Health Communication and Social Marketing Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Public Health Officer, Health Promotion Practitioner and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-PH-056

Before you join: Participants should have practical experience in public health, health promotion, communications, community programmes or related service delivery.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Public-health programmes can have sound clinical evidence and adequate funding yet produce limited change when messages are unclear, services are difficult to access, or audiences do not see a relevant benefit. Communication teams must address health literacy, stigma, misinformation, cultural expectations and unequal access to channels while protecting trust. Social marketing provides a structured way to understand priority groups, define achievable behaviours and design communications linked to service delivery.

This course equips participants to plan, develop, deliver and evaluate public-health communication and social marketing programmes. Participants use formative research, stakeholder mapping, audience segmentation, COM-B behavioural diagnosis and the Social Ecological Model to identify barriers and motivators. They develop behavioural objectives, value propositions, message architecture, accessible content, channel plans and marketing-mix decisions. The course also covers community engagement, misinformation response, campaign governance, implementation planning and evaluation measures that distinguish activity from behaviour and health outcomes.

Teaching combines short technical briefings with public-health cases, group analysis, message-testing simulations and structured planning work. Cases may address vaccination uptake, maternal health, antimicrobial resistance, mental-health help-seeking, screening attendance, nutrition or outbreak communication. Participants build a reusable communication planning pack containing an audience profile, behavioural diagnosis, message framework, channel plan, logic model, measurement plan and implementation actions. This provides material that can be adapted for a live programme after the course.

The course suits professionals responsible for population health, health promotion, community engagement, communication, service uptake or prevention campaigns. It is particularly relevant where communications must support an existing clinical pathway, commissioned service or policy objective rather than operate as a stand-alone promotional activity.

What you will be able to do

  • Diagnose priority health behaviours using COM-B and audience insight evidence
  • Segment populations and create evidence-based audience personas for campaign planning
  • Develop behavioural objectives, value propositions and social marketing mix decisions
  • Write plain-language health messages using message architecture and readability methods
  • Select accessible communication channels using audience media habits and service journeys
  • Produce a campaign logic model, implementation plan and RACI matrix
  • Design process, outcome and equity indicators for communication programme evaluation
  • Present an evidence-based health communication plan with risks, assumptions and actions

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Produces defensible communication plans linked to defined behaviours and service pathways
  • Builds confidence challenging vague campaign briefs and unsupported audience assumptions
  • Improves message quality for audiences with varied literacy, language and access needs
  • Applies recognised behavioural and social marketing frameworks in stakeholder discussions
  • Creates evaluation measures that demonstrate reach, response and learning

For your organisation

  • Improves alignment between campaign messages, available services and referral routes
  • Reduces wasted media spend through audience prioritisation and channel evidence
  • Strengthens public trust through accurate, accessible and culturally appropriate content
  • Provides clearer governance for approvals, risk management and misinformation response
  • Generates evaluation evidence for commissioners, funders and programme boards

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can distinguish communication approaches and define their contribution to public-health outcomes.

  • Public health communication functions: inform, persuade, support decisions, build trust
  • Distinguishing health education, behaviour change communication, advocacy and social marketing
  • Audience-centred planning links communication objectives to measurable health outcomes
  • Social determinants, stigma and power shaping message reception and action
  • Applying the Social Ecological Model to intervention scope decisions
  • Ethical boundaries: informed choice, privacy, non-maleficence and cultural respect
  • Health literacy demands for print, spoken, digital and visual content

Participants can generate and synthesise audience insight for communication planning.

  • Formative research questions framed around behaviour, context, barriers and motivators
  • Using stakeholder mapping to identify affected groups, gatekeepers and partners
  • Primary research options: interviews, focus groups, observation, intercepts and surveys
  • Secondary evidence review using surveillance data, service data and literature
  • Writing discussion guides that reduce leading questions and social desirability bias
  • Consent, safeguarding and data minimisation in community research activities
  • Insight synthesis separates observed facts, interpretations, assumptions and evidence gaps

Participants can identify priority audiences and diagnose barriers to specific health behaviours.

  • Segmenting populations by needs, behaviours, readiness, context and media use
  • Prioritisation matrix scores population size, risk, reachability and change potential
  • Creating evidence-based personas without stereotyping communities or obscuring inequalities
  • COM-B diagnosis identifies capability, opportunity and motivation barriers
  • Behavioural objectives specify actor, action, condition, criterion and timeframe
  • Mapping determinants to behaviour change techniques using the BCT Taxonomy
  • Selecting priority audiences when resources cannot support universal communication

Participants can develop a social marketing strategy that makes desired behaviours more attractive and feasible.

  • Social Marketing Benchmark Criteria distinguish programmes from promotional campaigns
  • Exchange analysis defines benefits, costs, effort, risk and competing choices
  • Competition assessment identifies behaviours, beliefs and services displacing desired action
  • Marketing mix decisions across product, price, place, promotion and policy
  • Value proposition statements connect audience priorities with achievable health actions
  • Positioning maps compare perceived benefits and barriers against competing alternatives
  • Partner roles align referral pathways, service capacity and campaign promises

Participants can develop credible, understandable and behaviour-focused health messages.

  • Message architecture links promise, supporting reasons, proof and call-to-action
  • Plain language techniques reduce cognitive load and jargon
  • CDC Clear Communication Index assesses main message, language and visuals
  • Gain-framed and loss-framed appeals selected by behaviour and audience evidence
  • Narrative, testimonial and statistical evidence matched to communication objectives
  • Prebunking and inoculation messaging address misinformation without amplifying false claims
  • Translation and transcreation protect meaning, tone and cultural relevance

Participants can brief, assess and refine accessible health communication materials.

