Ask most people why patients skip cancer screenings and you will get some version of the same answer: they must not think it is important. That answer is almost always wrong, and it is the reason so much health messaging fails.
People do not avoid screenings because they do not care about their health. They avoid them because the message never reached them, or because the language did not sound like it was written for them, or because the whole system feels like it was designed for someone else. Fear plays a part. So does time, cost, transportation, childcare, and a hundred quiet logistical things nobody accounts for when they write the brochure.
Understanding that difference is the entire job. It is also why this remains one of the projects I am most proud of at my boutique marketing agency in Tampa.
This was not a marketing campaign
When Dr. Alicia Best of USF Health’s College of Public Health and her partner, Premier Healthcare, came to Bee Young Comms, the goal was specific: increase breast, colorectal, and cervical cancer screenings among their patient population, with a focus on communities historically underserved by traditional healthcare messaging.
The clinical side was already handled. The expertise was there. The infrastructure was there. What was missing was the piece that connects a health system to the human being deciding whether to make the appointment.
That is a communications problem, and it carries a weight most communications problems do not. When prevention messaging misses the people who need it, cancers get found later, when they are harder to treat. The communities facing the steepest barriers of language, access, and trust are the same ones most likely to fall through that gap. In public health, a message that does not land is not just an underperforming campaign. The stakes are somebody’s life.
I have never treated a project with more care.
One question shaped everything
We built a comprehensive strategic communications plan aligned with the core values of both USF Health and Premier Healthcare, covering internal and external audiences alike so the messaging stayed consistent at every touchpoint, from patient-facing web content all the way through to organizational stakeholders.
But underneath all of it was a single question we returned to constantly: what does it take for this patient to say yes?
Not the average patient. Not the ideal patient. This one.
Three things came out of that.
Trust comes before the ask. You cannot lead with the appointment. If someone has a reason to be skeptical of the healthcare system, and plenty of people have earned that skepticism honestly, then the first several touches have to build credibility before anything asks them to act.
The language has to reflect the reader. Not simplified. Reflected. There is an enormous difference between talking down to a patient and talking to them. Clinical language creates distance at the exact moment you need to close it.
Prevention had to be reframed as self-advocacy. This was the shift that mattered most. Traditional screening messaging positions the patient as someone being told what to do. We flipped it. Getting screened is not compliance, it is taking control. That reframe changes who the patient is in the story, and people act very differently when they are the one in charge.
What it produced
Every piece of content was built to do three things: educate, motivate, and remove a barrier to care. The strategy met patients where they actually were and made it easier to say yes, while positioning both organizations as trusted, proactive health partners in the communities they serve.
“Michelle’s knowledge of healthcare marketing and institutional communications helped us build a strategy that was both credible and compelling. Because of her work, we were better equipped to reach the patients who needed us most. We couldn’t have asked for a better partner.”
Dr. Alicia Best, USF Health College of Public Health & Premier Healthcare
What this means for you
If the people you exist to serve are not hearing your message, the work stops there. That is true whether you are a health system, a nonprofit, a university, or a business.
A strong communications strategy is not about broadcasting louder. It is about understanding exactly who you are talking to, identifying what is actually keeping them from engaging, and building every message around removing that specific barrier. Usually the obstacle is not awareness. It is friction, or distrust, or the simple sense that this was not meant for me.
If your organization is doing important work that is not reaching the people who need it most, that is a communications problem, and it is the kind we were built to solve.
Bee Young Comms is here for You!
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