Managing expectations with medical writing clients is arguably as important as the caliber of the final product you deliver.
I’m a medical writer and a Psychologist. Yes, I write about Neuroscience and mental health every week, but over the last 6 years, 90% of my clients have been companies unrelated to psychology.
So here, I’m sharing insights for agency work, clinical writing, B2B healthcare companies, and even startups in the health and wellness space.
Medical Writing Clients Who Know What They Want
I have written for publication with millions of readers in the healthcare space; let’s use Cardinal Health and Verizon as examples of my bylined writing.
These companies have a well-oiled content distribution infrastructure.
In a way, as a writer for them, you bring your expertise in a niche, but also your flair and way of synthesizing and sharing (I was going to say “complex” but hey, that’s such a cliché way AI uses to describe medical writing) profound information in a way that makes sense for a specific audience.
This audience often includes:
- Healthcare professionals
- Business decision-makers
- Investors
- Liasons
You can literally, in the past, not so sure in the future, build a career just by talking to one specific audience, creating for one client:
- A clinical study protocol for regulatory submissions
- a case study based on a publication or clinical trials
- An investigator brochure for clinical research purposes
- medical editing for internal thought leaders
- visual storytelling for emerging clinical data
- slide decks for online learning initiatives
Companies with these specific talent needs may not even share the results they expect from your content. Yes, if you are writing for SEO purposes (remember that?) they will share keywords and internal best practices, but, as I have done in the past, it’s entirelly possible to write a whitepaper about Gene Therapies for which you bill 5 grands, and the client not disclosinh thst they, later, without your involvement, will place that asset in a specialized publication, such as Fierce Healthcare for broad distribution.
Agencies and publishers may also fall into this category of medical writing clients, with clear purposes for each medical writing project and internal processes that increase the likelihood of clear communication of client expectations.
Yes, as a freelance writer, I have written for over 20 publications whose main source of revenue is traffic, from Google or owned, so they also use medical writers such as me, or you if you aspire to become one, as hired guns.
They do not expect your content, which could be written in elevated prose ala Hemingway, or just an edited, AI-generated, basic piece, to do heavy lifting, such as generating traffic for a website that has none.
But some clients do expect precisely that.
Medical Writing Clients Who Barely Know What They Want
Oh. Don’t get me wrong. I love working with all types of clients. You don’t need to plug into an impressive content infrastructure to do great work or have a reliable income.
Still, you need to grasp, even without asking the client directly, what you are actually plugging into.
What I mean is simple. In the big picture of medical writing, everyone wants a piece of content they pay for to perform for them. This could mean many things.
More visibility, comments on a LinkedIn post, SEO traffic from Google, and now, mentions in LLMs.
But trust me. Not everyone, and by everyone I’m talking about very competent Marketing Directors I have worked with in startups, grasps what is required from a piece of content to achieve specific results when they contract your medical writing services.
Yes, you may see yourself or actually be just a medical writer. But, if you want to be a successful one, you must understand the chances a piece of content you write has of fulfilling the intended goal of the person evaluating your success.
In a well-oiled machine, you are isolated from the distribution systems that elevate the probability of success. Yes, you can do semantic keyword optimization as I do for everyone, even if they don’t ask for it. Still, link placements, partnerships, and email blasts are methodologies that increase reach and escape your control; you may never be informed about them.
And that’s fine.
But if a young startup with basic navigational pages wants to write 3 blog posts about what is revenue cycle management and maybe not tell you directly, expect you, the competent writer, not only to write excellent material but also to help them rank.
Nothing wrong with that. However, I’m writing here about expectations.
SEO in 2026 and beyond is a long-term evolving game. Ranking 3 blog posts that drive results for a young startup that’s basically hungry for cash is not an effective marketing strategy.
Remember, if you are hired to write a Fact Sheet or other clinical documents about rare oncology drugs, as I have done before for brands such as Alexion, I’m not selling anything nor being promotional. I’m just bringing medical writing expertise to deliver a high-quality asset that meets internal and regulatory authorities quality standards.
But for a young startup, they want me to generate buzz and interest in the revenue cycle tool they are developing.
3 isolated SEO posts won’t get them there as fast, or if ever, as they need. You must tell them this is the wrong move.
Maybe suggest investing in channels more relevant to their growth stage. I’m thinking LinkedIn founder-led content or account-based marketing.
Can this cost you a job? Mmm. Perhaps. Could this open the door to more productive engagements and long-term client relationships with brands that see you and respect (and pay) you as a thought partner?
Yes, in my case, it has done exactly that.
