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Cultivating Well-Being Through Mental Health Marketing

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Cultivating Well-Being Through Mental Health Marketing

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. This month, we’re reminded that mental health isn’t a dirty word but something we all have. Sadly, there’s still a lot of stigma around mental health and seeking treatment for mental health concerns. But with each generation, it becomes less of a taboo topic. And, with more awareness comes greater access to healing

Many brands and marketers discuss mental health in May or as it becomes more culturally relevant, but why can’t embracing it and reducing stigma be a regular part of our daily marketing?

The Importance of Mental Health Marketing

An estimated 1 in 5 U.S. adults experience mental illness each year, whether they talk about it or not. That’s more than 50 million people, not including children and teens, who also experience mental health concerns. The sheer number of people impacted by mental health issues and the fact that we all have mental health makes mental health marketing important.

Talking openly about mental health can:

  • Provide Resources. Signposting different mental health resources can let people know there are options. Whether for themselves or their loved ones, discussing the options helps make people aware that these resources exist and gives them the confidence to reach out.
  • Reduce Stigma. Many people are too concerned about mental health stigma to be open to discussing it. Men, in particular, are often afraid of speaking about their mental health for fear of losing face. Having an ongoing, open conversation about mental health can reduce the stigma and encourage more people to understand that it’s not a taboo topic.
  • Raise Awareness. Discussing mental health in a non-judgmental and matter-of-fact way can help normalize the conversation. As we become comfortable talking about mental health, more people can understand what they’re experiencing and access the necessary treatments to begin healing.
  • Promote Well-Being. Prevention is the best cure. Mental health marketing can focus on more than treatment. It can encourage people to pay as much attention to their mental health as their physical health and take preventative steps to feel their best.

With so many people dealing with mental health issues, mental health marketing is crucial to help them get appropriate treatment and begin feeling better.

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How to Approach Mental Health in Marketing

The importance of treading carefully with mental health marketing cannot be overstated. It’s a unique form of marketing that requires extra sensitivity.

When marketing mental health services:

  • Be Empathetic. Mental health is a sensitive topic, and misinformation or insensitivity can harm people. Ensure your marketing material is accurate and empathetic and does not contribute to stigmatization or stereotyping.
  • Be Authentic and Genuine. Don’t approach mental health marketing from a performative standpoint. If your company says it supports raising awareness for mental health, make sure that those values apply across the board. Additionally, mental health concerns can be challenging and complex. Acknowledging that you don’t know everything is better than pretending you do, which can seem disingenuous and lead people astray.
  • Ask Questions. Rather than trying to seem as if you know all the answers, try creating a place for discussion. Look at the evidence and all the options available and let people make up their own minds as to what is best for them. 
  • Involve Professionals. You shouldn’t give medical advice unless you’re a medical or mental health professional. If you feel strongly about providing medical advice, enlist the help of a licensed professional. Including them can give your marketing material more authority and provide the most value to readers.

Marketing mental health ethically is a crucial skill. It provides transparency, builds trust, and empathizes with those seeking help.

Marketing Tactics for Mental Health

You can use many tactics to implement mental health in your marketing campaign. Your options really are limited only by what aligns with your brand and best fits your audience. 

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Join the mental health conversation with:

  • Intentional SEO. Targeting specific keywords can help your website rank better with search engines. An intentional SEO can help increase visibility and make it easier for people to find your resources. About 4,400 people search for “mental health treatment” each year. If you offer mental health services, strong SEO content marketing will help them find you.
  • Helpful Blog Content. Creating blog content that is informative, helpful, and relevant to mental health can help attract people to your website and establish your company as a credible source of information.
  • Thoughtful Social Media Posts. Sharing thoughtful social media posts that promote mental health awareness and provide resources can help engage your followers and increase your reach.
  • Educational Webinars. Hosting digital training sessions on mental health topics can help engage your audience and provide them with valuable information and resources.
  • Supportive Lead Magnets. Creating e-books and downloadable worksheets or fact sheets allows people to read mental health-related information when convenient. 
  • Emails and Newsletters. Sending regular emails is a common way to ensure that your audience is aware of your latest updates and offerings. You can include mental health resources where appropriate in these emails and newsletters.

