Your Health Tech Marketing Needs Regulatory Risk Segmentation (Not Just Demographics)
What happens when your go-to-market strategy assumes regulatory uniformity in a world where it doesn't exist?
California requires specific patient notifications for AI healthcare chatbot interactions while Texas has enacted different disclosure requirements for AI use in diagnostic and treatment contexts. New York has passed AI companion disclosure laws and is developing healthcare-specific AI regulations through legislation like the RAISE Act.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration's AI Action Plan recommends that federal agencies consider a state's "regulatory climate" when making AI-related funding decisions and not provide such funding to states with burdensome AI regulations, effectively creating federal pressure against state-level AI regulation while acknowledging that "states are still free to impose AI laws as they see fit.”
This regulatory fragmentation is creating compliance scenarios that didn't exist six months ago, yet many health tech companies default to the same messaging, content and sales approach across all markets. Regulatory complexity is treated as an afterthought rather than a core segmentation factor.
This represents a significant missed opportunity. When you factor regulatory considerations into your account-based marketing strategy from the beginning, you can create more targeted campaigns that speak directly to your prospects' specific concerns and risk tolerance levels.
Starting with Strategic Account Selection
The foundation of any regulatory-aware marketing strategy is precision in target selection. Focus on identifying the specific organizations you want to work with and understanding their geographic distribution rather than casting wide nets and hoping something sticks.
Once you have your target accounts mapped, you'll likely notice geographic patterns. Some companies find their ideal customers concentrated in certain metro areas or specific states. This geographic distribution becomes your first insight into the regulatory landscape you're navigating.
Understanding where your targets are located helps you anticipate the regulatory environment they operate within and the compliance considerations that might influence their buying decisions.
Segmentation by Regulatory Risk Tolerance
Based on geographic concentration and organizational characteristics, you can segment your target accounts into three categories based on how they approach regulatory uncertainty:
Low Regulatory Risk Tolerance: Organizations in states with progressive digital health policies who are often willing to pilot new technologies even when regulatory pathways aren't completely clear. With California's comprehensive AI healthcare disclosure laws and Colorado's neural data privacy protections already in place, these early adopters have experience navigating evolving regulations. They view some regulatory ambiguity as acceptable if the potential benefits are significant.
Moderate Regulatory Risk Tolerance: Organizations that want to innovate but prefer clearer regulatory guidance before moving forward. These are often in states where frameworks are developing. They're interested in new solutions but need more comprehensive risk assessment and mitigation strategies while regulatory conflicts play out.
High Regulatory Risk Tolerance: Organizations that require extensive regulatory clarity before considering new technologies. These prospects are particularly cautious given the current state and federal healthcare AI regulatory conflicts and prefer to wait until compliance pathways are definitively established. They typically need detailed compliance documentation and established regulatory precedents before engaging meaningfully.
Each segment requires different messaging strategies, content approaches and sales processes.
From The Blog
Developing Segment-Specific Engagement Plans
To maximize effectiveness, develop distinct marketing approaches for each regulatory risk segment while ensuring smooth transitions between your strategic messaging and regulatory discussions.
For Low Risk Tolerance Segments: Direct your marketing strategy toward innovation and competitive advantage messaging. Your marketing team should emphasize market opportunity, differentiation, and early results from implementations. These prospects are interested in cutting-edge applications and first-mover advantages. They often have experience with comprehensive AI disclosure requirements and see compliance frameworks as manageable.
Customer insight example: If prospects in states with comprehensive AI disclosure laws like California consistently raise questions about patient communication compliance, develop detailed guidance about state-specific disclosure obligations that positions your solution as compliance-ready rather than compliance-complicated.
For Moderate Risk Tolerance Segments: Balance innovation messaging with risk mitigation in your marketing approach. These prospects need to understand both the opportunity and the safeguards. Your marketing strategy should address how to navigate the current patchwork of state requirements - from detailed patient communication disclosures to practitioner-focused diagnostic notifications - while building scalable compliance processes.
Customer insight example: If prospects in states with developing frameworks want to understand how evolving requirements might affect their future compliance, create strategic content that explores different regulatory scenarios and positions your solution as adaptable to regulatory changes.
For High Risk Tolerance Segments: Focus your marketing messaging on compliance and risk reduction. These prospects are particularly concerned about managing different disclosure requirements across multiple states and need extensive regulatory documentation that addresses the full spectrum of current state requirements before they'll engage. Your marketing strategy should include detailed compliance guides that address both current state requirements and potential federal preemption scenarios.
A Word of Caution
There is a critical timing consideration here: don't inadvertently start objection handling rather than highlighting value, particularly in marketing channels that aren't typically segmented, like your homepage.
When you prominently feature regulatory compliance messaging on your homepage or lead with it in sales pitches, you may inadvertently suggest problems that prospects hadn't considered. A homepage that emphasizes "streamlined compliance processes" might make prospects wonder whether compliance is actually complicated with your solution.
The more effective approach is keeping regulatory content accessible but not front-and-center. Place this information deeper in your website where prospects can find it if they already have regulatory concerns. In sales conversations, address regulatory considerations toward the end of your pitch with language like "in case you're wondering about this because some organizations are..."
The principle is straightforward: lead with differentiated value that attracts customers, then address regulatory concerns when they arise rather than creating concerns that didn't previously exist.
The Strategic Choice Ahead
Companies that integrate regulatory considerations into their account-based marketing strategy from the beginning often find they can create more targeted, effective campaigns that resonate with their prospects' specific concerns and risk tolerance levels.
This is particularly critical given the current regulatory environment. The Trump Administration's regulatory freeze impact may slow federal AI healthcare guidance while states continue developing their own requirements. The multiple state AI healthcare chatbot disclosure laws already creating compliance complexity will likely expand rather than consolidate in the near term.
The question isn't whether regulatory complexity affects your prospects' buying decisions. It's whether you're factoring that complexity into your go-to-market strategy before your competitors do.
Need help putting together the pieces of this regulatory puzzle? Let’s talk.
About the Author
Heather Lodge, Fractional Chief Marketing Officer, The Hybrid CMO
Heather helps growing health tech and healthcare service companies transition from ‘spaghetti-against-the-wall’ marketing to scalable operations so they can go toe-to-toe against better-funded rivals. She helps establish clear market positioning, develop focused account-based marketing programs and build the systems and teams needed to scale effectively. Heather’s approach combines strategic leadership with hands-on execution, building marketing programs that drive consistent revenue growth.