Chapter 45., Section 2. Conducting a Social Marketing Campaign — Main Section | Community Tool Box

• Why should you use a social marketing approach?

• When should you run a social marketing campaign?

• How do you manage a social marketing campaign?

Marketing campaigns can look simple from the outside. A short advertisement, social media post, poster, or slogan may be the most visible part, but effective campaigns usually involve substantial research, planning, testing, implementation, coordination, and evaluation.

Social marketing uses marketing concepts together with behavioral and social science, community and audience insight, partnerships, communication, and other approaches to influence behaviors that benefit individuals and communities.

A social marketing effort might support safer transportation, increase use of preventive health services, reduce behaviors that contribute to environmental harm, strengthen participation in community programs, prevent gender-based violence, or address other health and community priorities.

Social marketing is more than producing posters or advertisements. It asks organizations to understand people's experiences and motivations, identify structural and practical barriers, consider competing influences, design services and environments that make beneficial behaviors easier, communicate through trusted channels, and evaluate whether the approach is effective and equitable.

This section explains when a social marketing approach may be useful and provides a framework for managing an effort from initial planning through implementation, evaluation, and adaptation.

Why should you use a social marketing approach?

Social marketing can be useful when a community goal depends in part on specific behaviors or decisions and when understanding the people involved can help improve the strategy.

Potential advantages include:

• It helps you understand the people whose behaviors, decisions, or experiences are relevant. Instead of assuming that everyone responds to the same barriers, benefits, messages, or services, social marketing uses research and engagement to understand meaningful differences.
• It focuses on behavior rather than awareness alone. Increasing knowledge may be useful, but knowledge does not automatically lead to action. Social marketing asks what specific behavior is important and what conditions make that behavior easier or harder.
• It helps identify practical and structural barriers. An intervention may need to change services, access, cost, transportation, hours, policies, physical environments, or organizational practices rather than simply provide more information.
• It helps identify benefits people actually value. The benefit professionals consider most important may not be the benefit that motivates the intended audience.
• It supports tailoring when a one-size-fits-all approach is unlikely to work. Different audience segments may need different services, supports, communication channels, or strategies.
• It encourages testing before large-scale implementation. Formative research and pretesting can reveal unclear, ineffective, inaccessible, or stigmatizing ideas before substantial resources are invested.
• It encourages the use of multiple approaches. Communication can be combined with changes in services, environments, policies, partnerships, incentives, or other supports.
• It creates a framework for learning and adaptation. Evaluation can show whether the effort reached intended audiences, changed relevant behaviors or conditions, and produced equitable benefits.

Social marketing is not automatically the right solution for every issue. When a problem is primarily caused by policy, discrimination, poverty, unsafe environments, inadequate services, lack of transportation, unaffordable care, or other structural conditions, asking individuals to change their behavior may be insufficient or inappropriate.

In those situations, social marketing may instead focus on the behaviors of employers, service providers, organizations, businesses, policymakers, or other people with the ability to change those conditions, or it may be combined with policy, systems, environmental, advocacy, organizing, and service strategies.

When should you run a social marketing campaign?

A social marketing approach may be appropriate when you have identified a meaningful behavioral component of a community or public-health priority and have enough capacity to research, design, implement, and evaluate an intervention responsibly.

Consider using social marketing when:

• A specific behavior or set of behaviors is important to the outcome you are seeking. Be clear about what people, organizations, or institutions would actually need to do differently.
• You need to understand why people are or are not engaging in a behavior. Social marketing is especially useful when motivations, barriers, perceived benefits, competing behaviors, trust, or access are not well understood.
• Different audiences may require different approaches. Relevant differences may involve behaviors, experiences, motivations, readiness, access, language, trust, geography, social context, or other factors.
• Communication alone is unlikely to be sufficient. You are prepared to consider changes in services, systems, environments, incentives, or policies in addition to messages.
• The effort is important enough to justify research and testing. Formative research, co-design, pretesting, implementation, and evaluation all require time and resources.
• You have the capacity to sustain the effort long enough to learn from it. Some campaigns may be short, while others may require ongoing implementation. The appropriate duration depends on the behavior, context, goals, and intervention.

Social marketing does not have to be expensive, but it does require adequate capacity. Avoid assuming that limited funding can always be overcome by asking staff, volunteers, or community members to contribute large amounts of unpaid labor.

Smaller organizations can scale the approach by narrowing the behavioral goal, partnering with other organizations, using existing evidence, conducting focused listening sessions or interviews, testing with a small number of people, and concentrating resources on the most important barriers and opportunities.