Exactly how to market mental health depends on your business’s focus. But consider how you can join the conversation through regular features and resources.

Best Practices for Discussing Mental Health

Joining the mental health conversation may mean creating a forum for discussions that make some people uncomfortable. As experts in mental health marketing we follow guiding principles and suggest these best practices to aim for when discussing mental health, which also apply to mental health marketing.

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When discussing mental health in your marketing, consider:

  • Use Person-First Language. People aren’t a diagnosis, and you should avoid labeling them as such. For example, instead of saying a “schizophrenic person,” say a “person with schizophrenia.” The former option reduces a person to their condition, whereas the second places the person firmly at the heart of the situation.
  • Avoid Stigmatizing Language. Using neutral language can help promote empathy and understanding, whereas stigmatizing language can further marginalize people with mental health issues. For example, saying someone is an “addict” versus saying they “have an addiction.”
  • Provide Resources and Support. While you want to raise awareness to normalize talking about mental health, you also want to help the people experiencing the issues you’re discussing. This informational support can include details about counseling services, support groups, and hotlines. These resources can help people access the care they need to manage their mental health effectively.
  • Give Factual Information. By demonstrating how widespread mental health issues are, you can help to reduce stigma. But be sure the information you share is from a legitimate, up-to-date resource.

Following these tips can provide your audience with valuable content that positively impacts the conversation.

Missteps to Avoid

Not everyone will get it right the first time, and you shouldn’t let fear of getting it wrong stop you from starting or engaging in this critical conversation. Just try to remember and avoid these missteps when talking about mental health. 

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When discussing mental health, avoid:

  • Exploitation. Come from a place of authenticity. Jumping on the bandwagon because you think discussing mental health can make you money or because it’s May is obvious to your customers. 
  • Stereotyping. Be mindful of the language you use when talking about people with mental health conditions. People who experience mental health conditions are diverse and complex. They deserve to be portrayed respectfully, like everyone else.
  • Unqualified Advice. Don’t tell people what they should do. Instead, seek input from mental health professionals and provide your readers with options.
  • Oversimplifying. Mental health is a complicated issue. To that end, suggesting things like “getting outside more” or “yoga” as a cure for mental health issues can be harmful. It can make people wonder why these things aren’t working for them.

The stakes are higher with mental health marketing because it involves people’s well-being. If the tone is accusatory or shaming, it can lead people further away from seeking help. If it’s too flippant, it can set up unrealistic healing expectations. 

Conversations about mental health are critical. The more of us who participate, the better. Make sure you join the conversation in a way that’s authentic and on brand, and you’ll be able to make a positive impact.

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How To Combine PR and Content Marketing Superpowers To Achieve Business Goals

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A figure pulls open a dress shirt to reveal the term PR on a Superman-like costume, reflecting the superpower resulting from combining content and PR.

A transformative shift is happening, and it’s not AI.

The aisle between public relations and content marketing is rapidly narrowing. If you’re smart about the convergence, you can forever enhance your brand’s storytelling.

The goals and roles of content marketing and PR overlap more and more. The job descriptions look awfully similar. Shrinking budgets and a shrewd eye for efficiency mean you and your PR pals could face the chopping block if you don’t streamline operations and deliver on the company’s goals (because marketing communications is always first to be axed, right?).

Yikes. Let’s take a big, deep breath. This is not a threat. It’s an opportunity.

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Reach across the aisle to PR and streamline content creation, improve distribution strategies, and get back to the heart of what you both are meant to do: Build strong relationships and tell impactful stories.

So, before you panic-post that open-to-work banner on LinkedIn, consider these tips from content marketing, PR, and journalism pros who’ve figured out how to thrive in an increasingly narrowing content ecosystem.

1. See journalists as your audience

Savvy pros know the ability to tell an impactful story — and support it with publish-ready collateral — grounds successful media relationships. And as a content marketer, your skills in storytelling and connecting with audiences, including journalists, naturally support your PR pals’ media outreach.

Strategic storytelling creates content focused on what the audience needs and wants. Sharing content on your blog or social media builds relationships with journalists who source those channels for story ideas, event updates, and subject matter experts.

