Marketing Sports Nutrition Products to Everyday People

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Is broadening the scope of your health nutrition brand a good idea?

The majority of sports nutrition companies that market products like energy bars, powdered supplements and sports drinks have traditionally, and almost exclusively, targeted professional athletes. That trend seems to be changing.

According to an article by Stephen Daniells of nutraingredients-usa-com, leading OTC company, Swisse Wellness is now focusing on what they term  “a premium quality sports nutrition range designed for everyday men and women who lead busy, active lifestyles.”

The article also cited a 2013  report by Packaged Facts that suggested sports brands could improve profits by focusing on casual athletes such as fitness walkers and yoga buffs.

I  can appreciate the need for companies to expand their offering to keep growing. However, as a professional athlete and a veteran marketer, I can’t help but wonder
if some of the brands that follow suit will run the risk of diluting their marketing messages. And will the added sales be worth that cost?

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Improve Your Health Nutrition Marketing with Clear Communication

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4 ways to improve how you connect

There are hundreds of health and wellness influencers out there, and they are all trying to figure out how to reach your target audience. Content marketing is a great way to carve a niche for your brand. Unfortunately, it isn’t cut and dry. Content marketing can be frustrating when you aren’t seeing measurable results, and you aren’t sure if your efforts are worth it. They are! You just have to stay on target, use the right tone, and be sure that you are speaking to the appropriate audience.

Here are 4 ways to help your brand’s message break through:

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Take Your Health Nutrition Marketing Back to the Basics

Grassroots Marketing5 grassroots tactics that can refresh your brand 

Many Health Nutrition marketers (including myself) have been so focused on digital engagement strategies lately that they may be forgetting the obvious: Health-conscious consumers respond to brands that are genuine, honest, and community-focused. These are all qualities that you can talk about online, but when it is time to demonstrate those qualities, it is time to go offline.

Lately, I’ve been considering the impact Grassroots Marketing can have for Health Nutrition brands. Grassroots Marketing is true engagement marketing because it challenges you to simply and directly connect with your target audience in the places where they work, eat, shop and relax. I’m convinced that now is the time to refocus on strategies such as this. Marketing at a street level will help build interest and trust in your brand, and it will give you even more to talk about online. How can you lose?

Here are 5 ideas for getting back to basics with Grassroots Marketing:

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Unique Tactics for Health Nutrition Marketing at Trade Shows

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Or, what I would do to market my booth at the Arnold Health Festival

The Arnold Sports Festival happens in Columbus the first weekend in March every year. With over 800 health nutrition exhibitors competing for attention, I can’t help but have trade show marketing on my mind. I wonder, how many of those companies are advertising their booths at local, health-related businesses before and during the event. I know I would. Thinking outside of the walls of the expo is an inexpensive way to advertise a health nutrition brand, and a great way to target the types of visitors you want. Here are 5 local places I would consider for marketing my booth: Continue reading

Guerilla Trade Show Marketing for Health Nutrition Brands

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3 ways to create a stir and drive more traffic to your booth

Participating in trade shows is a great way to create a buzz around your brand, but it can also be expensive and time-consuming. If you’ve ever prepared for a trade show, you know how many man-hours go into making your booth “just right”. That’s why it is especially disappointing when you don’t garner the traffic you expected.

I have been attending the annual Arnold Sports Festival (www.arnoldsportsfestival.com) in Columbus, OH for 10 years now. Every year, I am struck more and more by how difficult it is for trade show booths to grab attention. The sports supplement category is highly competitive, as is the health and wellness industry in general, so it is critical to find unique ways to set brands apart. At the Arnold Sports Festival, the booths that get the most traffic aren’t just hanging better banners—they are creating an experience.

If you are participating in a trade show like the Arnold Sports Festival, you can’t stand around giving out fliers with your URL and hoping to see results online. It’s time to focus on winning your customer in the real world with these no-hold-barred guerrilla marketing tactics:

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Competitive Health Nutrition Marketing Requires Expert Social Media

4 reasons using existing employees to manage your social media is a bad idea

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As more and more businesses see the real and measurable benefits that social media can deliver, they are trying to find inexpensive ways to keep up. The usual approach has been to put existing employees in charge of their social media management. But all too often, social media tasks and development that are simply “added on” to the responsibilities of existing employees are not done well.

