Resources

Marketing in Highly Regulated Industries

Where everything is highly regulated, including marketing.

Creating marketing content in highly regulated industries, such as healthcare and life sciences, poses special challenges. It isn’t unusual for marketing teams and legal teams to battle it out over content, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Use these strategies to make the legal review process seamless.

1) Build in some extra time for regulatory review – and then triple it.

Marketers tend to underestimate the time required for the content review process. Make sure that the project duration includes extra time for marketing and legal teams to review, revise and approve content. Not only do you want to have multiple review rounds, you want to make sure that there is time for your team to work through legal feedback and fine-tune the content. Make sure you can get the right people to review content on every review round so that you don’t have to backtrack later.

2) Use the right tools for Medical and Legal Review (MLR).

Make sure your team is using the right collaboration and review tools to make the process as seamless as it can be. When marketing and legal teams provide feedback to one another in real time, they can solve problems faster. There are a lot of options out there; finding the solution that works for your team will save time for everyone.

Click here to see the list of tools we use to streamline Medical & Legal Review (MLR) processes at HexIQ.

3) Collaborate with your legal team.

Teams shouldn’t work in a vacuum. When marketing and legal teams collaborate to improve processes, it makes everyone’s lives easier. Partner with the legal team to figure out where their pain points are and how you can address them. When you get a “no,” work with the legal team to find alternatives and understand what regulatory limitations you need to work within.

Likewise, legal can offer content alternatives if they understand the goal of that content. Before sending content off for review, include notes that can illuminate the content’s purpose. When each team understands the limitations and goals of the other team, you’ll see each other as allies instead of barriers.

4) Build your marketing plan.

Effective marketers have documented marketing plans that they are working from. Your plan will serve as a roadmap for reaching your goals and prevent you from random acts of marketing. A plan will keep you accountable to timeline and budget as you navigate review processes. As changes occur to existing processes, be sure to add those into the plan so that you can account for them next time.

5) Learn about the regulatory environment.

You may not have a law degree, but each review round can be an opportunity to learn about the regulatory environment specific to your product or service. The more you know, the less likely you’ll run into repeated roadblocks. And remember, those regulations are continually changing, so stay current! Location matters and the content that works in the US may not be acceptable in other countries.