INFLUENCER MARKETING IN WOMEN’S HEALTH

What is influencer marketing in women’s health?

Influencer marketing in women’s health means hand-picking trusted voices who can actually reach people. These aren’t your typical boring ads. Human faces drive awareness, it’s that simple.

Women’s health? Often stigmatised. Hard to reach. Non-linear customer journeys that see patients come in and out of interest stages, or totally dropping out of the audience all together.  

For many healthcare marketers who’ve spent years creating carefully controlled messaging through traditional channels, the prospect of relinquishing some of that control to influencers, especially when discussing intimate health topics that have historically been whispered about rather than boldly proclaimed, can feel like stepping off a cliff without knowing how far the drop might be.

We understand this hesitation intimately, having guided clients through their first tentative steps into this powerful but sometimes uncharted territory. In short, you’re not behind, there are plenty of businesses just getting started.

So why is influencer marketing so powerful for women’s health brands?

Women’s health tackles sensitive stuff. Traditional ads can feel clinical and cold. Influencer marketing can mitigate that barrier by offering:

• Authenticity: Look, we’re past pretending influencers share stuff for free. But that doesn’t kill authenticity. People trust real stories from relatable faces. Involving influencers in creative briefs unlocks perspectives that might never come up in a monthly marketing meeting
• Community building: People grow up with their influencers. They’ve watched them navigate menstrual cycles, struggle through IVF, tackle parenting, and face menopause. These long-term parasocial relationships create a foundation of trust that traditional advertising simply cannot replicate, no matter how many millions you pour into production and media buying
• Education: Influencers excel at making taboo subjects approachable. They want more views, more followers, and saying something unique gets their content seen. When an influencer breaks down complex medical information about endometriosis or PCOS in language their audience understands, delivered with the familiarity of someone they’ve welcomed into their daily scroll, the educational impact far exceeds what any clinical pamphlet could ever achieve
• Effective reach: No one knows their winning content like influencers do. For niche audiences, micro and nano-influencers deliver higher engagement rates. Your budget works harder with content built for hyper-engaged viewers. The algorithms have created highly personalised discovery pages, and influencers have mastered the art of speaking directly to these carefully curated communities in ways that feel personal rather than promotional

Nuances in women’s health marketing

Marketing in women’s health isn’t like selling trainers, and the marketers who hesitate most about entering this space are often the ones who approach it with the respect and thoughtfulness it deserves…which makes them the perfect candidates to jump into these campaigns.

So what do we need?

• Empathy: Fertility, pregnancy loss, menstrual health – they require thoughtful handling. Co-create with influencers. Get insights straight from the audience. The brands who truly excel in this space recognise that behind every data point is a woman with a unique story, often one tinged with complicated emotions ranging from hope to heartbreak, and the messaging must honour the full complexity of these lived experiences rather than flattening them into simplified marketing narratives.
• Inclusivity: Audiences demand honest content that represents diverse experiences. Everyone needs to feel seen. Hand-pick influencers whose followers reflect that diversity. Women’s health is not a monolith, the experiences of Black women navigating maternal healthcare differ drastically from disabled women fighting to have their symptoms taken seriously, and your influencer strategy must reflect this rich tapestry of experiences rather than defaulting to the narrow slice typically represented in glossy magazine ads
• Compliance: It’s on their channels, but you’re still responsible. The Code and compliance matters need management. No excuses. This dual responsibility can feel overwhelming at first, but establishing clear guidelines and approval processes early in your relationship with influencers creates a safety net that protects both your brand and the influencers themselves from potential missteps in this heavily regulated space
• Expert voices: Women’s health spans countless specialties. We don’t expect influencers to be experts on anything but their own experiences. But pair that patient with a healthcare professional? That’s where magic happens. The combination creates a powerful pair; the emotion of personal testimony alongside reassuring medical expertise, creating content that satisfies both the heart’s need to feel understood and the mind’s desire for credible information

The power of medfluencers in women’ health

Combining “medfluencers” (HCPs with social followings) with patient influencers creates great results. Medfluencers bring authority and medical knowledge. Patient influencers add relatable experiences for interest.

The anxiety many marketers feel about potentially spreading misinformation or oversimplifying complex medical topics is completely valid. These concerns reflect a professional integrity that should be celebrated rather than overcome, and this exact concern is precisely why the medfluencer-patient partnership model has emerged as such a powerful approach for brands who want to maintain clinical accuracy while still creating emotional content that actually gets watched, shared, and remembered.

