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4 Effective Supplement Marketing Strategies to Boost Your Revenue

Last updated: January-18,2023

4 Effective Supplement Marketing Strategies to Boost Your Revenue

Are you missing out on some of the best supplement marketing strategies? Don’t worry; you aren’t anymore – this guide will put you on the right path. It’ll help you explore some of the best options for marketing your dietary supplement line, and then you can identify the one that best suits your brand!

Why Do You Need to Market Your Supplement Brand in the First Place?

According to Reports and Data analysis, the global dietary supplements market is expected to reach $210.3 billion by the year 2026 at a CAGR of 6.4%, with North America being a huge contributor.

This staggering growth can be attributed to the increasing awareness around dietary supplements and preventive healthcare (among consumers), chronic ailments, new market entrants, and better marketing strategies by brand owners.

In today’s day and age, brands stand to lose precious time, money and trust if their supplement marketing strategies fail to hit the bull’s eye. After all, a sound marketing plan can not only lead to exponential visibility, but also more customers and revenue.

Having strong online and offline brand strategies in place is an indispensable part of supplement marketing in order to excel in today’s business arena.

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Why Does Your Supplement Brand Need a Unique Marketing Strategy?

In a sea of attention-grabbing marketers, your supplement needs to stand out, and for that, you need to do something extremely special!

Also, strong messages and visuals are well received by buyers. And, when these messages are coupled with authentic experiences, your supplement marketing wins!

Look for areas that will help consumers distinguish your supplement brand from the competition. For example:

Compare the “whys” of your products with similar brands: Supplement brand owners should craft marketing strategies that talk about results and deliver unique experiences. Focus on the “whys” of your supplement. For example, if you’re selling a supplement designed to support healthy weight management talk about:

  • its flavors and ingredients
  • how each of its ingredients will assist in your buyer's pre-workout and-post-workout regimes
  • your previous customers who experienced its benefits

Talking about these aspects is much better than just claiming that your supplement could help lose weight:

    • Conduct thorough research about your target audience and check whether your brand matches their expectations or if you need to make any strategic changes to alter your offerings and messaging.
    • Get in touch with the experts to know if your supplement would be well-received by consumers. People and businesses with experience in this area can provide fantastic insights into the customers’ choices and preferences, along with what trends you can capitalize on.
    • Be consistent with your branding efforts in terms of your messaging, identity, communications and tone of voice. Invest your time and efforts into ensuring that the product line is packaged and labeled consistently, avoid contradicting messages in your external communication, and make sure your social media marketing strategy has been comprehensively crafted.

The Importance of Marketing for Supplement Companies

The right kind of marketing could make all the difference between a supplement that sells like hotcakes and one that never gets noticed by the target audience.

For their supplements to sell effectively, brand owners need to address these 3 key factors. Our 50+ years of nutraceutical industry experience has taught us that they can act as catalysts for a great marketing strategy -

  • create a buzz about their nutritional supplement
  • promote their dietary supplements' face recall quotient
  • ensure strategic broadcasting on relevant mediums

Our Four Proven Strategies to Market Your Dietary Supplements

While there is no surefire way or mantra to sell products or make a business an overnight success, trends in the supplement marketing space suggest that you must focus primarily on the following areas:

Let's take a quick tour of what each strategy entails and how you can make the most of it.

1. Labeling and Packaging - let the cover be as good as the book is!

Labeling and Packaging Tips

A study conducted to understand how labeling affects purchasing decisions revealed the following:

- 70% of the respondents who bought dietary supplements were greatly influenced by the label information that claimed the supplement to be free of banned substances.

- More than 50% of the respondents associated quality of the supplement with the product information and container label.

- And, the ingredients present on the label influenced approximately 40% while purchasing their dietary supplements.

This proves that it's no surprise that the face value of any supplement plays a huge role in differentiating it from its peers and grabbing eyeballs.

Apart from being eye-catching, your supplement packaging and label also need to comply with FDA regulations. If they don’t then your dietary supplement might face unwanted setbacks!

Tips for Creating an FDA Compliant Dietary Supplement Label
Source: https://www.nutrasciencelabs.com/blog/tips-for-creating-an-fda-compliant-supplement-label-infographic

The packaging needs to be well thought out and must connect with the end consumer. To understand this better, let's look at some examples:

- If your supplement caters to seniors, it should be easy to spot, with clear fonts, and recognizable colors while being easy to open and use.

- In the case of a younger target group, the packaging should reflect their tastes and preferences.

- If you are targeting fitness enthusiasts, "weekend warriors", etc., your product packaging must resonate with them. Using strong colors and bold fonts is recommended.

