How Brands Are Reaching The 56% Of Canadian Entrepreneurs With Mental Health Challenges

Key Takeaways

Canadian entrepreneurs deal with mental health issues more often than non-entrepreneurs, and the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this.

Types of Support: Canadian Entrepreneurs are looking for more resources to deal with stress, peer/mentor support, access to mental health services and training and education on mental health.

Digital Wellness Solutions: Digital wellness solutions provide an integrated approach to mental health, including online therapy and additional resources for SMEs. The most popular in Canada (based on monthly web traffic) are Better Help followed by Abiliti CBT, MindBeacon and Lifeworks.

Customers access to their LifeWorks Wellbeing Assistance Program, which included a comprehensive suite of wellness solutions to support mental, physical, financial and social wellbeing. BMO did not promote this offer as a way to gain new business clients as their communications around the offer were limited. While the offer was active, BMO did not experience a change in web traffic to its business pages.

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A study conducted prior to the pandemic indicated that entrepreneurs are more likely than non-entrepreneurs to deal with mental health conditions, with 49% of entrepreneurs dealing with one or more mental health conditions compared to 32% of non-entrepreneurs.

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The pandemic put additional stress on Canadian entrepreneurs, causing increased reports of mental health issues. In addition, the Omicron wave appears to have worsened Canadian entrepreneurs’ overall satisfaction with their mental health, causing a -7% decrease from March 2021 to February 2022.

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Outside of work/life balance, Canadian Entrepreneurs are looking for more resources to deal with stress, peer/mentor support, access to mental health services and training and education on mental health.

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Top Canadian Paid Digital Wellness Solutions for SMEs*

The following digital wellness solutions provide an integrated approach to mental health including online therapy and additional resources.  

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The most popular paid Digital Wellness Solutions in Canada (based on monthly web traffic) are Better Help (averaging 482K visits per month), Abiliti CBT (157K visits), MindBeacon (127K visits) and Lifeworks (114K).

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BMO is an example of a Financial Institution who ran a campaign to support the mental health of Canadian Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses. On July 19th, 2021, BMO offered existing and new small business banking customers access to their LifeWorks Wellbeing Assistance Program.

The original offer ran from July 19th to December 31th, 2021, but it was extended until April 30th, 2022.

Username: bmous
‍Password: lifeworks

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LifeWorks Wellbeing Assistance Program:

LifeWorks provides a comprehensive suite of wellness solutions that support mental, physical, financial and social wellbeing. LifeWorks offers access to counselling, digital wellness tools and resources as well as custom fitness resources. The program was open to the registered business owner of the small business bank account, along with their domestic partners, children or dependents. Additionally, anyone who signed up for a small business account during the offer period was eligible for the program. Employees of small businesses (who were not the Business Owners) were not eligible to participate in the program. Click here to learn more about the offer.

‍Benefits Included:

1. Exclusive online offers from leading brands to help save on things like fitness, nutrition, health, and beauty
2. Tools, articles and videos about family, health, money and work. Including custom fitness sessions created by top trainers on the LIFT app and opportunities to chat with experts to get answers to your fitness-related questions.
3. 24/7 access to confidential, short-term counselling support and professional advisors for advice and work-life support by phone, online, or mobile app.
4. Wellbeing Assessment tools and interactive self-guided programs to help manage anxiety, stress, grief, and relationships.‍

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BMO shared a press release and blog post on July 19th 2021, explaining the LifeWorks Wellbeing Assistance Program and their reasons for offering it to business owners. The offer was mentioned in 8 articles and in the CanadianSME Small Business Magazine.

Article Mentions: 8
‍Magazine feature: 1

BMO only promoted the offer to its existing business banking clients in their business newsletter and on their Business Banking LinkedIn account. BMO did not promote this offer on their main social accounts or newsletters. It appears that BMO did not promote this offer as a way to gain new business clients as their communications around the offer were limited.

SMALL BUSINESS NEWSLETTER
‍Volume: 80K | Read Rate: 37%

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SMALL BUSINESS NEWSLETTER
Volume: 37K | Read Rate: 33%

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BUSINESS BANKING LINKEDIN
Like: 15 | Shares:3

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While the small business offer was active, traffic peaked in November 2021, with 47K montly visits — a +77% YoY increase in traffic. BMO’s LifeWorks Wellbeing Assistance Program is the same program they offer to their employees — making it difficult to tell how many business clients utilized the program.

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While the LifeWorks Wellbeing Assistance Program was available to business clients, BMO did not experience a change in web traffic to its business pages in Canada, with monthly web traffic remaining consistent throughout.

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