Emerging Industries

10 Healthtech Journalist to Follow on Twitter

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Where using internet services and social mobility in healthcare services was a personal choice in the past, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic made it clear that it is now a necessity for both consumers and healthcare providers, making healthtech one of the fastest-growing emerging industries.

Thousands of healthtech companies usher in innovations and cutting-edge technologies every day. For such fast-growing coverage needs, health tech reporters must proactively illuminate the business strategies of the modern healthcare giants and dig into new research to create a detailed reporting piece of the healthtech industry.

This intersection of technology and health quickly evolves, attracting billion-dollar investments worldwide. So healthtech PR is always looking up to energetic and determined healthtech journalists for press coverage. They cover the latest trends and deliver deep insights and compelling stories on the healthtech industry.

Here are ten healthtech journalists to follow on Twitter. They will keep you informed of what’s around the corner and clearly show where the healthtech industry is heading next.

1.    Christina Farr

Christina Farr is a former healthtech reporter for CNBC, Reuters News, Fast Company, and other publications.

Christina is now a health tech investor and a principal at OMERS Ventures, a global early-stage venture cap. She was born and raised in London and graduated from University College London and Stanford University.

Christina Farr is the author of Second Opinion, a healthtech newsletter that publishes various trends revolving around pharmacy tech, women’s health, etc. It also features interviews with investors, executives, and healthcare founders. Christina applies her experience as a healthtech journalist and investor to dive deep into the world of healthtech news.

 

Her breakthrough works, and exciting healthtech stories have appeared in numerous publishing companies, including the New York Times, Bay Citizen, and Daily Telegraph. Christina frequently appears at health and technology conferences as a speaker and featured expert on ABC, Reuters TV, and others.

Her Twitter is @chrissyfarr, where she actively tweets about the latest healthtech trends and news.

2.    Nick Triggle

Nick Triggle is a health correspondent at BBC. His reporting mainly focuses on NHS, and he writes extensive articles demonstrating how the UK deals with challenges around social care and health inequalities.

Such articles, such as on mental health and the NHS crisis, target the issues of how healthcare provided by NHS is suffering a blow and dealing with many challenges like the aging population and obesity.

Many people highly respect Nick Triggle for being one of the most perspective health journalists as he gives equal and enough attention to the rising issues and trends related to healthcare and NHS. He digs deep into the matters revolving around health reforms, new acts, and the effects of the pandemic and other dangerous challenges for NHS with a much-needed context and data visualization.

Nick was awarded the “Blogger of the Year” by Medical Journalists’ Association in 2015. He is the lead journalist behind the breakthrough BBC projects, The NHS crisis – decades in the making, and the ‘Fantastic’ care calculator.

Nick Triggle highlights the pressing health stories in the UK on his Twitter account (he goes by @NickTriggle). He partakes in the debates and conversations that discuss national response to these challenges. His tweets are an up-to-date source for receiving the latest and authoritative views on NHS, social care, and public health.

Nick Trigger also previously worked on the Gerry Robinson TV NHS documentaries.

3.    Laura Donnelly

Laura Donnelly is a health editor at The Telegraph Media Group. She has written several well-researched articles in The Telegraph, which focus on the healthcare services in the UK concerning the COVID-19 pandemic.

Laura Donnelly has won many awards for her energetic work on various topics, such as the NHS crisis, in-depth investigations, and exciting stories that bring research and scientific breakthroughs to her readers’ lives. Her latest works on NHS waiting lists and NHS strikes highlight the devastating effects on healthcare services in the UK.

Laura Donnelly channels the same energy and passion into her Twitter account, sharing her opinions and turning complex healthtech news into offbeat news and stories. You can find her on Twitter as @lauradonnlee.

Laura has worked at The Telegraph for more than 15 years and also has editorial experience at the Health Service Journal. Her past roles as a news editor and health journalist have made her one of the vital healthtech journalists to follow on Twitter.

Laura Donnelly covers the latest trends in biomedical technologies and vaccine developments. She has an in-depth understanding of the healthcare system, and thus, her Twitter account is an excellent place to receive critical analysis and reporting on the latest healthtech news.

