PR 101: Healthcare &
Life Sciences

Advertising buys attention. PR earns trust. Marketing puts both to work. Advertising is paid and you control what it says. PR is the credibility your reputation earns when a journalist, analyst or peer puts you forward because they believe your story is worth telling. You can't purchase that endorsement, which is why it carries weight, building trust among your audiences.

Some of the most valuable industry opportunities come with a price tag, and paying it doesn't lessen credibility. Award submissions, event sponsorships, a fireside chat or an industry webinar all qualify. Unlike advertising, you're not buying a message. You're buying access to the right room, with the flexibility to adapt what you say to the audience in front of you. A paid panel before the very investors, partners or clinicians you're trying to reach can move the needle faster for your company than a top tier news feature.

Before the moment you're building toward. Most healthcare companies wait for a financing round, clinical milestone, FDA approval or product launch, by which point the industry narrative has formed without them. Invest in the lead-up so your news lands with an audience already educated and primed for it. Quiet periods between milestones lose the audiences your next announcement is trying to reach.

Good coverage starts with a clear narrative and a go-to-market strategy. Before you reach out to media, define who you are, what your mission is, why your science matters and how patients can access it. Then tell that story in one consistent voice, tailored to each audience. Get the foundation right from the outset, and you won't be creating your narrative once the spotlight is already on you.

Not your communications partner - and that’s by design. Compliance lives with your MLR (medical, legal and regulatory) review team or counsel, who vet content before it goes public. My role is to build messaging that’s ambitious about your story and disciplined enough to move smoothly through that review - never around it. Treat every public statement as a regulatory risk, and let the people qualified to assess that risk do so.

A dedicated communications partner brings an unbiased strategic lens that is often missing in an internal team. In addition, a seasoned communications professional brings deep media ties, knows what reporters are covering and can identify creative ways to lead conversations rather than chase them. The best setups pair a dedicated external communications partner with an in-house lead who moves things forward.

A front-page splash in tomorrow's New York Times feels like a home run, but if none of your target audiences read it, you've missed the mark. In healthcare PR, media is a balancing act. Trade outlets are where you earn industry validity. Top-tier press take cues from the trades, while the trades watch top-tier to see what topics are going mainstream. It all begins with your audience - not the masthead.

Think momentum, not fireworks. One TV segment is a spark in your visibility, not a growth engine. A broadcast feature can be impactful, but it rarely reaches your audience on its own. What moves SEO and sales is a steady drumbeat across the channels your audience follows: media features, corporate news, educational bylines, events, award wins, all repurposed creatively on social. Impact comes from the pattern.

News is only one channel you can use to engage with your audience. No matter how significant your announcement, if you communicate with your audiences via press releases, you’ll lose their attention. Think of it like a band that releases one hit song every two years. Strong communications programs fill the gaps between announcements with education and commentary: bylines, background briefings, infographics, a consistent expert with a unique point of view. This matters most when you're pioneering innovation. Changing minds takes time.

Titles don't make a thought leader. A consistent track record does. A thought leader is the person an industry trusts to make sense of where things are heading - not the loudest voice, but the most discerning. Reputation builds slowly through a genuine point of view in bylines, podcasts, panels and social. To be quotable, you need something to say beyond the party line, a perspective worth repeating instead of an echo. Pick a topic you can own, show up consistently and let the trust build.

AI has raised the stakes for PR. When someone asks an AI assistant about your company or category, the answer is pulled from what's been published about you. Muck Rack's 2026 study found earned media drives 84% of AI citations, while paid content sits near 0.3%. In essence, you can't buy your way in. The companies that get cited have a credible footprint for AI to draw on, which in healthcare means the trusted, specialized sources these systems rely on. Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the name. The fundamentals of earned media haven't changed. They matter more.

Show up where the models are reading. Publish clear, well-structured content on your own site and pitch your experts for trusted niche outlet commentary. A feature there can have a greater impact than you might think. Keep your messaging consistent across every platform a model might index. You earn citation by being a consistently credible, quotable source over time.

Start by defining the goal. Reaching investors? Growing share of voice on a topic? Driving sales? Success means nothing until you've named what you're trying to achieve. Once set, every PR activity should ladder up to it, and you can track it with the right tools, from coverage and share-of-voice analysis to GEO visibility, inbound leads, and how target audiences are engaging.