Therapeutic treatment for mental health challenges has always been important. But historically, cultural stigmas have precluded people from pursuing treatment for conditions like depression, anxiety, and panic attacks.
Today, those stigmas are evaporating, especially as conversations around mental health become more open and access to health insurance becomes more widespread. Factors like these have led to an increase in therapy participation; according to a survey by the National Center for Health Statistics, the percentage of adults receiving mental health treatment increased from 2019 to 2021 for all ages.
The growing interest in mental health treatment from consumers has generated interest from the business world. Mental health tech startups have emerged that leverage technologies like AI to offer a more personalized mental healthcare experience. Being a new and exciting domain, mental health tech has attracted the interest of venture capital companies keen to provide these startups the financial backing they need to pursue high, mutually beneficial returns.
Of course, when “big money” meets an almost entirely unproven domain, the already incredibly high pressure startups feel to connect with and convert as many prospects as possible only increases—especially in the face of skeptics concerned about non-traditional directions for mental health therapy. As copywriters, we believe sharp, on-strategy healthcare copywriting is key to meeting this challenge. Below, we compare and contrast the ways three mental health tech startups message their services in a way that’s empathetic, attractive, and easy to understand.
Mightier: The pen is mightier than the sword for this startup
Atop the website for the mental health tech startup Mightier, set upon a wavy blue background, is an animated, anthropomorphic erupting volcano holding a tablet. Next to it, in a bold yet bubbly sans-serif Fredoka font, Mightier’s hero copy reads: “Big feelings don’t have to be a big problem.” The subheader continues, “Mightier is a digital program for kids that uses their heart rate to teach coping skills through game-based play.”
Without any further reading, these high-level elements make immediately clear Mightier’s aim to improve childrens’ mental health through games. You arguably don’t need to read on for further information; Mightier’s hero copy successfully hones in on their target demographic—parents with children coping with mental health challenges—with a value prop that’s sure to capture any child’s attention: games. As such, the two buttons beneath that invite you to take a questionnaire and see pricing plans feel appropriately positioned.
If you do scroll on, you’ll catch bite-sized value snapshots: “Play at home on your schedule”; “See real-time emotional feedback”; “Clinically validated to support kids ages 6-14 with: Anxiety, ADHD, Anger, Autism, Outbursts, ODD”; “Get a refund if you aren’t satisfied within 30 days”; etc. Even a kid with a basic reading level could stumble upon Mightier’s site and feel the need to pull out their parent’s credit card; that’s likely the point.
Mantra Health: Sharp copy is this startup’s mantra
Mightier’s rapid-fire copy approach is sharply contrasted by the lengthier one presented by another mental health tech startup, Mantra Health. Their hero copy explicitly states their mission to offer colleges and universities “accessible, diverse, high-quality digital mental health care,” followed by a paragraph supporting their case:
“Mantra Health partners with higher education institutions to provide students with comprehensive, high-quality mental health and wellness solutions. Our Whole Campus Care and Capacity Expansion solutions are designed to improve student success, manage risk, increase student engagement, reduce time to care, and help students thrive on campus and off.”
Consider Mantra Health’s target audience: decision makers from higher education institutions. This busy audience beelines for tangible details so they can efficiently determine how to proceed. In response, Mantra Health immediately surfaces those details, and provides a contact button, since if you read and resonate with their value prop, you’re likely already keen to discuss more specifics. Viewed from that lens, this detail-focused, longer-form web copy approach—one which persists throughout the remainder of their homepage—makes sense.
Kintsugi: Repairing mental health messaging with this startup
“I’m fine. Everything is fine.”
The third and final mental health tech startup we’ll look at today is Kintsugi. Centered in their hero copy, the above quote invokes a notion many with mental health challenges use as a coping mechanism to try to convince themselves they’re okay—when in reality, they’re anything but.
The company follows this empathetic opener with a trio of observations: “You see mental health differently when you listen between the lines,”; “Patients say they’re fine, but 60% are falling through the cracks,”; and, “From short clips of their speech, we’ll show you what they’re not saying.” Each emphasizes an italicized phrase which alludes to the often invisible nature of mental health challenges.
Pathos and empathy are Kintsugi’s game. On their About page, the company explains how their name refers to the artistry of using gold to repair fractures in ceramics, adding: “We bring this philosophy to strengthening mental wellness infrastructures.” Reading over their copy, you get a sense of a company that hasn’t just built something, they’re in the midst of building it as we speak. A demo of Kintsugi then becomes less of a set-it-and-forget-it style product and more of an emotional partnership; they know mental health problems can’t be solved in a day, and position their services accordingly.
Three mental health tech startups, one shared approach
Taking a step back, we see that Mightier and Mantra Health are united by a shared adherence to their ultimately distinct target audiences; the former tries to connect with parents who have coping children, while the latter attempts to educate and convert university leaders. Meanwhile, Kintsugi casts a wider net, using shared aspirational emotions to attract anyone with mental health challenges.
Where the three mental health tech startups converge is in their adept copywriting approaches. No word choice or turn of phrase feels out of place; each company’s copy is expertly tailored to both their target audiences and their page designs. But most importantly, each understands the importance of empathy when connecting with people over their solutions—an especially vital skill in the mental health domain.
We’ll keep abreast of emerging copywriting developments in the mental health tech startup space and publish our findings when the time comes.
Until then, if you need a full-suite copywriting wellspring that can help cure your marketing woes, meet the team at MarketSmiths today!