4.    Erin Brodwin

Erin Brodwin is an award-winning health tech reporter at Axios. Erin’s hard-hitting stories and newsletters are all focused on digital health, health ambitions and where the world’s technology giants are heading towards, and venture capital.

Erin Brodwin is a California-based healthtech journalist who graduated from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism in New York after receiving her Master’s in health and science reporting.

Erin Brodwin is one the most dedicated and passionate health journalists who actively contribute to the world of health and science publications. She has experience with some of the biggest names in science, health, and technology magazines. Erin has contributed many stories to Scientific American, which discusses the roles of AI tools in healthcare and clinical diagnosis, advertising campaigns that harm teenage psychology and health, chemical weapons, and much more.

Erin has also written for Insider Inc. and has broken several breakthrough news on health and technology stories and the latest trends. She has been a healthtech correspondent at STAT, covering many topics ranging from digital health, the role of key healthtech players like Facebook and Google, and challenges to people’s health that arose due to the misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Erin Brodwin is one of the healthtech journalists you must look for on Twitter. You can find her as @erinbrodwin.

5.    Andrew Gregory

Andrew Gregory is an award-winning British journalist and health editor for The Guardian. He received three British Press Awards for his high-impact journalism and his long and dedicated role as a health reporter exposing racial health inequalities in the UK.

The works of Andrew Gregory have captured a lot of attention by bringing such healthcare issues to light and produced a wave of fury and determination in public regarding healthcare inequalities.

Andrew has also won a Guild of Health Writers Award, a British Journalism Award, and many other nominations and awards.

Andrew chooses the most impactful and gripping healthcare topics to write about. The power of his words to resonate with the readers makes him one of the highly sought-after healthcare journalists. His exciting stories focus on the role of technology in healthcare, and he also shares his direct and honest opinions about the latest trends and news in healthtech in his breakthrough works.

Andrew Gregory has written many articles on the role of healthcare technologies like Artificial Intelligence and how they can help physicians and surgeons refine and improve their healthcare services. He uses his Twitter account to shed some light on his articles within the 280-character limit and then links the complete articles on The Guardian. You can find him on Twitter as @andrewgregory.

6.    Natasha Singer

Natasha Singer is a health technology reporter at The New York Times and passionately writes about topics like consumer privacy and education technology. She dedicates her work to the extensive and essential ways healthtech companies, their technology, and tools impact healthcare services and job opportunities.

Natasha Singer is currently attending The KSJ Fellowship Program. Most of her stories published for The New York Times are about tackling the mental health crisis in children and teens and its direct relation to the use of social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram. She has also received many awards for covering and reporting online tracking.

Natasha Singer highlights the intersection of science, society, and technology, focusing on behavioral advertising, health, and education.

Natasha Singer was also a correspondent for Outside Magazine before coming to the Times. There, she published important stories about wildlife conservation and biodiversity. Her Twitter account is a great place to receive a deep understanding of these topics, as Natasha actively posts about her works there. You can find her at @natashanyt.

7.    Kat Lay

Kat Lay is a health editor at The Times. She mainly explores stories and trends related to new advances in research studies and clinical trials and highlights the healthcare issues within NHS.

Kat Lay picks up the most exciting topics about public health in UK and NHS staff. She also highlights the role of healthtech in improving the clinical diagnosis of serious diseases, such as how they hold trials for AI programs to check for breast cancer in NHS patients and how Milton Keynes Trust has now adopted healthtech innovations to deliver cutting-edge care.

Kat Lay also received a Medical Journalists Association award for her news story that covered sexual harassment in surgical training and surgeries. Kat Lay joined The Times in 2012 as a graduate trainee, and since then, she has created a name for herself as one of the most well-deserved and dedicated healthtech journalists.

Follow her on Twitter at @katlay.

8.    Amit Katwala

Amit Katwala is an award-winning science and technology journalist. After studying Experimental Psychology and graduating from Oxford University, Amit pursued his career as a writer and editor at several famous publications like Economist and Science Uncovered.

