Consumer Marketing Trends for Health & Wellness Brands

Today’s wellness economy encompasses everything from day spas and gyms, to wellness tourism, feminine hygiene, home fitness, and nutrition. It’s now a $4.2 trillion industry, growing twice as fast as the global economy.

Wellness has become a primary lifestyle value that is changing both consumer behavior and economic markets. Consumers are always on the lookout for the “next great thing” to help improve their health and lifestyles.

How can your brand stay relevant to your buyers? Keeping up with current consumer marketing trends is an excellent way to start.  

Cross-Channel Marketing

Cross-channel marketing provides the opportunity to reach buyers wherever they are. In-store experiences are still important, but your audience may discover your brand on Facebook, Instagram, or while watching their favorite shows on Hulu.

Reducing friction—that time between “want” and “have”— should be your focus. If you’re marketing where there are no purchasing channels, be sure your buyers can easily navigate to somewhere that does offer a shopping cart.

Interactive Marketing

For years, marketing was a one-way street. Marketers would put information out there and hope that someone would see it, like it, and make a purchase.

Today, interactive marketing allows buyers to react immediately to information they discover in advertisements.

Hulu has made this truly possible with 60-second interactive ads that force viewers to pay attention for a short period of time, after which they can enjoy viewing without further interruption.

While Hulu may be turning heads with their techniques, they’re not the only ones in the interactive game. Instant Experience provides interactive marketing options for mobile devices, complete with carousel photos, forms, and a buy button. Emerging technology also gives us opportunities for interactive video, display, and even print ads.

Personalization

Personalized marketing is nothing new, but it’s gaining traction with health & wellness brands. Using the information consumers provide, apps like MyFitnessPal can help individuals meet their goals with specifically developed nutrition recommendations, video and blog content, and offers for food, exercise, and athletic clothing brands.

There’s still more room for this type of technology to grow, and for your health & wellness brand to discover new ways to connect with individual customers.

Powerful Experiences

Experiential marketing is on the rise, particularly in the health & wellness category. Propel Water created pop-up fitness events that morphed into a full-blown festival. Lululemon offers free yoga classes in several of their locations.

Brands don’t have to create huge events to get their buyers attention. Pop-up shops, free samples, and installations (similar to Lean Cuisine’s #WeighThis exhibit in New York) will all get consumers talking, sharing, and buying.

Engaged Micro-Influencers

It’s great to have a celebrity mention your brand, but where brands gain traction is with micro-influencers who typically have a smaller, but more engaged, following.

Micro-influencers in the health and wellness space have more credibility, as they are seen as experts and trusted sources of information.

These influencers not only generate substantial engagement, but they also yield a highly measurable ROI. They’relikely to get up to 9.7% engagement, while celebrities may clock in at around 1.6%.

Compelling Content

Perhaps the most crucial aspect of your consumer marketing strategy is your content. But content is not limited to blog posts you create or your website pages.

Your content is everything you provide to potential buyers to inform them about your product. This is certainly your blog and website pages, of course, but it’s also video, images, infographics, podcasts, newsletters, white papers, case studies, app reminders and updates, and so much more.

The key to creating a great content strategy is to map to your buyers wherever they are in their journey, from the discovery of your brand to the moment they become brand advocates. Knowing their needs at every stage of their journey allows you to provide them with the most relevant, entertaining, informative content possible.

Putting these trends to work as part of your consumer marketing strategy will significantly increase your ability to earn your piece of that $4.2 trillion. If we can help, don’t hesitate to reach out.