If you’ve been around, you’ve learned about several marketing strategies for supplement companies in my previous blog post. And if you’ve listened meticulously, you’ll remember that the best way to go is through multiple marketing channels — out of which one channel involves social media strategies.

Let’s back up a little.

There are many ways for a supplement company to promote itself. Many ways to market a new product or launch a brand-new supplement. But relying on one marketing strategy alone can backfire.

See, while there are best practices and good-hearted advice out there, marketing is no clear-cut science. There are no guarantees. In fact, if somebody guarantees you specific results, I’d raise my brows at him. Why?

Google and other search engines continuously change their algorithms to improve the customer experience. What was acceptable then, will no longer do now. Things change all the time. It’s really about applying best practices and going with the flow. 

Trial and error is the best method to keep moving forward.

But of course, that doesn’t mean you’re jumping in completely blind — no. There’s a ton you can do, you just need to be flexible and be ready to re-adjust your sails when the direction of the wind changes.

Recap of Best Strategy 1 & 2 for Your Supplement Company

We’ve previously discussed two factors that play a crucial role in your attempt to reach your customers:

(1) Make Something Remarkable

We’ve talked about thinking outside of the box and doing something extraordinary. Something that makes your supplement stand out. 

I know what you’re thinking. Yes, there’s only so much you can do with the product itself but there are certainly a few aspects that can help you shine.

Whether it’s:

• The ingredients you use
• The manufacturing process
• The packaging
• The distribution of your supplements
• Your customer service

You will most definitely be able to find something you can upgrade. Perhaps you can find something that can really create an aha moment for your customers. Something that hooks them onto your product and ultimately onto your company.

So, marketing strategy 1 for your supplement is to really try and make something remarkable. Introducing a unicorn on a ranch full of horses — so to speak.

Products that are remarkable, make the marketing process much easier. You also owe it to your customer. They’re taking time out of their busy day to find something that lives up to its promise.  Time is precious and that includes both your time and your customer’s time.

(2) Keep an Active Blog on Your Site and be Consistent

Strategy #2 requires you to show up consistently but it provides a ton of value to your consumers. Maintaining a blog on your site allows your readers to familiarize themselves with your voice and learn from you.

Learning from you, however, requires that you actually have something to offer to your customers. This is your chance to prove to them that you know what you’re doing. You’re an authority in your niche and can provide educational content that helps solve their problems.

But blogs can do much more. They’re great at giving you a vast opportunity to incorporate relevant keywords into your copy. Keywords that ultimately help you rank on Google and make the search engines happy.

What does that mean? 

Search engine optimization (SEO) allows you to increase traffic to your site, keep your readers engaged, and help increase sales and revenue at the same time.

Post at least twice per month, but ideally several times per week. Make sure to write lengthy informative posts about relevant topics. Your readers will thank you for the value you’re providing to them.

But beyond blogs, supplement companies can implement further strategies to up their game. Some of these are social media strategies that come with various benefits for your business. Let’s dive in!

(3) Social Media Strategies to Scale Online

Social media are currently on an upward curve, shrewdly riding the wave, and taking home many wins. The truth is, social media have a range like no other channels and can put your supplement company on the map in no time.

For most companies, it doesn’t happen overnight though. But that’s why there are social media strategies that each supplement company and each business really, can implement to start taking home their very own wins.

Let’s take a look at some of these strategies and discuss the social media benefits they’re tied into. How do you build your online presence via social media and what’s the easiest way to get there?

Social Media Strategies: #1 Give Your Brand a Human Face

One of the main reasons your supplement company should build its rapport on social media is to humanize your brand. Your customers want to know the people behind your business, the people that make up your brand.

Who are they?

If you’re only trying to sell your supplements through your website, more likely than not, you’ll have a hard time. In fact, 96% of users on the web are undecided about moving along with a purchase and simply not ready.

This means that you’ll have to engage with your customers outside of your website and persuade them to move forward. And social media help establish your brand and build a connection. 

How so?

Social media platforms are perfect to let your customers know how you feel about certain issues and allow you to show them who you are. This makes you human. You’re not just a website anymore. 

Customers are much more inclined to purchase from brands they know and feel connected too. But in order for them to do so, it’s your job as a supplement company to tell them:

• Who are you?
• What do you do?
• What’s your mission?
• How’re you different from other supplement companies?
• What is it that helps you stand out in the supplement industry?

But it shouldn’t be fill-in-type monotonous machine-like answers. Tell your customer about the people that founded your company, the story behind what drove them to it, and tell them about the people that dedicate their lives to growing it.

Only then, you’ll click with your customers on a human level which makes it one of the best strategies you could possibly implement.

Social Media Strategies: #2 Plan Your Content Ahead of Time 

But there are more social media strategies that you should consider for your supplement company. Next one up is your social media content strategy.

What does that mean and entail exactly?