Currently, Amit Katwala is a writer and editor at WIRED, an essential source of breakthrough information regarding science, technology, and its effects on society. Amit has also written two books, Tremors in the Blood and The Athletic Brain, in which he discussed the impact of science and technology on the human brain.

Amit Katwala contributes great stories to WIRED based on his exciting research on health, science, and technology. He also shares his opinions about the collision of technology with culture on his Twitter account, and you can find him at @amitkatwala.

9.    Zaria Gorvett

Zaria Gorvett is an award-winning senior journalist at BBC Future. She mostly tells compelling stories about health, medicine, psychology, history, etc. Zaria is an aspiring health journalist whose articles were featured on Chartbeat’s list of the most engaging stories of 2021 and 2022.

Zaria Gorvett is a London-based science writer. After graduating, she worked for environmental charities in Tobago and Greece while earning two Master’s degrees.

Now Zaria is one of the essential healthcare journalists as she frequently writes about science topics ranging from COVID-19 vaccine doses to “untranslatable illnesses.”

Zaria Gorvett has also written for Scientific American and Asian Scientist, two of the most popular magazines highlighting worldwide health, science, and technology issues.

You can find Zaria on Twitter as @ZariaGorvett, and if you are interested in fascinating stories about healthcare and other related topics, she is the one to follow.

10. Jessica Kim Cohen

Jessica Kim Cohen is a precision medicine reporter at GenomeWeb, an online science magazine covering recent trends and compelling stories about molecular biology.

Jessica Kim Cohen writes about the latest research studies and developments in genetically targeted treatments.

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Why HealthTech PR Needs Emerging Industry Experts

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All emerging industries face two distinct communication challenges which is why healthtech PR needs emerging industry experts. The first crucial hurdle is creating trust with the stakeholders. Whether your primary audience is consumers or venture capitalists, both can quickly turn a weary eye to healthtech. There is no healthtech industry without trust. The second is explaining technical and medical terms in easy-to-understand and memorable language. Healthtech also faces a third challenge: a myriad of regulations. Trust, effective communication, and regulations are the three reasons healthtech PR is an essential part of the growth plan for any ambitious healthtech company. But given these particular challenges, what strategies should healthtech PR employ to improve trust and accessibility?

Weaving Health and Wellness Narratives in Health Technology

Historically, communicators considered health and wellness topics to belong to the supplement industry. But consumers today are savvier than ever about their health, and the internet provides a trove of health-related information at their fingertips. Consumer-based healthtech companies should speak to consumers directly through owned content, earned PR, and paid media. B2B healthtech firms must balance trust and tech with the right tone. Emerging industry PR firms understand how to talk about new, never-before ideas and create narratives that support the stakeholders in a way that makes them want something they didn’t know they needed.

Owned Content for HealthTech
Emerging industries like healthtech should focus on developing straightforward narratives that meet the customer where they are at in their health journey. Google is particular about how it ranks for health-related content; we review some of that in our 15 Tips for Better Consumer PR .

If Google can’t trust your content, it will be challenging for your consumers to find, let alone trust, your content.

And, for many healthtech brands, there is also a regulatory component. Understanding Google’s perspective on owned content is an important aspect that a digitally savvy PR firm understands and can navigate and develop content that balances the needs of the brand and the constraints of SEO and regulations.

Earned Media in HealthTech
From thought leadership strategies to consumer storytelling, creating storylines that apply to the media creates a dialogue with media that transcends awareness; it creates affinity.

While creating storylines around “the latest greatest thing” sounds simple, many overnight successes have been pounding the media pavement for years before with an early adopter strategy. Building media credibility early on pays dividends that build as time goes on and can make all the difference during times of crisis.

Further, ensuring your HealthTech brand has a healthy understanding of what makes a great tech story in PR enables not only bursts of the press during opportune moments but a drumbeat of PR throughout the year.

 

Balancing Tech and Trust in HealthTech

Both tech and health are technical industries that deserve careful regulatory monitoring, but as necessary is the trust aspect. U.S. consumers vacillate between tech fascination or techlash.  That’s why health and tech brands must invest in trust-building through storytelling and transparency.