Supplement Packaging Design Tips - Infographic
Source: https://www.nutrasciencelabs.com/blog/2-supplement-packaging-design-ideas-to-consider-in-2020

Moreover, you can collaborate with your supplement contract manufacturer’s graphic design team to create a label design and packaging solution that’s most appropriate for your product. Here’s a post that talks about the importance of packaging and labeling design.

Note: As of January 1, 2020, supplement brands that generated more than $10 million in food or supplement sales were required to update their nutritional supplement facts labels. For those brands that earned less than $10 million in revenue, the deadline to adopt these changes is January 1, 2021. Here are some of the key labeling and packaging changes that you must know as a dietary supplement brand owner.

So, what's the packaging and labeling takeaway?

You need to consider several factors when working on the packaging and labeling design of your product – ask yourself the following questions:

  • Is the product packaging appealing and attractive?
  • Are the colors and fonts used for the packaging design readable and intriguing?
  • Does the label accurately describe the factual and scientific claims?
  • Does the packaging and labeling of my product adhere to current FDA guidelines?

2. Marketing Supplements Online - that's where your customers are 24/7/365!

Your target audience is on the Internet. Are you there, too?

Tips for Marketing Supplements Online

You need to address this question if you wish to survive in the dietary supplement market, that’s expected to reach $56.7 billion by 2024.

Need more proof? In an April 1, 2020 article published in The Wall Street Journal, Harriet Torry wrote how the Coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic further widened the divide between online and traditional businesses.

One of the industry experts she interviewed for the article put it very bluntly:

"Retailers that have already transitioned from "bricks to clicks" are less vulnerable to the sudden shift (people preferring online shopping versus in-store shopping due to the Coronavirus epidemic). Conversely, those in denial are getting crushed."

With approximately 4.54 billion active internet users, the world is going digital at a feverish pace. And, marketing your supplements via digital channels is a must today as they present businesses with several effective platforms. These platforms work as effective mediums to advertise, promote, and engage consumers that are relevant to your brand.

Here are a few digital marketing channels that you NEED to consider for your dietary supplement brand.

Website

A professional website is essential in the modern business era as it is one of the primary touchpoints for your customers and prospects.

You should invest in creating a good-looking website with a mobile-first approach, that delivers a great user experience.

If you are planning to design and develop your website, you need to research the following user-friendly platforms and determine which one best meets the needs of your business.

  • Shopify

  • BigCommerce

  • WordPress

Email Marketing

Most health and fitness brands enjoy an email open rate of approximately 33%. When compared to the average open rate across industries (which falls between 15 and 25%), this is substantially better and more than acceptable. This rate is pretty good if you have a pool of potential buyers that you want to nurture and convert.

Moreover, according to Mailchimp, vitamin supplements have an email open rate of 15.03%. HubSpot, Mailchimp, GetResponse, Autopilot, Omnisend and ActiveCampaign are examples of some of the most popular and efficient email marketing tools for supplement businesses. Email marketing, when done right, is a great way to create a buzz about your supplements, establish your brand presence, increase traffic and convert recipients into buyers.

Just like any other content that’s directed towards your potential buyers, your email recipients also wish to get information that is timely, relevant, personalized, and engaging. But, avoid filling their inboxes frequently - once a week should work just fine.

Other suggestions that may improve the performance of your email marketing campaigns include:

  • Powerful subject lines - include words such as "you", "your", "delivery", "free", and "yes" to supercharge your open rate.
  • Mobile-friendly emails - according to a 2019 article published by Hubspot, 46% of all emails are opened on a mobile device.
  • Interactive visuals - keeping an email recipient engaged with your message can only help to improve your click-through rate. Consider charts, graphs, and other custom images, but make sure to compress them so they don't bog down your load time. Free tools like tinypng.com will help you do this seamlessly.
  • Always test and learn - do you get a better open rate when you personalize the subject line? Does a blue CTA button have a better click-through rate than a green one? What offer resonates the most with your subscribers? Continuously test different design elements, discounts, etc. (and document the results) to develop the best emails for your audience.

The key takeaway for you to understand is that email marketing campaigns are great for creating brand awareness, introducing people to your supplement products, promoting offers, and discounts, and keeping your customers updated.

Paid Marketing

Paid ads give your brands the much-needed visibility amongst all the organic chaos. Advertisers directly target customers according to their intent or interest. This helps your brand reach the audience at the right time.

It is effective for all types of businesses that are planning to target their customers online. Examples of these are Google search ads and shopping ads, Yahoo ads, and Bing ads for search engines along with Facebook ads, Pinterest ads, and Instagram ads for social media.

For example, with search ads on Google, your supplement brand can get a position on the first page of search results. Such ads guarantee placements above organic search results. Still not convinced? Latest industry data shows that the top three paid ads get 46% of the clicks on the first page of the search results pages!