There’s a ton of content being shared on social media every day. But you don’t just want to put out content at random. What’s important is that you plan your content based on a number of factors to yield the best results for your business.

That’s why planning is so important. You want to:

• Produce content your followers care about
• Diversify your content to keep people interested
• Use the opportunity to educate consumers on your products and industry-related issues
• Address customer objections head-on

Many businesses, whether from within the nutraceutical industry or not, therefore meticulously plan their social media content calendar. This can be as simple as coming up with categories that may interest your readers and deciding how many times per month you want to post about each category.

You can also go in-depth and plan out the actual details of your posts ahead of time. A lot of platforms now also allow you to get insight into your stats, which provide an analysis of your content and let you know how it performed. 

This functions as a gauge to let you know whether what you’re posting is in demand or not, giving you valuable feedback for your business. You can then produce more of the content that your customers are interested in. 

Among all the social media strategies, this one is the most intentional approach you can apply that’s very target-specific.

Social Media Strategies: #3 Be Active on Different Platforms

As with any industry, the supplement industry is filled with competitors. You, therefore, want to reach as many people and customers as possible. But how do you do that?

Sometimes, clients tell me that they prefer one specific social media platform but that should absolutely not be a reason for you to turn your back on other social media platforms.

Why?

While you have your preference, so do others. If you like to hang out on Instagram, for example, some of your customers mainly use Facebook or LinkedIn. This means that  it might be time for you to branch out. And as with anything in marketing, a multi-channel approach is better.

Ultimately, this means that diversifying the platforms you use, also allows you to diversify your audience, and hence, diversify the types of customers you reach. 

You’re right, every platform has its perks and some are just more user-friendly than others or more straightforward. But as a business, you want to be where your customers are. And if they are on different platforms, then you need to be on different platforms as well.

For the supplement industry, in particular, there are social media strategies that work better than others but also social media platforms that perform better or simply make more sense to use for supplement companies. 

Most supplement companies have a significant amount of success with Instagram as it takes a fun twist approach to health. But posting regularly is key! Dedicate someone to post at least 3 times per week on Insta and don’t forget to include visuals, graphics, and videos.

Another platform with moderate success for supplement companies is Facebook, as well as LinkedIn. And while Facebook addresses a similar audience as Instagram, LinkedIn, as a more professional platform, focuses on an academic audience, which, however, possesses the financial means to pursue your nutraceutical products.

If you’re still debating about social media strategies for your supplement business, why don’t you start with an Instagram and LinkedIn account? Be consistent, be patient, and be ready to reap the rewards.

Social Media Strategies: #4 Engage with Customers 

You’ve started meticulously planning your content and are active on various social media channels. What’s next?

There’s more to social media than just “being there” and posting every so often. In fact, social media marketing provides you with a terrific tool to connect and engage with your customers.

If customers ask questions, you have a chance to nudge them oh-so-gently down your marketing funnel. Show up and address their objections, clarify issues, and answer their questions. It’s an opportunity for you to make your relationship feel more real and more personal.

You also want to encourage customers to reach out to you, share content, and use hashtags. Successful engagement will help you expand your account’s visibility, which ultimately increases your brand’s reach overall.

But what’s even more important is that you’re present. You show up and deliver consistently. You engage with your customers by commenting on and “liking” their posts. 

Other engagement processes include posting questions to get customers to provide feedback and interact with your page. It also allows you to reach out about reviews, post reviews that stand out to you, and so on. Contests that offer discounts to entice customers also help with engagement. 

Your goal of running a business is secondary on social media. Your prime focus should be on creating a community — something bigger than just reaching your financial goals. 

A community is an opportunity for like-minded individuals to share their thoughts and bounce ideas off each other, all while being guided in the direction your company hopes to take them.

After all, we all like to meet people that have things in common with us, a fact that also applies to the virtual world. So make the most of these interactions on your social media platforms.

Social Media Strategies: #5 Ads and Promotions

There are more strategies you can execute on social media but they shouldn’t necessarily mark your starting point on social platforms.

I recommend social media paid ads and promotions if:

1. You have implemented and are currently using other social media strategies
2. You have had moderate success with other social media strategies and have been able to grow your brand to some extent.
3. You have either not reached a wide enough audience so far, or want to target your ideal customer more specifically
4. You want to grow more and increase revenue

Ad strategies are not organic in the sense that they draw traffic naturally. They’re not based on the user actively seeking you out because of his or her interest. So you most certainly want to continue all other social media strategies and build your brand in other ways.

But if you’ve reached a plateau, social media ads can really help put your product in front of the right eyes.

How so?

Social media ads are incredibly specific and are shown to users based on their history with the social platform they’re on. 

The algorithm therefore knows which user may be interested in your product and shows your ad specifically to those that have indicated interest through their past interactions. That makes this approach one of the most targeted social media strategies you can implement.

