Most supplement companies have yet to capitalize on the growth trend of probiotics for weight management. Innova Market Insights found that only 5.7% of probiotic launches involve this market segment.
This article explains the simple steps that companies can take to take advantage of this opportunity.
DELIVERING MARKETING TO CONSUMERS
Getting unsolicited feedback from consumers is a good place to start. It is an excellent source of persuasive social proof.
In addition, personal stories of successful weight control also activate key emotional points. The most effective emotion behind weight loss marketing is hope.
Kate Harveston’s story is a good example of how social proof and hope look together. She is a huge online influencer on women’s health. In her article on probiotics, which appears in Girls’ Globe, she states:
“Since I started taking probiotics, I’ve noticed that I actually find it easier to maintain a healthy weight. At first, the connection wasn’t clear and it seemed especially strange since they had cleared up my stomach issues and therefore I was back. I was back to eating more. But I started doing research and, in fact, there is some kind of connection between metabolism and probiotics.”
Check the ‘social proof’ and ‘hope’ boxes at the same time.
Using stories like yours is a great strategy for delivering marketing to consumers.
Feedback from customers who don’t have an influential blog also adds up.
The following are typical examples of probiotic product reviews on Amazon. They also work by combining social proof and hope.
“This probiotic literally changed my life in a month! I will definitely be buying it again and again! Oh yeah! Also, after 2 years of trying to lose the extra 20lbs I gained, I lost 15 in the first month and this is literally the best. The ONE thing I did differently!”
“I read the reviews on Amazon and decided to give it a try. I’m down 3.6 lbs in 10 days!”
“I love this probiotic, it has definitely been working along with healthy eating and daily exercise. I have lost 7lbs in 2 weeks. I take one capsule a day every morning.
Not only did it balance my ph levels, but I lost about 8 pounds. since I started it 6 weeks ago. It’s a win-win.”
This is Storytelling 101 for Marketing. Stories grab people’s attention. It allows them to imagine being in someone else’s shoes. In this case, the ‘someones’ are those who have already benefited from the use of probiotics for weight management.
ADD THE POWER OF VALIDATION
My experience researching and writing about probiotics over the past 15 years reveals another critical dimension to marketing a healthy microbiome.
It is the extensive body of scientific research behind what probiotics can do. Published research lends credibility to all the eBooks, white papers, special reports, and blog articles I’ve written.
Citing scientific studies lends another principle to persuasion marketing. I learned it from my former colleague, Dr. Robert Cialdini.
It is number 3 on his list of six principles: authority.
People who are authoritative, credible, and well-informed experts in their fields are more influential and persuasive than those who are not.
When it comes to weight management, research on probiotics is new. It’s almost new compared to all the published work on gut and immune health.
However, those few initial studies on the use of probiotics for weight management are already a valuable component to lend credence to the personal stories.
IMPLEMENTATION
The key to marketing probiotics for weight management starts with harnessing the power of consumer feedback to implement social proof and provide hope.
The icing on the cake is building authority at the same time.
The application of these strategies for the commercialization of probiotics for weight control can be executed in three phases.
1) First, segment your list.
You already have a subscriber list. It certainly includes a segment interested in weight control.
Your first phase is to find out who is in that segment. Surveys and questionnaires are access strategies. Increase survey response rates by offering incentives like special reports and discount coupons.
2) Second, establish your customer’s trust.
Trust is a basic component of marketing. It remains in both social proof and authority.
How well you build trust depends on how well you communicate with your customer base. This is the role of a customer appreciation strategy. Personalized emails play an important role in showing how much you value your customers.
Acknowledgments, thank you notes, and even phone calls round out an effective overall strategy for building trust.
3) Third, cross-selling to open up the new market.
Their client base is perfectly set up to market probiotics in a new vein. In this case, it is about weight control.
You already have the attention of your customers. They are happy with your company. They will listen to your persuasive cross-sell pitch for a new application and/or a new product.
Cross-selling to regular customers gives you an opportunity to educate them on something new. And it gives them the option to buy a health solution they weren’t otherwise aware of.
The effective application of these three phases is the key to seizing the rapidly growing opportunity of commercialization of probiotics for weight management.
DEVELOPMENT OF MARKETING MATERIALS
Segmenting your list, establishing a customer appreciation program, and creating persuasive emails all require new marketing copy.
That’s where I come in.