Affiliate Marketing

You can also consider affiliate marketing in which the third-party publisher’s marketing efforts get you visitors or customers. And, in turn you reward them in the form of a commission.

It’s a great option if you want your supplements to gain visibility and cash on the growing supplement market.

Online affiliate marketing is a great way to start off, and there are several websites that can help you out with the process. It also enables consumers to post their feedback or review. This works as an online word-of-mouth to increase sales. So, if your supplement is capable of showing promising results, then don’t worry, affiliate marketing can work like a charm for you!

Here’s an interesting insight: Customer reviews are trusted 12 times more than marketing material. Studies show that 86% of consumers browse through reviews before buying, and 56% especially look for websites with reviews.

Amazon Paid Promotions

Amazon boasts a varied product marketplace, featuring 480 million unique products - revealing that consumers have welcomed the digital space with extreme warmth . And, this also showcases that it is a great time for supplement brand owners to launch their product in the e-commerce space and monetize through these channels.

Furthermore, if you feel that one of your supplements sells better than the others you can go ahead and list it on Amazon’s best sellers. And, it’s obvious that buyers would prefer purchasing products that are labeled as best sellers.

Amazon can also support your product by giving it a dedicated space, helping you to get in front of millions of potential buyers.

Other niche platforms that sell nutritional products and supplements, like gnc.com, can also be fantastic for supplement businesses to partner up with.

The key takeaway for you to understand is that it is a big challenge for supplement brand owners and distributors to get space and visibility in the traditional brick and mortar stores. This is the reason why online marketplaces serve as better mediums for your supplement’s promotions. They also offer better returns on investment and broaden the scope of reaching your target groups. If you wish to deepen your knowledge in this, go ahead and read this ultimate guide to selling supplements online.

3. Leveraging Social Media Marketing for Selling Supplements

Social Media Tips for Marketing Dietary Supplements

Your social media game has got to be pretty strong for your marketing strategy to succeed. Not having a powerful and well-rounded social media marketing strategy is almost unthinkable today.

Don’t believe me? Here are some jaw-dropping statistics from SproutSocial -

  • Instagram has nearly 1 billion active users with a growth rate of 42.7% since 2017.
  • The number of U.S marketers on Instagram jumped from 69.2% in 2018 to 73.2% in 2019 and is predicted to reach 75.3% in 2020.
  • 89% of marketers use Facebook as an effective promotional medium.
  • Approximately 42% marketers include Facebook live videos as a part of their marketing efforts
  • Around 79% users utilize Twitter as a medium to explore what’s new in the market

These statistics prove that supplement owners have a wide scope of promoting their products through social media. It’s also important to realize that fitness and health spaces are buzzing with hashtags used by influencers. These hashtags are mostly used by them to talk about supplements that made a difference in their lifestyle. And consumers are more likely to believe a person talking about a product than any offline or online promotional mediums.

If you’re a believer in the power of social media but aren’t quite sure how to get started, here are some helpful hints to help put you on the right track:

  • Your brand strategy on social media should revolve around providing your followers with a good mix of promotional and useful content.
  • Make sure your posts use emotional triggers like motivation, fear, self-love, and wellbeing.
  • Experiment with different post formats and engage your audience visually. Around 80% of brands claim that video marketing helped them increase their direct sale. So, invest in creating explainer videos or promotional videos that speak about your supplement brand effectively.
  • It is also important that you invest time and resources in experience management and brand reputation management. Respond to customer queries, complaints, and negative comments on social media. This helps your potential customers realize that you offer not only quality products but also a good overall buying experience.
  • Influencer marketing has been a strong trend in the past decade and continues to work for some businesses. However, burning a hole in your pocket to get one celebrity influencer on board might not always be the right tactic for you. Instead, you can create campaigns that feature "real" people that your customers can relate to.
  • Here are some other platforms that can significantly help you reach your target audience.
    • You can utilize LinkedIn to connect with companies that are willing to collaborate with you and showcase or sell your dietary supplements (think health and fitness clubs).
    • Quora is another phenomenal platform that allows you to answer your target audience’s frequently asked questions (FAQs) while also promoting your product or brand.

Read this informative blog article on how you can make your supplement a social media hit.

The takeaway for you to understand is that you must create an attractive profile on all the leading platforms and update them with interesting content regularly to ensure your supplement brand does wonders!

4. Offline Marketing - effective ways for promoting your health supplement product

Offline Marketing Tips for Selling Dietary Supplements

While the present and the future will be dictated by digital marketing, it is important to remember that traditional mediums have not become obsolete.

