Market Research: Finding Out What Patients Want
If you haven’t read part one of our three-part series, you will find it here.
Today, we’ll continue with market research, because when it comes to business planning, one thing is clear…
You can’t make sound business decisions or create effective marketing without knowing what your patients actually want.
In the past, large-scale market research was expensive, time-consuming, and often out of reach for small healthcare businesses.
Most small clinics had to rely on informal methods, including listening to patient feedback, using hearsay about competitors, or making phone calls to other clinics to gather market data.
Additionally, they may have supplemented their market research with local health statistics or general government reports.
Today, however, thanks to AI, even small healthcare offices can quickly and affordably gather powerful insights.
Now, let’s see how you can use AI to help you understand your market and refine your message so you can better position your practice for growth.
The Importance of Market Research
Planning to start a business or expand an existing one should always begin with research. Without it, you’re building on beliefs and guesses instead of facts.
Market research helps you answer key questions like:
- Who is my ideal patient or client?
- What are their biggest challenges, worries, and goals?
- What language or words do they use to describe their problems?
- How can my clinic meet those needs better than all others?
When you understand your market, its needs and desires, you can create messaging that meets people where they are and resonates with them.
Today, with the help of AI, you have access to the same kind of insight that used to take marketing firms weeks to uncover.
The Basic Components of Market Research
There are certain building blocks to include when conducting market research:
- Define Your Ideal Patient, or Persona
Demographics: age, gender, location, income, education
Psychographics: values, habits, fears, motivationsHealthcare behaviors: what motivates them to seek care, how they find providers
You may find it challenging to create a single persona. If you work with different audiences, create multiple personas to craft more tailored messages. This is not a perfect science, but simply a tool to help you gain a deeper understanding of your customers’ wants, needs, and desires. - Understand the Pain Points and Desires
Remember, people come to see you because they have a problem they want to remedy.
They may have actual pain or want to be proactive to keep illness away.
What do they want more of: energy, sleep, pain relief, confidence, longevity?
You’re looking for patterns here, not answers to individual problems. - Know Your Competitors
Who else provides similar services in your area?
What are they doing well?
What areas could use improvement?
What are the gaps in their services? - Identify Your Unique Positioning
What makes you different and stand out from the crowd?
Why should a patient choose you over the clinic down the street?
If you don’t know what sets you apart, create a point of differentiation: think of something you can implement or offer that would make your office unique and different.
How Can AI Help You with Market Research?
You no longer need to spend hours searching Google, reading through forums, or scanning social media.
With the right approach and questions, AI can collect, summarize, and interpret applicable market data for you.
But before we get into the specifics, I’d like you to keep the following in mind…
GIGO… Garbage in, Garbage out.
It’s an old expression that was more commonly used in the early days of computing. It means that the quality of the output is highly correlated with the quality of the input.
So, where am I going with this?…
Imagine you just hired Suzy, a new front desk staff member.
On her first day on the job, you hand her the employee manual, which vaguely outlines her duties. You show her where to find supplies, give her the EMR manual, and then you walk away.
Nothing about the culture of your clinic, about your expectations on how to interact with patients or other offices, etc.
How do you think Suzy would do on her first day of work? I imagine she would be panicked, frustrated, and perhaps even ready to walk out.
You have barely given her any training or direction of any kind. Some employees would feel lost. Others would fill in the gaps with what they think is expected of them and what they believe is right (this can be dangerous).
Think of AI as a new employee…
To do its job and meet your expectations, it needs detailed information from you and context to understand what the interaction is about.
AI needs specific, detailed instructions (prompts) from you, so it knows what you’re trying to accomplish. If it doesn’t get enough information, its output will likely be flat, or it will make up “stuff” to fill in the gaps.
Consider creating a separate document that gives the AI background information about your practice.
Include your vision and mission, the services you offer, the customers you serve, and any other information you think will help the AI get a better understanding of who you are and what you want to accomplish. Once completed, upload the document to the AI for reference.
Finally, working with AI is not a one-time interaction. Think of it as an iterative process in which you keep refining your questions to get better answers.
Now, let’s get back to market research and how you can use AI to discover valuable market data.
AI Prompt Examples for Market Research
Rather than describing how to interact with AI, we’ve included examples of specific prompts Nurse Practitioners can use to define the ideal patient, create a client profile, etc., with AI’s help.
You may interact with the AI of your choice; however, the examples below were developed with ChatGPT.
Each set of prompts includes:
- the goal of the interaction
- the example prompt and
- a short note explaining what it does so that you can adapt it to your own specialty
Prompts for Defining Your Ideal Patient
1. Start with the demographics of your audience
Goal: Identify who your ideal patient is: age, gender, occupation, location, and stage of life.