For founders with deep tech backgrounds, developing a voice that is approachable to the consumer can be a challenge. But there is no more critical role for an early-stage founder than being the brand’s voice. And sometimes, that means opening the kimono to your successes and failures. But a trusted PR firm can help you navigate the opportunities and the pitfalls, which is critical during hypergrowth.

PR for Profitability

But maybe you’re in a fundraising holding pattern right now, and it’s all about profitability. Many startup companies consider PR a cost center, but this is a mistake because PR creates lasting signals that build trust with your audience and your future investors. Investing in profitability PR takes a set of different strategies but doesn’t take its foot off the gas. Because everything is cyclical and building your reputation constantly improves profitability from churn reduction to improved sales cycles.

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What is Healthtech PR?

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The emerging healthtech industry has increased in recent years due to several factors, including an aging population, increasing demand for personalized care, and the rising cost of healthcare facilities. However, the increasing competition has made it more challenging for healthtech firms to gain the desired attention for their products and services; this is where Healthtech PR can help.

What is Healthtech PR?

Healthtech PR refers to the activities focused on building and maintaining a favorable reputation for emerging technologies in healthcare. More precisely, it increases the visibility and credibility of technological innovations in the healthcare industry among healthcare providers, patients, investors, and media.

Some examples of Health tech PR activities include:

  • Developing communication strategies for business objectives such as attracting funding, acquiring competitive advantages, and creating marketplace trust for new technologies.
  • Creating thought leadership content like blog posts and white papers
  • Handling social media accounts
  • Securing media coverage for new product launches
  • Organizing events and webinars
  • Arranging collaborations with key influencers in the healthcare technology space

What Is The Need for Healthtech PR?

Although PR plays a vital role in the success of all kinds of businesses, it is significantly more crucial for the healthtech industry due to its complex and evolving nature. The challenges below illustrate why PR matters to the healthtech industry so much.

Technical Language in HealthTech

One of the primary jobs of HealthTech PR is to translate technical language in a way the general public and other stakeholders can understand. The healthcare industry is a complex and highly specialized field. It involves various technical terms and concepts specific to the industry. Meeting stakeholders where they are is vital, so using healthtech PR is essential.

Healthtech PR professionals are adept at simplifying the complex medical language used to describe various medical conditions, treatments, and procedures. They can convey the correct meaning to their target audience in clear, concise, and understandable terms.
Remember, your target audience can only trust a healthtech product or service if they fully understand its features, functions, and benefits.

Regulatory Hurdles

 

The healthcare industry is highly regulated; numerous laws and regulations govern the developing, testing, and marketing of healthcare products and services. Such regulatory hurdles can be difficult for healthtech companies to navigate. Plus, they can become a massive barrier to entry for new companies wanting to enter the industry.
Healthtech PR professionals are knowledgeable about the regulatory landscape of the healthcare industry. They can effectively understand and convey a product’s compliance with relevant laws, expediting the approval process and increasing the chances of acceptance by the public.
Conclusively, PR strategies are a great tool to build support for healthtech products and services amongst regulators and the public.

Privacy Concerns

Healthcare companies handle sensitive information about patients. Such data has to be protected to maintain regulatory compliance and patient trust. When developing and implementing new healthtech technologies, these companies must address all privacy concerns to earn the trust of patients and other stakeholders involved.
Healthtech PR strategies can help healthtech firms communicate how their innovations protect patient privacy. If a privacy breach occurs, these strategies also help healthcare firms transparently and effectively share how the incident happened and what steps they take to resolve the issue.

Building Trust

Healthtech firms may need help to build trust among their target audience for several reasons.
Patients often deal with life-changing health conditions, and they need to feel that they can trust the companies providing their care. Healthtech firms must demonstrate that they have the expertise, experience, and resources to provide high-quality care that meets the needs of patients.

The healthcare industry is highly complex. Besides patients, it involves many other stakeholders, like healthcare providers, regulators, insurers, and investors. This complexity makes it challenging for healthtech firms to navigate the industry and establish themselves as credible and trustworthy players.

