Department of Health and Social Care

Solution

‘Mind Plan’ email programme covers a broad range of mental health topics. As part of our strategy to drive sign-ups, we proposed the new programme included:

• The sign-up shelf being situated on the anxiety page of the website, so people would find it naturally when arriving at the website by searching for anxiety terms in Google.
• Practical tips and advice to help with anxiety symptoms.
• A human, friendly, non-judgmental voice – avoiding clinical terms and jargon.
• Appealing to all socio-economic groups and being realistic about their capacity to engage.
• Emails that focused on a single theme and worked as a sequence of self- help steps.
• An easy way to sign up - calm and uncluttered emails that won’t overwhelm / create anxiety.
• More interactive content and videos and less copy.
• Sign-posting extra clinical help for those who need it.
• Addressing the cost-of-living crisis, which is now recognised as a major anxiety driver.

It was vital that the newly-designed programme focused on how to ease the symptoms of anxiety, was easy to join, and was accessible to all – especially those who wouldn’t normally engage with the subject of mental health. Incorporated within our strategy was the behavioural economics technique of chunking (breaking down tasks into simple, guided steps). We reasoned that this would:

• Lower people’s cognitive expenditure and make it easier to take the information on board in a more relaxed manner
• Not overwhelm – by providing choice restriction
• Increase people’s confidence / make them feel in control
• Make finding success with the overall programme seem more attainable

The campaign DHSC ran to promote Every Mind Matters played a vital role in captivating and engaging the right audience. DCX were equally keen to ensure that the strategy, implementation and technology used allowed the deliverables to be created, tested, and deployed accurately. We used Apteco’s PeopleStage Software, and Acoustic Campaign Manager as the lead email service provider to deploy the communications.

A key objective of the campaign and programme was to create and evidence behaviour change, and to do that we needed a best-in-class data visualisation tool. We used Apteco’s Orbit tool to create dashboards to provide the client near real-time access to monitor the delivery of KPIs and engagement metrics. This implementation allowed DHSC to measure and monitor the success of the campaign as it unfolded.

We tested different programme options, to assess variables such as the number of emails sent and the duration of the programme. The approach contained a maximum of three content elements per theme to reduce overload, all focusing on practical, real-world advice. Priority was given to practical-steps video content that people could try right away from their device. The agreed themes for each email were:

We also clearly communicated that the programme was made up of a series of steps, so that people were prepared and kept a look out for each step to stay on course. This informed the campaign proposition and ultimate creative wrapper of ‘Easing your anxiety, one step at a time’.

After creating the theme pillars and building the wireframes, we curated and reframed existing content, creating illustrations and images to accompany each email and tip. We then built the full journey from initial acquisition blocks on their website through sign-up to all emails.