Social Marketing Training Materials

Below are presentations we have chosen to highlight as valuable resources for organizations interested in starting and improving their social marketing and outreach:

Persuasive Storytelling for Families

Access our Persuasive Storytelling for Families workbook

Personal stories are one of the most effective tools for children’s mental health advocates. This is especially true when communities are communicating with key partners, agencies, media, and other families and youth. During this informative session, participants will learn to share their own story in a way that both will be valued by and influence the listener.    

This two-part session will give participants time to work in small-groups to segment audiences to which they might be speaking, and figure out what will be most effective in trying to reach them. Each participant will also have the opportunity to create their own short speech, and there will be time to practice giving the speech for those who want to do so. 

Upon completion of this workshop, participants will:

  • Know what makes a story relevant to an audience.
  • Understand how incorporating personal stories into public speaking situations benefits the cause of children’s mental health.
  • Know how to develop their Single Overriding Communications Objective (SOCO) for speaking or interview opportunities. 
  • Have new knowledge and enthusiasm for presenting their personal stories to highlight the importance of community services and supports for children’s mental health.

 

Persuasive Storytelling for Youth

Access our Persuasive Storytelling for Youth workbook

The purpose of this training is to help youth understand the value of sharing their lived experience to change knowledge, feelings, and actions around children’s mental health. Young people who partake in the training are encouraged to introspect on beneficial and harmful motivations for sharing, to assess their own readiness to share their story. Participants are then given tools, such as the audience segmentation, Main Point, and public speaking pointers to develop a short persuasive speech that shares some of their personal story. Finally, participants are encouraged to practice their speech in front of the group, if they feel comfortable doing so.

At the conclusion of this workshop, participants will be able to:

  • Know what makes a story relevant to an audience. 
  • Understand how using your personal lived experience story can be helpful in advocacy efforts. 
  • Learn the benefits and risks that comes with deciding to share your story. 
  • Be able to identify and develop the “point” you’re trying to make when speaking to an audience. 
  • Determine whether you’re ready to share your story yet. 
  • Gain experience in identification of social marketing goals, audiences, and messages.

 

Social Marketing 101

Access our Social Marketing 101 presentation

This session is designed to give participants an understanding of the social marketing planning process, and the importance of beginning with identification of goals, audiences, and tailored messages when creating social marketing materials or activities. This session will also communicate the importance of social marketing in creating a sustainable and effective system of care. 

The objectives of this training include:

  • Understand what social marketing is and how it can benefit the system of care and its goals
  • Become familiar with the social marketing process
  • Be able to identify appropriate communications goals, audiences, and messages to effectively support the system of care and its sustainability

 

Social Marketing for Systems Change

Access our Social Marketing for Systems Change presentation

Additional Handouts: Lummi System of Care Expansion, Mississippi: Crossover XPand System of Care Project, Texas System of Care

In this workshop, presenters share how social marketing can be used to change the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of staff, families, youth, providers, child-serving leaders, and others who are essential to institutionalizing systems of care. Participants will learn about the social marketing approach, including the importance of understanding target audiences and being audience-centered, as well as become familiar with the social marketing planning process. The workshop will include examples of how social marketing has been used to help change child-serving systems in communities, states, tribes, and territories. It will also offer hands-on opportunities to practice social marketing tactics such as audience analysis and message development.

Learning objectives include:

  • Learn about the social marketing approach.
  • Understand how social marketing can be leveraged to contribute to systems change.
  • Learn the steps of the social marketing planning process.
  • Gain hands-on experience in audience analysis and message development.

 

Spokesperson Training

Access our Spokesperson Training workbook

Following completion of the workshop, participants will:

  • Be able to more confidently and effectively present information to desired target audiences via public speaking and media opportunities
  • Deliver effective, persuasive messages to specific target audiences to counter discrimination and stigma
  • Recognize the role of mental health stakeholders (consumers, family members, providers, professionals, administrators, advocates) in communications efforts
  • Be more comfortable responding to challenging question
  • Communicate in people-first language 
  • Practice public speaking

 

Using Data in Social Marketing

Access our Using Data in Social Marketing presentation

This session will explore the intersection of personal stories and data to develop the most effective social marketing efforts possible. It will discuss strategies for developing compelling messages to persuade decision‐makers (state, tribal, or territorial leaders of child‐serving organizations) to transform the children’s mental health delivery system, and share recent persuasive data that can be used in these messages. 

Objectives include:

  • Learn about available systems of care cost-saving data
  • Develop skills in combining data and storytelling
  • Learn how the combination of data and storytelling can be used to impact an audience’s knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors

 

Other training topics include: Partnership Development, Branding, Effective Use of Social Media, Internal Communications, Train the Trainer in Persuasive Storytelling, Social Marketing in Tribal Communities, and others.