PR is not just a brand awareness activity in healthcare. It should be built around the buyers you want to reach.
In this episode of Healthcare Marketing Executive, Saul Marquez, CEO at Outcomes Rocket, shared a crucial mindset shift for medtech and health tech leaders who only activate PR for funding rounds or product launches. He explains that this traditional approach misses a massive opportunity to use PR as a direct go-to-market lever that engages healthcare buyers long before a sales conversation even begins. To maximize impact, Saul breaks down why brands should stop planning media coverage around an internal news calendar and start anchoring it directly to their Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). Ultimately, knowing which target accounts are reading, what conversations they care about, and where a team can credibly add value lays the foundation for a highly effective PR strategy.
Tune in, then read the full article below to learn how healthcare brands can use PR as an ICP play, not just a comms approach.
Resources:
- Follow and connect with Saul Marquez on LinkedIn.
- Follow Outcomes Rocket on LinkedIn and explore their website.
- Visit the Healthcare Marketing Executive website!
- Read the complete blog: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/pr-gtm-lever-most-healthtech-medtech-companies-treat-like-marquez-zw4rc/?trackingId=zVC%2BAL9USkqjy%2F1aM1%2BINQ%3D%3D
[00:00:03] Hey guys, Saul Marquez here. I wanted to share a quick frame shift today tied to the newsletter for the week. And before I do, I just wanted to call out, we shared one on PR last week. We've got one on PR this week and one more next week, which is part of what we do every quarter. We come up with two insights reports. Those insight reports essentially cover all the topics that you're going to want to hear about in marketing. The last one that we did was on PR. It's PR's authority moment and how it ties to the podcast.
[00:00:33] To go to market execution. So this week and next week, you'll hear on how all things tie back to PR. I just want to let you guys know that's not all we're going to talk about here. It just happens to be what's tied to it. If you go to outcomesrocket.com, take a look at the tab inside of our website called resources. And then you go to healthcare marketing insights. You'll see all of our insights reports there. You could dig deep. These newsletters are essentially just kind of a way to pull some of those key things from those.
[00:01:03] So make sure you check those out. And the quick reframe that I wanted to share with this week's newsletter is around this. I talked to med tech and health tech founders constantly. They have strong products. They've got real customers. They've got outcomes data that would make any health system executive stop scrolling. And then I asked about their PR program. It turns on essentially twice a year. Once for a funding round, once for a feature launch.
[00:01:31] And when I asked how it connects to go to market, the answer that I usually get is some version of it supports brand awareness. And then we move to pipeline. Hey, what's moving pipeline? It's natural, right? We want to grow. However, what I want to say to you guys today, that's the wrong frame. And it's costing your business more than you realize PR and healthcare isn't just the comms checkbox. And coming from a legacy sales guy turned marketer.
[00:01:57] I can tell you that I used to think that. And it's one of those most direct levers that you have for reaching the buyers you want to reach before the sales conversation even happens.
[00:02:07] So think about where your buyers actually live. Chief medical officer is reading modern healthcare or NEJM catalyst. If you're reaching a CFO, they're reading Beckers. The CEO is reading stat and health affairs. Everybody reads what they want to read and what's aligned to what they do. And here's the thing that all of these have in common, that all of these platforms are trusted because they're not controlled by vendors.
[00:02:32] An editor decided that your perspective was worth amplifying. There was no ad budget that bought that. There was no SDR sequence that could really essentially get you that same thing. So here's the play that I want to share with you all. Stop planning coverage around your news calendar. Plan it around your ICP. It's a simple but super powerful frame shift.
[00:02:55] And if you take your top 10 target accounts this quarter for each one, I'd like for you to answer three questions. What publication do they trust? What are they reading? What are they referencing for data? What conversation is active there right now in the places that they're reading or watching videos on?
[00:03:14] And what does your team actually have to say about that in particular? The topics that they're reading about? Whether it be the one big, beautiful bill or value-based care or you name it. If you can answer all three of those questions, you've got your pitch. And if you can't, you're not close enough to the buyer's world yet. And that's worth knowing. It's worth knowing that gap that exists. So it's a frame shift. It's not a traditional way of thinking of PR. If you read the full report, you'll see what I mean and some of the insights there.
[00:03:44] I'm just sort of pulling these small messages so that you can pull your last three media placements that you've gotten and ask yourself which target account each one was designed to reach. If the answer is none, then you've got a planning problem, not a budget problem. And the opportunity is huge for you to just take a look at PR this way and think about it as an ICP play, not just a comms approach.
[00:04:10] Hope you guys enjoy the full article below. Let us know what you think. We're working on ways to get these insights out to all of our friends in health tech and med tech. And if you're curious and want to learn more about how we could do some of the things for you, we're always here to be of service. Thank you all for watching this and I hope you enjoy the article below. Take care.