The downside is that it can involve a lot of extra dollars spent when compared to other marketing approaches. However, in many instances, it’s still worth it.

The key is to writing short and clear copy that’s down to the point but still manages to pull your readers in, persuading them to move forward with the offer presented to them.

This can be challenging as you have to squeeze a lot of information, value, and persuasion skill into just a few words. So choose your words carefully or hire a professional copywriter to help you find the best words to grab your audience.

Social Media Strategies: Recap

Executed correctly, these social media strategies come with a long list of benefits. From raising awareness about your brand to serving your readers and reaching a diversified audience, the benefits of social media marketing are countless. 

Below are the most significant benefits your social media marketing efforts can get you. Let’s take a look!

Benefits of Social Media

We’ve already touched on some of the benefits social media can provide for your business, specifically your supplement company. Here’s a summary of four of the most significant benefits you can take home by running a successful social media marketing strategy.

Benefits of Social Media: #1 Brand Awareness

Social media give you the opportunity to put yourself out there. Introduce yourself, serve your readers in a professional manner, and ultimately take home a win — which usually translates into sales made.

Use this chance to build a community and humanize your brand. Show your readers who you are and prioritize being there for your audience instead of bombarding them with sales pitches.

The best approach is to establish your credibility and personalize your brand, so customers wind up coming to you. You can gently “invite” them to make a purchase but you won’t need any heavy sales pitches because you’ve laid down the foundation.

Benefits of Social Media: #2 Draw Traffic to Your Site

Once you’ve built your following on social media you can slowly but surely try to move them onto other areas of you company, like your website, your blog, or a landing page.

Customers that normally don’t visit your site, have engaged with you on social media enough that they feel like they know you. You’ve nurtured your relationship little by little and at this point, your followers trust you enough to check out other parts of your company.

Increasing traffic to your website and having customers navigate to your product listings or Amazon store can be a game changer in terms of revenue. 

And while it’s a long-term strategy, as relationships need to be built first, drawing additional traffic to your website is a valuable benefit of social media marketing.

Benefits of Social Media: #3 Bring Home Diversified Leads

Social media platforms also allow you to bring in leads for your supplement company and help reach a diverse group of people. Helping followers glide down your marketing funnel slowly makes another great benefit social media platforms have to offer.

Yes, the typical supplement buyer has a distinct profile: health-conscious, usually active to some extent at least, and possessing over the financial means to pay for (sometimes) above-retail-average supplements.

The age range differs from younger folks to men and women over 50 that are starting to see some traces of their age on their bodies. But they all come from different walks of life and are linked by this one common denominator: living a healthy life and striving for better life quality.

By connecting with your audience and growing that connection on a somewhat personal level, you’re warming these followers up to your brand and turning them into hot leads that can eventually turn into loyal customers.

Benefits of Social Media: #4 Self-Promotion

With all the nurturing relationships, connecting with followers, and growing your brand awareness, don’t forget to do business. It shouldn’t be your #1 priority on social media, but ultimately, you want to make sales.

It’s a lot easier to reach people and turn them from being an “observer” to your brand over to the “customer” side, if you’ve established a foundation with them first. 

Promoting your supplement company or nutraceutical business is totally fine if you do it:

1. Ethically,
2. Show up for your readers and still provide value,
3. Don’t push sales pitches too hard,
4. Mainly provide educational or personal branding content,
5. Provide your reader with additional benefits (such as discounts and freebies)

Self promotion is a skill and should be done tastefully. Above all, you should always be honest, transparent, and follow through on what you have promised your reader.

So, Is Social Media Important for Your Business?

I’m guessing by now you know the answer to that question. You want to leverage the benefits of social media and adopt as many strategies as you can. As a supplement retailer you might face specific challenges but you also have an outpouring of interest in your products.

Supplement companies can reel in huge profits as we’re moving towards becoming more health-conscious and making better nutritional choices. 

But in order to promote yourself and market your supplements effectively, copywriting skills are a requirement to help tip the scale in your favor. 

In order to successfully market your supplement brand, you or someone at your company should:

• be a word magician,
• understand persuasive psychology,
• have a deep marketing understanding,
• grasp how your business operates & what your bigger picture is,
• be aware of FDA regulations and compliance limitations
• have in-depth knowledge of the nutraceutical and supplement industry
• be determined to try and execute different marketing strategies,
• and be flexible to course-correct when it’s time to pivot

It might look easy to some but there’s a lot to do to successfully implement a variety of social media strategies. Or in general, to implement any marketing strategy for your brand.

At the same time, it’s so easy to get overwhelmed. 

But fret not — a  lot of copywriters offer social media marketing as a service if you don’t have the time to handle it by yourself. Or if you  need a professional to take over. This will clear a good chunk of work off your plate and allows you to put your marketing in trusting hands.

Looking for a copywriter that’s specialized in promoting supplement companies? Reach out and let’s find a good marketing strategy that will work for you.

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