Engaging Women During Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Empowering women: Your health guidance, your voice, your action

October isn’t just another month on the calendar. It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a powerful call to action for healthcare organizations to make a difference. This is our chance to connect deeply with our communities and launch impactful campaigns that prioritize early detection and annual mammography screenings. As healthcare marketers, we play a vital role in empowering women with knowledge about breast health and guiding them to essential screening services that can save lives.

More than merely launching marketing campaigns, this observance is about being a trusted ally in the fight against breast cancer. Let’s harness this moment to spread awareness, educate about risk factors, and help every woman have access to the screening services she deserves. Here’s how you can supercharge your next breast cancer awareness campaign and make it memorable. 

Cultivating trust through organic content 

The foundation of any successful health campaign must be built on trust and community. We look to organic content strategies to promote early detection and support preventative care by building this essential equity and alignment. 

Content ideas for promoting early detection and preventative care

• Educational articles and blog posts: Tackle common hurdles women face regarding screenings and provide clear information about risk factors and available services.
• Patient stories and testimonials: Real-life experiences help humanize breast cancer awareness efforts, align messaging, and build meaningful connections.
• Community engagement: Highlight local events and partnerships to foster a sense of community ownership and support.
• Social media engagement: Use interactive platforms for Q&A sessions, live discussions, and peer-to-peer sharing to create dialogue and break down screening barriers.
• Prevention-focused content: Publish regular blog posts that extend beyond breast cancer to encompass general cancer prevention and wellness.

Best practices for engaging your audience 

• Inclusive, compassionate language: Avoid fear tactics to respect the anxiety around screening and detection.
• Myth-busting and FAQs: Directly address common questions such as “Do mammograms hurt?” to clarify misconceptions and build trust.
• Interactive content: Move beyond static pages to include empathetic resources, like "Top 5 questions to ask after an abnormal mammogram," that support patients through their post-screening journeys.
• Visual storytelling: Utilize infographics, patient stories, video clips, and physician Q&As to make key messages more relatable and easy to understand.
• Authentic patient voices: Feature survivors telling their own stories of prevention and hope, which strengthens community bonds and education.
• Clear calls to action: Every piece of content prompts action, such as scheduling a mammogram or completing a breast health quiz, to guide users toward screening and care.

Improving discoverability through SEO, AEO, and social media 

To make sure educational materials reach the women who need them most, healthcare marketers must optimize content for both traditional search engines and emerging AI-powered answer engines.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)

• Capture search volume: Implement an ongoing blog and SEO strategy targeting relevant cancer screenings and prevention topics, especially those less covered in paid media campaigns.
• Optimize for convenience: Create location-based content catering to convenience-driven searches such as “mammogram near me” or “mammogram clinic near me” to make access easy and clear.
• Structure content for AI discoverability: Use question-based subheadings (H2s) and comprehensive FAQ sections with Schema markup to increase the chance your content appears in AI-powered overviews and voice search results.
• Concise, high-value answers: Provide direct, succinct answers near the top of pages to improve organic rankings and enhance user experience.

Organic social media promotion

• Snackable visuals: Repurpose long-form content into snackable formats such as infographics, video clips, and impactful patient quotes that are easy to consume and share.
• Platform-specific promotion: Begin with organic Facebook posts and extend reach by leveraging Instagram Reels, Stories, and carousel posts that resonate with younger demographics.
• Encourage User-Generated Content (UGC): Launch campaigns like “Why I Screen” stories that allow community members to share their breast cancer screening experiences. These peer stories help reduce anxiety and foster trust.
• Messaging for women 40+: Focus messaging on mammogram reminders and self-exam awareness to address risk factors and support screening adherence among women 40 years and older.

High-performing paid media tactics to drive action

While organic strategies build trust, targeted paid media drives the conversions that get women scheduled for preventative care. If budget limitations exist, paid search is the recommended channel for driving conversions during breast cancer awareness month, as this is where high-intent users are actively searching for services. Focus on high-intent terms like "mammogram screenings near me.” 

Audience segmentation for targeted outreach

• Demographics: Separate campaigns for women who are new patients (e.g., late thirties/turning 40) versus those who need a reminder to schedule their annual mammogram.
• Psychographics: Address common fears and barriers like discomfort, cost, or time. Educate new patients that screening mammograms are typically covered by insurance at age 40, helping to mitigate the perceived risk factors of cost.
• Key metrics (KPIs): Monitor your campaigns closely. For search, aim for a Click-Through Rate (CTR) of approximately 7% and a Conversion Rate (CVR) of roughly 6.8%. A high Cost Per Lead (CPL) combined with a poor CVR may indicate your campaign is hitting the wrong audience.

The human impact: Transforming searches into saved lives

The true measure of a successful breast cancer awareness campaign transcends metrics; it is the human outcome.

We saw the power of human-centered marketing with a campaign we did for Columbus Regional Health. 

• Their campaign highlighted their operational flexibility, offering late-night and weekend mammogram screenings to address time and convenience barriers for busy women. 
• This focus on prioritizing women resulted in over 300 leads in four months.
• Importantly, one woman who scheduled a screening after seeing the campaign, four years after her previous mammogram, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer and was able to start treatment right away. 

Detecting an aggressive form of breast cancer through early detection reinforces that one life saved is invaluable. By addressing the real risk of breast cancer and highlighting solutions that prioritize the patient, we move beyond mere marketing and truly save lives.

Find your True North

As we head into Breast Cancer Awareness Month, remember that integrated strategies, combining organic trust-building content with targeted paid media, will maximize your impact and visibility. 

Optimize your website, use compassionate language, and focus on the human journey to drive breast health conversions and reduce breast cancer morbidity.