Word of mouth and social media are more trusted than traditional advertising
Nielsen surveyed over 25,000 consumers online across more than 50 markets across the world to study their attitudes towards trust, value and engagement in advertising. You can find the full report here.
In a nutshell, peer recommendation is the most trusted channel, trusted “completely” or “somewhat” by 9 out of 10 respondents worldwide. Conversely, online search, banner advertising and video ads are trusted by fewer than half the respondents.
As an interesting side note, the study found that Europeans tend to be the least trusting of advertising.
If you agree that Neilsen’s results are valid:
- Word of mouth trumps all other forms of advertising
- Doctors have consistently come out on top of polls of the most trusted professions for the past 25 years (90% of people believe doctors “tell the truth”
What actually happens in healthcare marketing
Large companies offering elective medical services do not
- invest more in customer service and social media (customer opinions posted online) that stimulates positive word of mouth
- lead their advertising messages with the expertise of their doctors carrying out the procedures
Because the larger players are more visible, and because smaller companies admire and mimic the marketing practices of the larger companies, most healthcare businesses:
- spend considerably much more money on advertising than they do on customer service and social media
- use communication tools associated with big brand advertising that sells a lifestyle (which conversely, don’t enjoy a tremendous amount of trust)
The healthcare marketing takeaway
For years, we’ve been advising our clients to do the focus on customer service as a means of generating positive word of mouth. More recently, we’ve been recommending those same clients to establish social media channels (such as Facebook Pages, LinkedIn Profiles, Twitter Profiles, and YouTube channels) where their customers can spread the word about them.
Alas, the majority of their competitors – large and small – dogmatically focus on traditional advertising (TV, newspapers, radio) and interruption marketing (text messaging and the above). Good news for our clients, I guess.
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Meet our Co-Founders

Rod Solar
Founder & Scalable Business Advisor
For over 20 years, I’ve helped ophthalmology entrepreneurs scale their private practices. I specialise in doubling revenue within three years by offering a proven framework, hands-on experience, and a team of experts who implement what works. We take the guesswork out of growth and scale, so you can focus on delivering exceptional patient care while maximising the value of your business.
LiveseySolar completely transformed the way we were approaching this… We’ve gone from having just the dream of having a practice to having a practice up and running with people making inquiries and booking for procedures… It’s extremely pleasing. We feel lucky we connected with LiveseySolar.
— Dr Matthew Russell, MBChB, FRANZCO, specialist ophthalmic surgeon and founder of VSON and OKKO

Laura Livesey
Founder & CEO
I’m the co-founder & CEO of LiveseySolar. I’ve developed powerful eye surgery marketing systems that increase patient volumes and profits for doctors, clinics, and hospitals, since 1997.
Rod and Laura know as much about marketing surgery to patients as I know about performing it. They are an expert in the field of laser eye surgery marketing. They know this industry inside out. I believe that they could help many companies in a variety of areas including marketing materials, sales training and marketing support for doctors.
— Prof. Dan Reinstein, MD MA FRSC DABO, founder of the London Vision Clinic, UK