can use all of your paid media that you buy in place or you can use your earned media. So, how can you utilize PR and community outreach events to spread your message?


03:20 - Example of a user flow within an omni-channel strategy
So, what is an example of a user flow look like in this omni-channel strategy or funnel? First, you want to make sure that you are getting users or potential consumers to your site. This can be through search engine optimized content, whenever someone is searching a keyword or a symptom on Google or Bing, or you can utilize that content for social, and you can put a small boost behind it targeting specific demographics, locations, and everything.

Once you get that user to your site, You want to then nurture them. You can do an opt-in form— of course, make sure it's HIPAA compliant— or you can offer them a resource so that they want to actually opt into your email list. This can be exclusive content, it could be timely, just something that really captures their attention, shows them the value that you provide as a healthcare brand, and so that they want those multiple touchpoints and they show their interest in going from that top of funnel down to the bottom of the funnel.

So, a great example of that could be mammo. So, when you're coming into their inbox you don't want to push schedule your mammogram, schedule your mammogram. Let's first start with why a mammogram is important. How can it benefit the consumer or the patient's lives? Timeliness? Also, let's get in their inbox in October when it is top of mind, when everybody's talking about it in the community.Yep. And, you can even do something like video marketing or utilize what we have sometimes with our clients called Social Squads. It's people within your brand that consumers are used to seeing—the doctors and everything— and they can provide some, some tips and tricks on both social and email. And from there, you'll have that fifth, sixth touchpoint and then you'll be ready to get into their inbox with that CTA. It could be click to call, it can be a schedule online. it can be request more information, but it's something that you're providing touchpoint 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 and then, they are ready to convert. Absolutely.


05:04 - Follow Ten Adams for more marketing tips


So need more helpful tips, you can find us on social media. At Ten Adams. Thanks! You know who I go to when I ask the questions to? I go to my friends/Google.