Let me be blunt.
Without customers to generate sales, no business will have the capital it needs to survive and continue creating value for the world around us.
That said, too often health retailers and medical professionals shy away from sales and marketing because they either don’t want to feel “salesy” or it’s just so overwhelming that even making a start seems daunting.
So I want to let you in on a little “secret.”
All of the tested advertising methods from the retail world translate pretty seamlessly into the marketplace for health and wellness products and service providers.
Today, I’ll take you through 9 ways you can use retail strategies to get more customers for your health products.
What is Retail Marketing?
Retail marketing, done well, offers up a collection of strategies and tactics that health retailers can use to seamlessly attract customers and increase sales.
To successfully implement a retail marketing strategy, it’s important to consider the “4 P’s” of health marketing: product, price, placement, and promotion.
Product
Product pertains to the actual health product or medical services that will be offered to patients. The key here is finding ways to enhance your product or services in a way that differentiates you from your competitors. After all, if you cannot offer (or clearly communicate) a unique reason why a patient should choose you over another wellness provider, then it will be equally difficult for a patient to see the real benefit of buying from you.
Price
Price is often driven by many external factors including the geographical area, the rarity of the product/service, overhead costs, etc. Ideally, you want to price your services or product to sell, without undercutting the costs associated with being in business.
Placement & Promotion
Now, when it comes to generating more sales, increasing brand awareness, and retaining health market share, placement and promotion are paramount. These involve what channels you sell your products or services (placement) as well as how you market your offering (promotion) to attract new customers.
With the “4P’s” of healthcare marketing defined, it’s important to dive deeper into how to put these components into action.
Here are the top strategies you can use to take your retail marketing to “that” next level.
9 Best Ways To Conduct Your Retail Marketing
Create an e-Commerce specific website.
Consumers want to be able to get the products and services they want when they want them — and fast.
By offering a way to make purchases through your website, health brands are empowering consumers to “buy now.” If you’re not selling products, think of your website in terms of its ability to capture new leads: could you automate the process for users to request an appointment online or get more information in exchange for an email address?
Anytime you can lower the barrier to purchase and eliminate the need for customers to have to contact you to make a purchase, the more you’ll be able to attract new customers.
Leverage targeted email communications
Health marketing experts have found that health-related emails have an open rate of 23%, nearly double any other type of email content. This represents a unique opportunity for healthcare advertising marketers to use email as a way to generate sales. The key is in creating highly personalized email campaigns that speak directly to consumers and help them along the customer journey. Your email list has never been more important. With the changes to social media advertising and the rising costs of paid media in general, email is one of the last bastions of “owned media.” You’ve got permission to market to your list once they opt-in and you don’t have to buy ads to get in front of your audience.
Use Social Media for retail marketing
You will need a social media presence, but let’s talk about how to do social the right way. It comes down to one immutable rule:
Produce highly engaging and compelling social content that your target audience wants to see.
And if you’re creating blog content, reports, or other written content. You’ve already got a start on the content you can share on social media. The trick is to make it visual and distill it down into bite-size nuggets of impactful information. Infographic content and video content are ideal for this purpose.
Evaluate the online patient experience
Don’t have a terrible website.
It is estimated that almost 40% of all users will abandon a website completely if the online experience is less than optimal. And honestly, I think the real number is a lot higher. We’re all busy and we don’t have time to interpret what a website is trying to tell us. Make it simple!
Issues that lead to a high bounce rate can include pages with missing information, poorly written instructions, too much text, or an overall visually displeasing feel. As a best practice, at least once a year, go through your online portal and website to audit its features. The goal? Make the path to conversion a short, simple one. Make information easy to access and easy to digest. Leverage a design convention that makes it impossible to miss out on your main points.
Ask for reviews from customers
The power of social proof cannot be understated.
Nine out of ten patients will read online reviews before selecting a health and wellness provider.
Without online reviews, prospective patients may be hesitant to move forward. And this level of inaction will serve to be detrimental to your health brand’s market share. Whenever possible, as customers for their feedback and testimonials outlining their experience with your product or service.
Build referrals into your marketing plans
Doctors and other licensed medical providers carry a large amount of credibility, especially when they endorse your brand. Whether it is getting doctors to write reviews that you can publish. Or even having them recommend your products to their patients are all highly effective ways to leverage doctor referrals as part of your strategic retail healthcare marketing plan.
Test website speeds
Your website visitors and customers value ease of use more than anything. When your website pages are slow to load, this introduces frustration and will ultimately lead to a poor patient experience. Poor patient experiences will increase the number of negative reviews you receive which will hurt your health brand. By investing in a top-quality website that loads quickly will also enhance the entire customer experience from start to finish.
Be where your customers are?
Your market placement is everything! Choosing the wrong channels to market your product or service will only lead you to spend more money on marketing with fewer results. It’s important to do the research upfront and both determine your target audience as well as which platforms they frequent. From there you can create a healthcare branding and healthcare marketing strategy to get in front of them everywhere they are.
Boost your retail marketing with Google Shopping Ads
With Google Shopping Ads being responsible for driving 85% of all website clicks and generating 76% of all retail search ad spend, leveraging these as part of any health marketing plan is essential. You’ll want to consider which products or services people are most likely to search for that you can provide. And create ads that can drive traffic to your website where they can make a purchase. Google’s incredible analytics platform will also enable you to track the performance of your shopping ads. So you can make pivotal tweaks to optimize their performance.
Bonus Tip
Getting new customers, especially for a new health and wellness brand, can be quite daunting. However, with the host of healthcare digital marketing approaches available, it can be done with minimal marketing investment. The key is in selecting the right combination of advertising tactics that will keep your health brand in front of your target audience, on the platforms they use.
Is this an area you could use more support in to seamlessly generate a consistent flow of new business? If so, let’s connect. There are a couple of ways I can help. I am currently offering a limited number of short consultation sessions. As well as a VIP half-day session with me and my team for a deeper dive. If you’d like to set that up or have any questions, just send me a quick email.