  • Creative brief defines audience insight, objective, proposition, tone and mandatories
  • Visual hierarchy directs attention to actions, benefits and critical safety information
  • Accessible content follows WCAG 2.2 principles for text, contrast and captions
  • Selecting formats for low literacy, disability access and language preferences
  • Prototype concepts tested for comprehension, relevance, acceptability and unintended harm
  • Readability checks use SMOG grading alongside audience testing findings
  • Approval workflows protect clinical accuracy, safeguarding and brand accountability

Participants can select channels and engagement approaches that support access, trust and action.

  • Channel planning combines paid, owned, earned, shared and interpersonal communication
  • Media consumption data informs reach, frequency and placement decisions
  • Service journey mapping identifies decision points, friction and referral handoffs
  • Community engagement plans involve trusted messengers and reciprocal feedback
  • Influencer selection assesses credibility, conflicts, safeguarding and audience fit
  • Digital content calendars coordinate campaign phases, assets and response protocols
  • Crisis communication arrangements define spokespeople, escalation thresholds and holding statements

Participants can produce an implementation plan with resources, accountabilities and delivery controls.

  • Logic models connect inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes and assumptions
  • SMART communication objectives specify intended changes within defined populations
  • Work breakdown structures assign tasks, dependencies, owners and approval gates
  • Budget assumptions cover production, media, translation, testing and contingency
  • Risk registers address misinformation, stigma, service overload and safeguarding
  • RACI matrices clarify decision rights among commissioners, agencies and providers
  • Implementation plans sequence launch, optimisation, community feedback and closeout

Participants can specify evaluation measures and interpret communication performance responsibly.

  • Evaluation questions distinguish process, reach, outcome, impact and equity measures
  • Indicator dictionaries define numerator, denominator, source, frequency and owner
  • Pretesting measures comprehension, appeal, relevance, self-efficacy and behavioural intention
  • Sampling choices balance representativeness, feasibility, cost and ethical obligations
  • Digital analytics interpret impressions, reach, engagement, conversions and drop-off
  • Contribution analysis tests plausible links between communication and observed outcomes
  • Equity disaggregation exposes differential reach, response and unintended disparities

Participants can report results clearly and prepare an evidence-based plan for a priority communication challenge.

  • Dashboard design presents decisions, indicators, trends, caveats and recommended actions
  • Reporting separates outputs from outcomes and avoids unsupported causal claims
  • Learning reviews turn monitoring findings into documented programme adjustments
  • Data storytelling combines participant voice, service data and outcome evidence
  • Ethical data governance covers confidentiality, retention, access and publication
  • Application plans identify a priority communication challenge, stakeholders and milestones
  • Peer review strengthens plans through structured critique and revision criteria

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Audience insight and segmentation template
  2. COM-B behavioural diagnosis worksheet
  3. Health message architecture framework
  4. Social marketing mix planning canvas
  5. Campaign logic model and indicator dictionary
  6. Communication implementation and risk register

Who should attend

  • Public Health Officer — plans prevention, protection or health-promotion interventions
  • Health Promotion Practitioner — develops behaviour-change communications for priority populations
  • Communications Manager — translates health priorities into credible public-facing campaigns
  • Community Engagement Lead — works with communities, trusted messengers and local partners
  • Programme Manager — needs communication activity linked to services, delivery plans and outcomes
  • NGO Health Programme Specialist — designs targeted campaigns within constrained budgets and complex settings

Skills and tools covered

Behavioural diagnosisAudience segmentationHealth message designSocial marketing planningChannel strategyCommunication evaluation

Tools and standards

COM-B model, Social Ecological Model, CDC Clear Communication Index, Social Marketing Benchmark Criteria

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce methods, followed by public-health case work, group analysis, message-development tasks, channel-planning simulations and facilitated peer review. Participants work with realistic evidence such as surveillance summaries, audience research findings, service data and sample campaign materials. Trainers demonstrate how to move from insight to behavioural objectives, content and measurement. Structured application planning helps participants adapt the methods to a current programme, population group or health priority.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience in public health, health promotion, communications, community programmes or related service delivery. They should understand the health issue, population group or service area they work with and be comfortable discussing basic programme objectives and performance measures. Prior marketing qualifications, advanced research skills, graphic-design ability and statistical software experience are not required. The course explains behavioural and social marketing frameworks before applying them to public-health cases. Participants may bring a current communication challenge, but this is optional.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should have experience in public health, health promotion, communications, community programmes or service delivery. No formal marketing qualification, advanced research background or design expertise is required.

Bring details of a current or planned health communication challenge if you have one, such as a campaign brief, service objective or audience problem. This is optional; course cases and planning materials are provided.

It suits public-health practitioners, communications staff, health-promotion teams, programme managers, community engagement leads and NGO staff. It is designed for professionals who need communications to support measurable health or service outcomes.

The course addresses public-health ethics, health literacy, clinical accuracy, safeguarding, stigma, service pathways and health equity. It applies social marketing methods to voluntary health behaviours rather than commercial sales objectives.

You can use the templates to improve a campaign brief, assess audience evidence, test messages, select channels and define evaluation measures. The methods also help teams explain why a proposed communication approach is appropriate for a priority population.

Training runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, providing about 6.5 contact hours daily. Time is divided between instructor input, cases, group work, simulations, feedback and application planning across ten modules.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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