How do you manage a social marketing campaign?

A social marketing effort can be organized into four broad areas:

• Define and understand the issue, behavioral goal, context, audiences, barriers, benefits, competing influences, and community perspectives
• Develop the strategy by identifying possible approaches, selecting an appropriate mix of methods, designing services and communication, and pretesting
• Implement and evaluate the strategy
• Adapt, sustain, scale, or conclude the effort based on results and changing conditions

Define and understand the issue

Begin by developing a shared understanding of the health or community priority you are addressing.

Avoid defining the issue so narrowly that the proposed solution is built into the definition.

For example:

• Instead of "We need better teacher training so students will stay in school," you might begin with "Some students are leaving school before completion, and we need to understand the academic, social, economic, institutional, and other factors contributing to that outcome."
• Instead of "We need more shelters," you might begin with "People in our community are experiencing intimate partner violence, and survivors face barriers to safety, housing, services, economic security, and support."

Defining the issue broadly allows the group to investigate multiple causes and possible strategies rather than assuming that one solution is correct from the beginning.

Define your behavioral and community goals

Broad goals describe the change you ultimately hope to support. Behavioral objectives identify specific actions that are expected to contribute to that goal.

For example, a broad goal might be to reduce suicide deaths and attempts and strengthen community prevention and support. Specific objectives might address timely help-seeking, safe storage of lethal means, referral practices among service providers, follow-up after a crisis, or organizational adoption of recommended prevention practices.

Objectives should be specific enough to evaluate, realistic given the available resources and context, and meaningful to the people and communities affected.

Identify the people and organizations involved

Ask whose behaviors or decisions directly influence the outcome and who is affected by the proposed intervention.

These groups may include:

• People engaging in or considering the behavior
• Family members, peers, caregivers, or other influential people
• Health or human service providers
• Community organizations
• Employers or businesses
• Educators
• Public officials or policymakers
• Other institutions with control over relevant services, environments, or resources

Social marketing should not automatically focus on the people experiencing the greatest burden of a problem. Sometimes the most important behavior to change belongs to an organization, service provider, institution, or decision-maker with greater control over the conditions producing that burden.

Segment audiences when it improves the strategy

Segmentation means identifying groups whose circumstances are sufficiently different that they may benefit from different approaches.

Demographic information can sometimes be relevant, but avoid assuming that people should be segmented simply because they differ in age, race, ethnicity, gender, income, disability, or another demographic characteristic.

Useful segmentation may instead consider:

• Current behavior
• Motivations and perceived benefits
• Barriers and access to resources
• Readiness or intention to act
• Trust in institutions or messengers
• Knowledge or experience
• Geographic context
• Communication and language preferences
• Social norms and influential relationships
• Service-use patterns
• Competing priorities or behaviors
• Structural conditions affecting the ability to act

Use demographic characteristics when they are genuinely relevant to the issue or when data show inequities that need to be addressed. Do not assume that people who share a demographic characteristic have the same experiences, motivations, or needs.

Questions that may help identify useful audience segments include:

• Which groups experience meaningfully different barriers or enabling conditions?
• Which groups perceive different benefits or costs?
• Do people differ in their current behavior or readiness to act?
• Do different groups rely on different services, settings, communication channels, or trusted messengers?
• Are some groups experiencing inequitable access to resources or services?
• Would different interventions actually be needed for these groups, or would segmentation simply label people without improving the strategy?

Understand intended audiences and community context

Once relevant audiences have been identified, learn about their experiences rather than relying on assumptions.

Existing information may include Census and American Community Survey data, public-health data, community assessments, program records, peer-reviewed research, administrative data, and other appropriate sources.

Use individual-level or confidential information only when you have legal authority, an appropriate purpose, and suitable privacy and data-protection procedures. The fact that information exists in school, clinical, governmental, or organizational records does not automatically mean it should be used for marketing or outreach.

Quantitative data can tell you part of the story. Formative research can help explain why patterns exist and what people themselves consider important.

Ask about:

• Experiences with the issue
• Motivations and goals
• Perceived benefits
• Practical and structural barriers
• Social influences
• Competing behaviors and priorities
• Trusted sources and messengers
• Preferred services and supports
• Concerns about privacy, stigma, discrimination, or safety
• Communication preferences

CDC communication guidance similarly recommends conducting audience research rather than guessing or assuming what people need and building time for pretesting with intended audiences.

