How to engage worried health care consumers around COVID-19
There’s enough anxiety out there without messages from health care practices exacerbating the panic. Here’s how to address the problem cogently and calmly.
As communicators strive day and night to get crucial COVID-19 communications in place and keep them up-to-date, here are some fast tips for how to most effectively communicate with health care consumers in this environment:
Consumer fear and anxiety is escalating to new heights.
Even before COVID-19, consumers were grappling with frayed trust in the economy, brands and the healthcare system.
According to a (subscription-based) Gartner research report, a staggering one third (37%) of all U.S. consumers and almost half (49%) of younger generations (millennials and Gen Zers) worry often or all the time that something undesirable might happen. Similarly, a third (36%) of U.S. consumers and half (50%) of younger generations feel stressed over what they are doing and dread what is coming next.
That’s a level of anxiety and stress that likely hasn’t been seen in this country in decades. Add COVID-19 to this picture and we simply must find a new level of empathy and care in our marketing communications.
Squelch the impulse to overcommunicate.
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