“Embedding PR strategies in your content marketing pieces informs your audience and can easily be picked up by media,” says Alex Sanchez, chief experience officer at BeWell, New Mexico’s Health Insurance Marketplace. “We have seen reporters do this many times, pulling stories from our blogs and putting them in the nightly news — most of the time without even reaching out to us.”

Acacia James, weekend producer/morning associate producer at WTOP radio in Washington, D.C., says blogs and social media posts are helpful to her work. “If I see a story idea, and I see that they’re willing to share information, it’s easier to contact them — and we can also backlink their content. It’s huge for us to be able to use every avenue.” 

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Kirby Winn, manager of PR at ImpactLife, says reporters and assignment editors are key consumers of their content. “And I don’t mean a news release that just hit their inbox. They’re going to our blog and consuming our stories, just like any other audience member,” he says. “Our organization has put more focus into content marketing in the past few years — it supports a media pitch so well and highlights the stories we have to tell.”

Storytelling attracts earned media that might not pick up the generic news topic. “It’s one thing to pitch a general story about how we help consumers sign up for low-cost health insurance,” Alex says. “Now, imagine a single mom who just got a plan after years of thinking it was too expensive. She had a terrible car accident, and the $60,000 ER bill that would have ruined her financially was covered. Now that’s a story journalists will want to cover, and that will be relatable to their audience and ours.” 

2. Learn the media outlet’s audience

Seventy-three percent of reporters say one-fourth or less of the stories pitched are relevant to their audiences, according to Cision’s 2023 State of the Media Report (registration required).

PR pros are known for building relationships with journalists, while content marketers thrive in building communities around content. Merge these best practices to build desirable content that works for your target audience and the media’s audiences simultaneously.

WTOP’s Acacia James says sources who show they’re ready to share helpful, relevant content often win pitches for coverage. “In radio, we do a lot of research on who is listening to us, and we’re focused on a prototype called ‘Mike and Jen’ — normal, everyday people in Generation X … So when we get press releases and pitches, we ask, ‘How interested will Mike and Jen be in this story?’” 

3. Deliver the full content package (and make journalists’ jobs easier)

Cranking out content to their media outlet’s standards has never been tougher for journalists. Newsrooms are significantly understaffed, and anything you can do to make their lives easier will be appreciated and potentially rewarded with coverage. Content marketers are built to think about all the elements to tell the story through multiple mediums and channels.

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“Today’s content marketing pretty much provides a package to the media outlet,” says So Young Pak, director of media relations at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. “PR is doing a lot of storytelling work in advance of media publication. We (and content marketing) work together to provide the elements to go with each story — photos, subject matter experts, patients, videos, and data points, if needed.”   

At WTOP, the successful content package includes audio. “As a radio station, we are focused on high-quality sound,” Acacia James says. “Savvy sources know to record and send us voice memos, and then we pull cuts from the audio … You will naturally want to do someone a favor if they did you one — like providing helpful soundbites, audio, and newsworthy stories.”  

While production value matters to some media, you shouldn’t stress about it. “In the past decade, how we work with reporters has changed. Back in the day, if they couldn’t be there in person, they weren’t going to interview your expert,” says Jason Carlton, an accredited PR professional and manager of marketing and communications at Intermountain Health. “During COVID, we had to switch to virtual interviewing. Now, many journalists are OK with running a Teams or Zoom interview they’ve done with an expert on the news.”

BeWell’s Alex Sanchez agrees. “I’ve heard old school PR folks cringe at the idea of putting up a Zoom video instead of getting traditional video interviews. It doesn’t really matter to consumers. Focus on the story, on the timeliness, and the relevance. Consumers want authenticity, not super stylized, stiff content.”

4. Unite great minds to maximize efficiency

Everyone needs to set aside the debate about which team — PR or content marketing — gets credit for the resulting media coverage.

At MedStar Washington Hospital Center, So Young and colleagues adopt a collaborative mindset on multichannel stories. “We can get the interview and gather information for all the different pieces — blog, audio, video, press release, internal newsletter, or magazine. That way, we’re not trying to figure things out individually, and the subject matter experts only have to have that conversation once,” she says.

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Regular, cross-team meetings are essential to understand the best channels for reaching key audiences, including the media. A story that began life as a press release might reap SEO and earned media gold if it’s strategized as a blog, video, and media pitch.

