You’re trying to promote your supplement company by selling organic or vegan supplements. Developing supplements is a tedious process, it’s time-consuming, and requires a lot of skill and knowledge. 

But now that you have your final product, how the heck do you market your supplement?

It’s overwhelming. There’s so much to do and you just don’t know where to start. Let me assure you that it’s completely normal. 

Whether you’re launching a new supplement company or you’re just marketing one new supplement — the best way to go is to:

     (1) plan out your strategy,

     (2) implement your strategy,

     (3) and then course-correct as needed

Take it one step at a time but keep moving forward. 

Know that marketing is not always black and white. There are things that work for some companies and don’t work for others. It’s really about trial and error, flexibility, and the willingness to adjust course when the time comes.

There are unique hurdles in the supplement industry if you’re ready to tackle the marketing monster for your organic or vegan supplements. Let’s take a look at some of these challenges and the best marketing strategy you could possibly implement for your supplement company.

 

Why Are Supplements So Popular?

Good nutrition is key to optimal health. We all know that. However, many people are struggling to maintain the minimum nutrient requirements for a healthy lifestyle. Why is that?

For many working folks, it’s their busy lives, the hectic schedule, and the never-ending list of tasks that keeps us from fulfilling our nutritional needs. 

The popularity of the fast food industry has contributed more than its fair share to poor food choices, low-nutrient foods, and the ever-growing desire for instant food availability. People are not taking the time to process and cook fresh ingredients, labeling it too time-consuming.

And that’s a shame.

But needless to say, that’s exactly why the dietary supplement industry is booming. Believe it or not but the dietary supplement industry is expected to hit a market size of close to USD 130 billion by 2028.

Dietary supplements can provide you with a shortcut so to speak and that’s why people love them. Now you can meet your nutritional needs despite your busy schedule.

Hurdles for Supplement Companies

As a supplement company, you’ve done a ton of research and found supporting studies that help make the sale, but how do you market your supplement after that? 

First things first, you want to know the dietary supplement market. There’s an extremely high demand and that’s obviously a factor in your favor, but there are also strategies you can implement in your business to market your supplement effectively.

But beware! Any marketing material should undergo a thorough review from your regulatory team. Why?

The FDA does NOT approve dietary supplements as it does with investigational or medicinal drugs. Dietary supplements don’t undergo the same tedious FDA requirements and don’t get approved for safety or effectiveness.

But that doesn’t mean you don’t have to worry about the FDA because the FDA largely regulates what claims you can or cannot make while marketing your supplements. This sounds simple but oftentimes, it’s a big grey zone like many things in the marketing world.

Whether you can use a certain word or have to paraphrase your sentence a gazillion times, when promoting your supplement company, and particularly when marketing a specific dietary supplement, such as a new organic supplement, know that wording is absolutely crucial.

Therefore, many statements that you make will need to be labeled with an asterisk and be marked as not being evaluated by the FDA for transparency purposes: “These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.”

It’s a fine line between trying to write clever copy that persuades your reader to purchase your supplement and meeting FDA requirements by avoiding the long list of claims you need to absolutely avoid.

That’s why finding a copywriter that specializes in the supplement industry can help you most when it comes to marketing your supplement successfully.

Here are just a few strategies your copywriter may suggest you implement to market your supplements. For best results, you should implement multiple strategies and not rely on one marketing strategy alone.

(1) Stand Out from the Crowd

The market is filled with supplements: supplements for joint health, supplements for cardiovascular health, supplements for digestive support, and so on. It’s a seemingly endless market — how do you manage to stand out from the crowd?

Well, as Seth Godin says in the Purple Cow — you gotta make something truly remarkable. Providing an average product and staying afloat in an average way doesn’t necessarily make the cut anymore.

So what do you do?

You can mix it up, think outside the box, and re-invent the wheel. Easier said than done but here are some good starting points:

• Play around with new ingredients, find something different, something new and promising that beats the competition.

• Use only sustainably sourced ingredients and make sustainability a core value in your product operations and distribution. 

• Try all-natural ingredients — times are changing and trends are shifting. People are finding their way back to nature and so should your company.
• Offer vegan supplements, vegetarian options, or organic supplements. Try to capture a bigger audience or really excel in your niche, even if it’s small.

• Go with sustainable packaging that doesn’t adversely affect the environment.

