Abstract
Background: Reaching and engaging individuals, especially young adults, in web-based prevention programs is challenging. ‘No Money No Time’ (NMNT) is a purpose built, healthy eating website with content and a social marketing strategy designed to reach and engage a young adult (18–34 year olds) target group. The aim of the current study was to conduct a process evaluation of the 12-month social marketing strategy to acquire and engage NMNT users, particularly young adults. Methods: a process evaluation framework for complex interventions was applied to investigate the implementation of the social marketing strategy component, mechanisms of impact and contextual factors. Google Analytics data for the first 12 months of operation (17 July 2019 to 17 July 2020) was evaluated. Results: in year one, 42,413 users from 150+ countries accessed NMNT, with 47.6% aged 18–34 years. The most successful channel for acquiring total users, young adults and return users was via organic search, demonstrating success of our marketing strategies that included a Search Engine Optimisation audit, a content strategy, a backlink strategy and regular promotional activities. For engagement, there was a mean of 4.46 pages viewed per session and mean session duration of 3 min, 35 s. Users clicked a ‘call-to-action’ button to commence the embedded diet quality tool in 25.1% of sessions. The most common device used to access NMNT (63.9%) was smartphone/mobile. Engagement with ‘quick, cheap and healthy recipes’ had the highest page views. Conclusions: findings can inform online nutrition programs, particularly for young adults, and can apply to other digital health programs.
Highlights
In order to maximise the reach of No Money No Time (NMNT) and all/target users’ engagement with the website, and to inform the development of future websites with similar aims, in the method section of this paper we describe in detail the process of developing and applying social marketing principles to maximise user reach and engagement with NMNT, users 18–34 years
The social marketing strategy was implemented over 12 months as described in the methods section and this was not affected by the COVID-19 pandemic
An organic strategy was a key focus of NMNT. This included an search Engine Optimisation (SEO) audit pre and post launch, a content strategy, a backlink strategy and regular promotional activities implemented throughout the year
Summary
Poor diet quality is the second highest risk factor for mortality in females, resulting in 13.5% [10.8–16.7] of all female deaths in 2019 [1]. It is the third leading risk factor, accounting for 14.6% [12.0–17.6] of all male deaths in 2019 [1]. Improving diet quality represents a major public health challenge at both a national and international level [1]. A global analysis of adults aged ≥20 years from 187 countries found those aged 20–29 years had the worst diet quality, compared with all other age groups, closely followed by those in
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