Brandon Edwards, CEO of Unlock Health and author of Authentic Healthcare Marketing, sees a growing gap between mission-driven messaging and real-world resonance. In our conversation, he laid out a challenge many in the field quietly wrestle with – and why the path forward may require being a little uncomfortable in unfamiliar channels.

Key Takeaways

Being right doesn’t move people. Being real does. Healthcare marketers need to stop assuming facts will speak for themselves. Audiences no longer trust experts just because they wear white coats – they trust people who speak their language in the places they already are. Your brand can’t serve the whole community if it only speaks to half of it. Organizations are unintentionally ignoring huge swaths of the population because they’re not tailoring messages for people who reject institutional credibility. Authenticity means showing up consistently – even in places that feel uncomfortable. If your media plan avoids “uncomfortable” channels, you’re playing it safe, not smart. Authentic marketing sometimes means choosing relevance over control. That might mean using spokespeople who don’t look like your board or showing up on platforms your execs have never even heard of. Being right won’t matter if no one’s listening

For decades, healthcare marketing has leaned on expert credibility. We have relied on white coats and institutional voices, assuming facts would win. That’s not how trust works anymore.

Edwards points out that many audiences no longer accept institutional truth as a given. That is a shift marketers can’t afford to ignore.

“We’re comfortable speaking to people who trust experts in white coats,” said Edwards. “But half the population just doesn’t anymore. They’re more likely to act on something they saw on TikTok than something they heard from a hospital.”

“Healthcare’s mission is not just to serve those people that are logical and who listen to experts,” continued Edwards. “Our mission is to serve people who have needs. Marketing needs to be tuned into that.”

Healthcare marketers need to think more carefully about the communities they serve (aka the audience). It is highly likely that portions of that audience cannot be reached through traditional messages and channels.

Relevance sometimes means discomfort

Edwards does not see budget or bandwidth as the biggest obstacle to effective healthcare marketing. For him, it is the unwillingness to go outside “the norm”. To reach audiences who don’t trust you means showing up differently: in places your leadership might not frequent, with voices they may not immediately recognize.

“We’re going to have to be willing to leverage spokespeople that we probably aren’t super comfortable with,” explained Edwards. “We’re going to have to put out messages that at least acknowledge that people may not agree with us and may believe things that we don’t necessarily agree with.”

This does not mean deviating from your core principles or beliefs, but it does mean potentially using a spokesperson that is a peer to the audience you are trying to reach rather than an authoritative figure. It may also mean engaging on a platform that is uncomfortable (e.g. TikTok, Discord).

Be present or be ignored

If people never see themselves in a healthcare organization’s message, they may never walk through the doors. As Edwards put it, “I don’t need you to do it (seek care) for my reasons. I need you to do it for your reasons.”

If people never see themselves in your message, they won’t show up at your door either.

Learn more about Unlock Health at https://unlockhealth.com/

Get Edwards’ book, Authentic Healthcare Marketing on Amazon https://a.co/d/g4KLUEJ