Why Your Audience Isn't Listening To You And What You Can Do About It (New Research)
3 findings show the opportunity most health & wellness experts are missing
There’s no shortage of data out there telling us the health and wellness industry is growing. But here’s what you almost never see…
Reputable research that answers real questions — the kind that can guide you in building your business.
So when a Pew Research* headline about the health & wellness industry popped into my inbox, I stopped what I was doing to read it.
And the research findings highlight something most health and wellness professionals either don’t know or haven’t fully acted on yet.
In case you missed it, here are the 3 top takeaways and what they mean for you.
Takeaway #1: Your audience’s behavior doesn’t align with their beliefs
About 40% of adults regularly consume health content from influencers and podcasters. And among the under 50 crowd, that number jumps to half.
Even so, many people — as much as 47% of them — question if what they’re being told on social media is accurate. That means they’re consuming health-related content, but they doubt it’s true.
This creates a fantastic opportunity, provided you know how to tap into it.
Let’s take a closer look at what’s happening and how you can leverage it to build your business.
First, I want to address something here that Pew didn’t, because it makes a huge difference in interpreting the research findings.
The way Pew presents the data, it would be easy for someone reading it to think they just need to be on a certain social media platform. In fact, when I first read the research, I thought I was going to write an article about “the #1 social media platform to be on if you want to build a health or wellness business.”
But Pew leaves out a crucial fact about social media — and that’s how people consume it.
People’s behavior on social media is practically automatic. They scroll through Instagram, TikTok, or whatever their platform of choice is, whenever they’re idle or bored.
But let’s not kid ourselves. They’re not there looking for health tips. They’re there to be entertained. They want to see videos with adorable baby elephants playing with their trunks or cuddly miniature donkeys. (Come on, fess up. I know I’m not the only one.)
As they’re scrolling along, health information pops up. If something about it grabs their attention, they watch it, even if they’re skeptical about what it says.
Skepticism is normal. The problem (and your opportunity) is doubt.
Many people in health & wellness who focus on posting “value” content unknowingly create doubt in their audience. The reason why is they don’t specifically take them from skepticism to belief.
If you don’t bridge the skepticism-to-belief gap, you leave a gaping hole that doubt fills.
During my copywriting apprenticeship, I learned how important it is to overcome people’s skepticism … how to turn doubt into belief. And the Pew research shows us that people in health and wellness aren’t doing it.
That’s your golden opportunity. If you construct a bridge that takes people from skepticism to belief, you will stand out. That’s why trust-building must be part of your strategy. (More on how to do that below.)
Takeaway #2: The most trusted voices in health are rarely visible online
Based on the research, Americans still trust healthcare providers more than any other source of health information. Pew found that 65% of people who get health information from a doctor or practitioner rate it as highly accurate. That number drops to 7% for information coming from social media.
That means health professionals with advanced degrees or board certifications have a trust advantage. Yet when we look at the top health & wellness influencers (meaning those with 100,000 or more followers), less than half (just 41%) come from any kind of healthcare background.
In fact, 28% of them identify as entrepreneurs or business owners.
So voices with the most “built-in” credibility aren’t showing up where their audience is. That’s a huge opportunity for those professionals to turn their skills and expertise into a profitable online business.
The fact is, your credentials can make a difference.
I know that flies in the face of a lot of the common advice out there. A lot of people say “credentials don’t matter… your story is the most important.” And that may have been true when there were fewer online health coaching offers. But the volume of them has only added to the trust gap.
When I was working on a team that helped health coaches build an online business, the party line was “no one cares about your credentials.” But that’s not true. There was an important nuance that was often left out of the equation. And that’s “at first.”
Here’s what I mean. When you’re in the online space, if your messaging starts with your credentials, people probably won’t pay attention to you. That’s why your first message needs to address something your audience cares about. That’s how you get their attention.
But at some point you have to help them see why they should listen to you. That’s where your credentials come in.
Your credentials won’t guarantee you get their business, but they can help suspend their skepticism and make them receptive to hearing more. If you’d like to learn more about this, I wrote about it in my post, Why You Struggle To Get Coaching Clients (and what the top 1% do differently).
So the barrier for many experienced practitioners isn’t competing against social media influencers. It’s showing up in the first place.
Takeaway #3: The coaching lane is the biggest opportunity
This one is quick…
31% of top health influencers identify as coaches. That’s the largest single category (larger than any medical specialty).
Simply put, the coaching model works. And the data shows that’s true no matter what letters you have after your name. In fact, 16% of health influencers with 100,000 or more followers claim no credentials or expertise at all.
So the coaching lane is proven. But most of the people in it aren’t doing a good job building trust and leading the audience to take action.
That’s the opening, no matter what your credentials are.
How To Use This Research To Help Build Your Online Business
The takeaway from the Pew research is clear. Building trust isn’t just a nice-to-have in health and wellness online. It’s the competitive advantage, no matter what kind of credentials you have. And it’s the opportunity you have right now.
The professionals who understand this are building trust intentionally. Here’s how you can, too.
1. Show them you’re the expert
If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I hate the “pick a niche” advice. But the part about that advice that I do like is that it makes people see you as an expert in a specific area. And people tend to trust experts more.
If you’re trying to build a viable online business, you’ll have an easier time focusing your expertise, at least initially.
2. Create a trust-building bridge that moves people from skepticism to belief
In this article, we talked about credentials, but that’s only a small part of this. And credentials on their own isn’t enough.
The Pew research didn’t go into this, but you have to intentionally build your case. You have to show people that you have the experience and expertise to help them with their problem.
But of course that’s what most experts do, so you need to take things a step further. And that brings me to the third part of trust-building.
3. Show people what makes you different … and the obvious choice … compared to everyone else out there
Most health professionals share what they know about a health concern. The ones who build real trust change their audience’s perspective about it. I call that adding “Pixie Dust.”
Your Pixie Dust is a specific insight that reframes why someone is still stuck. When you can do that clearly, you help them see their problem in a new way. And they see you as the person who can help them out of it.
These trust-building approaches are part of a method I developed specifically for health and wellness professionals. It’s called The Trust-Based Marketing Method™. It’s based on my work helping over 1,000 health & wellness professionals build their online businesses. My mini-book shows you:
How to make sure you launch a strong offer
How to position yourself as the obvious choice
How to find your Pixie Dust
Plus, today I’m including these bonuses:
The 7-Point Green Light Scorecard… It shows you with 95% certainty whether your offer will sell
How to Win Clients in a Hard-to-Sell Coaching Niche
The Marketing Path Decision Guide… How to minimize your financial risk by picking the marketing approach that’s right for you
Until next time…!
P.S. Did you find this article helpful? If so, please consider giving it one of those adorable little hearts. ♥️
*Sources:
Moms, Coaches, Doctors, Entrepreneurs: Who Are America’s Health and Wellness Influencers? — Pew Research Center, May 2026
Where Do Americans Get Health Information, and What Do They Trust? — Pew Research Center, April 2026