Healthcare providers are analytical and methodical professionals who make important decisions every day affecting the lives of their patients. Constant learning is critical to their performance.

But HCPs are also human, with egos, personal lives, daily pressures, and jobs that impose long hours and high demands. Their time and attention are at a high premium.

To effectively educate HCPs about a brand and differentiate it in their minds, marketers must optimize product messaging so that it quickly and vividly resonates with each audience segment. An effective tool for doing this is heuristics, a term that encompasses a process of psychological shortcuts that simplify and accelerate decision-making.

We all use heuristics in our everyday lives, especially when faced with new or high-volume information and a limited time to process it. In a stressful situation, for example, we might base our response on how we successfully handled a similar situation in the past.

In healthcare marketing, there are numerous heuristics domains that commonly affect the decision-making of HCPs. Some of these include:

Background Contrast Effect: People are more likely to select an option when an inferior choice is present, i.e., they judge an option based on its contrast with a lesser option rather on its merits.

Instant Return: People want a return on their investment (time, effort or money) immediately.

Novelty Bias: People often think newer is better.

Negativity Bias: People pay more attention to and give more weight to negative things than positive things.

Zero-Risk Bias: People prefer reducing a small risk to zero rather than making a larger reduction in a bigger risk.

Understanding and prioritizing which heuristics are applicable in a specific situation – i.e., which are most relevant to target HCPs and pertinent to the features of a particular brand – is an important step in developing effective brand messaging. Here are some examples of how heuristics can guide and optimize messaging.

If the dominant heuristic is Instant Return, optimized messages will focus on how quickly results can be expected, e.g., “Observable results in two weeks, with proven significance at six weeks,” or “Improvement you and your patient can both see in as little as six weeks.”

If Novelty Bias is the dominant heuristic, what’s new and unique about the product will be the focus, e.g., “Only Product X has once-daily dosing and no meal restrictions, which may help your patients remain compliant.”

Similarly, if the dominant heuristic is Background Contrast Effect, optimized messaging will emphasize the drawbacks of an inferior choice (such as remaining untreated for a particular condition) to underscore the value of a different option, e.g., “The impact of body movements isn’t just physical; even mild body movements hold patients back from making meaningful connections and performing daily tasks”.

Of course, optimized messaging isn’t the end of the story. The next step in successfully connecting HCPs to a brand is delivering those messages through powerful creative that communicates quickly and is pertinent, impactful, and memorable. Powerful creative is also visually compelling – studies show that the vast majority of human communication is nonverbal, people process visual information much faster than text, and they retain more of what they see than what they read or hear.

Ultimately, powerful and effective creative is distinguished by four key hallmarks. First, it’s quick, to the point, and communicates in the blink of an eye. Words and pictures work seamlessly together to deliver a disarmingly simple idea. Second, it’s relevant, telling a meaningful story that resonates with viewers and indelibly marks the brand message in their minds. Third, it makes an emotional impact, connecting with the hearts and minds of viewers and communicating benefits, not just product features. And fourth, it’s distinctive, standing out and delivering a message so fresh, daring and different that it’s impossible to overlook.

Optimized brand messaging that is guided by heuristics and realized by powerful creative is a solid foundation for effective advertising and a confirmed way of connecting HCP’s to your brand.