Navigating Ethical Challenges in Healthcare Marketing

Healthcare marketing helps healthcare businesses and providers tell potential customers and existing patients about their products and services. Healthcare marketing is different from other forms of marketing because there are crucial ethical considerations to bear in mind. Intentional or not, breaching ethical standards is unacceptable for any healthcare institution or practitioner who decides to market their services and business online.  Advertisers, administrators, and other stakeholders must scrutinize every detail of their campaigns to avoid potential ethical challenges.

Basic Ethical Principles in Healthcare Marketing

In addition to standard regulations that impact marketing in all industries, some industries have additional requirements, including the healthcare industry. Marketers must check the guidelines provided by the state of the relevant healthcare organization to ensure they understand and keep these requirements in mind when crafting marketing campaigns.

The American Medical Association has developed some marketing principles for the healthcare industry with the help of the Direct Marketing Association. These guidelines say that those in the healthcare industry should not use their campaigns to cause harm, must support truth and trust in all their campaigns, and must observe ethical values that ensure patient or consumer confidence.

These guidelines are a great place to start, but healthcare marketing experts can do more to ensure their campaigns are ethical.

Run Honest Campaigns

Healthcare practitioners must always be aware of the risk of defamation stemming from what they say in their marketing campaigns. This risk is real because the Federal Trade Commission has already charged four weight loss companies for false advertising and misleading claims in their marketing. Also, an Australian chiropractor was charged with false advertising for stating their practice could prevent and cure cancer.

Honesty is a very expansive concept, especially in marketing, However, it is easy to recognize and understand what it looks like by understanding a few key principles. First, all advertising campaigns should not hype or embellish claims, credentials, and qualifications. While it may look like doing so would make you stand out, it often has the opposite effect of making people lose trust in you and your practice.

Administrators, practitioners, and marketers should avoid terms like “the best” or “the greatest”. There is no way to measure or prove these labels, so they become a liability in your marketing campaigns. These terms can also be seen as deceptive and misleading, leading to additional problems for the practitioner making those claims.

Stick To What You can Prove

Making claims about the benefits of a product that you cannot prove is wrong. It runs into the same problems we have outlined above. If you cannot prove or demonstrate something, it is best to avoid making these claims and instead stick to what you can prove.

Let patients understand the benefits of using a product or service. For example, you could explain the Medicare supplemental benefits they get when they use a Dual Network Benefit Card. Since other patients have gotten those benefits, they are something you can prove and explain to your patients why they should use such a solution.

When you do this, they are more likely to trust your claims because they know you are not deceiving them as you do not have a history of doing so. They also trust your claims because they know there are facts behind them and that you can back them up.

Use Real Patients and Not Actors

This is a contentious ethical issue in healthcare marketing because some marketers use actors and say they see the benefits of doing so. On the other hand, some practitioners see this as deceptive because those actors may not have used the advertised products and services or may not have visited the practitioner.

Marketers and healthcare institutions can avoid this gray area by using real patients with real testimonials and avoiding testimonial fabrication.

You can also use real patients in your marketing materials, especially if you create marketing videos, but you should always get permission before doing this. Remember that your patients expect you to protect them and information like the products and services they get from you. Not doing this and using them in your marketing without their permission is highly unethical and breaks trust between you and your potential future patients.

Also, you should know what the Federal Trade Commission says about endorsements in advertising before doing this.

Avoid Perpetrating Harmful Stereotypes

Many people argue that stereotypes exist for a reason. However, healthcare practitioners must remain central and avoid these harmful stereotypes in their marketing and practice. Even if we know certain demographics are more likely to suffer from specific illnesses or require specific healthcare services, it is best to avoid making such connections in your advertising.

However, this is not to say that you should not present helpful solutions. You can do this as long as you use factual information and do not use these stereotypes as the main way to support why specific people need that solution.

Marketers do not always think about how ethical their campaigns are. However, ethical considerations are crucial in healthcare marketing and are something marketers should always keep in mind. Being factual and honest, using data you can back up, protecting patient information, and using real patients in your testimonials and video marketing are some of the considerations to remember when running marketing campaigns for this industry.