Education is a critical aspect of any public health PR campaign, especially if you want your target audience to do something with the information you’re providing them.

This is true whether you’re trying to increase awareness of a disease and its symptoms, like the ‘foot attack’ they’ve never heard of, help a specific demographic understand how a new policy or program will affect them (i.e. how the Medicare Inflation Reduction Act will affect older adults across the U.S.), or encourage people to take action to improve their health, like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s campaign around breast cancer screenings.

Effective communication is key to ensuring that these campaigns reach and resonate with their target audiences, leading to improved health outcomes. There are three key components that contribute to a successful public health education PR campaign.

  1. A multi-channel, multi-language approach. To reach target audiences with critical health information, a strong PR campaign will leverage a variety of channels, both digital and traditional. Your content should be easily understandable, easily consumable, and developed in written, video, and visual formats. Go beyond earned and paid media to build a digital approach, then also get back to the basics with in-person educational tools like printed infographics or scannable QR codes. All of these materials should be made available in multiple languages based on your target audiences.
  2. Strategic partnerships with trusted third parties. When considering how people consume health information, think about who and what have more clout than “Dr. Google” (who seems to believe we either need to drink more water or get an MRI as equal possibilities). Consider reaching people where they are by leveraging everyday trusted resources such as influential and well-respected physicians, local pharmacies, hair salons and barber shops, and third-party organizations – like community churches or non-profits – to help spread your message.
  3. Keep the patient at the center. When simplifying a complex disease, policy or program for the general public, it can be easy to focus on what you want to say vs how the recipient of the message will receive the information. Expert communicators put themselves in the shoes of their target audiences, considering things like cultural nuances, unique population needs or perspectives, and including clear, step-by-step actionable instructions. Content should be highly relevant, accessible and impactful in order to truly empower, inform and support the patient.

Successful public health education PR campaigns improve lives—but only if they reach the right audiences at the right time. As strategic communicators, our role is critical in ensuring the effective distribution and understanding of a message.

At RH Strategic, we take that to heart, keeping the person most affected by the issue at the center of our work. If you’re planning a public health education PR campaign and looking for an agency partner to help, or simply want to brainstorm an idea, get in touch with us at druckert@rhstrategic.com.

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RH Strategic is a Seattle and D.C.-based PR agency with a nationwide presence and additional global reach via membership in the Worldcom Public Relations Group. We provide strategic public relations for innovators in the technology, government, healthcare, and social and environmental impact markets.