Understand barriers, costs, benefits, and competition

A program may be free and still carry substantial costs for participants.

For example, an adult literacy program may not charge tuition, but people interested in the program may still encounter:

• Transportation costs
• Unsafe travel conditions
• Scheduling conflicts with work or caregiving
• Childcare or dependent-care needs
• Disability-access barriers
• Language-access barriers
• Concerns about disclosing literacy needs
• Previous negative experiences with educational institutions

If these barriers are significant, more advertising will not solve the problem. The organization may need to change where, when, or how the service is provided.

Also identify what people value. Benefits might include convenience, independence, social connection, safety, belonging, financial savings, improved health, privacy, confidence, or another outcome.

Finally, consider competition. Competition does not necessarily mean another organization. It may be another behavior, a competing demand on time, convenience, cost, habits, social expectations, misinformation, commercial marketing, or a service that better meets people's immediate needs.

Gather information ethically

Formative research methods may include:

• Interviews. Individual conversations can provide detailed information about experiences, motivations, barriers, and ideas.
• Focus groups or listening sessions. Facilitated group discussion can reveal shared and differing experiences and generate ideas.
• Surveys. Surveys may be conducted online, by phone, through text, by mail, in person, or through another accessible format appropriate to the audience.
• Community-engaged research or co-design. Community members can participate directly in identifying questions, interpreting findings, and developing strategies.
• Observation. Observation can sometimes provide useful insight into settings or behaviors, but it should be conducted only when ethical, lawful, appropriate, and respectful of privacy. Avoid collecting identifiable or sensitive information unnecessarily.
• Program and service-use data. Existing organizational data may help identify patterns when their use is appropriate and consistent with privacy and data-governance requirements.
• Participant feedback. Satisfaction surveys, interviews, advisory groups, and other methods can help improve services people already use.

Consider informed consent, privacy, confidentiality, accessibility, language access, appropriate compensation, data security, and the potential burden on participants when conducting research.

Develop possible strategies

Once you understand the behavioral goal, context, audiences, barriers, benefits, and competition, generate possible strategies.

Think beyond communication. A social marketing strategy might involve:

• Improving a service
• Changing hours or locations
• Reducing cost
• Providing transportation or childcare support
• Changing an organizational policy
• Improving accessibility
• Working with trusted community partners
• Training service providers
• Redesigning a physical or digital environment
• Providing appropriate incentives or supports
• Changing communication
• Combining several approaches

Current social-marketing benchmark criteria similarly emphasize a methods mix rather than relying on awareness or communication alone.

Prioritize strategies and audiences equitably

Organizations rarely have enough resources to do everything at once. Decide where resources can make the greatest meaningful contribution while considering both effectiveness and equity.

Do not automatically prioritize the audience that is easiest or least expensive to influence. Doing so may increase overall results while widening inequities if people facing the greatest barriers receive the least support.

Consider:

• Where the burden of the issue is greatest
• Where inequities exist
• Which barriers can realistically be changed
• Which groups have historically had less access to services or resources
• What community members identify as priorities
• Whether changing the behavior of institutions or decision-makers might have broader impact than focusing only on individuals
• What resources and partnerships are required

Social influence can also matter. Behaviors sometimes spread through peer networks, families, organizations, or communities. Use formative research to understand these relationships rather than assuming that one group will automatically influence another.

Choose specific strategies and measurable objectives

Evaluate potential strategies by asking:

• Does the strategy offer benefits people value?
• Does it reduce meaningful financial, practical, social, emotional, or structural costs?
• Does it improve people's opportunity and ability to carry out the behavior?
• Does it address important competing behaviors or influences?
• Does it address relevant organizational or structural barriers?
• Is it feasible and sustainable?
• Is it equitable?
• Is it ethical?
• Is there a realistic way to measure implementation and results?

Design communication for intended audiences

Communication should be based on audience research rather than stereotypes about how particular groups talk, what they believe, or which authorities they trust.

Consider:

• Preferred language
• Literacy and health-literacy needs
• Disability access
• Cultural relevance
• Trusted messengers
• Privacy and stigma
• Tone
• Information needs
• Communication channels
• Whether people were involved in developing the message

If an audience prefers a language other than English, provide linguistically appropriate communication and interpretation when needed rather than simply translating material without considering cultural context and usability.

Avoid trying to imitate presumed slang or communication styles merely because the intended audience is young or belongs to a particular cultural group. Co-design and pretesting can help ensure that language feels natural and respectful.

