How to choose a healthtech PR agency in the UK

Choosing a PR agency can be difficult in any industry, but healthtech comes with a few added complications. Companies in this sector are often trying to communicate with NHS leaders, clinicians, investors, partners, patients and technology buyers, sometimes all at the same time. The products themselves can be complicated, the sales cycles are often long and the subjects involved don't always lend themselves to an obvious headline. A healthtech PR agency therefore needs to do considerably more than write press releases and send them to journalists.

For companies selling into the NHS in particular, sector knowledge matters. There is a big difference between understanding PR and understanding how health and care actually works in the UK. Your PR consultant doesn't need to be a clinician, but they do need to understand the pressures their audiences are dealing with, how NHS organisations are structured, the terminology people use and the wider issues influencing purchasing and investment decisions. If you're spending the first few months of a PR relationship explaining what an ICB is, why interoperability matters or why a particular piece of NHS policy is relevant to your business, you're probably not getting the best use of your budget.

Look for healthtech experience, not simply healthcare experience

Healthtech sits in an interesting place between healthcare, technology and business communications. A PR consultant needs to be comfortable with all three. They need enough technical understanding to get beneath the surface of a product, but they also need to be able to translate what it does into something meaningful to people who aren't immersed in the technology every day.

That's particularly important because the most interesting story is rarely the technology itself. A remote monitoring platform may be technically impressive, for example, but a journalist is much more likely to be interested in the fact that its use has reduced hospital admissions or helped patients remain safely at home. A finance system might have dozens of new features, but the stronger story could be that a council has used it to cut processing time, reduce costs or automate a task that previously took staff hundreds of hours. Good healthtech PR is about finding that difference between what a product does and what it changes.

When you're talking to a prospective healthtech PR agency or consultant, I'd therefore look closely at who will actually be doing the work. Client logos can be useful, but they don't necessarily tell you whether the person working on your account understands the sector. Ask about their own experience, the types of organisations they've worked with and whether they're comfortable speaking directly with your product teams, customers, clinicians and senior leadership.

Your customer stories are probably more valuable than you think

One of the richest sources of PR for healthtech companies is often their existing customer base. NHS trusts, integrated care systems, councils and other health and care organisations are sitting on stories that can demonstrate exactly what a company's technology achieves in the real world.

The difficulty is getting those stories out.

A good healthtech PR consultant should be able to speak to customers, ask the right questions and spot the details that are genuinely interesting. That often means going beyond a standard case study interview. What was happening before the technology was introduced? What problem were people trying to solve? What changed? How much time was saved? Did patient outcomes improve? Were admissions avoided? Were costs reduced? What did staff think? And, perhaps most importantly, can any of that be quantified?

Numbers can make an enormous difference to a healthtech story. A claim that a piece of software has “improved efficiency” isn't particularly interesting on its own. Being able to say it saved a certain number of staff hours, reduced processing times by a particular percentage or helped prevent a measurable number of hospital admissions gives journalists something much more concrete to work with.

There are obviously sensitivities involved. NHS organisations have communications teams and approval processes, patient information needs to be handled appropriately and some commercial or financial information won't be suitable for publication. Someone experienced in healthcare communications will understand that and should be able to work with customers rather than making the PR process difficult for them.

Don't forget the person behind the data

Evidence matters enormously in healthtech PR, but stats alone aren't always enough, particularly if you're hoping to reach national newspapers, radio or television. Some of the strongest healthtech stories combine good data with a real person whose experience shows what that technology has meant in practice.

If a remote monitoring programme has helped reduce hospital admissions, for example, the figures give the story credibility. But is there also a patient who can explain what being able to stay at home rather than repeatedly going into hospital has meant to them and their family? If a new digital pathway has reduced waiting times, is there somebody who can talk about the difference receiving an earlier diagnosis or treatment made to their life?

This is something worth thinking about early rather than waiting until a national journalist asks. Do you have a case study? Is there a patient who would genuinely be comfortable speaking to the media? Can the NHS organisation or healthcare provider help identify someone appropriate, and are the necessary consent and approvals in place?

For national and broadcast media in particular, that human element can make the difference between an interesting set of results and a story people can immediately understand and relate to. A journalist may be interested in the technology and the data, but their audience is often much more interested in the person whose life changed because of it.

The strongest healthtech PR stories can bring all three together: the evidence that proves something changed, the healthcare professional who can explain why it matters, and the patient who can show what that change actually meant.

