The health and wellness industry is booming—and so is content marketing. Discover the latest developments in the health and wellness industry, key content challenges for health and wellness brands, and quick steps for mapping your customer's journey. Created by Em Writes, a content agency specializing in custom content and strategy for health, wellness and tech trailblazers. Learn more at em-writes.com.

1. HOW TO CREATE CONTENT THAT
BOOSTS CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
& BRAND LOYALTY AT EVERY
STAGE OF YOUR BRAND JOURNEY

2. THE GLOBAL HEALTH AND
WELLNESS INDUSTRY IS A
$3.72 TRILLION MARKET. IT
GREW BY MORE THAN 10%
BETWEEN 2013 AND 2015—
AND THIS TREND IS ONLY
EXPECTED TO CONTINUE.
SOURCE: GLOBAL WELLNESS INSTITUTE
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3. BUT WHAT IS
“WELLNESS,”
ANYWAY?
The term is often defined as "attitudes
and activities that promote a proactive
attitude toward health (preventing disease,
improving health, enhancing quality of life
and improving overall well-being)."
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4. BUT WHAT IS “WELLNESS,” ANYWAY?
Sources: Global Wellness Institute and the World Health Organization
Health and wellness companies fall into 10 key sectors (all growing, just like the industry
overall):
Beauty & Anti-Aging ($999 billion)
Healthy Eating, Nutrition & Weight
Loss ($648 billion)
Wellness Tourism ($563 billion —
representing a 14% growth between
2013 and 2015)
Fitness & Mind-Body ($542 billion)
Preventive & Personalized Medicine
and Public Health ($534 billion)
Complementary & Alternative
Medicine ($199 billion)
Wellness Lifestyle Real Estate
($119 billion — one of the fastest-
growing wellness sectors, at 19%
between 2013 and 2015)
Spa Industry ($99 billion)
Thermal/Mineral Springs ($51 billion)
Workplace Wellness ($43 billion —
representing a 6.4% growth between
2013 and 2015)
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5. A DELOITTE STUDY SHOWED THAT 47%
OF CONSUMERS DESCRIBE THEMSELVES
AS “HEALTH CONSCIOUS.”
IT ALSO HIGHLIGHTED HEALTH,
WELLNESS AND RESPONSIBILITYAS KEY
TO THE FUTURE OF BRAND LOYALTY.
WITH MORE CUSTOMERS THAN EVER
LOOKING FOR WELLNESS SOLUTIONS,
MARKETERS HAVE A UNIQUE
OPPORTUNITY TO GET AHEAD IN THIS
GROWING GLOBAL MARKET.
BUT HOW DO YOU DO IT?
SOURCE: DELOITTE UNIVERSITY
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6. ACCORDING TO A GARTNER STUDY,
89% OF MARKETERS SAY CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE (NOT PRODUCT) IS THEIR
KEY DIFFERENTIATOR.
WHY? BECAUSE CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE DRIVES BRAND LOYALTY,
ENGAGEMENT AND SALES.
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7. MARKETERS ACROSS INDUSTRIES ARE
APPLYING CONTENT BEST PRACTICES
TO DIFFERENTIATE THEIR
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE. ARE YOU?
IF YOU ANSWERED “NO,” THEN IT’S
TIME TO DISCOVER THE POWER OF
CONTENT.
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8. AS A HEALTH AND WELLNESS BRAND,
YOU OFFER A SOLUTION THAT CUTS
TO THE CORE OF THE MOST BASIC
HUMAN DESIRE: TO BE HEALTHY AND
HAPPY.
YET STUDIES SHOW THAT WELLNESS
BRANDS ARE FAILING TO
COMMUNICATE THIS VALUE IN A WAY
THAT DRIVES A LONG-TERM
RELATIONSHIP WITH CUSTOMERS.
ARE YOU MAKING THESE COMMON
CONTENT MISTAKES?
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9. We don’t have to tell you that every
person has a unique, and very personal,
relationship with their health.
Rather than fitting your audience into
one definition of “good health,” which
can quickly come off as “preachy,” offer
various solutions that can meet people
where they’re at today.
Be inspirational and conversational so
that you engage your audience and
make them feel supported and
understood. And above all else, be wary
of health stereotypes, which can
alienate a huge audience base.
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PREACHING VS.
CONVERSING

10. Far too often, health and wellness
marketers define health as a number on
a scale. Or, they forget to define health
and wellness at all—leaving their
audience without a clear goal.
To help your customers understand
what they can achieve, take a page from
Simon Sinek’s book and start with the
why: Why does health and wellness
enhance our life?
What does it look and feel like, and how
can we tell when we’ve achieved it?
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FORGETTING TO DEFINE, OR
MIS-DEFINING “WELLNESS”

11. MISSING THE BOAT ON
LONG-TERM EDUCATION
It’s easy to think of marketing as driving toward
conversion and conversion alone. However,
when brands take this limited approach, they
miss out on one of the most powerful
marketing goals of all: long-term engagement.
Today’s marketing landscape is built upon
customer experience—how a customer
interacts with your brand along every step of
their journey, from brand discovery through
brand loyalty and evangelism.
This journey is an ideal opportunity for your
brand to build a long-term relationship through
content that informs, educates and engages
your base at different stages of their
transformation.
Wellbeing is a process.
With the right content strategy, more
customers will choose your brand as their
guide on that journey.
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12. PUSHING TRANSFORMATION,
NOT LITTLE STEPS
Inspiration and aspiration are crucial to
your wellbeing brand’s messaging.
However, it’s important to balance that
transformative element with smaller
steps.
The words “transformation,” “weight
loss” or “new mindset” might be
intimidating for many.
As you map out your customer’s
wellness journey and how your brand
fits into it, think about ways to identify
“daily wins”—small victories that keep
your customers motivated, inspired and
moving toward that full transformation.
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13. 14
NOW THAT YOU KNOW WHAT NOT TO DO,
HERE’S A QUICK GUIDE TO KNOWING
WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU CREATE
MARKETING CONTENT FOR YOUR
WELLNESS BRAND.
FIVE STEPS TO DEVELOPING A
WINNING CONTENT STRATEGY:

