Health & Fitness Digital Marketing: Best Practices

Over the past few years the sports nutrition market has changed dramatically for consumers. What was once an industry dominated by companies using secret formula ‘proprietary blend’ supplements is now led by e-commerce stores offering full ranges of nutritional products in their most basic forms for much better value.

Taking out the ‘middle man’ – the retailer – has lowered the costs of sports supplements. Fuelled further by a growing public interest (certainly in the UK) in personal health and fitness, we are now presented with a huge range of brands. In fact, by my last count there were over 50 sports brands in the UK, and I’m sure there’s a lot more now.

So with such a large amount of brands, what can we learn from the websites and digital marketing efforts of those who stand out? Let’s take a look at some practical tips you can apply to your health and fitness brand.

Make your USPs as clear as possible

It should be pretty obvious that with the amount of competition around in order for a brand to stay relevant they should be able to have strong USPs. Perhaps you have the best delivery options, or the best rewards programme, but whatever they may be; make sure you make them as clear to customers as possible.

Bulk Powders do a good job of this on their website by highlighting USPs as part of the overall theme of the website. This allows customers to see these at all times, making the purchase decision of choosing your brand more likely.

Interact with your followers on Twitter

A lot of brands have a tendency to follow a ton of people on social media but not say very much to them after that. I’ve seen numerous times when customers are happily tweeting about their orders to brands yet getting no response back, making the brand seem like they aren’t listening to followers. As a brand, when you start responding to customers, you’re creating a relationship which encourages them to be loyal to you.

We’re not expecting you to remember every customer who tweets at you and their previous orders, but not responding at all can be very negative to your brand. An example of a brand doing this well is The Protein Works who respond and retweet more times than they talk about themselves, creating a loyal customer base.

Make it really, really easy for customers to ask questions

Nutrition and supplements can be a massively daunting purchase for those who are new to the products, and they often come with a host of questions. If your brand is not offering a way to find answers to those questions, potential customers may be inclined to go elsewhere. Give them the option to find answers not just from the product pages themselves, but also by contacting you directly.

Love Life Supplements are a brand who offer a direct chat service on all pages of their website, giving customers the option to find out information at any point during their potential purchase. There’s even the option to record a voice message if the online chat is unavailable. Once you’ve responded in a helpful way to a customer, they are much more likely to purchase from you.

Be smart in your outreach efforts

Outreach to bloggers and news websites can be a very effective way to get exposure for your brand at a low cost. Sending samples of products to relevant blogs can lead to not only direct exposure on social networks, but can also a better availability of earned media. Having more information on your products online is an excellent way to keep customers interested in you whilst they are evaluating alternatives.

So be smart with your outreach efforts. Treat those you are contacting like they are customers, and make sure those who are doing your outreach are knowledgeable about your products enough to answer any questions writers may have.

A brand doing outreach very well is My Protein, who have a dedicated and knowledgeable team providing outreach support. One thing in particular they do is send the right products to the right websites. This may seem like an obvious thing to do, but My Protein have the product knowledge to know which websites will have an audience more interested in a mass gain supplement, and those more interested in a diet whey supplement – a very simple and effective way to gain exposure with the right potential customers.

Signing off

If your health & fitness brand needs a helping hand with digital marketing, web design or branding, get in touch with a creative digital marketing agency like MintTwist.

Drop us a line via hello@minttwist.com.