• Provide customer service that goes above and beyond, offer membership programs or exclusive subscriptions, and play around with special discounts and promotions.

Whatever you do, find a way to make your customer feel special and valued. Average customer service won’t cut it. Come up with fresh ideas to please your customers, keep them interested in your product, and turn them into loyal customers.

After all, it’s much easier to have a customer return to you that has previously purchased a product vs. acquiring a new customer from scratch.

The key is to find something remarkable about your supplement. Whether it’s something completely new that you’re offering or whether you just put a spin on something ordinary. Important is to find something unique. Something that not every average supplement company can bring to the table.

And people will remember you for that. To go back to the previous reference by Seth Godin: if you truly find a purple cow, people will most definitely remember you. That’s why planning is so important because a regular cow won’t do it anymore. And who wants to be an ol’ regular black and white cow anyway?

(2) Provide Educational Resources by Adding an Active Blog

You want to stand out but you also want to provide your consumers with promising resources. These resources should provide genuine value and should not be a mere accumulation of meaningless words that were written to fill space.

And that’s why blogs are such a great marketing tool. Posting blogs regularly and intentionally can be a great strategy and really make or break your marketing efforts.

But know that your customers have very little time, so you have the task to give them something they really need or want to read about. 

Finding it challenging to come up with topics? Fret not.

It’s not difficult to find relevant topics if you already know your consumer is interested in supplements. Just brainstorm from there and break down the topic step by step. Your sub-categories will shed light.

This could be anything from organic supplements to supplements whose ingredients have been sourced sustainably to specific ingredients or herbs that may be of interest to your reader.

Finding the right content also comes down to really knowing your audience well. 

Is your ideal customer a 55-year-old male, an evening beer drinker, who loves Real Madrid, and  is looking forward to his early retirement? Or is it a young 30-some-year-old female, who loves yoga, is starting to climb the career ladder, and loves making healthy choices?

Obviously, the two are completely different individuals, who are at very distinct stages in their lives. Take note of where your ideal customer stands and what’s important to him or her.

And bam. You’ve got a great topic to write about.

A. Search Engine Optimization & Keyword Research

But that’s not all. Because you’re not just writing for your ideal customer. You’re also writing for Google. And that’s where it can get confusing because tongue-twisters like search engine optimization can put a suffocating weight on your shoulders.

The best product and topic idea won’t help you if you don’t manage to wiggle yourself through the excessive data overload on Google. You need your customer to be able to find you.

You might write well but if you don’t figure out what keywords are truly relevant and what search queries your target customers are typing into Google, you might drown in Google’s sea of webpages-that-don’t-see-the-light-of-day.

And that would be more than disappointing. In fact, it could be absolutely detrimental to your business.

There are many tools that can help you assess relevant keywords and determine their search value and the amount of competition there is. Keywords that are in high demand and have low competition are pure keyword gold. Take note of them, dissect them, and dedicate your blog posts to them.

B. The Secret About Blogs

Some of my clients proudly tell me about the blog they started back in 2016 and last posted on in 2019. One closer look and the “blog” is a mere collection of a handful of mediocre 300-some-word blurbs.

What’s the issue with blogs like that?

Here are a few things your customer cares about when navigating to your blog:

• Is it current? Why bother with outdated information? Customers look for current blog posts, so make sure you have your posting dates on and visible.

• This leads us to the next point: if you’re displaying the date, hopefully, that date is actually current. Meaning, you need to post regularly and consistently. Blogs are most effective when you post frequently. In fact, the bare minimum should be twice per month but can be as often as several times per week. The more the better, there really is no limit.

• With distractions luring around every corner, you have to make sure your blog post is interesting and pulls the reader in. Focus your attention on the headline and the first few sentences of your post because they will ultimately decide whether your customer will at least skim your article.

• Provide actual value and find something that is of interest to your reader. You might want to create a customer avatar to visualize your reader more effectively but find something that will add to their knowledge and satisfy their curiosity.

• In the context of adding value, if your blog post is just a handful of sentences, it more likely than not doesn’t provide any significant value to your readers. But that’s not the only reason why you should write a minimum of at least 1,000 words, ideally more:

1. Dissect a topic thoroughly and answer customer questions
2. Integrate keywords for search engines. Blog posts that are too short may not be able to rank for keywords properly.
3. Stand out from the competition. Blog posts that manage to rank well in Google are becoming longer and more thorough. Posts that are too short don’t stand a chance.