Consider sequenced communication and support

Some interventions may use a sequence of communication and services over time. For example, an initiative might first increase awareness of an available health service, then provide information about how to access it, followed by reminders or ongoing support.

The sequence should be based on behavioral theory and formative research rather than assuming that everyone moves through one fixed continuum in the same way.

Use enough communication to maintain awareness and support action, but do not assume that simply repeating a message more often will make it effective. Repetition of an irrelevant, inaccessible, or stigmatizing message can reduce trust.

Select communication channels

Choose channels based on where and how intended audiences actually obtain information.

Possibilities may include:

• Community organizations
• Trusted interpersonal networks
• Health care settings
• Schools and educational institutions
• Workplaces
• Faith and spiritual communities
• Websites
• Social media
• Text messaging
• Email
• Print materials
• Radio, television, podcasts, and other media
• Community events
• Peer educators or community health workers

Select channels according to accessibility, trust, reach, cost, privacy, and how well they fit the behavioral objective. CDC similarly recommends choosing formats and distribution channels based on how intended audiences actually receive and use information.

Pretest messages, services, and strategies

Pretesting should occur before full implementation whenever practical.

Do not test only whether people "like" a message. Ask:

• Is it understandable?
• Does it communicate what was intended?
• Is anything confusing, stigmatizing, offensive, or exclusionary?
• Is the proposed behavior realistic?
• Are the benefits meaningful?
• Have important barriers been overlooked?
• Are services or supports actually accessible?
• Is the call to action clear?

Revise based on feedback and test again when substantial changes are made.

Implement the strategy

Implementation often reveals conditions that were not visible during planning. Track activities closely enough to know whether the intervention is being delivered as intended and whether people can actually access it.

Maintain communication with community partners and intended audiences throughout implementation rather than waiting until the end to ask whether the approach worked.

Evaluate your work

Evaluation should begin during planning rather than after the campaign has already been implemented.

Consider measures related to:

• Implementation
• Reach
• Awareness and understanding
• Service access
• Relevant behaviors
• Environmental, organizational, or policy changes
• Audience experience
• Equity
• Unintended consequences
• Cost and resource use
• Sustainability

Whenever possible, establish baseline information so changes can be assessed over time.

If the strategy is not working as expected, investigate why before simply increasing communication. The problem may involve the message, but it may also involve cost, access, trust, services, policies, timing, competition, or another condition.

Continue seeking feedback from people affected by the intervention and make reasonable changes during implementation.

Recognize progress and learning

Community and public-health change can take time. Recognize meaningful progress, contributions, partnerships, and learning along the way.

Avoid treating success only as the achievement of a final behavioral target. Improvements in access, trust, organizational practice, community participation, service quality, or equity may also represent important progress.

Adapt, sustain, scale, or conclude the effort

A social marketing campaign does not necessarily need to continue indefinitely.

At regular intervals, ask:

• Is the behavioral goal still important?
• Have community conditions changed?
• Is the strategy still effective?
• Are some audiences benefiting more than others?
• Have new barriers or unintended consequences appeared?
• Should the strategy be expanded, adapted, integrated into routine services, or reduced?
• Is continued communication necessary, or can resources now be directed elsewhere?
• Has the original goal been achieved or changed enough that the campaign should end?

Some behavioral goals may require ongoing support. Others may be achieved through a time-limited campaign, institutionalized within regular services, or replaced by a different strategy as conditions change.

Sustainability means maintaining the conditions necessary for beneficial behavior and community well-being, not repeating the same campaign forever.

In Summary

Managing a social marketing effort requires more than creating persuasive messages. Effective social marketing begins with a clearly defined behavioral goal and a strong understanding of the people, organizations, systems, and conditions connected to that behavior.

Formative research can help identify motivations, barriers, benefits, competing behaviors, access issues, trusted messengers, and meaningful audience segments. Current social-marketing practice emphasizes behavior, audience orientation, theory, insight, exchange, competition, segmentation, and a mix of methods rather than communication alone.

Strategies should then combine the communication, services, supports, environmental changes, partnerships, policies, and other methods needed to make beneficial behavior realistic and worthwhile. Messages and services should be pretested with intended audiences, implemented carefully, and evaluated for effectiveness, equity, accessibility, and unintended consequences.

Most importantly, social marketing should not treat people as passive targets to be persuaded. It should be ethical, respectful, evidence-informed, and responsive to people's priorities and lived realities. When barriers are created by organizations, institutions, policies, or social conditions, the strategy should address those conditions rather than placing the responsibility for change entirely on individuals.