How should an urgent care center write a marketing agency RFP?
An urgent care center should write a marketing agency RFP in eight parts: background, goals, scope, a budget range field, compliance requirements, evaluation criteria with weights you set, a timeline, and questions every agency must answer. Describe each location separately and state goals as calls and check-ins per clinic. That makes proposals comparable and exposes agencies that do not understand urgent care.
- Describe every location: address, hours, services and check-in setup, so agencies propose plans per clinic.
- Fill in your own budget range, with management fees and ad spend as separate fields.
- List compliance requirements as non-negotiables: a BAA, no ad pixels in check-in flows, honest review practices and text consent.
- Set scoring weights before proposals arrive, and score what agencies wrote, not what they said on a call.
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“They were able to get all my ideas and work with me over a period of three to four months and create this amazing website. It's super customized, very modern, and it incorporates all the elements that I had wanted — the patient portal, nice pictures, a very interactive website, patient reviews. I would highly recommend their company to anyone who wants to make an excellent website.”
What should an urgent care marketing RFP include?
An urgent care marketing RFP should include eight parts: background, goals, scope, a budget range, compliance requirements, evaluation criteria with weights you set, a timeline, and questions for agencies. Keep it short enough that good agencies will answer it. Make every requirement specific enough that answers can be compared side by side.
The RFP does two jobs. It forces your own team to agree on what you want before you talk to agencies. It also makes proposals comparable, because every agency answers the same questions in the same order. Without it, each agency pitches the services it prefers to sell, and you end up comparing a search proposal with a social media proposal.
| RFP section | What to put in it | Urgent care detail to include |
|---|---|---|
| Background | Who you are, where you operate, ownership model | Number of locations, hours, services offered, payer mix in broad terms, any hospital or management-company affiliation |
| Goals | What success looks like in your own terms | Visits per location, online check-ins, employer accounts, launch targets for new clinics |
| Scope | Services you want proposals for | Profiles, search, ads, website, reviews, occupational medicine, new-location launches |
| Budget range | A field you fill in for fees and, separately, ad spend | Whether the range is per location or group-wide |
| Compliance | Your non-negotiables | BAA, tracking rules for check-in pages, review practices, consent for texts |
| Evaluation criteria | How you will score answers, with weights | Weights you set before proposals arrive |
| Timeline | Dates for questions, submissions, shortlist, decision, start | Seasonal deadlines, such as being live before respiratory season |
| Questions for agencies | Specific questions every agency must answer | See the question list below |
What background and goals should the RFP give agencies?
Background and goals should give agencies enough facts to propose a real plan. Describe each location, your services, your hours, your check-in setup and your growth plans. Then state goals as outcomes you can measure, such as calls and check-ins per location, rather than as activities like "more posts" or "better SEO."
Background facts agencies need
- Each location's address, opening date, hours and services (X-ray, lab testing, minor procedures, physicals, virtual visits).
- How patients arrive: walk-in, online check-in, phone, employer referral.
- Your check-in or practice-management setup, described by category, and whether wait times show on your website.
- Which accounts you already own: domain, website, profiles, ad accounts, analytics, tracking numbers.
- Current marketing activity and who does it today.
- Planned new locations in the next year, if any.
Goals written as outcomes
Good goal lines read like this: "Grow tracked calls and online check-ins at our two newest locations," or "Open employer accounts for occupational medicine in our county." Avoid goals that an agency can hit without helping you, such as impressions. If you run occupational medicine, list it as a separate goal. Employer sales work very differently from patient marketing, as our guide to marketing occupational medicine to employers explains.
Leave the budget range as a field you complete. Give one range for management fees and a separate range for ad spend. Agencies that see a range propose realistic plans. Agencies that see nothing tend to propose their largest package.
Which compliance requirements belong in an urgent care RFP?