In fact, print and broadcast media are still major players in the marketing world. Here are a few avenues supplement businesses should consider:

  • TV and radio: How many times has a jingle stuck with you? That’s the essence of TV and radio advertisement - they have a high recall value and are consumed by a wide majority of your customers. Partner with a creative agency to craft compelling advertisements for these broadcast mediums.
  • Newspapers and magazines: Older consumers still buys and read newspapers and magazines. The ad space that these publications offer can be utilized by you to promote your supplements.
  • Brick and mortar stores: Physical presence and tangibility are gold in the supplement business since people still like to check out products before buying them. You can consider partnering with leading stores in your target geographies and working on a sale-commission basis with them. Apart from direct selling, such stores can also give you display space to put up ads and banners.
  • Word of mouth: This has been around for ages and continues to be an effective marketing tool even today. When your supplement product delivers positive results, it is obvious that consumers would recommend it to others. This kind of activity creates a buzz in the market and promises to increase sales.
  • Direct selling model: Direct marketing companies sell their products via sales representatives, sales officers, independent service providers, and retail stores.

In an annual statement, one of the leading supplement companies said that it believes a direct-selling channel is best suited to market their products as sales of weight management, nutrition, and personal care products are made stronger by continuous engagement, coaching, and education between members and their customers.

This continuous personal contact can educate consumers about nutrition and health. It also motivates them to begin and maintain wellness and weight management programs. Besides, this brings about effective customer feedback along with testimonials that again serve as powerful sales tools.

Bonus Tips for Marketing Your Dietary Supplement Line

Here are a few more ideas that you can explore in addition to the ones mentioned above:

  • Partner with clinics, health clubs and gyms to promote your nutritional supplements
  • Target communities and groups who can try your products and validate their quality and effectiveness
  • Provide product samples of your newly launched supplements along with existing ones
  • Offer attractive deals and discounts to your repeat customers or bulk buyers
  • Ask your buyers to review your product on social media channels and tag you
  • Participate in community events like marathons or triathlons and showcase your supplements

While this guide is not the be-all and end-all of how to market supplements, I have tried to provide you with some ideas, examples, and strategies that you can use directly or tweak according to your promotion plan.

As long as you have a high-quality product and a comprehensive marketing strategy that targets the right people at the right places, your supplements are likely to sell well. All it takes is a bit of trend analysis, market exploration, audience research, and patience!

The last point is of the utmost importance – you have to be patient. Testing, learning, and pivoting are critically important to any marketing strategy. Over time, you should be able to tell what initiatives are working and which ones aren’t. Place more emphasis (i.e. dedicate more budget and effort) towards those activities that are producing results, stop the activities that aren’t working, and reserve some of your budget to test and learn on new ideas.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Where can I advertise supplements?

A: You can advertise your supplements: 1. Online: Launch your website, tap into Amazon, e-mail marketing, paid marketing, and promotions. 2. Social Media: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Quora, influencer marketing, and more. 3. Offline: Television, radio, newspapers, magazines, stores, word of mouth. Here are some additional bonus tips for marketing your dietary supplements on Instagram.

Q: Can I sell vitamins on Shopify?

A: Yes. E-commerce sales are consistently increasing year on year, and therefore, leveraging the power of e-commerce website builder like Shopify is a terrific idea. Other powerful e-commerce platforms worth exploring include Big Commerce and WooCommerce. Evaluate each solution side-by-side and choose the one that best suits your business so you can start directly marketing your supplements to consumers.

Q: How do I get approved to sell supplements on Amazon?

A: To get approval, you must: 1. have a professional seller account. 2. submit a qualified invoice from a manufacturer or distributor. 3. submit photos of the product. 4. provide FDA Registration/ GMP Certificate/COA/501(K) Premarket Notification. Once the documents are verified, you will be able to sell your supplements on Amazon.

Do You Need Help Turning Your Dietary Supplement Idea Into a Reality?

NutraScience Labs can help! With over 120 years of nutraceutical industry experience, our team has provided hundreds of dietary supplement brand owners with full-service contract manufacturing, packaging, labeling, and fulfillment services.

Contact us today and learn how we can help you create a high-quality dietary supplement – while also saving you countless amounts of time, money, and stress. Call 855-492-7388 to speak with one of our knowledgeable representatives or send us your request to receive a free price quote!

4 Supplement Marketing Strategies to Boost Your Revenue - Infographic

March 25th, 2020

About the Author:

 
Andrew Goldman

Andrew Goldman is the Vice President of Marketing for NutraScience Labs. In this role, he leverages his 15+ years of B2B inbound marketing experience to develop cutting edge strategies for our firm. A health and fitness enthusiast, Andrew and his team won the 2012 Stevie Award for Marketing Team of the Year. He is also a two-time Best In Biz Silver Award winner for Marketing Executive of the Year and has received other honors and accolades for his website design work.