The healthtech landscape has become significantly crowded, with numerous firms entering. Every firm has to work hard to obtain its target audience’s trust and stay ahead of the curve.
Healthtech PR can help firms build trust with their target audience by providing accurate information, demonstrating thought leadership, and showing a commitment to patient outcomes.

Rapid Innovation

The healthcare industry is evolving rapidly – new technologies and innovations continue to emerge. Rapid innovation makes it critical for healthtech firms to predict and follow recent trends and developments in the industry to promote their products and services effectively.
Healthtech PR strategies involving social media, networking events, and content creation can help firms gain and share quick insights about the latest developments in the industry.
The Core Benefits of Healthtech PR

Increased Brand Awareness

Implementing PR strategies can boost a healthtech firm’s visibility and increase awareness of their technological innovations among their target audience. These strategies focus on driving traffic to a company’s website, enhancing social media engagement, and generating more leads and sales.

Thought leadership Opportunities

Healthtech PR can also help healthtech companies establish themselves as thought leaders. Healthtech PR includes exploring valuable healthtech insights, posting thought leadership content and leading industry events.
Establishing their position as experts in the field allows healthtech firms to build credibility among key stakeholders. Increased credibility makes more people willingly try out your healthtech products or services.

Strong Investor Relations

Healthtech PR can help companies attract investors and build and maintain lucrative relationships. PR professionals in the healthcare industry know how to effectively communicate their vision, strategy, and progress to investors. They can help healthtech firms gather the funding required to grow and succeed through creating social media buzz, posting thought-provoking content on websites, and other techniques.

Reputation Management

Reputation management is one of the most critical functions of PR strategies. It is to promote the firm’s strengths, achievements, and contributions to the healthcare industry. It primarily involves creating a positive image of the healthtech firms via various channels, like social media, content marketing, media relations, etc.
In the event of negative publicity, a strong PR plan can help healthtech firms quickly address the issue, transparently interact with stakeholders, and take appropriate measures to mitigate the effects on the company’s reputation.
Healthtech PR also involves monitoring and analyzing the online presence and media coverage. It helps companies identify incorrect or damaging information that could harm their reputation. Moreover, it allows firms to make informed decisions about their PR strategy and identify opportunities to improve their standing.

Patient Engagement

Healthtech PR allows healthtech companies to build a loyal customer base by engaging with patients meaningfully. A good healthtech PR plan includes techniques like providing patients access to their medical records, creating patient-centric content, and leveraging social media to connect with patients.
It also involves enabling patients to schedule appointments online, building relationships with patient advocacy groups, offering telehealth and remote monitoring services, and providing educational resources to help them better understand their condition and treatment options. These techniques also allow companies to demonstrate their commitment to improving patient outcomes.

Effective Healthtech PR Strategies

Public relations strategies for healthtech companies are essential for building brand awareness, establishing credibility, and engaging with key stakeholders. Here are some PR strategies you can use to promote a healthtech brand.
Convey a Strong Brand Narrative
Healthtech PR helps brands convey their story that effectively explains their mission, values, products, and services. This story becomes a foundational pillar for further marketing efforts, including media pitches, content marketing, and press releases.
Collaborate with Industry Influencers
Collaborating with industry influencers enables healthtech companies to raise their credibility and exposure. Influencers may include patient advocates, industry analysts, healthcare professionals, etc. Such collaborations can lead to increased media coverage, social media exposure, and word-of-mouth recommendations.
Create Educational and Thought-Leadership Content
Creating educational content is another PR technique that helps healthtech firms provide value to their target audience. It involves blog posts, white papers, and e-books that highlight the benefits of their technology and provide unique perspectives on industry trends. Firms can share and promote content through various channels, like emails, social media, websites, etc.
Manage Social Media
Social media is a powerful tool for healthtech companies to connect with their audience and share their message. They can use social media to share educational content, engage with their audience, and promote the credibility of their brand.
Host Networking Events
Healthtech businesses can also host events to introduce and display their technology as a part of their PR strategy. Some examples of events include webinars, conferences, and networking events. Hosting such events presents an excellent opportunity to educate guests on the benefits of the technology and build relationships with key stakeholders.
Secure Media Coverage
Healthtech companies can also benefit by securing media coverage by pitching stories to relevant media outlets. They can approach industry publications, business publications, and mainstream media to build a strong narrative and tailor pitches to the interests of each media outlet.
Engage with Patient Communities
Healthtech companies can engage with patient communities to understand and anticipate their needs and develop practical solutions. They can do this through social media outreach, surveys, and patient focus groups.