The compliance section should list your non-negotiables so agencies cannot gloss over them. For urgent care, that means a signed BAA, a rule against ad pixels on check-in and intake pages, honest review practices, consent for marketing texts, and accurate claims about services, wait times and prices. Ask each agency to say how it meets each item.
Requirements to copy into the RFP
- BAA. "The agency will sign our Business Associate Agreement before receiving any protected health information." HHS explains the role of business associates.
- Tracking. "No advertising pixels or session recording on check-in, intake, portal or payment pages." The HHS Office for Civil Rights guidance on online tracking technologies still covers authenticated pages, even after a June 2024 court ruling vacated part of it for public pages.
- Reviews. "Review requests go to all patients, with no incentives and no filtering to happy patients only."
- Texts. "Marketing texts only with documented prior written consent, and every opt-out honored."
- Price messaging. If you publish self-pay prices, ask how the agency will keep them accurate. Under the No Surprises Act, providers generally give uninsured or self-pay patients a good faith estimate on request or when services are scheduled at least three business days ahead. Ad copy should not promise a price that front-desk estimates contradict.
- DOT physicals. If you advertise them, ask how the agency will confirm claims. FMCSA says DOT medical exams must be done by a medical examiner listed on its National Registry.
Ask agencies to answer each item in writing. Then confirm the final wording with your counsel.
What does a copy-ready urgent care RFP outline look like?
A copy-ready outline gives agencies a fixed order to answer in. Paste the structure below into a document, fill in the bracketed fields, and send the same file to every agency. Ask for answers in the same numbered order, so you can compare section by section without hunting through slide decks.
Outline
- About us: [locations, services, hours, ownership, check-in setup].
- What we want to achieve: [outcomes per location; occupational medicine goals; launch goals].
- Scope requested: [Google Business Profile management, search, paid ads, website, reviews, employer marketing, new-location launches].
- Budget: [management fee range] and [ad spend range], [per location or group].
- Compliance requirements: [the list from the section above].
- Reporting we expect: [cadence, per-location metrics, live data access].
- Contract terms we expect: [notice period, account ownership, handover list].
- Timeline: [questions due], [proposals due], [shortlist calls], [decision], [start].
- How we will evaluate: [criteria and the weights you set].
- Questions every agency must answer.
Questions for agencies
- How would you handle one Google Business Profile per location, and who would own each?
- How do you measure online check-ins without placing ad pixels in the check-in flow?
- How do you schedule ads around clinic hours and wait times?
- What would you do in the first month for our weakest location?
- How do you plan for flu and respiratory season?
- Who on your team would work on our account, and in which time zone?
- What do you need from our front desk to make tracking work?
- What happens to our accounts and numbers if we leave?
The answers to the last question tell you a lot. Compare them with our urgent care contract checklist.
How should an urgent care center score agency responses?
Score responses against criteria and weights you set before any proposal arrives. Use a simple scale for each criterion, multiply by the weight, and add up the totals. Then hold shortlist calls with the top scorers and ask them to walk through one real location, so you see how they think rather than how they pitch.
Scoring sheet
| Criterion | Your weight | What a strong answer shows |
|---|---|---|
| Urgent care understanding | [set by you] | Specific plans per location, hours and check-in, seasonal demand |
| Measurement plan | [set by you] | Tracked calls and check-ins per location, without pixels in check-in flows |
| Compliance answers | [set by you] | Clear yes to the BAA and each requirement, with how they do it |
| Scope clarity | [set by you] | Named monthly outputs, not vague service labels |
| Contract terms | [set by you] | Short notice, client-owned accounts, a written handover list |
| Team and access | [set by you] | Named roles, US working hours, how fast they respond |
| Price and value | [set by you] | Fees that fit your range, ad spend kept separate and visible |
How to run the scoring
- Have at least two people score each proposal on their own, then compare.
- Score what was written, not what was said on the sales call.
- Mark any compliance item answered with "we'll discuss later" as a fail.
- Ask every finalist for the same thing: a short plan for one named location.
