Balancing Marketing Performance and Legal Compliance 

Medtech is a growing field, rich with opportunities.

These opportunities often center around improving provider and patient experience alike through designs that improve function, comfort, or even hygiene. Just a few of our favorite brands reimagining established designs include ActiveArmor (casts), Ostoform (stoma accessories) and Theya (post-surgical bras).

Many medical brands are excited to proclaim the virtues of their product, but regulating agencies aim to protect consumers from snake oil and so all medical brands must be mindful of claims. Often they must include disclaimers associated with those claims. Medical marketing is strictly regulated, which can seem daunting in digital spaces because of the increased opportunity for scrutiny across market segments. Medical legal review (MLR) is often a point of contention between marketing and legal teams (link), but it keeps the brand compliant and is an important part of any digital marketing strategy. All digital content should be reviewed for compliance, and once approved, regularly updated.

Once you have approved content established in digital spaces, what does successful marketing look like? Some medical brands erroneously believe that the rigid nature of their marketing materials is limiting to performance. Technical jargon can be confusing for patients, but might be appropriate for providers. Layman’s terms might convince providers that they aren’t the target, but could be just the right level of approachability needed for patients to desire the product and either purchase it independently, either out of pocket or through an approved health plan. 

Determine your target audience. 

Medtech especially can have a diverse audience, and you need to determine the target. Are you marketing to the patient? Are they purchasing from a website or requesting a product prescription through the provider? Are providers aware of the product? Can they access the product? Are providers the primary target audience? Often it will be a blend. 

Map out the market journey for your customer.

In medtech, you will probably have two distinct market journeys, one for the patient and one for the provider. Each may have independent opportunities to purchase the product. Perhaps one will only need brand awareness materials, while the other will need a purchasing interface. Determine which touchpoints exist for each customer, and ensure that you have digital materials that are both legally compliant and optimized for the customer experience. 

Determine which touchpoints should be defined and monitored as goals and events.

Once you identify the goals and events that align with your brand’s strategic goal, those are the actions you want to encourage each user to take when interacting within your digital spaces. Conversely, once you know which actions contribute positively, you can determine which events contribute negatively. This will focus your efforts to not only boost positive engagement, but also minimize negative engagement.

From here, you can collect data and optimize digital assets to improve desired conversions. If changes need to be made, consider how a simple language change can be labeled “misleading” through various platforms or existing legislation. To muddy this further, compliance around medical claims (and required disclaimers) can differ significantly. If you’re marketing a U.S. product in the E.U. or vice versa, the legal review will be more cumbersome but is critically important throughout marketing campaign design and implementation.

Review 

Collecting data is an important part of marketing research and campaign efficacy, and is intended to offer the intended user (patient or provider) with a better product experience. However, this is another potential area that the legal team will want to review. Storage and use of this data should be compliant with local laws, although marketing materials are often independent of medical data and subject to different restrictions. One instance where overlap may occur is campaign distribution, where email, phone or other communications information may be collected from patient data. In this case the medical compliance team will need to ensure patient records are protected and all data should be carefully managed. 

As an example, consider a chiropractor who develops a novel device for correcting spine realignment at home. As part of the initial marketing campaign, the chiropractor determines that their current patients are the ideal target audience, and wishes to build a digital audience that reflects the characteristics of an existing, known audience for which market research exists. This is an ideal situation for the marketing team, but if that data can only be accessed through patient records, no further action should be accomplished without the express review and approval of the legal team. Together, you can ensure the chiropractor remains compliant with both marketing and medical requirements.

It can be challenging as a medtech, lifesciences, or medical manufacturing brand to remain compliant. Marketing teams should rely on legal expertise to ensure they don’t run afoul of any laws, which can be complex and change by jurisdiction. Audience location should be carefully considered, and data protection should always be a priority. Firms familiar with medical legal review (MLR) can create seamless processes that protect the innovator and the consumer, while building brand awareness that excites and sales experiences that satisfy. 

Unsure what to expect of a firm with this kind of experience? We break down our processes and price structure, growth expectations and value proposition in our free marketing playbook.