“At Intermountain Health, we have individual teams for media relations, marketing, social media, and hospital communications. That setup works well because it allows us to bring in the people who are the given experts in those areas,” says Intermountain’s Jason Carlton. “Together, we decide if a story is best for the blog, a media pitch, or a mix of channels — that way, we avoid duplicating work and the risk of diluting the story’s impact.”

5. Measure what matters

Cutting through the noise to earn media mentions requires keen attention to metrics. Since content marketing and PR metrics overlap, synthesizing the data in your team meetings can save time while streamlining your storytelling efforts.

“For content marketers, using analytical tools such as GA4 can help measure the effectiveness of their content campaigns and landing pages to determine meaningful KPIs such as organic traffic, keyword rankings, lead generation, and conversion rates,” says John Martino, director of digital marketing for Visiting Angels. “PR teams can use media coverage and social interactions to assess user engagement and brand awareness. A unified and omnichannel approach can help both teams demonstrate their value in enhancing brand visibility, engagement, and overall business success.”

To track your shared goals, launch a shared dashboard that helps tell the combined “story of your stories” to internal and executive teams. Among the metrics to monitor:

  • Page views: Obviously, this queen of metrics continues to be important across PR and content marketing. Take your analysis to the next level by evaluating which niche audiences are contributing to these views to further hone your storytelling targets, including media outlets.
  • Earned media mentions: Through a media tracker service or good old Google Alerts, you can tally the echo of your content marketing and PR. Look at your site’s referral traffic report to identify media outlets that send traffic to your blog or other web pages.
  • Organic search queries: Dive into your analytics platform to surface organic search queries that lead to visitors. Build from those questions to develop stories that further resonate with your audience and your targeted media.
  • On-page actions: When visitors show up on your content, what are they doing? What do they click? Where do they go next? Building next-step pathways is your bread and butter in content marketing — and PR can use them as a natural pipeline for media to pick up more stories, angles, and quotes.

But perhaps the biggest metric to track is team satisfaction. Who on the collaborative team had the most fun writing blogs, producing videos, or calling the news stations? Lean into the natural skills and passions of your team members to distribute work properly, maximize the team output, and improve relationships with the media, your audience, and internal teams.

“It’s really trying to understand the problem to solve — the needle to move — and determining a plan that will help them achieve their goal,” Jason says. “If you don’t have those measurable objectives, you’re not going to know whether you made a difference.”

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Don’t fear the merger

Whether you deliberately work together or not, content marketing and public relations are tied together. ImpactLife’s Kirby Winn explains, “As soon as we begin to talk about (ourselves) to a reporter who doesn’t know us, they are certainly going to check out our stories.”

But consciously uniting PR and content marketing will ease the challenges you both face. Working together allows you to save time, eliminate duplicate work, and gain free time to tell more stories and drive them into impactful media placements.

Register to attend Content Marketing World in San Diego. Use the code BLOG100 to save $100. Can’t attend in person this year? Check out the Digital Pass for access to on-demand session recordings from the live event through the end of the year.

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

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Trends in Content Localization – Moz

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Trends in Content Localization - Moz

Multinational fast food chains are one of the best-known examples of recognizing that product menus may sometimes have to change significantly to serve distinct audiences. The above video is just a short run-through of the same business selling smokehouse burgers, kofta, paneer, and rice bowls in an effort to appeal to people in a variety of places. I can’t personally judge the validity of these representations, but what I can see is that, in such cases, you don’t merely localize your content but the products on which your content is founded.

Sometimes, even the branding of businesses is different around the world; what we call Burger King in America is Hungry Jack’s in Australia, Lays potato chips here are Sabritas in Mexico, and DiGiorno frozen pizza is familiar in the US, but Canada knows it as Delissio.

Tales of product tailoring failures often become famous, likely because some of them may seem humorous from a distance, but cultural sensitivity should always be taken seriously. If a brand you are marketing is on its way to becoming a large global seller, the best insurance against reputation damage and revenue loss as a result of cultural insensitivity is to employ regional and cultural experts whose first-hand and lived experiences can steward the organization in acting with awareness and respect.

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

AI and startups? It just makes sense.

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