Insight
Growth marketing for femtechs: 5 steps to increasing brand awareness
We live in a world that’s more health-conscious than ever. The pandemic definitely had a hand in this, and we’re seeing more and more health and femtech companies pop up.
From reproductive health and maternal care to broader wellness applications, Femtech provides women with a wide range of solutions to improve their overall health and wellbeing.
It’s an industry that remains very much in its adolescence but has already garnered huge amounts of interest and investment.
That said, with a growing number of startups and established companies entering the space, one of the biggest challenges for femtech startups and companies is standing out.
Building brand awareness in this field is important for gaining new business and gaining the trust of healthcare professionals and potential partners.
The better you promote your femtech brand, the more you can amplify your impact, build credibility, and reach those who need your innovations the most.
We’re going to be looking at some of the key strategies that femtech companies can adopt to strengthen their brand presence and connect with the right people.
What is Femtech?
So, femtech, short for “female technology,” covers a range of products, software and services designed to address women’s health needs.
The term itself was originally created by Ida Tin back in 2016 – who is the co-founder and CEO of the women’s menstruation-tracking app, Clue.
Femtech, broadly speaking, provides healthcare-related solutions for women living with female-specific conditions. Some of these include:
- Maternal health
- Menstrual health
- Pelvic and sexual health
- Fertility
- Menopause
- Contraception
Today, 76.5 per cent of femtech companies are either fully-female-founded, majority female-founded, or equally split-founded.
For brands in this space, establishing a strong market presence not only drives business growth but also plays a critical role in advancing women’s health and supporting gender equity in healthcare.
The key is knowing how to increase your brand awareness in an extremely competitive digital landscape.
Let’s look at a few ways to get the ball rolling and give your Femtech brand the brand boost it needs.
1. Build a Foundation of Trust
Trust is an important building block for any brand or industry.
However, Femtech, being a sensitive and specialised area of interest, will likely take longer to build trust with its audience.
It’s not uncommon for people to be wary of new healthcare technology, in fact, around 85 per cent of all femtech companies generate annual revenue of less than $10 million each.
To help build this trust, content marketing is a good place to start. With relatable, engaging and empathetic content, you can tell your story the right way and connect meaningfully with your target audience.
For example, you can honestly and transparently explain your research processes, address any worries or concerns your target consumers might have and generally educate them on your values and mission.
Ultimately, you want your content marketing to negate any worry associated with your product and help your customers understand that you’re here to provide a solution to their problem.
2. Optimise Your Digital Presence
If you want to be found online, optimising your website and other channels is an essential part of your strategy.
There are many ways to do this, but let’s focus on the core fundamentals that you can action right away.
First off, you need a well-considered website that’s user-friendly and clearly communicates your brand’s mission, values, and your product or service.
Focus your efforts on optimising your website for search engines (SEO), with a focus on relevant keywords related to femtech, women’s health and anything related to your niche offering.
UK marketing agencies like Hive19 explain the importance of well-crafted copywriting and how it can help, “showcase your products and services in a unique, solution-focused way that provides value for audiences (and search engines) as part of a wider marketing mix.
Consistent blog creation can:
- Build authority in your industry
- Solidify customer loyalty
- Capture brand awareness
- Improve SEO performance
Link building is an important component of your digital presence.
Look for opportunities to feature your website in reputable sources, such as health publications, academic institutions, or partner sites.
These backlinks help improve your site’s authority, making it easier for potential customers, partners, and healthcare professionals to find you in organic search.
Social media is another powerful tool for femtech brands to establish a digital presence.
Platforms like LinkedIn are ideal for networking, while Instagram, TikTok and X work well for engaging end-users who follow health and wellness trends.
Share health tips, femtech product updates, and your brand’s success stories, to help position yourself as a trusted and authoritative voice in the industry.
3. Team Up With Women’s Health Influencers
Influencers remain one of the best ways to promote your brand in a unique and down-to-earth format.
It’s worth reaching out via social platforms to influencers in this circle to see if they’re a good match with your product and brand.
Depending on your budget, you could go for bigger or smaller influencers – they’re ranked from nano to mega influencers based on follower count.
For example, if you were able to ‘collaborate’ on Instagram with an influencer who has 50k+ followers in women’s health or lifestyle niches, your product could be seen by thousands of relevant consumers.
These influencers will also promote your product in an authentic and genuine way, which doesn’t come across as salesely or overproduced.
That said, while a high follower count is great, don’t just pick influencers based on this. Pick people who actually align with your brand, speak your language and have strong engagement with their followers.
Look at it this way – a femtech nano influencer with 10k followers, strong audience engagement and a stronger alignment to your brand would be better than a 50k general health influencer who has worse audience engagement and doesn’t specifically align with your product.
4. Have Access to Qualified Experts
Like with any health-related product, people will want reassurance that what they’re buying is trustworthy and backed by medical professionals.