Why Outsource Healthtech PR?

While healthtech firms may be able to handle some aspects of their PR themselves, there are several reasons hiring a PR agency can be beneficial.
PR Agencies Have Both Expertise and Experience
PR agencies are teams of professionals specializing in public relations with years of experience dealing with various industries. They deeply understand the media landscape and know how to build and execute successful PR campaigns.
Healthtech is a fast-paced industry, and you need a PR agency that can adapt to changing circumstances and respond quickly to emerging opportunities. When hiring a PR agency, look for one with a proven record of success in working with healthtech companies. Ensure they know the regulatory environment and vital healthcare industry stakeholders.
They Have an Extensive Network
PR agencies working with healthtech companies have strong connections with prime media outlets, influencers, and industry experts. They can help healthtech firms build relationships with the right people, opening doors that might be difficult for that firm to access otherwise. They can also secure media coverage to build a brand and drive business results.
They Offer An Objective, Unbiased Perspective
PR agencies can objectively evaluate a healthtech firm’s messaging and branding. They can help companies identify strengths and weaknesses and create a PR strategy that aligns with their goals.
They Save Time and Resources
Healthtech firms may need more time or resources for a comprehensive PR campaign. Hiring a PR agency allows them to focus on their core business activities while the agency handles their PR efforts.
They Help You Manage Crisis Effectively
In a crisis, a PR agency can provide guidance and support to help manage the situation. They have experience handling crises and can help healthtech firms navigate difficult situations with their reputation intact.
PR Agencies Provide Strategic Guidance
A good healthtech PR agency can provide strategic guidance to help you develop a comprehensive PR plan that perfectly fits your business objectives and is creative enough to stand out in a crowded industry. Look for an agency that has successfully captured the attention of a similar target audience in the past.
Metrics-Driven Approach
A good healthtech PR agency prioritizes driving and delivering fruitful results that align with your business goals. Look for an agency with a strong track record of delivering ROI for its clients.
In Conclusion
Effective PR strategies are essential for healthtech firms to succeed in today’s competitive market. By building solid relationships with key stakeholders, sharing compelling stories about their products and services, and leveraging the power of social media and digital marketing, healthtech firms can build a strong brand and reputation that will help them attract customers, investors, and talent.
However, handling public relations on top of other crucial tasks involved in a healthtech business can be overwhelming. An experienced healthtech PR agency can help healthtech firms make a real difference in the lives of patients and healthcare providers, driving innovation and growth in the industry without any hassle.

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6 Ways PR Helped Hypergrowth Healthtech Brands Thrive

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Ever since the pandemic, there has been a new emphasis on the emerging industry of telehealth, many of which are on the pre-IPO track. And while telehealth VC investment is expected to stay flat in 2023, the industry received an exciting $29.1 billion in funding in 2021, mostly for consumer tech services and apps, but B2B is also on solid footing. Regardless of funding levels, how has healthtech PR helped hypergrowth brands thrive through the disruptive business environment?

 

Hims/Hers HealthTech and Consumer Goods Maximizes Growth with PR

  • $233 million raised
  • First day of trading: Jan. 21, 2021
  • SPAC proceeds: $280 million
  • SPAC valuation: $1.6 billion, according to Forbes

Hims/Hers operates two websites offering medical services specific to men (Hims) and women (Hers). To catch the attention of VCs and to eventually go public in 2021,  healthtech PR helped hypergrowth tech brandHims/Hers maximize their most opportune moments. With a total funding amount of $233 million and a successful SPAC IPO, Hims/Hers PR was strategic and purpose-driven, which helped it create consumer trust and make them a media darling at the right time.

