Developing the perfect branding for your company requires a lot of thought. You need to consider your target audience, and the impression you want to convey and give potential customers a reason to trust you.
Creating the perfect branding for a mental health or wellness business is even more challenging. There’s a lot of sensitivity and stigma around these topics, and you don’t want to say or do anything that could trigger your customers.
To commemorate Mental Health Awareness Month, we’ve compiled five things to be aware of when designing mental health branding projects. We’ll explain why branding matters and show you some examples of our work for wellness and mental health organizations.
1. Education
People will have a lot of questions about your products and services before they commit.
What support do you offer? Is confidentiality assured? Are the feelings and emotions I’m experiencing normal?
In this situation, you must provide clear information to help potential customers make an informed decision.
We helped Casa Hechizos develop a detailed and clear resource section for its website, with colorful photos and step-by-step guides to make the content as easy to digest as possible.
Think about the questions people may ask and how you can answer them. Look at the emails, live chats, and social media messages customers send, and use this to build a reliable library of resources.
2. Clarity
User experience (UX) is essential across all websites. UX concerns how visitors interact with your site and find what they need.
Nearly 90% of visitors will leave your website and not come back if they have a bad experience.
UX is especially important in the wellness and mental health sector. Visitors might access your site from a mobile phone to avoid others knowing. They may need to find information quickly. They may be in need of emotional support, which can affect how they browse or their attention span.
Good UX empowers visitors, increasing the chances of them sticking around and converting.
When we redesigned Vantis’s website, we wanted to create a site that was accessible and patient-centric. Large type sizes, negative space, and animated arrows made it easy for their target audience of older patients to navigate the site and find what they needed.
3. Trust
When you offer wellness and mental health support, the relationship between you and your customers is a highly personal and a vulnerable one. You need to give them a good reason to put their trust in you.
Nearly 90% of businesses think customers have a high level of trust in them. However the reality is that only 30% of customers do.
How can you encourage trust and confidence through your wellness branding? Through trust signals. Trust signals are pieces of content like reviews, awards, accreditations, and memberships. These show prospective customers that you’re a credible and reliable choice.
When creating the branding for Dr. Aditi, establishing trust was a vital part of the process. We did this through high-quality testimonials, book reviews from well-known sources, and mentions in the mainstream media.
Authenticity is also crucial for building trust. Work with brands that share your values, be consistent, and don’t be afraid to show your human side, like in this Instagram post from Dr. Aditi.
4. Warmth
One in five US adults lives with a mental illness. If you or a loved one faces a diagnosis, it can be a scary and frustrating time. You may not know where to turn.
This means it’s vital to ensure your mental health branding is warm, inclusive, and approachable to encourage people to reach out for the help they need.
Does this mean your wellness brand can’t be refined or avant-garde? Of course not — you can convey friendliness through the colors, patterns, even the photos you use.
We used natural, earthy textures on the Embodied Truth Healing website to evoke a sense of calm and encourage visitors to learn more.
5. Support
Mental health doesn’t have to be cold, stuffy, or something to be embarrassed about. The more we can do to overcome the stigma and encourage others to talk about it, the better.
Everyone has a part to play.
We love this internal campaign our team designed for Facebook. It included colorful wall murals to raise awareness, stickers for employees to put on their laptops, and an online portal to share stories.
It meant employees could build a strong community, support one another, and encourage people to get the help they needed.
We hope you found this look at mental health awareness ideas valuable. Remember that approachability and trust are critical. You need to demonstrate that you can provide a safe space and that it’s okay not to be okay.
If you’re looking for branding services for your mental health and wellness company or organization, get in touch with us, we’d love to hear from you!
Please remember – if you are struggling, you’re not alone. The 988 Lifeline network is available 24/7 across the US if you need to talk to someone.