Do you have a phenomenal health or wellness product or service, but are struggling to get the word out? With so many options available to consumers, it can be difficult to cut through the noise and engage the right people.

The good news is that there is plenty of business to go around. People are interested in understanding and improving their overall quality of life. This year, the U.S. health and wellness market reached $171 billion, an increase of approximately four billion dollars from 2017.

So, how do you make sure your brand messaging and marketing strategies suit your target audiences?

Let’s take a look at some of the must-haves in today’s digital market:

• Brand storytelling

Who doesn’t love a great story? We are hardwired to connect on an emotional level, and a good story (being easier to remember than statistics or advertising content) sticks with us when making decisions.

However, consumers expect honesty and authenticity when interacting with a brand’s narrative. 80% of survey respondents said that “the authenticity of content” is the most influential factor in their decision to become loyal to a brand.

How do you create a genuine story that resonates with your audience?

Know what drives your customer base. Speak in your target audience’s language, establish a sense of familiarity, and make someone like them the protagonist of your story.

Maybe you have a personal story about struggling with obesity, diabetes, or some other health issue that prompted you to start your own company. Or maybe you have loyal customers who are willing to share their personal stories or results they are seeing from using your product or service.

Whatever it is, keep it true to your expertise and let your passion shine. One study found that 73% of consumers are willing to pay more for a services that promises complete transparency, and 94% are more likely to be loyal to a provider whose value systems are perceived as fully authentic.

Once you have a brand story, it is important to share it with the digital world. One of the very first places your story should live is on your mobile-friendly website, which is another absolute must.

• Intuitive website and mobile presence

Your online presence will likely be the first impression many consumers have of you, as the number of internet users continues to climb year after year. A recent report from Pew Research Center shows that 77% of people in the U.S. go online daily, and 26% of those reported going online “almost constantly.”

An online presence for health and wellness entities is particularly important because it is a convenient and private way for people to gather information on a personal subject matter.

Furthermore, while they may not spend much time on your app or website, your audience is likely spending a lot of time interacting with apps like Facebook and Google, whose user interfaces are intuitively designed and easy for first timers to navigate.

When users visit your website for the first time, their expectations don’t change. In fact, if they’re depending on your service for information in a health crisis or during an emotionally challenging time, easy access to information and resources could mean the difference between a positive experience and a deeply negative one.

Adding a blog and other written content, infographics, images, and videos to your website can be beneficial when done well and updated on a regular basis.

High-quality content helps attract potential customers to your business and provides self-service opportunities that consumers expect from brands today. Short, focused videos can be shared across platforms instantly and are sometimes preferred over reading text.

Last, but not least, don’t forget to utilize search engine optimization (SEO). Roughly eight in ten online health seekers reported starting their inquiries with a search engine. You could have an amazing website or mobile app, but without maintaining a strong SEO strategy, people aren’t going to find it.

To increase organic traffic and your digital visibility, your content should contain keywords that potential customers are searching for. Remember to keep it authentic and do not overuse keywords; penalties are being given for keyword phrases that are used too many times.

• Social media

While many people use platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to interact with their personal networks, an increasing percentage of users are engaging in health and wellness-related conversations on social media.

According to a WEGO Health behavioral intent study, 87% of participants shared health information via Facebook posts and 91% of participants reported online social communities playing a role in their health decisions.

Perhaps even more important than social publishing is the opportunity for social listening and social customer care. Social media opens a direct line of communication between you, your customers, and potential customers. Consumers spend 20-40% more with companies that engage and respond to their audience on social media, and one in three social media users prefer to communicate with a brand via social networks rather than via phone or email.

Campaigns that you run on social media can be tracked with increasing accuracy, which will help you understand what your followers are interested in and how they are taking action. You can then formulate strategies to improve your campaigns and increase conversions.

• Email newsletters

Much like newspapers, email can be used to send customers information about your health products or services regularly. This keeps your brand top-of-mind. It might be a bit tricky at first to establish a regular interval for sending e-newsletters, but with some time it will become easier to hit that sweet spot.

Before sending any mass emails, however, make sure your email address list is cleaned up (e.g., remove unused addresses, delete addresses that shouldn’t be in the list). It is important that account owners have given you permission to email them.

When creating a newsletter, the ultimate goal is to create value for the recipient. Email subscribers should be rewarded for opting in to your newsletters with content that is relevant, useful, entertaining, inspiring, or educational.

Incorporating a bit of interactivity goes a long way too. People like to engage with short and fun polls, videos, memes, etc. If you offer something of personal interest to your readers, it might turn into click-throughs on some of your other content.

Integrating these four essentials into your health and wellness marketing plan will definitely give you a fighting chance against the competition.

When you’re in the process of working through digital strategies, remember your audience. Put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself if you would be interested and want to engage with the product or service. It’ll help you to stay focused on what really matters.

If you would like to start moving your health or wellness organization in the right direction, give us a call. Our expert marketers, software developers, designers, and user experience architects can assist with all of your digital and traditional marketing needs.