It takes time, expertise and money to develop effective marketing strategies for a health and wellness business. You may need to hire outside help, or plan for a larger budget. In the end, you’ll gain peace of mind that will be worth it. Not to mention a return on your investment. More sales, repeat clients… It all depends on how you position your business. Here are a few basic marketing techniques that are essential for standing out in the health and wellness sector.
Before we begin, you may want to read Part 1 in this series, 10 Tips Toward Better Marketing for Health and Wellness Organizations.
Below is an additional checklist of other marketing strategies to think about:
1. Create Consistent Branding
So, you think you have a service or expertise that sets you apart from other health and wellness businesses? While that may be true, competition is stiff. Customers have more options than ever before. You may feel confident about your business, but do other people know why they should use your products/services?
There must be at least one thing that makes you unique, and it’s up to you to communicate that unique service proposition (USP) consistently. What does your brand represent? What’s unique about your services?
Consistency is key to authentic branding. Be clear about your brand and create strong brand guidelines to share with your team. Your messaging should be the same across all communications. Keep in mind that you may have to address specific customer pain points, along with any possible barriers to purchase.
2. Evaluate Your Website Experience
Simply having a website used to be enough to impress potential customers. Now, it takes about 50 milliseconds for users to form an opinion about your site, and whether they’ll stay or leave. If you don’t intrigue them, it may be the last time they’ll consider your products or services.
Pretend you’re a potential customer. How does your website look? Is it polished and professional? Is it easy to find information? If people can’t tell within seconds what products or services you offer, your contact info, or how to find a store location, then there’s a problem. The user experience needs to be paramount. That includes easy navigation and appropriate, relevant messaging. Sometimes all you need are small changes, like positioning contact information more prominently, or ensuring your website is responsive.
3. Optimize Your Website for Search Engine Traffic
Recent studies show that 81% of shoppers do online research before committing to a purchase. When developing marketing strategies for a Health and Wellness business, it’s necessary to find ways to maximize your online presence. Your business needs to show up in online search listings. You can ensure that happens by optimizing your website through search engine optimization (SEO).
SEO is a complex topic and isn’t always easy to boost. While it’s important to use the right keywords in the right places, that alone won’t get you to #1 on Google search. It takes a combination of these SEO best practices:
- Create a Google My Business account and claim your website
- Point links back to cornerstone pages on your website
- Gain backlinks from reputable health and wellness-related websites
- Use website tools that help you further optimize web pages and blogs
- Research SEO focus words and phrases, create an SEO calendar and plan your content marketing accordingly.
4. Always Address Negative Customer Feedback
Even with excellent service, you will always have a few unhappy customers, which can cause a lot of worry, since 73% of consumers think written reviews are more important than star ratings. So, what do you do when someone leaves a poor review on Google or Yelp?
Avoid getting defensive about negative reviews. Respond to the feedback immediately. This shows that you’re working on the problem and that you care about your customers. Most review sites like Google or Yelp allow you to respond to customer comments directly. With the right follow-up, customers could be motivated to update their reviews to say their problem has been resolved. At the very least, other potential customers will see that you are responsive to feedback.
5. Part of Your Marketing Strategies for a Health and Wellness Business Should Include In-Store Audits
You can have the most beautiful location, the best recommendations or products, but, if your staff cannot handle calls properly or cannot deliver services as expected, you will lose money and clients! An audit of your frontline staff, may reveal some of the following:
- Long lineups for potential customers
- Confusion or customer misinformation
- Delivery of services that is inconsistent with your brand promise
- An inability by your staff to inform or “sell” your services
- No strategy in place to upsell or encourage customers to book subsequent appointments
Take time to train your staff and provide them with strong brand guidelines to avoid these common problems. Also, remember to add some extra personal touches, by following up with customers after appointments, to see how they enjoyed the service. Or send them reminder emails for upcoming appointments. It could lead to word-of-mouth referrals!
– Imagine your brand foundation: built for growth and future success –
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The Small Business Guide to Brand Strategy.
This guide is full of information on how to create an overall brand strategy that will help you effectively market your business. It helps you craft an authentic brand story, then helps you uncover when, where and how to communicate it to your target audiences.
6. Unleash Compelling Content
Content is key to winning over new customers. It’s also key to keeping them. Content refers to anything from your blog posts to images, social posts, newsletters, case studies and the messaging on your website pages. The secret to creating the most entertaining and relevant content is to know your audience and what they like.
Consider including videos in your content marketing. Studies show that people would rather see a live video than a static social post, and recent statistics show that 43% of consumers are spending more time on video streaming platforms like YouTube.
Use video, blogs or social posts to showcase the helpfulness of your products, and to build curiosity and excitement around what you have to offer! We’ve worked with spa businesses who have doubled their revenues just by posting “How To” Instagram videos.
Learn more about content marketing and how an agency like Original Ginger can help.
Conclusion
Remember that the right marketing strategies for a Health and Wellness business include special attention to your website, your content and messaging, the customer experience both online and in-store, and most importantly, consistency in your branding. And we can help with that. See some of the ways we’ve helped organizations in the Health and Wellness industry, with a few related case studies:
Don’t yet have a content marketing strategy for your health and wellness business? Or is it not as strong as it could be? Contact us! Our branding and marketing experts are happy to get you started!