Many Health Nutrition brands are home grown, and their culture is extremely employee-focused. The idea of promoting from within probably seems natural. But if you want your social media efforts to drive traffic and conversions, you should avoid tasking an existing employee with the challenge. Hiring a full-time Social Media Strategist or a social media agency is an absolute must. Here are 4 reasons why:

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Social Media Marketing Strategies for Your Health Nutrition Brand

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6 tips for staying ahead of the competition

The effectiveness of advertising on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and LinkedIn is no longer in question. From small startups to large corporations, businesses use social media to increase visitors to their website, bring in new business and improve brand awareness and visibility among their target markets.

Unfortunately, as businesses become comfortable with using social media, they often use the same old approaches over and over again. This is natural, but it is your job to create a buzz. Keeping your social media strategy fresh will help separate you from the competition and keep whatever momentum you’ve already built up going. Here are some ways to push your strategy: Continue reading

Leveraging the Popularity of Fish Oils in Health Nutrition Marketing

How educating your customer can help your brand lead the way

Originally touted for improving cardiovascular health, fish oil is now a major profit-driver in the health nutrition category. According to a new report published by Transparency Market Research (http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/fish-oil.html), the global fish oil market is expected to reach USD 1.7 billion in 2018, up from 1.1 billion in 2011.

This growth is due in large part to the fact that health conscious consumers believe fish oils are beneficial for almost everything including hair, skin, nails, teeth, and joints. It is even used to boost fertility, fight depression and even to treat cancer. A new survey suggests fish oil pills are the most popular dietary supplement in the country—more so than even multivitamins.

As an avid CrossFit athlete, I use fish oil in my shakes every morning, and I have for several years. I believe fish oil aids muscle recovery, improves lunge performance, helps reduce fat, and of course contributes to joint and heart health. I truly believe I am more mentally and physically fit because of it, and I am not alone.

If you manufacture or sell a health nutrition product that contains fish oils, now is the time to lure in more customers by elevating that message in your marketing. Here’s are a few ideas for making it happen: Continue reading

Using Foursquare to Bolster Health Nutrition Marketing

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3 ways to turn Foursquare users into ambassadors for your brand

With so many social media platforms out there, marketers often forget how critical Foursquare can be to their marketing strategy. Foursquare is the leading location-based social network, and even if you aren’t actively using it, chances are users are finding your business listed on it.

If you don’t know, here’s how Foursquare works: Users “check in” with the app on their mobile phone by selecting their location from a list of venues the application locates nearby. The location-based network allows them to be extremely specific. For instance, they may easily alert their social network, including their Facebook friends and Twitter followers, that they are in a certain aisle or floor of your store. Users earn points for every check-in, so there is an incentive to stay connected. Plus, there is the added bonus of basically bragging about the cool places they’ve been. Wouldn’t you like your business to be one of them?

I believe every business should have an active presence on Foursquare, because users are making a brand recommendation every time they check in. Here are 3 ways you can encourage visitors to your store to check-in with their Foursquare friends.

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Leading Children To Good Habits With Health Nutrition Marketing

4 ways to make healthy foods and beverages appealing to children

Type-2 Diabetes is more common in children than ever before thanks to a society that serves up a steady diet of fast food and junk food advertising. According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), “Food marketing intentionally targets children who are too young to distinguish advertising from truth and induces them to eat high-calorie, low-nutrient (but highly profitable) “junk” foods; companies succeed so well in this effort that business-as-usual cannot be allowed to continue.”

As a fitness expert, I’m acutely aware of how nutrition fuels the mind, body and spirit, and I feel that Health Nutrition Marketers are doing children a service by combating these messages with a healthy alternative. Traditional advertising can be manipulative and inappropriate for young children, but I think healthy food and beverage marketing is responsible marketing when education is the main goal.

With that said, here are some ways that your Health Nutrition brand can reach out and help educate a younger market by speaking their language:

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