Authentic Purpose-Driven PR

In 2021, Hims/Hers followed AirBnB in offering services to displaced Afghan refugees in the wake of the U.S. military’s sudden departure from Afghanistan. Not only did this create trust for their customers, many of whom expect brands to be socially impactful, but they also leveraged tech-based media such as TechCrunch to report the news and capture investors’ imaginations. It may have caught the attention of Walgreens, who missed the chance to contribute when their competitor, Walmart beat them to the punch because three months later, Walgreens started carrying the Hims & Hers personal care products in-store and online.

Targeting Early Adopters with Content

Although it went dark in 2021, Hims/Hers used Medium to own their story, create interest in the early-adopter crowd, and help them navigate the choppy consumer waters during the pandemic. Hims/Hers used Medium to make announcements, and they also hosted Q&As with medical professionals over topics that showed their consumers they understood them and their most personal medical problems.

 

Healthtech Kiira Health Leverages Healthcare PR at Opportune Moments

  • $4 million raised
  • Named one of the most promising startups in 2021 by VCs in Business Insider

Kiira is a healthtech startup that provides an online health clinic to college-aged women with an inclusive and culture-centered approach. The platform provided 24/7 365 access to trusted health experts, including primary care providers, ObGyn, nurse practitioners, and mental health experts. When the pandemic hit, many college-aged women found themselves without access to healthcare. This an especially acute issue because without “adequate resources and guidance, students are at risk for high rates of STDs on campus, unintended pregnancies, adolescent maternal deaths, and other adverse events.” according to CEO and cofounder Crystal Evuleocha, so she teamed up Dr. Candice Fraser, MD FACOG to solve the issue for millions of young women.

Using the Media to Reach Your Target Community

Both co-founders are open about their own experiences with a lack of access to care or questions about how to access care and the dangerous consequences. By leveraging personal stories that speak directly to the organization’s community, the co-founders have shown their audiences that they truly understand them, as they did in Forbes and Essence in 2021.

Moreover, when the founders speak to their community, they stay on message. They share the same information that inspired them to start Kiira Health and they underscore the most pressing issues for young women.

Using Press Releases For Corporate History

Should you issue a press release, or shouldn’t you? One time it’s crystal clear that you should, when there is a big corporate moment that will build your brand credibility with press and/or consumers, as Kiira Health did when it announced its first flagship location in Los Angeles. While press releases aren’t usually the source of media coverage by themselves, it likely didn’t hurt when Crunchbase included them in a story about health and wellness startups. This kind of press release acts a flagpole in the sand for future credibility building for both VC and media.

 

Folx Health Using PR to Elevate Understanding

  • $59 million raised
  • #28 on Fast Company’s list of World’s Most Innovative Companies 2023

Taking Control of their Founding Story

Folx Health is a telehealth platform that provides healthcare services tailored to the LGBTQIA+ community, starting at $59/month. In May 2020, Folx founder A.G. Breitenstein took to Medium to tell how Folx came to be. Although this Medium post is their only Medium post, it shows a particular media savvy. In December that year Folx’s $4.4 million funding led to coverage on Mashable, Built in Boston, and Crunchbase. The Medium post is so important because it is an early flag in the sand about the founding story of Folx, which is important when a big media announcement hits and suddenly there is a lot of press and a lot of opportunities for the founding story to be misunderstood or misrepresented.

PR to Take a Stand

On the heels of its $30 million raise in October 2022, Folx appears to take control of its narrative again. This time, it does so as a fierce source of information about healthcare’s inadequacy for the queer community. Time after time, Folx uses an intelligent combination of data and storytelling to articulate Folx’s purpose and need to a broader audience. And this time, Folx CEO is the spokesperson for thier entire community: The American healthcare system, “at best, wasn’t built for us. And actually, more often than not, it’s openly discriminatory,” says Liana Douillet-Guzmán, of the LGBTQ community.

 

 

All of these hypergrowth healthtech brands provide examples of PR in healthcare brands, but these examples can also be useful for all startups in any phase of growth. Taking ownership of PR in the earliest stages can pay remarkable dividends in the early development and later hypergrowth stages. During times of volatility, PR can be the shining beacon into the future and light the path for future growth, even with past coverage.