Warning signs in a response
Some answers should lower a score sharply. Watch for guaranteed map rankings or guaranteed visit numbers. Watch for proposals that put the domain, ad accounts or tracking numbers in the agency's name. Be careful with any response that treats every location the same, ignores your check-in setup, or skips the BAA question. A proposal that only reports clicks and impressions will struggle to show you whether more patients walked in.
Before you shortlist, read how to choose an urgent care marketing agency, and check common agency red flags.
What timeline and mistakes should an urgent care RFP plan for?
A practical RFP timeline gives agencies enough time to send a considered answer and gives your team time to score fairly. Set dates for questions, submissions, shortlist calls, a decision and a start date. Work back from your seasonal deadline, so the new agency is live before demand rises.
Common mistakes
- Sending the RFP to too many agencies. A short list of agencies that work in healthcare saves everyone time.
- No budget field. Proposals become impossible to compare.
- Bundling ad spend and fees. Ask for them separately every time.
- Skipping the front desk. Your front-desk lead knows how patients actually arrive and should review the goals section.
- Starting during peak season. A switch in the middle of respiratory season puts profiles and ads at risk.
Where Ichelon Consulting US fits
We answer RFPs from urgent care groups regularly. We sign a BAA with every US client, our US team works Central Time, and retainers start from $499/month, custom-scoped. Learn more on our urgent care marketing agency page, or book a call if you would like us to review your draft RFP before it goes out.
Related pages from the US team
Urgent care marketing agency USA
How Ichelon Consulting US scopes and runs urgent care accounts.
Choosing an urgent care agency
What to compare when shortlisting agencies.
Urgent care contract checklist
The clauses to check once you pick a finalist.
Agency red flags
Warning signs to watch for in proposals and sales calls.
Every practice welcome — Goals-Driven engagements from $499/mo
We benchmark your last 90 days, agree monthly goals with you, and track them live on Ichelon Agency OS with a report every Monday. Performance-Linked Payout Models are available. Our US leadership is based in Dallas, and strategy calls run in US business hours.
Common questions
Does an urgent care center need an RFP to hire a marketing agency?
An urgent care center does not strictly need an RFP, but one helps, especially for multi-location groups. It makes the team agree on goals first, gives every agency the same questions, and makes proposals comparable. A short RFP of a few pages, with a clear budget field and compliance list, is usually enough for a single-location center too.
Should an urgent care RFP include a budget?
Yes. An urgent care RFP should include a budget range field that the center fills in, with management fees and ad spend listed separately. Without a range, agencies guess, and proposals swing from too small to too large. Say whether the range applies per location or across the whole group, so agencies can scope realistically.
What compliance questions should an urgent care RFP ask?
An urgent care RFP should ask whether the agency will sign a Business Associate Agreement, how it measures online check-ins without ad pixels in check-in or intake flows, how it requests reviews without incentives or filtering, how it handles consent for marketing texts, and how it keeps advertised prices and services accurate. Confirm the final requirements with counsel.
How should an urgent care center weight RFP evaluation criteria?
An urgent care center should set its own weights before proposals arrive, based on what matters most to it. Common criteria are urgent care understanding, measurement plan, compliance answers, scope clarity, contract terms, team and access, and price. Groups worried about data risk often weight compliance and measurement heavily. Fixing weights early keeps scoring fair.
How many agencies should an urgent care center send its RFP to?
An urgent care center should send its RFP to a short list of agencies with healthcare experience, rather than to every agency it can find. A small field gets more considered answers, and the team has time to score each one properly and hold shortlist calls. Ask each finalist for a short plan for one named location.
A note on this guide: it explains marketing practice, not legal advice. Rules on privacy, advertising and insurance change and vary by state, so confirm anything compliance-related with your own counsel.
Writing an urgent care marketing RFP?
Book a call with the US team. We'll review your draft RFP, suggest questions that separate real urgent care experience from generic pitches, and answer it if you'd like.