Example Prompt:
“Act as a healthcare market researcher. Define the ideal patient profile for a Nurse Practitioner offering weight management services in Houston, Texas. Include demographic information such as age range, gender, income level, occupation, education, and family status.”
What it does:
This prompt provides a broad overview of your potential patient base, helping you define who is most likely to seek out your services.
2. Clarify Psychographics (Values, Beliefs, Lifestyle)
Goal: Understand what motivates and influences your patients beyond basic demographics.
Example Prompt:
“Describe the typical values, attitudes, fears, and lifestyle habits of women aged 40–60 seeking hormone replacement therapy from a Nurse Practitioner. Focus on what their daily challenges are, what motivates them to seek care, and what their emotional triggers are.”
What it does:
This prompt helps you understand what your ideal patients think and feel, enabling you to tailor your marketing messages and patient communication.
3. Identify Pain Points and Needs
Goal: Pinpoint your patient’s most urgent problems and why they’re seeking care.
Example Prompt:
“List the top 10 problems, symptoms, or frustrations that motivate women over 45 to seek medical weight management. Include both physical and emotional reasons.”
What it does:
Knowing this information provides the foundation for your marketing content and helps you write messages that speak directly to patients’ concerns.
4. Uncover Patient Goals and Desired Outcomes
Goal: Discover what your patients really want to achieve.
Example Prompt:
“What are the top goals or desired outcomes of patients who see a Nurse Practitioner for chronic fatigue or low energy? List both short-term and long-term goals in plain language, and go beyond the superficial reasons.”
What it does:
It tells you what “success” looks like from your patients’ perspective. Uncovering this information is critical for positioning your services and setting proper expectations.
5. Map the Patient’s Decision Journey
Goal: Understand how your ideal patient finds you and what influences their decision to book an appointment.
Example Prompt:
“Map the patient decision journey for a person considering hormone therapy. Include each stage: awareness, research, evaluation, and decision, and explain what information they seek and what barriers might stop them from moving forward.”
What it does:
It reveals their “path to care” so you can design and create content (your website or blog, emails, etc.) that aligns with each step.
6. Analyze Your Competitors
Goal: See how competitors attract similar patients and identify opportunities to stand out.
Example Prompt:
“Review the online presence of three functional medicine practices in Henderson, NV. Summarize the type of patients they target, what messages they use, and what gaps exist that I, as a Nurse Practitioner, could fill.”
What it does:
It shows where you can differentiate your services and create or refine your unique value proposition.
7. Define Patient Segments
Goal: Identify subgroups of patients within your audience who may have different needs.
Example Prompt:
“Segment the ideal patient audience for a primary care, NP practice, located in Cheyenne, WY, into 3 to 5 distinct groups based on their health priorities, communication preferences, and lifestyle habits.”
What it does:
It helps tailor services and marketing for different patient types, for example, busy professionals vs. retirees.
8. Explore Local Market Demands
Goal: Learn what’s trending or in demand in your local area.
Example Prompt:
“What are the most common healthcare needs and online search topics among adults aged 35–60 in Charlotte, NC? Include preventive care, wellness, and chronic disease management trends.”
What it does:
This prompt combines patient insights with location-specific trends for more thoughtful planning and service offerings.
9. Create a Patient Persona
Goal: Turn all insights into a clear, realistic portrait of your ideal patient.
Example Prompt:
“Using all the information we’ve discussed, create a detailed persona for my ideal patient. Include a name, age, occupation, goals, health challenges, preferred communication channels, and what motivates them to choose an NP over a physician.”
What it does:
This becomes your “go-to” reference for marketing, branding, and even front-desk training; it’s your ideal patient brought to life.
10. Validate or Compare Audiences
Goal: Test two or more possible patient profiles to decide which is better aligned with your goals.
Example Prompt:
“Compare two patient audiences for a telehealth practice: (1) women 40 to 55 seeking hormone therapy, and (2) men 45 to 60 seeking testosterone therapy. Which group shows higher online engagement, affordability, and long-term retention potential?”
What it does:
Helps prioritize which market segment is more viable or profitable for your practice.
In Conclusion…
With the right approach, AI allows you to:
- Understand your audience at a deeper level
- Refine your messaging to align with the patient journey
- Spot opportunities before competitors do
- And saves you hours of manual research
When you build your business on a foundation of research and data, your marketing will be irresistible… magnetic.
In part three of our series, we’ll bring it all together. We’ll discuss how to create a plan for your business… what to include, how to structure it, and how to use AI to make your planning more effective, efficient, and actionable.
Do you use AI in your practice? If so, how? Join the conversation and leave a comment or question below…
By Johanna Hofmann, MBA, MAc., EAMP; regular contributor to the NPBusiness blog and author of “Smart Business Planning for Clinicians.”