14. 15
DEFINE YOUR AUDIENCE(S)
MAP THE CUSTOMER
JOURNEY
DEVELOP CONTENT FOR KEY
STAGES
PROMOTE AND SHARE YOUR
CONTENT
MEASURE, MEASURE,
MEASURE
DEFINE YOUR BRAND
MISSION

15. DEFINE YOUR AUDIENCE(S)
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§ Today’s marketing landscape is
more customer centric than ever
before. As such, the customer
should be the starting point for
every piece of content you
create.
§ Begin by defining your key
customer personas. What are the
main types of people who buy
from your brand? What are their
interests and lifestyles? How do
they find you? And most
importantly, what challenges do
you help them overcome?
§ 3-5 customer personas is a good
starting point for many brands.

16. DEFINE YOUR MISSION
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§ Your brand mission statement should
be reflected in everything you do. Key
questions to ask yourself: Who are you?
§ What product or service do you
provide, and why is that of value to
each of your customer personas? What
is your key differentiator or “special
sauce”?
§ Want a handy guide on developing a
mission statement? Check out
em-writes.com

17. MAP YOUR CUSTOMER’S JOURNEY WITH YOUR BRAND
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§ You’ve defined your customers and
your brand. Now, it’s time to map out
the stages of your customer journey for
each customer persona. This may seem
like a tedious process, but it is crucial to
determining that you create the right
type of content to guide your customers
toward conversion and brand loyalty.
§ Your customer journey map should
answer the question, “What does this
customer want to do?”
§ Start with one of the customer segments
you outlined in Step 1. Break down the
decisions that get them from the start of
their journey to what they want to
accomplish with your brand.

18. CUSTOMER JOURNEY SAMPLE STEPS: BUSY MOM
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§ She wakes up feeling tired and in need of
a boost—yet simultaneously short on
time
§ Drops the kids off at school
§ Does a quick search online for "healthy
drinks for boosting energy"
§ Decides that juice is the right solution
§ Finds the best, nearest juice shop on Yelp!
§ Goes to the shop
§ Selects a juice
§ Pays for the juice
§ Drinks the juice
§ Goes on to the next task in her busy day a
bit more energized than usual

19. CREATE CONTENT FOR THE KEY STAGES OF THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY
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§ Once you’ve outlined the customer
journey for each customer persona, it’s
time to identify content for each step.
§ Here’s an easy place to start: think
about what information the customer
needs for each step, and develop
content that delivers it.
§ If the busy mom needs to know what
type of juices you offer and which is
best for her (Step 4 above), then outline
this in a blog post or quick one-page
guide.

20. CREATE CONTENT FOR THE KEY STAGES OF THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY
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§ In the early stages of the customer
journey, it’s also helpful to think about
the key objections or challenges that
the customer must overcome to get to
the next step.
§ Is that busy mom unsure that juice will
give her the boost she needs? Is she
considering other options such as
coffee or an energy drink?
§ If so, your strategy should include
content that educates the customer on
how juice can provide a quick, healthy
energy boost compared to other
common alternatives.

21. PROMOTE AND SHARE THIS PERSONALIZED CONTENT
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§ Once you’ve outlined key content
messages for each stage in the journey,
it’s time to develop a strategy for
sharing the content at the right time.
§ Once again, we start with our customer
persona. What channel is that busy
mom most likely to use? Where will she
search for juice bars (Google, Yelp,
elsewhere), and at what point will she
first visit your website? Once she’s made
it to the store, what banners, menus or
materials are needed to ensure she
feels confident about her purchasing
decision? And once she’s happy with her
purchase, how will she let her family
and friends know?

22. ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS
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The example provided has a brick and mortar retail application. However, for
online-only brands, the thought process is much the same. Understanding how
and when to share your content all comes back to these key questions: Who is
your customer, and what channels is he/she most likely to use to find a solution to
a health/wellness challenge?
Say you’re selling a product online only. Ask yourself these questions:
§ What and where would my customer search to find solutions to his/her
challenge? (Health/wellness influencer recommendations, social media, Google
search, health/wellness media, etc)
§ Once they find my brand, what channels will be key to nurturing them through
the journey toward conversion? (i.e., email marketing, re-targeted social media
ads)
§ How will they share their appreciation for my brand once they complete their
purchase process?
Once you’ve outlined the key channels for each persona, you can begin to build
your sales funnel so that you provide personalized content at key points in the
customer journey—the holy grail of modern marketing.

23. MEASURE, MEASURE, MEASURE
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§ What gets measured gets done—and
optimized. By implementing key
marketing technology, you can track the
success of your content campaign
across tactics and pin down an accurate
ROI for your content efforts.

24. DISCOVER MORE CONTENT STRATEGIES
FOR WELLNESS BRANDS AT
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EM-WRITES.COM
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