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Why Hiring a Cannabis PR Firm Matters

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Ask anyone who works in the cannabis industry: it’s different from any other industry. It’s not “just another CPG” product. It’s a highly regulated, heavily watched, extremely volatile industry. Our firm handled the first cannabis product recall in California, and we can tell you it’s not like other product recalls. We’re deeply engaged in the cannabis industry through our NCIA leadership and we proudly spearheaded the Best of 420 Clio Cannabis last year. The cannabis industry, which started in 2012 when Colorado and Washington legalized recreational use, has a history and patchwork of regulations even though it’s an emerging industry. Navigating these waters takes strategy, foresight, and the ability to read the tea leaves, which only comes from experience – that’s why hiring a cannabis PR firm matters.

 

The Cannabis Industry is Not The Green Rush

The ACTUAL gold rush was famously unregulated; it was a bonanza of rebels who swarmed government lands with impunity. Or the tech industry, whose ground-breaking innovations in media, medicine, and technology happened without major government oversight for decades, giving time for some of the world’s most profitable companies to take root.

The cannabis industry is on fragile ground. Even the most basic of business tools, the bank account, is challenging to secure for plant-touching cannabis brands. Unlike the surge of other emerging industries which merged into hypergrowth businesses, from the very first, the cannabis industry has been highly regulated. No startup industry has managed so many regulations, taxes, and hurdles early in its growth.

Why does this matter when hiring a cannabis PR agency? Because there is a more significant responsibility to consider and more to lose for cannabis brands. Anytime a bad actor lands in the cannabis industry, legislators can point to the irresponsibility of that single company as representative of the entire sector – fair or not. Cannabis brands must take the reputation of the whole cannabis sector seriously. Cannabis owners have the opportunity to be cultural leaders, and that’s a heady but consequential task that a cannabis PR agency knows how to handle.

If the cannabis industry is to change its federal legalization situation, then it must take the reputation of the cannabis industry seriously; that’s why hiring a cannabis PR firm matters.

 

Building a Brand Matters More in Cannabis

There are only a few ways for cannabis brands to differentiate because of the limitations on cannabis brands. Therefore, cannabis brands must use the marketing and communication tactics that are open to them, strategically.

While a cannabis connoisseur may be able to detect the subtleties of your flower’s terpene profile, the average U.S. consumer is still blissfully unaware of what a terpene is. It’s essential to meet your consumer where they are and celebrate their lives through the articulation of your brand. People are rarely drawn to a brand because it educates them; educational content has its purpose, but as a cannabis brand, you must know its purpose and place more than other consumer brands. And when I say brand, I mean every touch point from cannabis packaging to website. If your website looks amateur, then it doesn’t scream luxury or lifestyle; it screams “cheap, and uncommitted.”

Don’t kid yourself into thinking your digital presence doesn’t matter because traditional e-commerce isn’t available to cannabis brands. The fact is, search is one of the most powerful marketing tools you can leverage, and PR and content are critical to successful cannabis SEO.

It’s more important than ever that brands articulate clearly WHO their customer is. This is true of all consumer brands – but for the cannabis industry, where it’s even more challenging for the consumer to differentiate between brands, it’s even more critical that you tell them. No successful brand is everything to everyone right away. It took decades for Coca-Cola to be a brand that crosses generations and lifestyles, and even with that, Coca-Cola is continuously adding new products and new campaigns to reinforce its connection to segments of its audience. No cannabis brand has the history or the budget to operate the way the world’s biggest brands do – and that’s OK. You can’t be ubiquitous, but you can be niche.

But being a cannabis company doesn’t make you a cannabis brand-a brand you must build. And PR is a vital tool for emerging industries and ambitious brands for a reason.

Today’s cannabis brands have a multitude of strategies for their future. Some want to create generational family businesses, some want to be acquired, and some want nothing less than world domination. All those things are possible when you build a cannabis brand and that’s why hiring a cannabis firm matters.

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