Building trust with potential buyers is key to successful health tech marketing. As such, health tech PR must be an integral part of your healthcare software marketing strategy.
Effective health technology public relations (aka earned media) involves many moving parts, which must work together to build credibility and project the right image for your healthcare tech brand.
Let’s take a look at how we help our clients get in front of the right decision-makers and position themselves as reputable, trusted healthcare technology providers.
How to Get Earned Media for Health Technology Public Relations
Having your byline on valuable and relevant content in trusted publications is one of the best ways to get in front of high-quality prospects and build trust.
Identify reputable publications with the right audience and see if they accept contributed content. Research the process, know whom to pitch to (e.g., editors covering specific beats,) and submit content based on each publisher's guidelines.
Also, keep an eye on your competition and see where they publish their content. You may discover outlets that you were not aware of before. Keep in mind that it's great to shoot for the stars (e.g., the New York Times technology section,) but don't overlook small trade publications that can help you gain a foothold in the media.
Balance Earned Media with Sponsored Content
Managing your media budget is often a balancing act between earned media and sponsored (paid) content. Earned media is gained through promotional efforts other than advertising, and PR is an essential component.
While free or low-cost publications are attractive, don't discount pay-to-play opportunities on sites with high domain authority that will share your articles with their email lists and social media following.
The most important thing is to get started and build momentum — the more pieces you write, the more likely other publications will contact you for content. Just remember to reach out to the editors even if the publications don't accept submissions now. You can always introduce yourself and offer to be a source. Ask about their contribution policy and editorial calendar to find the right opportunities.
The Importance of Earned Media in Health Technology Public Relations
Here are some benefits of including earned media in your health tech PR strategy:
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Gain exposure to a wider audience you may not be able to reach with your blog, social media, or online ads.
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Get backlinks to drive high-quality traffic to your website from reputable publishers with high domain authority and improve your SEO.
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Build trust with the right people, establish your thought leadership positioning and increase brand recognition.
The bottom line? Appearing in media helps establish credibility. Your audience trusts the publications and their vetted content. When you're interviewed by them or have your byline on the articles, you gain the halo effect.
Additionally, you can leverage the published articles in your marketing strategy. For example, you can share the links in your social media profiles and email newsletters.
With some high-quality articles under your belt, you can contact larger publications or apply to speak at conferences. That kind of credibility can help you open doors and create a snowball effect to support your overall health tech marketing strategy.
Best Practices for Pitching Health Tech Publications
Here are our best tips to get your content published:
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Research, research, research.
Find out what content a publication looks for, such as evergreen best practices or commentary on breaking news, trends, new regulations, and the latest issues. Review a publication's editorial calendar, see what topics it plans to cover in the upcoming months, and pitch within those themes. Moreover, know what the media outlets have published recently and don't pitch the same topic. But you can leverage those articles as jumping-off points — e.g., write a deep dive on one section in an existing piece or an update on an older article.
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Get the timing right.
Some publications want proposals nine to 12 months in advance, so you should plan ahead. Also, commenting on a timely subject can help increase your chances of getting published. For example, October is cybersecurity month. You should reach out to print publications as early as possible (but at least by July) to see if they need content on healthcare technology and data privacy. (Editorial deadlines for print can run as much as three to six months in advance of the publication date.)
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Be sure to follow each publication's guidelines.
Give them what they want, submit clean content, meet your deadlines, and make it easy for the editors to do their jobs. If a publisher doesn't provide clear directions, review other stories on its website. Also, note the formatting: Do they use long or short paragraphs? Do they favor bullet points and numbered lists? What topics are most popular among their audiences? Your content should follow the site's style.
- Be selective.
Don't repeat content by sending the same article to different publications because exclusivity is important. If you want to write about the same topic for multiple sites, create unique content for each one or space out the submissions and only target one publication at a time. Remember to be patient with your submission process and give the editors time to respond. You don't want to pitch multiple sites, get many pieces accepted, and fail to deliver high-quality content on time.
- Offer educational content that’s clean and error-free.
Be careful that your submissions are not promotional. Most publications have guidelines forbidding content that mention specific products and services. Instead, focus on building trust with your audience and getting backlinks for SEO. A good strategy for this is to hire experienced writers and editors to conduct a thorough internal review process — you must provide great content. Avoid submitting articles that need a lot of editing. If you make it difficult to publish your content, editors won't want to work with you again — they have choices.
- Understand the rules.
Be clear on the copyright and ownership of the content you submit. In most cases, the publications will own the articles, and you no longer have the rights to use them. If a site interviews you for a story, some will let you review it before publication.
- Build goodwill and spread the word.
When an article is published, share the link on social media and tag the publication. If an editorial staff member interviewed you, tag that person as well. Also, share other content from the site to build goodwill and relationships. Once your article is published, leverage the heck out of it. Reshare it, revisit it, and put it on your website (don't forget to cite the original source.) Have the author post it on their LinkedIn page and tag the publication on the post. Also, encourage your team to share the posts and engage with them.
Support Your Marketing with Health Technology Public Relations
Marketing in the healthcare industry must include building trust with your audience and establishing a thought leadership positioning. Getting bylines in top industry publications is one of the best ways to stand out and reach health tech buyers. At Spot On, we incorporate these opportunities into our healthcare marketing strategy to help healthcare software companies reach their digital marketing goals.
Schedule a time to chat with us to see how we can help you improve your health tech marketing.