Healthcare marketing that helps people access the care and support they need
Healthcare is one of the most important and challenging communication environments.
Whether you’re encouraging people to attend screening appointments, access support, make
informed choices about their health or engage with healthcare services, success often depends
on understanding your audience and creating communications that connect. The right approach
can help increase service uptake, improve patient engagement and support better health outcomes.
At SBW, we work with healthcare organisations to create campaigns that build trust, encourage
action and help people get the information and care they need. Over the past two decades, we’ve
worked with NHS organisations, cancer alliances, public health teams, healthcare partnerships
and government bodies to connect with communities and support better health outcomes.
What is healthcare marketing?
Healthcare marketing helps organisations communicate effectively with patients,
communities, healthcare professionals and stakeholders.
Unlike commercial marketing, healthcare communications often involve complex
decisions, sensitive subjects and important public outcomes. Success isn’t just about
raising awareness. It’s about helping people make informed choices and take action
that improves their health and wellbeing.
Effective healthcare marketing combines audience insight, behavioural science,
communications strategy and creative thinking to build trust, improve understanding
and encourage action, helping healthcare organisations achieve their service,
engagement and public health objectives.
Our approach
Every healthcare challenge is different, but one thing stays the same: successful healthcare communications start with understanding people.
Before developing messaging, creative ideas or campaign activity, we take time to understand the audience, the healthcare challenge, the service or intervention being promoted and the outcomes the organisation is trying to achieve.
Audience insight
Every successful healthcare campaign starts with a clear understanding of the people it needs to reach. We take time to understand the factors influencing decisions, exploring:
- Audience needs
- Attitudes and beliefs
- Challenges and concerns
- Motivations for action
- Awareness and understanding
- Media Habits
- Community and cultural influences
This insight helps us identify where communications can make the greatest difference and how messages can be tailored for different audiences.
Understanding what drives action
We use proven behavioural science approaches, including COM-B and EAST, to better understand what influences decisions and identify opportunities to encourage positive action.
Strategy, creative and delivery
Once we understand the audience, we turn those insights into a clear communications strategy. From messaging and creative development through to media planning, stakeholder engagement, digital activity and campaign delivery, everything is designed to work together and support the desired outcome.
Measurement and evaluation
Understanding what worked is just as important as the campaign itself. We build measurement and evaluation into every stage of our work, helping organisations understand what’s making a difference, what can be improved and where future opportunities lie.
Using recognised approaches such as OASIS, we track performance, gather insight and provide practical recommendations that help shape future activity.
Our work
Every healthcare challenge is different. These examples show
how we’ve helped organisations understand people, tackle
complex challenges and create campaigns that make a real difference.
Why SBW?
Healthcare communications work best when people trust the message and understand
why it matters.
For more than 20 years, we’ve worked alongside NHS organisations, public health teams,
cancer alliances and healthcare partnerships across Wales and the UK, helping tackle
complex communications challenges and improve health outcomes.
By combining audience insight, behavioural science and integrated communications
expertise, we help organisations turn strategy into action. From increasing service
uptake and improving patient engagement to supporting workforce recruitment and
public health initiatives, we create campaigns that connect with audiences and
deliver meaningful results.
Frequently asked questions
Healthcare marketing helps organisations connect with people through clear, effective communications. It’s about raising awareness, building trust and helping people access the information, care and support they need.
We’ve worked with NHS organisations, public health teams, cancer alliances, healthcare partnerships and healthcare providers across Wales and the UK. Our experience includes public health campaigns, service uptake initiatives, patient engagement, workforce recruitment and healthcare behaviour change programmes.
We’ve supported campaigns covering prevention, screening, public health, healthcare services, healthier lifestyles, workforce recruitment and patient engagement.
Yes. We use proven behavioural science approaches, including frameworks such as COM-B and EAST, to better understand audiences and create more effective communications.
Yes. Public health communications form a significant part of our healthcare experience, from awareness campaigns and prevention programmes to behaviour change and community engagement initiatives.
Every campaign is different, so we tailor our approach to measuring success. We combine campaign performance data, audience research and evaluation to understand what’s working and where we’ve made a difference.
Healthcare communications often involve important decisions, sensitive topics and diverse audiences. Success depends on understanding people, building trust and creating communications that are relevant, accessible and easy to act on.
Let’s start with the challenge
Whether you’re looking to increase service uptake, support a public health
campaign, engage a specific audience or communicate a complex healthcare
message, we’ll help you understand your audience, identify the right approach
and create communications that work harder.
Get in touch to start the conversation
Leticia
Managing Director
Rich
Head of Client Services
