Are You Making These 6 Wellness Communication Mistakes?

Here are the six most common wellness communication mistakes many people make – and how to avoid them:

1. Not dedicating a budget to communication – It’s important to determine how much money you have to spend and what various communication components will cost for the entire year so you don’t run out of funds. You don’t want that really cool, high-tech January video to eat up your entire budget for the year and leave you with no money for monthly posters or a regular newsletter.

2. Not re-purposing your content in multiple ways to reach all readers – People often need to see and hear a message repeated in various media multiple times for the message to stick and cause individuals to take action. You can take one “article” and use it is several ways. Here’s an article and infographic on “Easy Ways to Repurpose One Piece of Content.”

3. Inconsistent schedule – The “hit and miss” method rarely works. People need information on a consistent basis so thinking about health and wellness becomes second nature. Determine how often you’ll distribute content and in what formats. To make it easier to stay on top of your various communication components, download the free Hope Health Planning Guide.

4. Not connecting print and Web together to cross-promote programs and events – Paper and electronic communications are not mutually exclusive. It’s quite the opposite; the two types of media can and should work together. Include Website addresses and Quick Response (QR) Codes on posters and flyers to direct people to more information online. Use email to send out tip sheets or small posters that people can print and post.

5. Not tapping your employees for content and stories – You likely have health and wellness enthusiasts within your own organization who would be willing to share their stories and expertise if you ask. It’s pretty easy to identify potential volunteers. Encourage employees to fill out an interest questionnaire to discover what employees like to do in their free time and what knowledge and skills they would be willing to share with others.

6. Not using free resources – There is a ton of credible, free health and wellness content out there – if you just look for it. Local, state, and national non-profit organizations and government agencies offer health and wellness tip sheets, calculators, assessments, quizzes, videos, and more. Most of the time, you can find this content on the Websites of these organizations and agencies.

Are you making any of these 6 wellness communication mistakes? Take the time now to map out what topics you want to cover… when… how… and with what resources, and your communication efforts will be more effective with less effort!