Ah, health and wellness marketing. It’s a highly regulated and complex process, but when done right, it can be greatly rewarding for your brand. From SEO for wellness clinics to content marketing for small business operations in the wellness space, I’ll lay out some basic dos and don’ts to help you get started and actually see results for your brand. So let’s dive into the core of marketing health and wellness products. 

Health and wellness marketing basics 

If you’re just getting your business rolling, you’re probably looking for some basic level health and wellness marketing tips. Even if you don’t have a robust budget to work with, you will want to carefully invest your money into marketing avenues that actually drive results. 

In health and wellness, this often means content marketing. The reason is simple: consumers want trusted, reliable products from brands that really care about what they’re putting out into the world. They want real results. And they don’t like being overtly sold to. That’s why educational content marketing is so beneficial for wellness brands. It provides value and information that customers can use to make their own educated decisions about their next steps. 

Let’s start with the don’ts:

What not to do when marketing health and wellness products

When marketing for highly regulated industries like health and wellness, it’s just as (if not more) important to know what not to do. Wrong moves can isolate your target audience, push potential customers elsewhere, or even result in having your content flagged, removed, or put you in legal jeopardy. 

Don’t get too technical

You need to strike a balance between educational and valuable content that teaches readers something new without using too much technical jargon. You can easily isolate your potential customers by getting too deep into a topic that they don’t need to understand in order to benefit from your product. 

Instead, write wellness blogs that answer important questions that your target audience is asking. Go over studies and research on the topic, but don’t get caught in the weeds of all the technical stuff relating to the studies. 

Don’t post content that feels like an advertisement

You can easily frustrate potential buyers by throwing sales jargon at them when they’re not looking for it. When people search the internet for solutions to their problems, they want to find content that actually helps them come to a solution. 

Instead of posting content rich in sales language, go for educational content that provides real support and resources to those seeking answers. At the end of your useful, valuable content, you can add a small call to action encouraging the reader to check out your products. They might not buy, but the next time they come across your content, they’ll remember that you provided real solutions and they may eventually become a customer (or refer a friend to your page). 

Don’t post nothing 

A common wellness marketing mistake is to simply think your products will speak for themselves. But the health and wellness space is saturated with products – some good and bad – and it’s your job to make your brand stand out as an authority in the space among a sea of other options. 

By neglecting to post blogs, which can then turn into email and social media content, you’re overlooking one of the best content marketing strategies for wellness brands. Well-written, optimized, and valuable content helps your brand and products to stand out from the crowd and can build positive associations between potential customers. 

Don’t make medical claims 

As someone who has written content for cannabis brands over many years, I can tell you just how important it is to not make medical claims about your product. I’ve seen firsthand how one careless post can snowball into ads getting rejected, customer distrust, or even legal trouble. 

How do you write wellness content without medical claims? Easy. You write honestly and transparently. You can summarize studies and research without tying results directly to your product. Instead, you can talk about your product in relation to anecdotal evidence and point to promising research without making any concrete claims. 

What to do when marketing for health and wellness products

Now for the more fun, actionable items:

Understand your health and wellness target audience

When marketing health and wellness products, it’s crucial to know your target audience. You need to zero in on who you are targeting, what their problems are, and how you can provide a solution. And you need to do so with care, because they are likely in need of a solution for a concern relating to their body. This can be extremely personal. 

Here are some questions to consider when figuring out the target audience for wellness brands:

• What problems do my wellness products solve?
• What might someone with those problems be searching online when looking for a solution?
• What has my target audience likely tried already?
• Is my health and wellness target audience likely to be frustrated with their current options and burnt out, or excited and looking for something new?
• Are their searches likely to be with the intent to buy something right away, or with the intent to learn more about a topic?

Avoid casting too wide of a net. It’s important to really zero in on the exact audience you’re going for, and create a wellness SEO plan that covers it all. 

Repurpose your content 

Some people worry about posting something more than once, as they think it might annoy their potential audience. And I agree. If you simply re-post the same story over and over again, you’re likely going to annoy some people. 

But repetition works. It’s a key part of content marketing and developing a brand identity that really works. So while you shouldn’t repost your content regularly, you absolutely should repurpose the content into multiple channels to maximize visibility and drive the messaging home. 

Here are some examples:

• Turn a blog into a multiple-slide Instagram infographic
• Take a quote from your blog and make a post across social media 
• Include a blog or two in your next newsletter providing additional reading 
• Or, send out a newsletter that just focuses on a highly valuable blog you posted

Focus on value, not volume

To build a successful SEO strategy for a wellness brand, you need to have a decent volume of content. You can’t expect to just post a blog or two and see great results. But you shouldn’t just post blogs for the sake of posting blogs. Each one should have unique content with valuable, educational content that actually helps your target audience. 

Some people fall into a trap of believing that they just need to play the numbers game for blogs, opting for a large volume of AI-written blogs instead of fewer, human-written blogs. But the old days of SEO are over and now, Google prioritizes valuable, unique content written with human perspectives. 

Ready to build a wellness content strategy?

I hope this blog helps you get a better understanding of what goes into a successful health and wellness content marketing strategy. It takes time to build success in this way, but it’s worth the wait as content continues to build viewership and momentum over time (when optimized and well written). 

If the idea of learning the ropes of SEO, content marketing, and all things needed to drive real conversions and results is too much, consider hiring a wellness writer. But don’t just go for anyone who can write about the broad topic of wellness – hire a writer who understands the depths of content marketing, highly regulated industries, and how target audiences behave. 

Oh wait, that’s me! Send me a message today to discuss how we can work together.