For many of us, the impact of the coronavirus here in the U.S. right now is more emotional than physical. Although that ratio of concern will change dramatically over the next few days as many more of us become ill, there are tools in marketing that can help us alleviate some of the issues around mental health many of us are experiencing. Feelings of panic (translated into buying massive amounts of toilet paper), anxiety, fear and all the other emotions are causing us lost sleep at a minimum.
Words are an important component of everyone's toolkit that can be used for good.
Don't underestimate the impact we can have on each other's sense of well-being by simply using the right words in our communications.
This is a no-brainer for carefully constructed messages from organizations and leaders, and people like me are employed to review these messages to the nth degree. But what about when we talk to each other? Or post on social media? We can all do our part to help calm each other by using words that invoke comfort - rather than fear. It seems small, but it can really help convert anxiety into action. (If you're looking for more on that transformation he re's a great blog post from GoodTherapy.org.)
Before I get to the actual words, those of us working in marketing communications understand that the most powerful messages are those that evoke emotions. This is not just for selling consumer goods either. Health IT leader Revel has executed programs for major health plans to motivate people to get a flu shot. When the team at Revel used messaging that evoked the emotion of empathy - in other words motivating people to protect those more vulnerable to flu - they were able to get nearly 50% more people to agree to a flu shot.
So while it's true that words mean things - we know they also have emotional impacts as well. The following is not an all inclusive list, in fact I'd encourage you to add more words that you know help people feel comfort, not fear. But this is a start. It's something to think about when posting on social media, texting friends or even just talking to your mom.
23 Words That Evoke Fear:Fooled, beware, blinded, alarming, scarce, rare, immediately, only, hurry, devastating, heartbreaking, hoax, prison, revenge, risky, avoid, scary, backlash, costly, assault, frantic, hazardous, untested
99 Words That Evoke Comfort:What words will you use today?
Note: Thanks to planetc1.com for the list of good words!