The right media coverage isn't always the biggest media coverage

National coverage is wonderful when there's a genuine national story, but it isn't necessarily the most valuable result for every healthtech company. If your customers are NHS CIOs, finance directors, chief clinical information officers or digital transformation leads, a strong piece of coverage in a specialist publication read by those people could be considerably more useful than a passing mention in a national newspaper.

The best media strategy depends on what the company is actually trying to achieve. A start-up looking for investment will have different priorities from an established NHS supplier trying to build its reputation with healthcare leaders. A company entering the UK market may need to establish credibility and explain who it is, while a more established business might be trying to become better known for its expertise in a particular area of healthcare.

There are also times when a company does have a story with much wider appeal. Patient outcomes, waiting lists, NHS finances, artificial intelligence, workforce pressures and access to care are all subjects that can move beyond the healthtech trade press when there is enough evidence and a strong human or public-interest angle. Part of the job of a specialist PR consultant is knowing when that opportunity exists and, equally, when it doesn't.

A good healthtech PR agency should occasionally tell you no

This is something I feel quite strongly about. Not everything a business does deserves a press release.

Companies understandably become excited about new appointments, partnerships, product features, events and contract wins. Some will make excellent stories. Others are useful content for a website or LinkedIn but aren't something a journalist is likely to cover.

PR works much better when there is enough trust for your consultant to say so.

Equally, some of the best stories can initially look quite unremarkable from inside a company. A passing comment from a customer about the number of hours they've saved, a piece of internal data nobody has thought to publicise or an interesting way a healthcare organisation is using an existing product can turn into a much stronger story than the announcement everyone originally wanted to promote.

That's one of the reasons sector experience is valuable. Someone who spends a lot of time talking to healthtech companies and healthcare journalists develops a good sense of what is happening elsewhere in the industry, which subjects are attracting attention and where a particular customer result or company viewpoint might add something useful.

Think beyond press releases

PR shouldn't simply be a monthly hunt for something to announce. For most healthtech businesses, there will be several different ways to build their reputation over time.

Customer case studies are a big part of that, but so are expert commentary, opinion pieces, research, company news, awards, conference opportunities, executive profiling and responding quickly when something happens in the news that relates to your area of expertise. One month the strongest opportunity might be an NHS customer story; the next it could be commentary from your CEO on a policy announcement or new research that provides a reason to talk about an issue your technology addresses.

Done well, those individual pieces of activity begin to add up. Instead of a company suddenly appearing when it has something to sell, its executives become people journalists recognise and its name becomes associated with a particular part of health or care.

How much does healthtech PR cost in the UK?

There isn't a standard price for healthtech PR and you'll find considerable variation between agencies and consultants. The cost will depend on how much support you need, the seniority of the people doing the work, whether you're looking for an ongoing retainer or a shorter project and how much content, media relations and strategic input is involved.

One thing I would always ask is who will actually be working on your account. A large agency may bring a sizeable team and a broad range of services, which can be exactly what some organisations need. For other healthtech companies, particularly growing businesses that want experienced support without a large agency structure, a specialist independent consultancy can make more sense.

The important comparison isn't simply the monthly fee. It's what you're getting for it: how much senior time is involved, how well the consultant understands your sector, whether they can work independently with customers and journalists, and whether they're capable of finding stories rather than waiting for you to hand them one.

About Bell Health Communications

Bell Health Communications is a specialist health and healthtech PR consultancy working with organisations across the UK. We support companies working in areas including digital health, NHS technology, remote patient monitoring, health and social care software, healthcare data and professional health education.

Bell Health was founded by Jen Bell, a senior communications consultant with extensive experience in healthcare and technology PR. Having worked both within healthtech businesses and as an external consultant, Jen understands the commercial realities of selling into health and care as well as the communications side of the job.

Our work ranges from ongoing PR programmes to individual campaigns and projects, including media relations, customer case studies, product and company launches, thought leadership, executive profiling and strategic communications advice. We particularly enjoy finding the stories hidden inside customer projects and turning complicated technology and healthcare subjects into clear, credible stories that people actually want to read.

If you're looking for a healthtech PR agency in the UK, a specialist healthcare PR consultant, or communications support for a company selling technology into the NHS and wider health and care sector, we'd be very happy to have a conversation.

Get in touch with Bell Health Communications to tell us a little about your business and what you're hoping PR can achieve.