Healthcare Marketing RFP / RFI Questions Practices Should Ask

A healthcare marketing RFP or RFI is useful when every vendor answers the same six questions in writing: the monthly fee by channel, who owns the ad account and the target list, which fields the monthly report will show, how tracking stays HIPAA-aware, how the engagement ends, and what proof the firm can show with client permission. Catalyze Care publishes referral marketing $5,000/month (3-month minimum), SEO $799/month, and paid ads $2,500/month management with media separate. Those are retainer inputs, not a promised return. Next, read how to read a healthcare marketing agency proposal, how to choose a healthcare marketing agency, and when not to hire a healthcare marketing agency.

In one sentenceSend the same fee, ownership, reporting, tracking, and cancel questions to every firm. Score the packet on published fees and fields you can check against intake.

Six RFP / RFI questions, in order

1. What is the monthly fee by channel? Require a dollar figure for referral, SEO, and paid management, plus whether media is extra. Catalyze Care publishes referral $5,000/month with a 3-month minimum, SEO $799/month, and paid ads $2,500/month management. A packet that replaces those lines with a “performance fee” is selling a slide. Fees: pricing.
2. Who owns the account and the list? The practice should own the Google Ads account, the website CMS, and the referral target list. An agency login is not ownership. Contract language: questions before signing a healthcare marketing contract.
3. Which fields will the monthly report show? Name outreach, responses, booked inquiries, and close-the-loop notes for referral; shipped pages and GBP work for SEO; spend and booked inquiries for paid. Do not accept an unnamed dashboard. Process: how Catalyze Care works.
4. How does tracking stay HIPAA-aware? Diagnosis-level pixels and condition targeting are red flags. Tracking should measure booked inquiries the front desk can confirm. Guidance: HHS marketing guidance.
5. How does the engagement end? Cancel terms belong in the same packet as the fee. Referral marketing at Catalyze Care has a published 3-month minimum because a single month is not a test. Monthly reporting of verified activity.
6. What proof can you show? Client results appear in case studies only with the client’s written permission.

Proposal red flags

• Unnamed ROI multiples or blended CAC.
• Agency-owned ad or website accounts.
• Diagnosis-level pixels or condition targeting.
• A report you cannot check against intake.
• Cancel terms missing from the same document as the fee.

How to score the packet: how to read a healthcare marketing agency proposal. If intake cannot take the next patient, do not send the RFP yet: when not to hire a healthcare marketing agency.

After the answers come back

Use how to choose a healthcare marketing agency for channel order. Use how to brief a healthcare marketing agency for kickoff inputs (ICP, service area, compliance constraints, reporting cadence). Published fees stay $5,000 / $799 / $2,500. Published fees: $5,000 / $799 / $2,500.

Source: Google Search Central, Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content.