It was a slow news day, and the only thing that was trending on social media was a story about a man who had died. The last Tweet on the day was a broken heart, and all of the sudden, everyone, and their grandmother, was talking about death, sadness, and freedom.
It was strange. The man in question, Doug MacLeman, was an entrepreneur and the creator of “Freedom”, an iPhone app that encouraged users to take a daily mindfulness walk and gain freedom from mental health issues like stress and anxiety. After years of struggling with anxiety and panic attacks, MacLeman felt that he had found the answer to his problems in the app he had created.
“I started to see a really positive change in myself,” he said. “The day that I started using Freedom was the day that everything changed.”
Although the app had been downloaded millions of times, MacLeman had always resisted talking about the app his entire life. But when he died a few days later, the world needed to know more about this transformative product.
So I asked MacLeman’s two sons, Max and Zack, to tell me about their father and the app that helped him find freedom.
The Man Behind The App
Max, the older of the two, was a high school student when his father first approached him about creating an app for people with anxiety and panic attacks. He had been struggling with those issues since he was a child, and he knew that something needed to be done.
“I had seen my dad go through a lot of stress and anxiety,” he said. “And I’d witnessed his battle with panic attacks as a child. It was really frustrating for him, because, you know, he’s a really hard-working guy. He really wanted to help people.”
Zack, who is three years younger than Max, had a very different experience growing up with his father. Although he had his battles with anxiety and panic attacks, his father was more of a “father bear” than a “father figure”. He was always calm and focused, which was great for business, but stressful for his children.
“I remember as a kid, he would come into our room and just start lecturing us about our grades,” Zack said. “I just wanted him to play games with us or take us out for ice cream. But he was really focused on our grades, and I think that was because he wanted to make sure we were doing our best. I think he worried that we would be disappointed in him if he didn’t do his very best.”
The Two Sons Who Wanted To Please Their Dad
Both sons were nervous about talking about their father, because they knew everyone would expect them to give him the “eulogy”, or the speech that was supposed to praise the deceased and acknowledge their lives.
“I’ve always been very close to my dad, so it’s been a hard task for me to not only speak about him, but live my entire life in his honor and remembrance,” Max said. “But the thing is, if we don’t talk about him and what he meant to us, then everybody else will have to.”
After Doug MacLeman had started making a name for himself in the digital marketing world, he became known for his unique and creative approach to marketing. Using tactics from traditional advertising to viral videos and GIFs, Doug MacLeman was able to generate millions of free impressions and clicks for his clients.
Because their father was a creative genius who inspired them to follow his lead, the younger sons wanted to please him and continue his work. They believed that the only way they could do this was by creating their own app that would help people gain freedom from mental illness, and in the process, make their father proud of them.
The Early Days Of The App
Max and Zack took their father’s idea and ran with it, developing “Freedom” over the course of two years. After numerous rewrites and several design changes, the app was finally released in June 2016.
The morning after its release, the app received more than 500,000 downloads, and the story made the front page of Reddit.
The following day, the app was reviewed by the New York Times, and later that same week, the UK’s The Guardian picked up on the story and wrote an in-depth article about the app and its incredible success. Since then, it has been downloaded more than a million times and continues to grow.
How To Write Copy That Protects Your Freedom
I asked Max and Zack to give me some tips on how to write copy for “Freedom” that would make their father proud. Here are their top three suggestions:
1. Research The Topic
Although “Freedom” was released a few months ago, it had been in the works for years, so Max and Zack had plenty of time to research the topic and become an expert in mental health. They read a lot of books and spoke to a lot of therapists and scientists to understand the complexities of these disorders and how to help those who suffered from them. They also reached out to former patients and listened intently to their stories, as these are the people who would ultimately benefit from the app.
This is important, because a lot of startups and small businesses struggle with an unhelpful perception that attracts potential customers. When writing for an app that helps people gain freedom from mental illness, it would be beneficial to research the topic and prove to people that you are a knowledgeable and trustworthy source. This will make them more open to the idea of gaining freedom from mental health issues, rather than perceiving your product as a “get quick rich” scheme.
2. Be Unique
“Freedom” is a lifestyle app, which implies that it is somewhat of a departure from traditional marketing tactics. Instead of using text and images to attract potential customers, Max and Zack relied on video and audio to do most of the talking. They wanted to evoke an emotional response in their audience, and audio is an effective way to do this. By having an engaging narrator, the sons were able to bring a human element to a topic that usually attracts a niche audience.
They wanted to create a narrative that was both engaging and informative, so they enlisted the help of an experienced narrator who could guide the listener through each step of the app’s features. The result is a compelling product description that holds the listener’s attention from the get-go:
- The story begins with an introduction from the narrator, who provides a brief overview of the app’s purpose
- Next, the listener is given a peek into the mind of a person suffering from panic attacks or anxiety
- After that, the listener is guided through a series of questions to determine their level of anxiety and discover if they are a good fit for the app
- If the person is interested, they are guided through a short tutorial on the basics of using the app
- The last part of the description focuses on the key features of the app and how to use them
3. Test Different Theories And Approach
The science of marketing is always evolving, and it is common practice for companies to adopt new theories and approaches as they evolve. For example, social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram offer businesses the ability to post content that will be seen by a large audience, which can positively affect a product’s popularity. And although SEO is generally considered “old school”, search engine optimization has become so much more than simply filling the search keyword fields on a website with as many relevant words as possible.
While researching the topic of mental health, Max and Zack came across various studies and theories that described different methods to positively affect someone’s mental health. One of the studies they came across was from the UK’s leading research institute, the Cochrane collaberation, which reviewed the available evidence on the topic of anxiety disorders. The data were extracted from 12 randomized controlled trials, involving a total of 993 participants, spanning eight years of research. The results of the Cochrane review, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry in 2016, concluded that “CBT [Cognitive Behavioral Therapy] for anxiety disorders is effective in the short term but that the effects are modest and are not maintained over time.”