Mental Health at Work Strategy: How to Build Long-Term Impact and ROI

“We’re running a Wellbeing Week,” said the Learning and Development Manager proudly.

“Great!” I replied. “And what happens after that?”

“Oh… well… we’ll probably do the same thing again next year.”

Let’s be honest — this is not uncommon. A lot of organisations run brilliant one-off initiatives. But if you’re serious about changing your employee experience and culture, here’s the uncomfortable truth:

You won’t transform mental health at work with a campaign mindset.

You need a strategy.
You need consistency.
And you need to think like your marketing team.

Creating Impact with Mental Health at Work

Marketing teams don’t sit in a room, create a brochure, and expect to hit revenue targets.

They build structured campaigns.
They track engagement.
They test messages.
They repeat what works.

And most importantly, they know that it takes repetition to get through to a human brain.

We’re not talking once or twice.

We're talking 7–15 touchpoints, minimum, before someone remembers a message — let alone takes action on it.

If that’s how we sell products, why would wellbeing be any different?

Why Mental Health at Work Needs Consistency

Your employees are not sitting around waiting for the next mental health webinar. They’re drowning in meetings, deadlines, distractions, pressure, performance reviews, and emails.

If you want your wellbeing message to break through that noise, you need to behave like a brand.

Think about how your marketing department works:

• Frequency: They don’t promote a product once. They run multi-week, multi-touch campaigns.

• Segmentation: They tailor messaging based on audience type.

• A/B Testing: They try different hooks, visuals, and formats to see what resonates.

• Nurture Sequences: They assume people won’t say yes straight away. They drip-feed value over time.

• Brand Awareness: They don’t just push offers; they educate, entertain, and emotionally engage.

This is exactly what your wellbeing strategy needs.

Embedding Wellbeing into Workplace Culture

What if you approached wellbeing with the same mindset?

Imagine this:

• You segment your messaging — different comms for leaders, new starters, and teams under high pressure

• You run multi-touchpoint content — short videos, infographics, bite-sized training, reflective journaling prompts

• You track engagement — who's reading, who’s clicking, where’s the drop-off

• You reinforce brand identity — language, values, tone — so your wellbeing support doesn’t feel like a bolt-on

This is what it means to treat wellbeing as culture, not comms.

You’re not just informing people, you’re shaping behaviour.

How to Improve Mental Health at Work: Use Marketing Principles

Let’s break this down even more practically.

Here are 5 core marketing strategies your HR team can steal today:

1. Create a Campaign Calendar

Just like product teams map quarterly launches, map your wellbeing themes:

• January: Managing overwhelm post-holidays

• March: Stress awareness

• June: Preventing burnout before summer leave

• September: Emotional intelligence for managers

• November: Year-end energy resets

Don't wait for Mental Health Awareness Week. Build your own rhythm.

2. Drip Feed, Don’t Dump

Your marketing team doesn't send a 30-page whitepaper and call it a day. They create:

• Email series

• 1-minute explainer videos

• Visual assets

• Micro-messaging

Apply the same to wellbeing:

• 1 tool per week

• 1 idea per month

• 1 shift in mindset each quarter

Let it build. Let it embed.

3. Create Scroll-Stopping Hooks

Marketers don’t say, “Productivity tracking available here.”
They say:
👉 “Losing 20 minutes a day to Slack scrolls? Here’s your fix.”

So stop titling your webinar “Mental Health Awareness.”
Say:
👉 “What to do when your team hits a wall and stops telling you.”
👉 “How to spot burnout before it blows up your absence rate.”

Make it relevant. Make it human.

4. Use Testimonials as Proof

Marketing never relies on features alone. They use social proof.

In wellbeing, that means:

• Feedback from employees who used a resource and got results

• Screenshots of positive shifts

• Manager stories about what landed

Don’t just tell people what’s available.
Show them what it changed.

5. Retarget Your Internal Comms

Marketers know most people don’t act the first time.

They re-target ads based on behaviour: opened but didn’t click, clicked but didn’t buy, engaged but didn’t convert.

Use this insight:

• If you ran a wellbeing webinar and only 10% of people attended, find out why - ask questions, do your own research to understand why the webinar didn't land.

• If a team is consistently ignoring mental health messages, run a leader-led nudge.

• If managers are avoiding conversations, give them scripts, not theory.

Stop assuming “we told them” is enough. Start re-inviting people until they respond.

Measuring ROI on Employee Wellbeing

Want to know why most wellbeing budgets feel like a black hole?

Because we don’t apply the same scrutiny and metrics we do in sales.

But you can measure ROI on wellbeing. You just have to define what success looks like.

Start with clarity:

• What’s the problem you’re solving?

• What behaviour do you want to see shift?

• What does success look like after 3, 6, 12 months?

Then, create feedback loops:

• Pulse surveys on energy, clarity, resilience

• Usage data from your wellbeing content or platform

• Absence trends — not just numbers, but context

• Line manager sentiment — what’s getting easier?

If it’s not measurable, it’s probably not embedded.

Final Thoughts: Treat Wellbeing Like a Brand

The wellbeing strategy that works is the one that shows up. Again and again.

It’s not the one with the most bells and whistles.
It’s not the one with the biggest one-off budget.
It’s the one that builds trust, speaks human, and stays consistent.

If your people only hear about wellbeing when there’s a crisis or a campaign, they won’t trust it.
If they hear about it every month, in ways that are relevant, honest, and empowering — they will.

So the next time you’re planning a Wellbeing Week, I invite you to ask:

What happens the week after that?
What happens when the inbox fills back up?
What happens when someone’s silent suffering isn’t “campaign-friendly”?

Because that’s when it matters most.

And if you’re ready to build a wellbeing strategy that doesn’t just tick a box but transforms culture, we’re ready to help.

Let’s create something that sticks - Book a call now.