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The leap from startup to scale-up is often defined by how well a company communicates its value. For leaders of these organizations, the pressure to maintain a steady pulse of market presence is relentless. You need to educate skeptical clinical buyers. Navigate complex procurement cycles. Stand out in a crowded field of “innovative” solutions.
Traditionally, when healthcare IT companies look for outside product marketing expertise, they turn to the tried and true “retainer” agency model. You set aside a bucket of funds, and as needs arise you draw from the well until it runs dry.
This approach is inherently reactive. And, in an industry that evolves as fast as digital health a reactive marketing posture is a recipe for wasted spend and missed opportunities. In this blog, we reframe the partnership between healthcare IT company leaders and product marketing agencies and consultants. We also reinforce why you should view collaborations such as these as subscriptions to a dynamic, strategic service.
Retainer Models are (Deceptively) Comfortable
Retainer agreements are often viewed as the “gold standard” of professional service engagements. You’ve likely used this model with outside legal counsel or with a regulatory or compliance consultant. You allocate a “bucket of funds” at the start of the quarter. As questions and projects arise or contracts need reviewing, you draw from that pile until it’s depleted.
In predictable, highly-transactional fields, this works. You pay for a specific unit of time to accomplish specific projects or complete discrete tasks. When the work finishes, the meter stops running. It’s a clean, linear way to manage a budget.
Yet, when applied to the dynamic world of healthcare product marketing, the “bucket” approach has a fatal flaw. Because it is based on finite resources, it encourages a tactical “onesie-twosie” mindset. You find yourself triage-marketing. Requesting a slide deck here or a press release there, without a cohesive strategic thread tying them together.
Worse, when the bucket of funds runs low, strategic initiatives can get mothballed to “save hours.” This reactive posture can result in your product marketing effort being a collection of disjointed projects rather than a unified strategy.
Product Marketing as a (Strategic) Service
Compare that to the way we consume almost everything else in the digital world. Your favorite streaming service, for example. You don’t pay per episode or movie. You subscribe to a service that provides continuous, high-value access to content that evolves with your preferences.
Applying this subscription model to product marketing consulting changes the fundamental nature of the partnership. Instead of managing hours, you are investing in a goal-oriented, strategic commercialization engine. In a subscription-based engagement, “tactics” are no longer the focus. The objectives are.
You and your product marketing partner agree on the strategic goals up front. Perhaps it’s driving clinician intent, building authority in the value-based care space, or preparing the market for series B fundraising. Once those goals are set, the subscription covers the execution of the programs and campaigns needed to achieve them.
If a market shift suddenly makes a targeted webinar more valuable than a planned white paper, a subscription-based relationship allows for an immediate pivot. The product marketing effort simply shifts its output to match the new business requirements. You aren’t buying a fixed “price list” of deliverables. You are subscribing to a strategic capability that ensures your business remains focused on the evolving commercialization needs.
Build and Sustain Momentum
For growing healthcare IT companies, consistency is the ultimate currency–so your marketing should be a steady stream of intelligence and engagement. When you treat product marketing as a subscription, you ensure that the “engine” is always running across three critical lanes.
1) Awareness Building.
This is your steady drumbeat. Weekly LinkedIn insights that position your founders as thought leaders. The monthly emails that keep your lead list warm. And, the press releases that announce your wins. In a subscription, these form your brand’s frequency, or “pulse”.
2) Content Architecture.
Frequency isn’t enough. You need a continuous flow of high-value assets. For example, case studies that prove clinical ROI, white papers that convey thought leadership and help fill the funnel, and blogs that address the specific buyer persona pain points. Under a subscription model these are regular deliverables.
3) Strategic Input.
Maybe the most undervalued part of the engine, it considers things like the following. How is the regulatory landscape changing? What are your competitors whispering in the ears of your prospects? A subscription model includes a steady stream of market feedback that informs not only your marketing, but your product and business strategy.
Establishing Lanes of Responsibility
One of the greatest benefits of the subscription approach is the clarity it brings to the partnership. It sets the tone early. The consultant is not a “task-master” to be managed, but a strategic collaborator. This model works best when both parties understand their “lanes.” That is, the specific areas of responsibility that ensure the engine stays on track without constant manual intervention.
By defining lanes — much as streaming services offer core content with specific tiers for sports or premium features—you create a clear delineation of responsibilities. The lanes break down like this…
- The leadership lane (strategic intent). As the CEO or commercial leader, your lane is the “what” and the “why.” You provide the vision, the product roadmap, and the high-level commercialization goals. You define the destination. For example: “We need to ensure prospects understand the value of our secret sauce (AI) vs our competitors.”
- The consultant lane (strategic execution). The product marketing expert owns the “how” and the “when.” They take your strategic intent and translate it into the market-facing reality. They determine the marketing mix required to reach your goal.
- The collaborative lane (feedback loops). This is where the lanes merge for monthly or quarterly strategy sessions. Here, you look at the data together. Is the message landing? Are we seeing a shift in buyer intent? This ensures the “engine” tunes into the right frequency.
The Strategic Shift from Items to Intent
Ultimately, moving to a subscription mindset is about intent. It is a fundamental shift away from “doing stuff” you think you should be doing in the moment, and toward “achieving goals.” For Healthcare IT leaders looking to scale you need a model built for adaptability and continuous value. You don’t need a bucket of hours. You need a subscription to a strategic product marketing engine.
Are you looking to transition your marketing from a series of ad-hoc tasks to a high-output strategic engine? Our product marketing experts bring deep healthcare industry expertise and the flexible, subscription-based framework needed to advance your commercialization goals. Contact us to learn more.