• In order to keep your readers engaged and maintain their interest throughout the post, incorporate descriptive language and storytelling techniques. By activating the customer’s senses, you can paint a much more vivid picture, which will make your post less dry.

Another good addition to your post are emotional triggers. While this can present a challenge when writing about medical concepts and health-related topics, there’s always a way to incorporate emotions. After all, humans are emotional beings and our buying decisions are led by emotions and desires.

• Don’t forget your CTA. What’s that? It’s a call to action that tells your reader what action to take next. CTAs are essential because they give you as a supplement company the opportunity to nudge your reader in the right direction.

Whether you want your readers to sign up for your email list, follow you on social media, or persuade them to check out your newly launched organic supplement, YOU’VE GOT TO TELL THEM WHAT TO DO.

The truth is, your reader gets confused quickly if you don’t tell them exactly what to do next. And in your company’s interest and as a best-practice marketing approach, show your reader where they need to go.

• If you’re trying to sell your supplements online, it’s easy to forget that highly technical medical jargon is not everyone’s forte. 

In fact, according to the Census Bureau, less than 30% of US males age 25 and older have completed high school or obtained their GED. The percentage is even lower for women. 

So before you throw around medical terms in your blog posts, know that most of your readers will not understand them. What do you do about that?

Part of knowing your target customer well includes knowing how to talk to them and how to communicate with them. Find easy words and simplify medical lingo as much as possible. Feel free to define terms where needed and keep things as straightforward as possible.

• What your readers will also appreciate is good formatting. Maybe your customer is on the hunt for a specific piece of information, or he’s going back and forth to the nursery attending to his crying newborn, so he can just skim the article.

That’s why you write for 2 types of people: 

1. The “digger,” who loves to dig deep into topics and really absorb all the information and research that’s out there.

1. And the one who doesn’t, also known as the “skimmer.” The skimmer is in a rush or easily distracted. He’s looking mainly for headlines, bullet points, and bolded text that jumps out to still grasp the main theme of your blog post.

C. The Benefits of Blog Posts

Your supplement company is playing by the rules and has started and maintained a lively blog. You get up early every day, show up, and deliver. Day in and day out.

Marketing your supplement is a process but you will soon reap the rewards. So what are the benefits of blogs and why is it worth putting a ton of research and energy into them?

Here’s why blogs are important: 

• They allow you to build credibility in your niche and become an authority within the supplement industry

• They allow you to show up consistently and market yourself continuously. By being present, you’re the supplement company that your customers can’t get out of their heads. When they think about supplements, they think about you.

• They help you rank for keywords that are relevant to the supplement industry. Ranking for keywords means playing the SEO game and climbing the ladder in Google — which you need to do if you want your customers to actually find you.

• SEO also means increasing organic traffic to your website, which can translate into increased revenue. The more people ultimately navigate to and stay on your site for a period of time, the more likely you are to make a sale.

• They continue to build momentum over time and provide a valued resource to your customers. What you write once, remains on your site and consistently supports your SEO.

• They’re a great link-building opportunity, giving you space to link to other sites and providing resources that other websites want to link to as well.

Why is link-building important? Having credible websites link to your site tells Google’s search engines that your site is relevant and of value, which can boost SEO.

Specifically, the supplement industry can benefit from posting on their blog as a solid marketing strategy. As a supplement company, marketing is your most important asset if you want consumers to see you and ultimately purchase your products.

Finding a Good Copywriter to Market Your Supplements

As you can see, there are many ways to promote your supplements. But no matter the strategy you choose, know that multiple channels usually work best. 

What does that mean?

You should never focus your attention on just one angle or a single marketing strategy. For best results, engage with your customers in as many different ways as possible.

But sometimes that can get overwhelming or is too much weight to carry for your marketing director alone. That’s when your supplement company can hire a freelance copywriter to help you get on track.

A copywriter can make all the difference, especially one that has worked with supplement companies in the past and understands your position in the market and your strategic goals.

Copywriters are wordsmiths that can take a chunk of work off your plate by finding a way to market your supplement as effectively as possible. Need help with your marketing? Reach out and let’s talk about how we can put your supplement company on the map.

Stay tuned for Part II of our “Guide to Marketing Supplements: 5 Best Strategies to Promote Your Supplement Company.”