When we think about marketing campaigns, both online and offline, it is not often that we consider how these campaigns affect someone’s mental health, or if a campaign takes mental health into consideration at all. However, there are numerous people who live with a mental illness and who can be affected by marketing messages.Â
When you are working with a marketing agency it is important to consider the needs of the consumer, and this includes their physical and mental health. For example, having an inclusive website for those who may have vision, auditory, or cognitive disabilities is a step towards reaching the part of your audience that have certain issues.Â
Considering mental health in your marketing campaign might sound tricky, but with some helpful advice, you can create a campaign that is inclusive and that achieves your business goals.Â
What Message Does Your Marketing Send?
Before you approve your content marketing strategy, you should consider what message your marketing will or is already sending to consumers. Your message should have meaning behind it, especially when appealing to a younger audience. Younger consumers prefer brands that have a purpose and are especially responsive to brands that speak positively about mental health in their marketing.
Take, for example, FitBit. Their success on social media is down to the fact that they concentrate on promoting good mental and physical health rather than focusing on selling their products. And part of this message is encouraging good mental health along with counselling tips and advice. A positive message can affect not only those with mental health issues, but their friends and family too. Instead of thinking too hard about offending people, concentrate on appreciating them instead.Â
Understanding The Issues
An important part of a genuine and authentic marketing campaign is to understand your audience and their issues. The same can be said of crafting a campaign that considers mental health issues. You will need to do research into different mental health issues in order to understand how different people handle them and how this can be used in your marketing campaign.Â
Once you understand a little more about the different mental health issues, you will be able to incorporate this into your marketing and accommodate the sufferers of these illnesses in a more meaningful manner. Learning more about your audience will also help your messaging to be more on-point and to resonate more with those who might suffer from a mental illness. Be sure not to focus on the illness but rather on how to connect positively with those who suffer from it.Â
What About Your Website?
Your website is at the core of any digital marketing strategy, and so it should accommodate all users who are interested in your brand. If your website is jumbled, confusing to navigate, and does not scale to different screen sizes and devices, it is likely that people with vision, auditory, and mental health issues are unable to use it.Â
Having a purpose-driven website that is also inclusive will help differently-abled people to easily use your website and interact with your brand. Your digital marketing strategy will also benefit from creating an inclusive website as your site will gain more traffic from a highly diverse audience. Mental health sufferers often prefer a clean, calm, and organised aesthetic and this is a positive for other users too. An easy-to-navigate website will always have more traffic than one that is cluttered and difficult to use.Â
Consider Imagery Carefully
With consumers being more and more visual today, using the right imagery and imagery that is not offensive or hurtful, is important. This is true of your website as well as your overall marketing campaign. Mental health issues can cause some people to be triggered negatively by certain imagery, and this should be high in your list of considerations when it comes to designing campaign flyers or digital banners.Â
If you are working with a graphic design agency, the designers will likely be aware of what could be considered as “triggering” imagery but be sure to tell them that you would like this considered for all design decisions. If your marketing campaign uses an image incorrectly or does not take these facts into account when choosing images, your marketing campaign could end up with disastrous results.Â
Final Words
While many marketing campaigns are done well and are inclusive, there are some which do not take mental health issues into account. One example of a brand attempting to successfully address these issues is Burger King and their “real meals” for different emotions. While the idea was going in the right direction, it received a large amount of backlash from those who saw it as a well-timed marketing ploy.Â
Accommodating mental health in marketing is important, and can be done successfully with the right team by your side. If you would like to improve your marketing campaign and target the right audience, speak to NetMechanic today to find out how we can help you.
