Heart Month is big – 7 quick ways to join the effort

Many WG Content clients are taking full advantage of Heart Month as an opportunity to deliver crucial information about heart disease. Our writers and editors are busy helping our healthcare clients with their Heart Month marketing ideas — blog posts, webpages and articles about prevention and services and advances in cardiac care.

The American Heart Association declares February as Heart Month each year — logical timing with Valentine’s Day reminding us of hearts and loved ones. This huge public awareness campaign has made most of us aware that heart disease is the number one cause of death for both men and women. There’s encouraging news though: up to 80% of heart disease and strokes are preventable.

It’s not too late to make sure your hospital leverages the heightened awareness to promote healthy lifestyle changes, screenings and effective treatment.

7 marketing ideas for Heart Month

Here are some marketing ideas that will help you get started with Heart Month promotion or spur some new ideas.

1. Celebrate Wear Red Day

National Wear Red Day is always on the first Friday in February. On this day, people wear red to raise awareness for heart disease in women, which causes one in three deaths each year. Encourage your employees to wear red on this day with shirts, hats, shoes — you name it. You can also pick a different day and participate in your own unique way within your organization.

2. Let the heart experts speak

Cardiologists and many primary care providers know how to communicate heart health to patients. Offer your most passionate expert to speak with local media about preventing heart disease and stroke. Their credible information, especially presented using plain language, can effectively emphasize how important heart health is. Be sure to tie in upcoming classes, events, webinars and services you offer on weight loss, smoking cessation and diabetes management.

3. Use social media to spread your message

Social media is one of the best ways to get your message out there. Adding hashtags also helps people find your posts that are related to heart health. Some hashtags used for Heart Month are:

• #WearRedDay
• #OurHearts
• #HeartMonth
• #HeartDisease

Carry out a social campaign to inspire followers to know and do more to prevent heart disease. Ask your Facebook fans to tell you one thing they are doing for their heart health to get a conversation going. Or better yet, set a time for a cardiologist to answer questions live on X, Facebook or Instagram.

4. Promote heart content

Posting heart-related content for a whole month (or even throughout the year) can certainly drive your message home. Include content that focuses on heart-healthy facts and tips, recipes, workouts and stress-relief tips.

If you’re looking for a place to start, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute created a free outreach toolkit you can use for your heart health awareness communications. It includes:

• Fact sheets
• Social media resources
• National Wear Red Day® resources
• State-based infocards
• The Heart Truth® resources
• Drop-in articles
• PowerPoint slides and flyers
• A selfie campaign

Another helpful toolkit from the CDC offers a heart-healthy eating kit that even includes prewritten social posts.

Promoting your heart content through various formats and channels also provides different ways for people to digest information.

5. Create a heart health challenge for your community

Come up with daily or weekly challenges to encourage your community members to adopt a more heart-healthy lifestyle. Promote walking, fitness, a healthy diet and getting regular check-ups. Then, share these challenges on your website and social media channels. You may even want to include prizes. And don’t forget to ask your employees to participate, too.

6. Acknowledge your current cardiac patients

While prevention campaigns are important, we can’t forget about raising current heart patients’ spirits during this month. Surprise your heart patients with a Valentine’s card to remind them how much your hospital cares and encourage them in their journey to heart health.

7. Share heart care patient stories

Sharing patient stories is a powerful way to raise awareness of both heart disease and the care you provide in your health system. Some ideas of perspectives to share:

• Athlete
• Caregiver
• Woman
• Young adult
• Heart attack survivor
• Heart transplant survivor

Heart Month marketing ideas and examples — new for 2025

Here’s a quick round-up of some of our favorite examples of Heart Month marketing ideas to inspire you.

Salinas Valley Health, Salinas, CA

For Heart Month 2025, Salinas Valley Health is hosting a free presentation that will cover the newest advancements in minimally invasive cardiovascular care.

Atlantic General Hospital, Berlin, MD

Atlantic General Hospital is celebrating the month with many activities, including a scavenger hunt, HeartSmart screenings and a discussion about menopause and heart disease.

University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE

The University of Nebraska Medical Center is also focusing on women’s heart health with a series of presentations that will cover hypertension in women, gender disparities in heart disease and heart health in menopause.

Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA

Boston Children’s Hospital is celebrating all month long with stories from families and staff about what Heart Month means to them.

Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH

With the hashtag #BuckeyeHearts, Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center encourages the community to schedule health screenings and learn hands-only CPR.

Northwestern Medicine, Chicago, IL

Northwestern Medicine is sharing patient stories, including one on their TikTok account about an employee who saved his dad’s life.

Cleveland Clinic, Florida

Cleveland Clinic runs a national survey called “Love Your Heart.” This year, they localized the findings for their Florida community. The organization shared the results, along with sound bites and b-roll, and gained media attention.

Give love to heart health all year

While February is recognized as national heart month, it’s important to provide resources, health tips and information year-round. There’s never a bad time to talk about improving heart health, so keep up the good work all year. And if you need support, we’re here to help.

Editor’s note: This blog was updated on February 6, 2025. It was originally published in February 2021.

Follow-up questions about Heart Month marketing ideas:

Katie Snyder

Katie is a University of Cincinnati grad who completed her…

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