Transition difficulties, financial pressures, academic demands, and new social groups – students in higher education often face more challenges than at any other time in their lives.
In fact, in 2020, the largest ever report on university students’ mental welfare showed that behavioral, emotional, and psychological problems that required professional support showed a year-by-year rise of 8%. This suggests that roughly half of students are coping with these difficulties.1
But many students don’t seek the support that they need. Why might this be the case? When creating university mental health campaigns, higher education institutions face the issue of stigma, lack of funding, long wait times, and unsuccessful messaging. Effective mental health marketing for universities can help.
Professional healthcare marketing can create tailored campaigns that place a specific university’s students’ needs at the heart of its messaging. This can be done through research, compassionate campaign development, SEO optimisation, and outcomes analysis.
As professionals in mental health and marketing, this page aims to walk you through all you need to know about university mental health campaigns. This includes the need for student mental health support services, why mental health campaigns sometimes don’t work, and the steps to creating an effective campaign.
Various organisations, charities, and universities around the UK actively work to improve higher education students’ mental health every year. In the University Mental Health Charter (UMHC) Programme alone, 113 universities work to improve their wellbeing practices.
Yet, according to a report conducted by Mental Health UK, 42% of higher-level students have an emotional, behavioural, personal, or psychological issue. Further, 27% of these students have a diagnosable mental health condition such as anxiety or depression. At the time of the report (2020), these numbers were unequivocally on the rise – and were likely impacted further by the pandemic.1
A major hurdle that students face when coping with such problems is the belief that they need to conceal their difficulties due to stigma. In fact, eight out of ten students in the report mentioned burying their symptoms due to fear of judgement.1
Many campus wellbeing programs rise to the challenge of tackling stigma and raising awareness excellently. However, others often find overcoming these barriers to be a challenge for a variety of reasons, which we discuss next.
Inspiring change through student wellbeing initiatives can be complex. It can be difficult to target all cultural attitudes and ethnicities, use the right type of language, increase visibility, and inspire lasting change. Below, we detail potential reasons why campus mental health promotion initiatives sometimes fall short.
Putting out information on mental health conditions doesn’t always lead to new thoughts or beliefs about these conditions – or create behavioural change. This seems to be the case when the target audience already knows the message being put out there, such as ‘It’s OK not to be OK.’2 In other words, the design stage of the campaign likely needs to review students’ attitudes, knowledge, and needs before creating a messaging initiative.
Sometimes, stigma-free mental health marketing aims to capture attention by leveraging a stigmatising statement. When done well, these campaigns can achieve the desired result. But they can also backfire. One of the most famous examples of a stigma leveraging campaign that went wrong is Sunny D’s 2019 tweet ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ Understandably, the public interpreted this message as trivialising mental health in an attempt to gain more social media followers.
Research shows that a neutral, non-medical approach to wording matters. In fact, when a medicalised messaging approach is used, it could even compound stigma. Plus, excessively positive language can oversimplify a problem and deter people from seeking support.3
Unfortunately, certain people may not be accessing information from campaigns as effectively as others. For instance, people with higher health literacy may be more likely to be reached by campaigns. But they’re also less likely to have as much need for them as those with lower health literacy. This may indicate a greater need for research and a more multimodal approach to campaigns, as clearly one size does not fit all.4
Yes, you can put posters up around campus to promote a campaign, but today’s students live in an increasingly online world. So if you don’t connect with them through platforms like social media, email, or student hubs, the campaign may not be visible.
If student mental health digital marketing doesn’t regularly optimise its SEO, there’s a strong chance that campaigns won’t be obvious to the students who need them most. Plus, when it comes to design, universities need to consider how layouts change across multiple devices, such as smartphones and tablets.
These aren’t the only issues universities face with campus mental health promotion. A lack of funding, trust, and available support can also limit the success of campaigns. Professional mental health marketing services can help universities and higher-level institutions overcome these barriers and reach a wider audience in impactful ways.
A successful university mental health campaign is student-led, meaning that it takes their needs, attitudes, and backgrounds into consideration.
The following steps take a holistic mental health marketing for universities approach, aiming to improve student wellbeing at all levels. At any stage of this process, professional mental health marketing services can help.
Student engagement mental health campaigns are destined to fail if they’re not specific to what students need. A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t apply to mental health, so it’s good to do some background work. For instance, you could conduct campus-wide surveys on what students’ main concerns and attitudes towards mental health are, as well as how they would like to be supported. Research-informed wellbeing campaigns are more likely to build trust, encourage behaviour change, and make an impact.
When conducting quantitative efforts like this, student wellbeing marketing strategies can help institutions refine objectives, choose the right tools, and analyse outputs.
When it comes to promoting mental health on campus, you need to know what it is you’re addressing and why. Sometimes it helps to tie this in with specific events or dates, such as World Mental Health Day, as there will be related advertisements across multiple platforms.
Also, by offering an effective solution to a problem, you can push past just grabbing attention and into motivating action. For instance, it may not be enough just to raise awareness of mental health; instead, you could promote a resource or service at the same time.
Professional mental health marketing can help universities and higher education organisations create impactful mission statements that can capture students’ trust and engagement.
As discussed previously, research shows that campaigns don’t always reach those who need them most. So, when creating inclusive mental health campaigns, it’s important to use a multimodal approach that targets both online and on-campus events.
For instance, campus-based events like guest speakers, stress-reduction workshops, and themed weeks could help bust stigma and connect students with like-minded peers.
Higher education mental health marketing can devise an approach that reaches a wider demographic, including both online and on-campus advertisements.
Enhancing the university’s mental health resources page, social media accounts, and student hub can increase familiarity, awareness, and trust. Plus, as students typically use a wide range of electronic devices, it’s important that platforms can shift seamlessly from format to format.
However, there’s no point in investing a lot of money in online mental health communications in education unless students can actually see them. This is where search engine optimisation (SEO) enters the picture. On-page SEO uses high search keywords naturally, increasing the chance that a site will appear higher up on search engine results pages (SERPs). This concept also applies to blog articles, videos, and links. Also, when it comes to mental health social media campaigns for universities, backlinks from websites and blogs can increase views, familiarity, and engagement.
It’s also important to use inclusive and trauma-informed mental health messaging throughout, as otherwise campaigns can have the opposite effect than intended. Professionals with experience in both mental health and marketing can advise on this process if needed, ensuring mental health messaging students trust.
It’s a sad truth that, while the number of higher education students needing support is growing, universities are facing a growing crisis with a lack of available resources.5 Limited funding and staff, as well as long wait times, are creating a bottleneck whereby those seeking support aren’t getting the help they need.
Mental health resources for students can help bridge this gap. For instance, apps, online workbooks, or guides based on students’ needs can help them build awareness, understanding, and coping skills. Additionally, creating on-campus support groups and safe spaces can give students a place to connect with peers who have similar issues.
The best mental health campaigns for students are tailored, inclusive, visible, and trauma-informed. Wherever you are in your campaign development, it’s important to keep students’ needs at the heart of your goal, creating a mission statement, messages, and resources that reflect it.
If your institution needs evidence-based mental health campaigns, trauma-informed mental health messaging, or advice on safeguarding in student mental health campaigns, PsychWrite can help. We’re not just experienced in marketing and SEO; we’re qualified mental health professionals, meaning that any university mental health campaigns will be considered through a compassionate, informed lens.
Our team can even help you assess the outcomes of your campaign through quantitative or qualitative analysis, or website metrics.
If you’re interested in hearing how we can help your students’ wellbeing thrive, reach out to our team. We’re more than happy to discuss our services and how they can align with your institution’s needs.