Together, this pairing:

• Delivers both professional insight and personal relatability
• Boosts trust and authority in your messaging
• Reaches diverse audience segments
• Drives higher engagement through balanced storytelling

For brands accustomed to keeping HCPs and patient testimonials in separate communication silos, perhaps out of fear that combining them might dilute the scientific messaging or complicate regulatory approval, this integrated approach might initially seem counterintuitive or even risky.

However, when executed thoughtfully, this dynamic creates a comprehensive narrative that addresses the full spectrum of audience needs, from emotional validation to evidence-based reassurance in a single piece of content.

Our process: How you can get started with women’s health influencer marketing

Here’s how we bring campaigns to life:

1. AI-augmented Strategy: We start by researching the lived experience of the condition so we can understand the reality behind clinical terminology. The healthcare industry often speaks in a language entirely divorced from how patients actually talk about their conditions in their private group chats and community forums
   
2. ID the influencers: Once we know real experiences, the brief for finding authentic voices falls into place. We hand-pick potential partners not just for reach and engagement metricsb for the subtle markers of genuine community leadership: comments from community followers, history of talking about sensitive topics, and if they’re a medic their publications, congress activity, KOL status
   
3. Co-create: We get influencers involved in the creative process. No one knows their best performing content better than them. This approach may initially feel uncomfortable for marketers accustomed to maintaining absolute control over messaging and creative execution, but the most successful women’s health campaigns emerge from this tension between brand objectives and influencer expertise
   
4. Amplify: We’re not just influencer marketers but PR and media consultants. If there’s a headline to be had, we’ll find it to boost the influencers’ stories. What might have started as a sponsored Instagram story can be seen much further than that

PICO and Millie: C-Section recovery case study

When influencer Millie Mackintosh showed her 1.4 million followers her PICO single-use Negative Pressure Wound Therapy dressing after childbirth, we saw an opportunity.

We paired her passion with medical expertise. During International Caesarean Awareness Month, Millie and a healthcare professional spoke about surgery, recovery, and motherhood. Her candid talk about “abdominal births” cut through medical jargon and explained why there is a feeling of stigma.

This wasn’t celebrity fluff. It was real conversation between a public figure and medical authority, giving women permission to ask questions they’d been afraid to voice.

The campaign deliberately confronted the pervasive but often unspoken stigma around surgical births…the subtle implications that women who deliver via cesarean somehow took “the easy way out” or missed an essential experience, by reframing the narrative around a mother’s healing journey, and highlighting the importance of optimising wound healing in that recovery process.

The results? Explosive.

First-ever consumer influencer campaign for Smith+Nephew was featured in tier 1 media titles, Mother & Baby, Red, The Daily Mail… and 10 others. Our Instagram Live Q&A drew 1,500 viewers instantly. Another 62K watched later. For a medical device company previously accustomed to communicating exclusively with healthcare providers through traditional B2B channels, this consumer-facing approach represented a significant departure from established marketing practices, a leap of faith that changed their approach to B2C marketing.

Addressing common concerns about women’s health influencer marketing

We’ve guided many businesses through their first influencer campaigns, and we’ve heard lots of concerns ; from regulatory compliance worries, to brand safety questions, to fundamental uncertainty about whether influencer marketing can maintain the gravity appropriate for serious health conditions.

Many marketers worry that influencers might make medically unsupported claims, or say something controversial. Our approach directly addresses these valid concerns through rigorous influencer selection, medical review of all content, transparent disclosure practices, and ongoing monitoring.

By treating these challenges as opportunities for thoughtful innovation within their businesseses, rather than obstacles to be overcome, brands can develop influencer strategies that maintain clinical integrity while still creating engagement.

Checklist: Want to run an influencer campaign for a women’s health brand?

Before diving in, have you got:

• An emotive angle or topic area
• An injustice or opportunity people are missing that your brand can authentically address
• A KOL or key customer who can help tell the story with credibility

Influencer marketing in women’s health creates authentic connections and drives real business results when executed with both courage and care.

The very sensitivity that makes these campaigns feel risky is exactly what makes them powerful, they address topics that matter deeply to audiences starved for honest conversation about their bodies and their health experiences.

Let’s find trusted voices to build your brand’s visibility and credibility.

Making MedTech more influential

Read more