Having a brand advocate in the health industry is crucial for bolstering trust and communicating the benefits and details of the product to your audience.
If you’re able to have a medical professional scientifically ‘back’ your product with data and research, people are far more likely to buy into it.
Experts and specialists, whether in medical or any other industry, are essential for building credibility and reinforcing that this product is medically safe, sound and beneficial to its consumers.
5. Attend Events and Conferences
Attending or speaking at femtech and healthcare conferences can be a game-changer for brand visibility and credibility.
Events focused on women’s health innovation, such as the Women’s Health Innovation Summit or Femtech Forum, are simply great networking opportunities that allow you to showcase your expertise directly to your target audience.
If you’re up for it, you could also consider participating as a speaker or panellist on topics related to your area of expertise.
For example, if your brand specialises in fertility tech and solutions, sharing insights on advancements in reproductive health can position your brand as an authority.
Similarly, exhibiting at femtech events provides a hands-on opportunity to demonstrate your products, gather feedback, and engage potential customers and partners in real time.
If in-person events aren’t feasible, look to digital alternatives like webinars, virtual summits, or online Q&A sessions.
Conclusion
The femtech industry is at an incredibly exciting point in its evolution.
The fact that more and more femtech companies and products are being developed highlights just how important and popular this field is, and how much demand there is.
The key is making sure that you have the right building blocks in place to position your brand as a trustworthy, empathetic and professional voice in this circle.
The above steps should provide you with a strong foundation to build and continue developing your femtech brand.
If you’re interested in learning more about how to secure your financial future in this space, read our article on Empowering FemTech Startups with Scalable Financial Solutions.
An early PET scan after one cycle of chemotherapy may help predict how aggressive breast cancer responds to treatment, a study suggests.
Research led by The Institute of Cancer Research, London and King’s College London suggests that an early scan taken after one cycle of chemotherapy could help predict how well a patient’s cancer will respond to treatment.
The study focused on patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), an aggressive form of the disease in which cancer cells lack receptors for the hormones oestrogen and progesterone, as well as the HER2 protein.
Patients with TNBC are usually treated with chemotherapy prior to surgery. While many respond well, residual disease at surgery, typically around six months later, is associated with a significantly poorer prognosis. Identifying people sooner who are unlikely to respond remains a major clinical challenge.
The research explored whether using PET imaging shortly after treatment begins, rather than relying only on MRI scans later in the treatment process, could provide earlier insight into how a patient’s cancer is responding. Twenty-two patients were recruited, with fourteen undergoing FDG-PET scans before treatment and after the first cycle of chemotherapy.
The findings, published in Clinical Cancer Research, showed that changes seen on PET scans after just one cycle of chemotherapy were strongly associated with subsequent response, including whether there was no detectable cancer, known as a complete response, by the end of treatment. Importantly, early PET response showed stronger associations with treatment outcomes than standard mid-treatment MRI scans in this study.
Being able to identify patients who are not responding well at an early stage could allow clinicians to adjust treatment sooner or consider alternative approaches. These findings may also support future strategies to better tailor treatment intensity to individual patients.
The study also compared two types of PET tracers, FDG and FLT, to determine which was most suitable. While both met the study’s technical criteria, FDG-PET was selected for further evaluation due to its better image quality, greater consistency and wider use in clinical practice.
The research also explored how imaging changes after just one cycle of chemotherapy relate to the body’s immune response to treatment. Biopsies taken before and after the first cycle of chemotherapy showed that an increase in immune cells within the tumour was strongly associated with both early PET changes and improved treatment outcomes.
The researchers emphasise that these findings now need to be validated in larger studies. Future work will aim to confirm these results in broader patient groups and explore more accessible imaging approaches, such as ultrasound, alongside PET and MRI.
Sheeba Irshad, professor of cancer immunology at King’s College London and lead of the Breast Cancer Now KCL Research Unit, said:
“In patients who had PET scans both before treatment and after the first cycle, we found that this early scan could predict whether they were likely to achieve a complete response by the end of treatment. These findings highlight the potential of early imaging to guide treatment decisions, and now need to be validated in larger, modern clinical trials.”
Andrew Tutt, professor of breast oncology at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, said:
“Research that helps us determine early who is already benefitting from standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy and who might benefit from clinical trials to find better treatments is vital. This study shows that FDG-PET may have great value in this regard. We hope to be able to design studies that further investigate and validate these findings.”
The study was supported by funding from King’s College London and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, Breast Cancer Now, Cancer Research UK, and Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity.
Ki-67, a protein used to measure tumour growth, may also help prevent chromosome errors that drive cancer, a study suggests.
The findings could change how scientists view Ki-67, a marker commonly used in breast cancer and other tumours to assess how quickly cancer cells are growing.
Researchers found the protein may help preserve genome stability by maintaining the structural integrity of centromeres, key parts of chromosomes that help ensure DNA is shared correctly during cell division.
