Over the past year, the global pandemic has pulled healthcare technology into the spotlight. As a result, the media conversations have largely been centered around healthtech startups.
For healthtech startups, media coverage is essential in order to build brand trust with patients and customers. But as the industry grows, media coverage will prove to be even more critical if you want to strengthen your startup’s position in the market and stand out among the competition.
If you aren’t already working with a tech PR agency, then here’s how to pitch your healthtech startup to the media.
Build relationships with healthtech media
Before you can start seeing your healthtech startup in the major industry publications, you need to build relationships with the right people. Like any professional relationship, media contacts will be more open to your ask, which is the pitch, if they’ve already interacted with you on some level. The relationship aspect of media outreach is why some startups choose to work with a tech PR agency. But if your startup is taking the DIY approach, these relationships can easily be built in-house.
Start by determining who your target media outlets are, and from there you can figure out the key contacts you should be reaching out to. You can also use PR tools like HARO to see what types of stories reporters are looking for. Once you have a handful of people in mind, you can start interacting with them organically on Twitter, LinkedIn, or even through an email introduction.
Get proactive with funding announcements
Receiving funding is a major milestone for a healthtech startup. To make the most of the announcement, however, you need to get proactive with media outreach.
Prior to the funding announcement, connect with reporters at industry publications and major business and tech media outlets to get the news on their radar. It’s also a good idea to connect with the investor community. If possible, work with the key stakeholders involved in the funding round so you can tap into their network and potentially increase the media opportunities.
It’s key to have a media outreach campaign set up well ahead of the announcement so that by the time you share the news on your startup’s owned channels, like LinkedIn, there’s already buzz being generated by the media coverage that’s been secured.
Share real-world customer examples
Credibility is key when pitching a healthtech startup. The media needs to trust that your startup is legit before they vouch for it. One way to emphasize your product’s credibility is to share real-world customer examples.
In your pitch or press release, reveal how your product or service is helping patients and customers. Stories of how patients are benefiting from your healthtech startup allow journalists to tell more compelling stories that grab the attention of their audience and help make larger points about the industry.
Even if you are a healthcare tech startup that serves other healthcare organizations with advanced technology, it still pays to figure out how your product in the overall tech stack is helping improve the efficiency, safety, privacy, security or outcomes of patients. Take time to articulate that narrative out and it will be far easier to attract the interest of a healthcare tech news outlet.
Make product launches a big deal
As a healthtech startup, your product is the most important element of your business. So it only makes sense to make product launches a big deal. This means, just like with funding announcements, you need to be proactive with media outreach if you want to maximize the news coverage of your product launches, spread word of your innovations and drive demand (i.e., website traffic) for your product.
Whenever you’re pitching the media about an upcoming product launch, there are a few things to include to make sure you’re hitting all the marks. First and foremost, your pitch needs to emphasize what differentiates your product from others on the market. It should also highlight any real world implications, such as how it collects or protects PHI, improves patient outcomes or helps make healthcare more transparent and accountable.
Take advantage of trends
Newshacking is a way to weave your startup into the conversation around current events. And given the current state of healthcare, now is a critical time for healthtech startups to join the conversation.
Make sure you’re staying up to date on industry trends or current events, even those that may not be directly related to your product or industry. The coronavirus pandemic, for example, has affected nearly every aspect of our lives which, in turn, has spurred new conversations and trends. Figure out how your startup’s product is relevant to a current trend and share your take with the media through a thought leadership article or by being quoted in a larger feature.
Run a survey
While you could come up with countless reasons why your startup is the best at what it does, nothing illustrates your product’s success rate more than data-driven results. To take your media pitch to the next level, include customer outcomes or capture important industry insights in the form of data.
To do this, send out a survey to current patients or end users and collect key data that demonstrates the success rate of your product. Impressive statistics will not only grab the attention of the reporter you’re pitching, but because it’s proprietary data, they may be more inclined to use it for an exclusive article.
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