10 Things to Consider When Choosing a Healthtech Marketing Agency

How do you choose the right healthtech marketing agency? There are so many options. As the leader of a healthtech marketing agency, my opinion may seem biased, so I asked for help to provide an objective viewpoint.

My amazing colleagues, Lea Chatham and Mark Erwich, together have more than four decades of experience running marketing for major healthcare technology firms such as Verato, Imprivata, Nuance, Gozoio Health, Solutionreach, and Kareo.

Here is what Mark and Lea had to say.

The Stakes are Higher Than Ever

Talking to other marketers, we feel like a lot of change is happening in health IT marketing departments. Some are experiencing budget cuts, while others are seeing budget growth. Some say their budget is the same, but their goals have increased. Almost everyone is asked to deliver more, regardless of funding and staffing. We know at least one marketer who was asked to double the pipeline with the same budget last year. 

Having spent years on the client side selecting and managing agency relationships for healthcare technology organizations, we have witnessed firsthand the challenges of maximizing marketing impact with constrained resources. We’ve been in your shoes—evaluating proposals, scrutinizing capabilities, and making high-stakes decisions about which partners to trust with our limited budgets and ambitious goals.

To address this challenge, marketing departments have applied innovative technologies like AI and moved many tasks to agencies to replace internal staff who are too costly. Agencies also provide access to specialized expertise and industry knowledge from experienced professionals—something that can be difficult and expensive to hire internally, especially with a limited headcount. Rather than building this specialized knowledge in-house, partnering with an agency becomes a more cost-effective solution to tap into a diverse skill set. Using agencies can help rein in costs, but only when you can maximize the relationship with your healthtech marketing agency to get the most bang for your buck.

10 Steps To Selecting the Best Healthtech Marketing Agency for You

You can take several steps to ensure you can get the most from agency partnerships. The first is ensuring you are clear on the goals and purpose. Are you looking for someone to manage a single project, like a website, a rebranding, or a survey? Or are you looking for a long-term partner to fill an internal gap, like PR, or specific aspects of marketing like ABM? Some things you look for may be slightly different if you are evaluating for a particular short-term project versus a long-term partner. The suggestions below lean towards the long-term scenario for healthcare technology marketing agency selection but can be used for either situation.