The research was led by professor Paola Vagnarelli at Brunel University of London in collaboration with scientists at the University of Edinburgh and the Technical University of Berlin.
Professor Vagnarelli said: “Doctors already measure Ki-67 to see how aggressive a cancer might be. But our results suggest it is actually helping maintain genome stability.
“That means it may be more than a marker. It could potentially also be a therapeutic target.”
The study examined three proteins that attach to chromosomes during cell division and help rebuild the molecular system that tells each new cell what kind of cell it is.
Every human cell carries identical DNA. What makes a liver cell different from a brain cell is which genes are switched on and which are kept inactive.
When a cell divides, that entire system of switches must be rebuilt. The three proteins involved in this process were Ki-67, Repo-Man and PNUTS.
Vagnarelli’s team developed a method that individually removes each protein from a living cell at the precise point of division. Older techniques could not isolate that moment cleanly.
They found that cells rely on all three proteins to reset themselves after division, but each failed in a different way when removed.
Without PNUTS, gene activity spiralled out of control and thousands of genes switched on at once.
Without Repo-Man, cells escaped safety checkpoints that usually stop damaged or abnormal cells from continuing to divide.
“What we didn’t expect was how clean the separation was,” said Vagnarelli.
Each protein fails in its own specific way. There is no redundancy, no safety net. Which means there are three separate points at which this process can go wrong.
“When the system breaks down, cells can emerge with the wrong number of chromosomes. That condition, called aneuploidy, is seen in disorders such as Down syndrome and in many cancers.
“We also found that these chromosome errors can trigger inflammatory signals inside the cell.”
Aneuploidy means a cell has too many or too few chromosomes, which can disrupt normal growth and function.
Inflammatory signals are chemical messages that can make a cell behave as if it is responding to injury or infection.
“These cells behave almost as if they are under attack,” said Vagnarelli.
“The immune response switches on because the genome is unstable.
“That link between chromosome imbalance and inflammation could help explain patterns we see in several diseases.”
The researchers said the findings may help cancer scientists better understand how chromosome instability, loss of gene regulation and cells dividing before they are ready contribute to tumour growth.
They said understanding the normal machinery that prevents these errors may help researchers find ways to push cancer cells into making mistakes they cannot survive.
“We now have a clearer map of the machinery that resets the cell after division,” said Vagnarelli.
“That knowledge gives us a starting point for thinking about new therapeutic approaches.”
After more than a decade of campaigning, doctors around the world have agreed to rename polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).
It is hoped the new name, polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, or PMOS, will help end the misconception that the condition is all about cysts, which campaigners say has contributed to missed diagnoses and inadequate treatment.
The condition affects one in eight women, or 3.1m women and girls in the UK, and is linked to hormone fluctuations that can affect weight, mental health, skin and the reproductive system.
The renaming was spearheaded by UK patient charity Verity alongside Professor Helena Teede, director of Melbourne’s Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation.
It followed 14 years of consultation with clinicians and patients around the world.
The new name was published in a consensus statement on May 12 and announced at the European Congress of Endocrinology in Prague.
The paper states that PCOS should now be referred to as PMOS.
“This is a landmark moment that will lead to desperately-needed worldwide advancements in clinical practice and research,” said Professor Teede.
“It was heart-breaking to see the delayed diagnosis, limited awareness and inadequate care afforded those affected by this neglected condition.”
When doctors first named PCOS in 1935, they thought it was mainly caused by physical changes to the ovaries.
Decades of research have since changed that understanding, with clinicians now agreeing the condition is far more complex.
“What we now know is that there is actually no increase in abnormal cysts on the ovary and the diverse features of the condition were often unappreciated,” Professor Teede added.
“A name change was the next critical step towards recognition and improvement in the long term impacts of this condition.”
The exact cause of the condition is still unknown, though it is thought to be linked to abnormal hormone levels and is associated with insulin resistance and raised levels of testosterone and luteinising hormone.
Insulin resistance means the body does not respond properly to insulin, the hormone that helps control blood sugar. Luteinising hormone helps regulate ovulation.
Common symptoms listed by the NHS include irregular periods or no periods at all, difficulty getting pregnant, excessive hair growth, weight gain, thinning hair, oily skin and acne.
Campaigners have acknowledged that the name change could cause temporary confusion.
“Despite decades of tireless advocacy to improve awareness, we recognised that the risk of change would be worth the reward,” said Rachel Morman, chairwoman of Verity.
“This shift will reframe the conversation and demand that it is taken as seriously as the long-term, complex health condition it is.”
It is also unclear if, or when, the NHS will change the language it uses.
An NHS England spokesperson said: “We routinely review and update content on the NHS website to ensure it reflects the latest clinical advice and will carefully consider these recommendations.
“The NHS will also continue our work to improve women’s healthcare, including for this important group, which involves giving women more choice over their care, bringing down waiting times, and delivering more care in communities.”
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