A typical social marketing methodology centres around seven firmly-held beliefs:

1. A targeted approach is more likely to succeed: a 'health needs' mapping tool identifies those individuals who are most at risk of illness and profiles their behaviours and consumption patterns.
2. Involving local people leads to better decisions: social marketing should be something which is done with communities not to them. Involvement of a local stakeholder would be key.
3. Social marketing is most effective when built upon genuine insights: use of creative/collaborative research methodologies to uncover genuine insight into people's behaviours and how to change them.
4. Those insights should drive your campaign objectives and strategy: work with the local NHS and the local community to translate insights into relevant, actionable campaign objectives.
5. Marketing and communications work best through dialogue, not didactic messaging: generate inclusive, participative and dynamic communications, which help build bridges between communities and the services they require.
6. Evaluation should be built in to every project from the outset.
7. Good social marketing delivers a return on investment: It's measured both in money and in lives saved