Authority & Trust Development

Prospective clients, families, and referring professionals want treatment they can trust. In today’s behavioral healthcare landscape, establishing your subject matter expertise is vital.

“Authority” and “trust” are increasingly important healthcare marketplace concepts. While projecting authority and establishing trust through subject-matter expertise, outcomes, and mastery has been a longstanding mainstay of medical advertising and marketing, the importance of authority and trust has been bolstered in recent years by Google and other search algorithms. Google’s “EEAT” (Expertise, Experience, Authority, and Trust) ranking rubric has led to a significant push by marketers to establish and project trust and specific authority. Authority and trust are as vital to humans as they are to machines. Studies exploring healthcare consumers' desires indicate that professionalism and expertise are top determinants. 

Taking the time, energy, and resources to establish authority and trust can benefit both your brand and your search performance. 

  • Trust and Authority indicators help prospective clients and referring professionals feel confident about your services.

  • Trust and Authority indicators, as well as specific approaches, can enhance website page and domain authority scores, ultimately influencing your page rankings. 

  • Increasingly, these same trust and authority signals are used by AI algorithms to use web pages as answer sources.

Untapped Authority & Trust

Behavioral healthcare organizations often contain multiple sources of nascent authority and expertise. Licensed and experienced behavioral healthcare clinicians, by definition, are trusted sources of authority in their respective areas of expertise. Oftentimes, provider leaders, board members, community partners, advisors, and partners are also authoritative sources. Utilizing inherent authority does not require that all authorities are utilized, but having a plan for which team members will act as sources or corroborators of trust is important, as is understanding the need to allocate time for these resources to work on authority and trust efforts. Unlocking and utilizing them requires a strategy and a willingness to invest. 

A range of marketing tactics can help to establish authority and trust. Multiple tactics are often used to establish trust around core concepts. When using authority to enhance search rankings, content is often developed around a set of targeted keywords

Content Marketing
Long-form, high-quality content used in blogs, social media, and other media outlets.

Podcasts
Whether audio-video or audio-only, podcasts are an increasingly popular vehicle for developing authoritative content. 

Continuing Education
Continuing education is an excellent way to express your subject-matter expertise and engage professionals. Leveraging these events is a means to gain traction and establish authority. 

Public Relations
Public relations efforts allow providers to make news. Committing to a long-term PR strategy can produce unique opportunities to establish authority and gain visibility.