1. Use your network: There is no better way to find a good partner than to ask your network. Put the word out that you are looking. See if your colleagues can refer you to an agency they work with, have had success with, and/or would recommend. Tapping into groups is a great resource for this. We have often asked the Swaay.Health community for references and respond to queries in the Healthtech Marketing Network from people asking about agencies, services, etc. as do many other members. It’s a great way to leverage many people in your sector quickly.
2. Look for specialty experience: The healthcare industry is complex. People spend years becoming experts in different areas of healthcare and healthcare technology. Look for an agency that works in healthcare and healthtech marketing. Have they worked with clients who target similar ICPs and personas? What successes have they had with your target audience? You will always need to help someone new become an expert in what you do, but you don’t want to spend time getting them up to speed on healthcare in general. “I’ve known more than one person who partnered with a large, non-healthcare-focused agency and was unsuccessful because the agency didn’t understand their market,” says Lea. “It is frustrating if you have to tell someone what HIPAA is.”
3. Team skills and skill level: You’ll want to know about the team you’ll be working with and other resources available if you need them. Smaller agencies often have teams with broader experience and less turnover. You don’t want to re-introduce yourself and your business often, so this can be an essential thing to ask about. You may also find that your needs change over time, so understanding what other areas of expertise and services the agency offers is worth your while. Can you tap into those other resources within your retainer? What upcharges are there? How might your retainer change if your needs change? “Many years ago, I was working with an agency for PR, and we’d experienced some internal attrition around design and digital marketing.” says Lea. “We needed help quickly to hold us over. I was able to request a quote from the agency because we knew they had those resources available. It saved me time looking around for a new resource while we evaluated hiring.”
4. Who else do they work with: While you want someone with experience with your targets, you don’t want them to be working with direct competitors for most services. A reputable agency will be cautious about taking on clients that compete with each other.
5. Get references: Even if you get a referral from a colleague, ask for additional references you can speak to. Ideally, other companies that target similar ICPs and personas or have similar complexities to their sales cycle. You want to hear about their experience and results. And don’t limit yourself to only the references provided by the agency. According to Mark, “During one agency selection process, I noticed several company logos on their presentation slides showcasing previous clients. While they provided two positive references, I independently reached out to the CMO of another company on their logo slide. This CMO candidly shared that working with the agency had been a negative experience—information that proved invaluable in our decision-making process (needless to say, we didn’t select this agency). “
6. Ask about results: Ask about results: Demand specific, quantifiable outcomes—not vague success stories. According to Mark, “When evaluating agencies, we required detailed performance metrics and hold them accountable to hard numbers.” For media and PR agencies, request precise data: exact share of voice percentages compared to competitors, number of tier-one media placements secured quarterly, and measurable brand awareness lift. For ABM initiatives, expect to see conversion rates at each funnel stage, pipeline-to-close ratios, average deal velocities, and ROI calculations. Digital marketing agencies must demonstrate concrete improvements: percentage increases in organic traffic, position changes for target keywords, specific conversion rate improvements, and explicit attribution modeling. Push beyond generic claims by asking for case studies with before-and-after analytics and the methodologies they used to achieve those results. Remember—if they can’t quantify their impact in a meaningful way during the pitch, they likely won’t deliver measurable value as your partner.
7. How often will you check in on results? Any agency should have a regular weekly or bi-weekly cadence for project management, but how often do they meet with you to review results? Demand comprehensive reporting systems that track progress toward your specific business goals. When they share objectives like pipeline growth, expect agencies to establish robust reporting mechanisms that break down monthly targets, measure program performance against those targets, and provide transparent visibility into progress. A quarterly business review isn’t enough. The agency should offer a detailed reporting infrastructure that allows you to monitor progress in real-time (or at least weekly), make data-driven adjustments, and maintain accountability. Per Mark,  “Too many times I have had meetings with agencies where reporting was an afterthought, and the focus was on the creative work.” 
8. Culture fit: It isn’t enough to meet with the person who is “pitching” the agency to you. Ask about the team—what are their backgrounds, how long have they been at the agency? Ask to meet the team so you can learn more about them and interact with them. Ask about processes and workflows. Can they adapt to the way your team works? As you meet and talk to them, think about it the same way you think about hiring a team member. Does it feel like a natural fit?
9. Is it a good budget fit? It’s good to have a budget in mind that you feel is aligned with your needs and goals. A bit of research ahead of time can give you some idea of the range you might expect. However, there can be quite a difference between agencies. In some cases, a retainer makes the most sense, but in others, project-based fees might be a better fit. There are also situations like outbound calling where value-based or volume discounts can come into play.
10. What are the timeframes for delivery? Time refers to two things—the time it takes to get specific projects done and the length of a contract. For example, when evaluating three agencies, one insisted on a rigid 12-month commitment, while the other two offered 6-month contracts. This inflexibility became a dealbreaker, as the organization frequently adjusted budgets mid-year. Despite strong capabilities, they eliminated the inflexible agency from consideration—their unwillingness to accommodate the business reality introduced too much financial risk. Look for agencies that understand your budgeting cycles and offer appropriate contract terms. Some agencies can also be more adaptable around project deadlines than others, which becomes essential when you have initiatives that must be completed within specific windows.

Agency Selection Process

You’re probably wondering how to use all this advice to make the search process easier. Here’s what we’d suggest…

Establish a structured decision-making process based on your organizational requirements.

Some companies mandate formal RFPs, particularly for larger engagements or when procurement departments are involved. RFPs work well for complex projects with multiple stakeholders, but they can be time-consuming and bureaucratic.

For more agile decision-making, a selection rubric offers an excellent alternative. Create a simple spreadsheet incorporating the categories above, listing criteria that matter most to your organization. Decide on a ranking scale (i.e., 1-10 with 1 being lowest and 10 being the highest). Have everyone involved in the selection process—whether that’s just your marketing team or representatives from sales, product, or executive leadership—independently complete the spreadsheet for each vendor. This approach ensures all voices are heard equally, preventing decisions from being dominated by the loudest or most senior person in the room.

Tally the scores to identify which agency ranked highest across all evaluators. This quantitative process creates transparency, minimizes bias, and builds consensus among your buying group. We’ve attached an example rubric here to help you get started.

If you are currently looking for a healthcare technology marketing agency to support your PR, marketing, and communications efforts, we’d love to talk to you more about Health Launchpad. 

Let’s schedule a call.

If you liked this post and want to learn more…

1. Check out more posts like this in the Healthtech MarketingLearning Center. It is chock-full of articles, use cases, how-to’s, and ideas. Check out our resource center dedicated to AI. You can learn how to do stuff there.
2. Follow me or connect with me on LinkedIn. I publish videos and articles on ABM and healthtech marketing.
3. See what other healthcare technology marketers are doing. Check out the State of ABM in Healthcare Technology.
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5. Work with us directly. Let’s book a growth session and we can explore ways you can improve your marketing using the latest techniques in account-based marketing.